I woke up from my trance to notice Jessica and Aaron staring at me. I pushed the thoughts of the storm aside. "That's... weird. Very weird" I mumbled out. I turned to Aaron, "Hey buddy, don't worry. We'll definitely have some time together tonight and probably tomorrow too"

He smiled, but I knew he was let down.

Jessica got up. "Well, I know this is a special occasion so I went ahead and got a little something for the three of us" She walked over to the counter and brought over a small box. "You can open it up, Aaron"

Aaron excitedly opened the box. As it opened, a sweet scent filled the room. It was the smell of the past. Of the time before, when my mother used to bake something for us at the end of every month. It was a sugar cookie, ornate with colorful icing. I hadn't seen something this in a long time. Aaron smiled, "Mom, thank you! Thank you!"

"There's one for each of us" Jessica smiled, reached into the box and handed one to me.

I took in the wonderful scent of the cookie. It was a real, baked cookie. Not a mass produced one. "Jessica, where did you get these...?" I lowered my voice, "How much did it cost you?"

"At the bakery near the department store. My boss's wife owns it, and I got a discount because they were too old. I thought it would be a great way to celebrate all of us being together"

I took another sniff. I felt almost as if I just couldn't take a bite into it, it looked so delicious.

"How about we have half tonight, then when you come back we can all have the other half together?" Jessica proposed.

Aaron and I both nodded.

The smell brought me back to my childhood, "Let's all take a bite at the same time!" I said. "Ready? Three. Two. One!"

My taste buds were overwhelmed by the sweetness and pure flavor of the cookie. I used to have something like this almost every other day in the time before, but I can't even remember the last time I ate a real sweet like this. After tasting nothing but processed food for so long, it tasted like the nectar of the gods.

"Mmmmmm...." we simultaneously showed our agreement.

After finishing half and almost reluctantly putting what remained away, the phone rang. It was Mike. "Hey Markus, how's it going?"

"Alright," I paused. "Is this about work?"

"Yeah man, we're going out tomorrow night since the storm's gone. It's pretty freaky how it just disappeared like that, huh?"

I started to breathe a bit heavier, I almost forgot the storm ever happened. "Yeah, freaky"

"Mhmm, they found a huge hole right where the storm stopped. They haven't investigated it yet, too busy finding survivors and trying to rebuild the government buildings. But they think the hole goes pretty damn deep. They say it has something to do with those earthquakes or whatever"

I felt goosebumps form on my skin. Now I had even more questions. "This whole thing just doesn't make any sense, Mike. I mean, how does an earthquake just happen to occur wherever the storm goes?"

"You're askin' the wrong guy, Markus. I'm wondering the same thing. Wouldn't be surprised if maybe it had somethin' to do with all the pent up chemicals or whatever in the earth"

There was silence for a moment.

"But hey, did you listen to the radio recently? Seems like the whole damn world's goin' into chaos!"

"What do you mean?"

"Huge natural disasters are everywhere! There's a big flood in Africa, and boy do I mean big! Entire parts near the shore are completely underwater. There's also this weird thunderstorm that keeps goin' back and forth between China and Japan. Not a cloud in the sky but the lightning just keeps coming down! In Brazil, there's this crazy drought, and forest fires starting everywhere. It's affecting them pretty badly, probably gonna screw up the economy even more than it already is. And finally, you're not gonna believe this... There's a freakin' blizzard all across England! I know they have bad weather, but damn, a blizzard in the summer!"

As Mike was talking, my entire body went numb. A flood in Africa, a cloudless thunderstorm in Asia, a drought in South America, and... a storm in North America. One major natural disaster in almost every continent in the world, and each is beyond normal. "Jesus Christ..." I muttered.

"You can say that again. Scientists are tryin' to figure out just what in the hell's goin' on, but I think it must have somethin' to do with all the pollution or maybe that global warmin' stuff. It's almost like the Earth's fightin' back."

Silence hung on the line for a long moment. I couldn't say anything. I was absolutely speechless. In just one day, I found out about this storm, kept hearing strange things surrounding it, worried myself sick and then it just goes and disappears. And now this, now I find out that similar things are happening all across the globe. It's just too much to take in, too much to handle at once.

Mike cleared his throat, "Uhm, anyway man, see ya tomorrow."

"Yeah... see you" I said and hung up.

"What's wrong?" Jessica looked worried. I could only imagine what I looked like, probably as pale as a ghost.

