Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Lightning Within Us
    The Lightning Within Us
    The Lightning Within Us
    Ebook240 pages3 hours

    The Lightning Within Us

    By Mary Emerick

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    THE LIGHTNING WITHIN US is literary fiction set in the isolated mountains of central Idaho and on the rim of Hells Canyon in eastern Oregon. It is 1993, but for Lina Hudson, time stopped fifteen years ago.

    In the tinder-dry summer of 1978, Lina and her twin sister Rainy were on the verge of sixteen, their once close bond fracturing apart as they struggled to find new identities in the remote Yellow River Valley.
    This was the last in a series of moves for their restless and increasingly desperate parents as they sought to save their marriage. Lina’s father was captivated by a treasure hunt, described in an enigmatic poem by a reclusive collector. He was convinced that he could find the treasure and change their lives forever. Absorbed in their imploding lives, neither parent notices when Lina, feeling like an outcast in this new tight-knit community, is befriended by two semi-feral teenagers who live by their own rules. Cassie and Silas show her what they call ghost trails, long-abandoned paths in the mountains that they are trying to reclaim, and stalk the outlaws who steal crystals from the rocks to sell in Boise.

    With them, Lina is able to forget about her increasingly distant sister and her parents’ battles. But when evil from Cassie’s past returns and she is forced to make a deadly decision, events spiral into a catastrophic wildfire. Two girls go up the mountain, and only one returns.

    Now, fifteen years later, Lina keeps everyone at a distance—except Joe Grider, a transient who moves in and out of her life. She is terrified that someone will find out who she is and what she did years ago. She believes she has been successful—until her father appears bearing a postcard that appears to have been written by a dead woman: Cassie. Did Cassie somehow survive? Is Lina not responsible for Cassie’s death, as she has always believed?

    To find out will mean returning to the town that was destroyed by fire and to the long memories of the people who live there.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHidden Shelf Publishing House
    Release dateApr 10, 2024
    ISBN9781955893374
    The Lightning Within Us
    Author

    Mary Emerick

    Mary Emerick was a wildland firefighter for over 20 years, and the author of the novel, The Geography of Water. Mary has published numerous essays in anthologies, magazines and online publications. She was nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2011. She currently lives and works for the US Forest Service in Joseph, Oregon.

    Read more from Mary Emerick

    Related to The Lightning Within Us

    Related ebooks

    Contemporary Women's For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      We All Live in Uncertain

      Jul 30, 2020

      “Think of Caddo as a maze of lakes within lakes,” says John Winn, proprietor of Caddo Outback Tours, as the two of us settle into a small Go-Devil boat roped to a dock in Uncertain, on the border of northern Louisiana. For two decades, Winn has given

      6 min read

    • Article

      Not Everything Turns to Gold

      Oct 2, 2018

      Theodore Roosevelt once said, “When I am in California, I am not in the West, I am west of the West.” The Rough Rider’s koan has been widely viewed as a celebration of the limitless California adventure, but it’s also a reminder of the dizzying, vert

      4 min read

    • Article

      ‘The End of the Day’: Featured Fiction from Bill Clegg

      Sep 30, 2020

      An excerpt from a novel Kirkus called "A moody, atmospheric domestic drama with a mystery novel somewhere in its family tree." The post ‘The End of the Day’: Featured Fiction from Bill Clegg appeared first on The Millions.

      12 min read

    • Article

      These Bad Things

      Dec 23, 2019

      These Bad Things
      9 min read

    • Article

      Tall Tales In Big Bend

      Feb 6, 2019

      I’m two hours from the West Texan town of Marathon when night falls. I jump at tyre scraps that look like armadillos and jackrabbits jump at me, fleeing my headlights for the safety of the inky black. When I enter Marathon it’s so dark and silent I w

      7 min read

    • Article

      A Tale Of Two Christmases

      Dec 17, 2020

      A Tale Of Two Christmases
      7 min read

    • Article

      Quotients

      May 7, 2020

      Quotients
      8 min read

    • Article

      Ready, Set, Let go!

