Page 65 of The Dysasters

“Oh, no no no no. I do not. Been there. Don’t want to return.”

“Here, have a s’more,” Foster passed Sabine a warm, gooey, cracker mess on a paper plate.

“The peace offering of your people?” Sabine’s eyes sparkled mischievously.

“You have an excellent memory,” Foster said. “Dark chocolate makes everything better.”

“I hear ya on that,” Sabine agreed. She nibbled at one very hot edge before continuing. “Where was I? Oh, yeah. You serenaded afunnel cloudwith a Sinatra song.”

“Not just any Sinatra song—“Luck Be a Lady,” Tate said.

“Is what song they sang important?” Finn asked.

“Actually, I’m starting to think it might be,” Sabine said. “So, you sang to it and the funnel cloud went back up with the rest of the wall clouds. But then you somehow stopped the rain and madeallof the clouds disappear. I mean, look up there.” Sabine pointed at the star-dusted sky. “Not one cloud. Did you sing another song for that?”

“Nope, we just—uh…” Tate began and then his words trailed away as he turned to Foster. “How the hell did we do it?”

Foster lifted her slim shoulder. “I’m not sure, because we really just asked it to go. I said something about wishing the rain would go away—to Seattle, I think. I mean, after the air music stopped and the funnel cloud was gone, the rest was pretty easy.”

“Yeah, and then I pretended like I was wiping off a whiteboard while I asked the clouds to go away,” Tate said.

“No singing, so the song’s not what’s important. Do you think it’s the—what do you call it—air musicthat’s important?” Finn said, taking a s’more from Foster.

“I think the air music is something that happens when we’re doing the right thing,” Foster said.

“Yeah, once the music starts and we can see the air currents that’s when everything seems to fall into place.”

“Wait, you can hear music in the air?” Sabine asked, s’more paused halfway to her mouth.

“Yep, we can hearandsee it,” Tate said.

Sabine said quickly, “How were you two feeling when you heard music and saw the air currents?”

Tate and Foster exchanged a look, and it was Tate’s turn to shrug. “Good, I guess. Well, at first it was pretty scary, but then Foster reminded me that when she was playing with air earlier it was about how she was feeling—relaxed and happy. Right, Foster?”

Foster nodded. “Yeah, because when I’ve been pissed and wind shows up things don’t go so well.”

“That’s exactly what I mean! Okay, okay! You tamed the tornado and the wall cloud, then Tate, you started to fly. How were you feeling when you did that?” Sabine scooted forward, staring at Tate, s’more forgotten.

“Super happy and relieved. Last time we tried to stop a tornado things went bad. Real bad. Tonight no one died. No one was even hurt, so I was feeling pretty great.”

“But then you said you felt weird and started to disappear?” Finn said.

“Yeah, I didn’t feel weirduntilI saw that my hands weren’t there. Then everything got confusing. My head felt like it was full of cotton. Foster had to save me.” His eyes caught Foster’s. His smile was slow and intimate. “Not that I minded. At all.”

“Yeah, yeah, we saw,” Sabine said. “And then Foster flew, too. Right?”

“Well, I think float is a better description, but yeah, I did.”

“How?” Sabine asked.

Foster thought about it as she chewed a bite of s’more and then answered simply, “I just thought that Tate needed me and I should get up there, and there I was. Up there with Tate.”

“How did youfeel?” Sabine prodded.

“I was worried about Tate, but mostly I just wanted to get up there and calm him down. He was definitely freaking out.”

“And then she was there, and as soon as she touched my hand I felt better. Then she started singing that nice little lullaby and everything just felt good. I calmed down right away. Basically, I was happy she was there with me. It made everything right again.” Tate answered Sabine’s question, but he didn’t take his eyes from Foster, whose cheeks were blazing so red that even by the soft light of the fire he could see her blush. But she didn’t look away and she didn’t make some kind of dismissive comment. She just gazed right back at him—and smiled.