The Adventures of Lynx and John

Episode One, War of the Wind and Potted Plants

Once, on a small planet in the middle of a small universe, there was a town.

Now, in itself, this town was nothing special. It had a small market which sold organic oranges for five dollars a piece and a small gas station which sold Cheetos for twenty cents a bag and gasoline for fifty dollars a gallon. Its residents had some obesity problems, but they managed to stay in okay shape since they couldn’t ever afford to drive their car anywhere.

In fact, the only thing that distinguished this small town from every other small town in America was the fact that the family of Jonathan and Lynx happened to live there. Jonathan and Lynx lived with their mother and father in a large, sprawling home on the outskirts of the town. They used to live in the center of the town, before Lynx accidentally caught the center of the town on fire. The town center is no longer much to look at.

Now, our story begins, as it so happens, one stormy Friday night, about two weeks ago, at one thirty nine am…

In her bed on the third floor of their family’s home, Lynx rubbed her violet eyes and yawned. Furry, her pet anaconda, coiled around her neck affectionately. The small digital alarm clock on her windowsill read 1:39am. Outside her window a sea of trees masked the stars and made the world seem darker than it already was, their branches whipped around and struck one another as the wind howled through them. Far in the distance, a radio was blaring out a pop tune, and the sounds of a party rode the gale, knocking on her window and demanding to be heard.

Lynx rolled over and covered her head with her pillow, making Furry hiss in annoyance.

Outside, the wind screamed.

Lynx squeezed her eyes shut.

Outside, someone began to sing a slurred rendition of Genie in a Bottle, and the wind, the mean, spiteful wind, carried every note of it up to her bedroom window.

Lynx moaned, “How am I expected to sleep with all this noise, Furry?”

A sudden torrent of rain beat down on the walls of her home and sent her over the edge. Blearily, she sat up and threw open her window, accidentally sending a potted plant plummeting to the porch far below.

“SHUT UP ALREADY!” she yelled at the storm.

The wind whipped her long, orange hair around as if to say, “I will never shut up and there is nothing you can do about it!”

Lynx scowled and looked at the raindrops as the fell onto her bedcovers and windowsill. A row of three potted plants and a large spider web sat on the sill, looking back at her. She grinned and snatched up a potted violet, hurling it out into the darkness with a savage cry. It smashed into a nearby redwood, its clay pot falling in fragments to the porch below. Lavender petals twirled through the night, riding the wind like confused butterflies.

This seemed to make Lynx even angrier.

“Now you’ve stolen from me, as if keeping me awake weren’t enough! Who said you could have those petals!”

Furry rolled her eyes in that way that only snakes can, and proceeded to slither away from her owner, in that way that only someone who knew Lynx can. She coiled herself up on a nearby pillow and peered at the human through one eye, ready to dart under the bed at a moment’s notice.

Outside, the wind broke branches from trees and pelted the world with arrows of rain. It rung wind chimes and sent decorative flags flying. It belched out badly sung tunes and drunken shouts.

Lynx, was not amused.

She grabbed her potted cactus, grinning in triumph, for she knew well that no one could stand to be hit by a potted cactus. “Alright wind, if you don’t shut up RIGHT NOW, you’re goanna get it!”

The wind laughed and screamed and chased its tail in amusement.

Lynx threw the cactus.

There was a sudden stillness, as the cactus curved through the air. Time seemed to stop, as the universe watched in awe at the girl’s daring. After all, not just anyone would think to throw a potted cactus at the wind. In fact, when the universe and the wind talked about it over tea the next day, they both agreed that it had been the very first time in history that someone had done such a thing.

The cactus smashed against something in the shadows, before falling to the porch with a soft, thud.

The wind puffed once.

A drop of rain fell.

And then there was silence, but the silence was heavy with malice, and even as Lynx lay down on her pillow beside Furry, she knew that the wind would have its revenge.