Lightning Boy

By Chad Raugewitz

"The sky was the limit with who knows what problems I could solve, world hunger or peace in the Middle East, just to name a few. Yet fixing a junior high football game did not seem to be high on the world problems' list of things to fix." Ever wondered what you would do if you discovered that you had superpowers? For eighth-grader Johnny, this was a question that he had to answer. Would Johnny use his new abilities to please his own selfish desires, or would he use them for the good of humanity? Come find out what manifested from Johnny's decision in this action-packed novel called Lightning Boy. Read along, and you will feel you are alongside Johnny as he is confronted with breaking up a local crime ring or playing football against the highly rated cross-town rival. Discover how a regular student went from nothing status to making the headlines in the school newspaper. Come join Johnny as he makes his way through the ups and downs of junior high life. By the end of the novel, you too will be cheering for Johnny with every move he makes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Sep 3, 2019
• ISBN: 9781684565672

Book preview

Chapter 1

Lightning Strikes

It was just turning dark, so I looked at my watch, 7:00 p.m. Oh my, what happened to the time? My mom is going to kill me. I’m late for dinner. I hopped on my favorite mode of transportation, my bike, but in this case it was my friend’s brother’s bike. I rode swiftly home down the dirt road. It had been a long day. School, practice, and work. Well, the work was actually voluntary. I collected cans and turned them in for money at the recycling center. It actually paid quite well. The hard part was hauling all the cans to the center on my bike. I learned that double bagging was well worth the effort. Today I made $5.50 for my efforts.

On my way home, the weather changed. The wind picked up from an unusual direction, and what looked like storm clouds started to form. As I rode my bicycle, I could feel the energy of the storm circulate throughout my body. Feels like lightning. I should know a thing or two about lightning. Although never been hit, I had had some very close calls with electrical storms.

Once when I was playing baseball, a lightning bolt barely missed me. Actually those who saw it barely believed their eyes. I was up to bat, here came the pitch, and then a giant bolt of lightning struck. There was still a mark in the ground showing where the bolt hit.

Another time my uncle and I were fishing. Fish on! I screamed as I hauled in my catch, yet just as soon as I caught a glimpse of my prize, a lightning bolt struck the tree behind me. I jumped so far and high that I dropped my pole and the fish got away.

So now you can understand why I was so concerned and frightened as the electricity filled the air.

Oh no, I thought to myself, here it goes again. I better get home quick.

All of a sudden, a bolt the size of Rhode Island streaked across the sky. It was followed by a rumble that felt like God was having bowling practice in the heavens.

I got to find a tree or something to get under before the next strike, I thought to myself.

I scanned the horizon for something to get under.

Just my luck, I thought to myself, there’s an old, abandoned truck on top of that hill. That would be the perfect spot. I remembered watching the Weather Channel and how they said that the safest place to be in an electrical storm was inside a car.

So with the Weather Channel running through my head, I quickly ran to the truck and tried to open the door.

It’s stuck. I tried and tried, yet that door was sealed shut like a prison cell in Alcatraz. Now what? I could break the window or crawl under the truck. I chose the window and looked around for something to smash it with. What’s that over there? It looks like a bat or a club of some sort. Oh yeah, it’s an aluminum bat. That’s the one my friends and I left behind after our baseball game. So I quickly ran over to grab the bat, came back to the truck, and put my shoulders back with the bat ready to swing.

I then remembered instructions from my past baseball coach. His name was Robbie, but some of the players called him Rotten Robbie. Why that was, I am not so sure. I thought he was a pretty good guy, despite sometimes he had the worst case of coffee breath. Well, good breath or bad breath, his thoughts were in my head.

Now put the bat back, bend the knees, turn the hips, and swing.

Just as I was about to complete his final instruction, the sky shot out a bolt of lightning so big that it looked like somebody was shining a strobe light. I don’t remember much after that, except I think my final thoughts were a realization that aluminum is a conductor of electricity.

Chapter 2

Free Pizza

Next thing I remember was water. I was wet. Really wet! And I was shivering. Brrr. I must have fallen asleep for some reason or another. I had no idea why I decided to fall asleep in a rain-soaked field next to an abandoned pickup truck, yet at the moment I didn’t care. What was number one on my mind was getting dry.

I soon discovered that running was much warmer than walking. I also remembered the words of my former track coach, If you’re cold, run faster.

So I did. I ran and ran, and surprisingly for having rain-soaked jeans, I was pretty fast. At that point it did not matter where I was going. What did matter was that I went. And where was I going? I’m not sure was my answer to my own question. Oh my! Where do I live? Who is my family? What is my name? Where do I come from? The emotional turmoil of these questions brought me to a dead stop.

Get it together, I told myself.

It was the strangest feeling. I felt so down and out on one end, yet there was a part of me that felt—what’s the word for it?—special. Yeah, for some reason after waking up in rain-soaked jeans, not really knowing where I lived or whom I lived with, I called this a special moment. Man, am I going cuckoo or what?

Just when I thought I was ready for the loony bin, I saw a pair of headlights coming down the road.

Should I jump off the road into the ditch to hide? Am I wanted by the law, a criminal on the run?

Before I could answer my own question, the car was on my tail like a hound dog on a rabbit. I didn’t know what to do, so I proceeded to keep on running rather than looking like a frozen deer blinded by headlights. The driver honked his horn then yelled out the window for me to stop and pull over. The car had a sign on the top that read Mario’s. Man, of all the people to pull over and help me out, it had to be the pizza boy. Maybe that was what I meant by feeling special.

Get in! You crazy or something? What you running down the street for? You some weirdo or some exercise freak? He looked at me as I was going to answer, then he nicely said, Want some pizza? Last delivery was a prank, and I’m stuck with this whole pizza. I won’t even charge you, being all wet and cold and everything. Now, where you running to?

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