When Adam could finally talk again, his first words were blasphemous. Lisa just let him shout. She had already adjusted her hearing accordingly. When he came to his senses, he apologized for his language. "What the hell was that?"
"I've no idea," Lisa replied. "But it seems to me it caused some traffic problems." She pointed to the street. Vehicles were almost piled on top of each other. Lisa could hear sirens in the distance. She knew help was coming. But Adam was already running toward the street. Lisa ran after him.
They went from car to car making sure everyone was okay. When the police and paramedics arrived, the officials forced Adam, Lisa, and other pedestrians to the sidewalk.
Adam turned to Lisa. "Let's get to my shop an' turn on the TV. Let's find out what's goin' on." She nodded in agreement.
Adam put the top down on the Corvette before leaving the parking lot. "We can take the alley," he said. "Shouldn't be any wrecks there."
The wind whipping about her was an exhilarating feeling to Lisa. It had been a long time. She used to love to ride Uncle Charlie's Harley. But since her mutation had manifested, she hadn't allowed herself the pleasure. It had taken her a long time to master the control of the sound waves when they bombarded her ears. As a younger woman, it was impossible for her to stand in the wind or rain. The noise was too intense.
"How did you get this car?" she asked to get her mind off of her mutation.
"Found it in a salvage yard," he replied. "It had been wrecked. Restored it myself. Actually, I just finished the body work about a month ago. This is the first time I've driven it more than around the block since it got its new paint job."
She fingered the air conditioner vent. "You lucked out," she told him. "You do know there were only 1553 Vette convertibles made with air conditioners in 1967, don't you? And there aren't very many of them left. This is a rare find."
He smiled. "You amaze me." He turned the wheel and down shifted. "Here we are."
She expected his shop to be a broken down garage. She wasn't sure why. But this place was beautiful. "This is your shop?" She asked.
"Well, mine and my uncle Jack's," he said.
"Good business?" she asked.
He waved at a man standing in the doorway. "That's Jack."
Jack met them at the car. "Lisa," Adam said, "This is my Uncle Jack. Jack, this is Lisa."
"Nice to meet you," she said.
Jack nodded. "You look familiar," he said. "You're from out of state?"
"Yes," she replied. "I haven't lived here for almost nine years."
"Did you, uh…" Adam seemed as if her were choosing his words carefully. "Did you have a kinda weird experience about ten minutes ago?" he asked his uncle.
"Just had one of my migraines," Jack replied.
"This time it wasn't a migraine," the younger man said. "Somethin' strange happened. First it affected Lisa, an' then about five minutes later it grabbed hold of me. Intense pain. Horrible. Seems like it hurt most everybody. There were wrecks all over the place."
"Well, lets' go an' turn on the boob tube," Jack suggested. "See if we can git some answers."
The television in the office of the garage was beeping when the trio entered. Adam turned up the volume. Lisa immediately closed her eyes and concentrated. The sound waves got slower, and the beeping got quieter as it entered her ear canals.
…Beep…Beep…Beep… "This is Oklahoma's News Channel Eight. We interrupt your regularly scheduled program for this urgent alert." Jonathan Jannis sat behind the news desk, his necktie loosened, his hair somewhat in a mess.
"Good morning," he said. "We have just learned that the pain that we all experienced a few moments ago was caused by a machine created by one William Stryker. His plans were to rid the world of Mutants using some kind of mind control. When his attempt failed, a powerful mutant known as Magneto reversed the machine and inflicted normal humans with the same pain, hoping to kill us. A group called the 'X-Men' allegedly stopped him. We will now connect with the national forum to bring you the latest on this near tragedy."
The anchorman's voice was cut off abruptly, was followed by static, and then a picture of a woman standing outside the white house appeared on the screen.
Lisa closed her eyes and raised her hand. The lips of the woman on the TV moved, but no words came forth. Lisa didn't want the two men beside her to hear any more.
Adam turned the volume knob. Nothing. He turned the set off and then back on. Still no sound. He hit it a few times for good measure. "Damn TV! We need a new one."
"Well, whatever it was," Jack mumbled, "It's over now. An' we got more important problems, anyhow."
"What?" Adam asked.
"I got the starter. It's the same one Ford's used for decades. But the water pump's another story. Not a salvage in the area has it. Truck's too old." Jack turned to Lisa. "Miss, I hope you don't have to get back home in the next week."
She stared at him, wide-eyed. "You mean I can't go home today?'
"Nope. An' not tomorrow or the next day. You're stranded. Quickest it'll be is five, six days." He squinted. "Are you sure I don't know you?"
She shook her head. "No, I don't think so."
"Oh," he grunted. He shrugged. "I guess you just look like someone I used to know. Anyway, we won't have your truck part for awhile. I found it in Ada, but we don't have time to go pick it up. Got too much to do. My friend, Bob, is going to bring it up, but not until next Monday."
"Guess you should call your boss," Adam told her. "They're probably expecting you back sooner." He threw her his cell phone.