"...I have to go to work tomorrow evening. Aaron... I can only go away for a day" I wasn't lying, but that's obviously not what had me troubled the most. But for some reason I couldn't mention the worldwide disasters to her. I was scared.

Jessica frowned, Aaron looked down. "Hey, remember what I said, Aaron? We'll make this trip a day to remember."

His eyes cleared up a little bit, he smiled and nodded.

We spent a few more minutes together, and then Aaron and I decided to head out. I managed to bury the thoughts of the storm deep in my mind. I convinced myself that the storm was gone now, I didn't have to worry anymore.

It was gone, it wouldn't come here. Yeah, there was nothing to worry about.

We both said goodbye to Jessica, and we went into the back lot to our car. It was old and rusty, but it was all we could ever hope to afford. We only ever used the car when we had to travel far distances or at night, and the place we were going camping was too far away to walk. I turned the key, and there was a pause where I thought the car wouldn't start up, but I was rewarded with the pained sound of the engine roaring back to life. The hood rattled for a few moments, and then the car was ready to drive. After double checking to make sure we didn't forget anything, we were off on the road.

Aaron and I played I spy as we drove along, and within an hour we had made it to our destination. By the time we arrived, the sun was just starting to set.

"Well, here we are!" I exclaimed as I pulled on to the side of the road by a forested area.

"Where are we?" Aaron asked as he looked around, puzzled. We were in a heavily wooded area, far from any houses, a rare sight these days.

"Where?" I laughed as I opened the door, "Nowhere!"

"Nowhere?" Aaron came after me, surprised.

"We're in the middle of nowhere. That's the thrill of camping, Aaron" I opened the trunk. Of course, I've been here before. My father used to take me camping in this exact same spot when I was younger. It was one of the few places that remained untouched like this after all these years. Dad and I used to try to make it camping here at least once a month. Oh, how I missed him, but in all honesty I was glad that he didn't live to see the world turn out like it is now.

"So, where are we going to set up the tent?" Aaron asked after he took out all of his stuff.

I closed the trunk and faced the trees, "Follow me!"

We marched through the woods, I followed the invisible path that my father and I had taken so many years ago. Bird songs filled the air, and I saw Aaron's eyes light up as a few fluttered by. Living in the choked city, the only wildlife he would see is pigeons, rats and other pests. Every once and a while, we'd stop and point to some new sight; a colorful flower, a big mushroom, a strange and colorful looking bug, a groundhog hole, a rabbit. Things he didn't have a chance to see every day. We leisurely made our way to the camping spot, taking our time so Aaron could absorb his surroundings. By the time the sun touched the horizon, we made it to the clearing.

I turned to Aaron, "This is it."

He looked around. The clearing wasn't very big, enough to fit the tent, some room to light the fire outside and lay down. The long grass was absent in one space off to the side where dad and I used to have our fires. It was fairly high up, so you could barely see the city in the distance from where we were. Other than that, it was just a simple clearing in the middle of the woods, but it was special to me.

Aaron and I put our stuff down, set up the tent, and then gathered a few pieces of wood to make a fire. After that, we just sat down and talked until the sun down. We lit our fire, and roasted the two hotdogs I could afford to bring with us. Aaron managed to burn his, so I offered him mine with a laugh.

After we finished eating, we laid down and looked at the stars. I suddenly had a strange thought that it must have been fate that me and Aaron went out camping today.

"It looks so beautiful," Aaron said, "I wish you could see this many every night"

"You used to be able to," I sighed, "The sky used to be this clear every night. In the time before. Let's enjoy it while it lasts, the sky probably won't be like this again for a very long time."

There were a few moments of peaceful silence as we gazed at the stars together, and then a shooting star shot by.

"Woah, dad what was that?" Aaron exclaimed.

"A shooting star. When you see one, you're supposed to make a wish."

"Well then, I hope that I'm with you and mom when we get to see the stars again. I hope all of us can go stargazing!"

I took a deep breath. "I hope so too"

We sat in silence for a while after, listening to the sounds of the crickets and the occasional hoot of an owl. Before long, we both started to yawn, so we decided to head into the tent.

Right before falling asleep, Aaron said to me "I wish we could be together like this every day"

"I know buddy, me too"

And with that, feeling full of longing for the time before where every day could have been like this, I let my head drop down and I fell asleep.

I forgot that the storm had ever existed.