      May 15, 2019

      Ready, Set, Let go!
      11 min read

    • Article

      Commonplace Book

      Jun 3, 2019

      You are old when your longtime friend Melvin, turned seventy-five, writes you in rage about becoming old. … Melvin knows nothing about old age: Melvin can walk upstairs! Melvin flies to the West Indies with his girlfriend and his wife! In your eighti

      3 min read

    • Article

      Commonplace Book

      Jun 1, 2022

      Try to praise the mutilated world. Remember June’s long days, and wild strawberries, drops of rosé wine. The nettles that methodically overgrow the abandoned homesteads of exiles. —Adam Zagajewski, “Try to Praise the Mutilated World,” tr. by Clare C

      4 min read

    • Article

      Summer Reading Special

      Dec 28, 2023

      The distinctive depth of characterisation shines in this tightly knitted story of therapist Nick and retired solicitor wife Zoe, as they decide to view a deconsecrated Victorian church which is for sale. It’s “even more picturesque than it looked onl

      11 min read

    • Article

      Practicing

      Mar 15, 2018

      This would have been her favorite season in the Allegheny woods. The shadows of the trees were rickety, and the wind had sap in its scent. But last week, Ty had left; now one day decayed into the next. Their house was abandoned. Only their father, si

      18 min read

    • Article

      Second Language

      Aug 14, 2017

      Second Language
      9 min read

    • Article

      THE Dark Light

      Oct 28, 2020

      THE Dark Light
      9 min read

    • Article

      Page Turner

      Sep 19, 2019

      Page Turner
      5 min read

    • Article

      My Dinner with Denis Johnson

      Jun 25, 2018

      My Dinner with Denis Johnson
      13 min read

    • Article

      Across The Whited Fields

      Oct 13, 2019

      In a twilight streeta small girl laughing. The red and yellow flowersprofuse, inhale the air. We want to hold your name,Polly, dancing in the rain Polly, skipping down the street.Sometimes the world bequeaths then takes away the one to whomou

      14 min read

    • Article

      Night Vision

      Jun 1, 2023

      Night Vision
      12 min read

    • Article

      THE BATTLE FOR Kurrumbede

      Jul 21, 2019

      Ghosts shift soundlessly across drought-stricken paddocks. In abandoned slab huts, Doris Day smiles from an old magazine cover, and a gate leg table with barley twist legs lies in pieces on a broken floor. Desiccated umbrella grass tangles in stables

      9 min read

    • Article

      Summer Reading Special

      Dec 28, 2023

      Summer Reading Special
      11 min read

    • Article

      Hardly Never in Vegas: Fat Johnny Little and Salty Salt Sue make a break for the desert.

      Jun 18, 2015

      Salty Salt Sue met Fat Johnny Little at a card game so hot it burned a girl, the sultry Louisiana night dampening her clothes, making her tingle from the waist down. She sat next to Vinnie DeLuca, who bore a passing resemblance to Dillinger—his penci

      11 min read

    • Article

      Hardly Never in Vegas: Fat Johnny Little and Salty Salt Sue make a break for the desert.

      Aug 8, 2013

      Salty Salt Sue met Fat Johnny Little at a card game so hot it burned a girl, the sultry Louisiana night dampening her clothes, making her tingle from the waist down. She sat next to Vinnie DeLuca, who bore a passing resemblance to Dillinger—his penci

      11 min read

    • Article

      Summer Beach Reads

      Jan 10, 2021

      Summer Beach Reads
      7 min read

    • Article

      Hostess

      Dec 5, 2023

      I met Jill in 1982. We were working the Sydney-to-LA route, and she looked exactly the way an air hostess was supposed to: like Marilyn Monroe on stilts, playing the part of a firm, friendly nurse with a naughty inner life. None of the passengers wou

      20 min read

    • Article

      Stop Hating on Adjectives!

      Jun 12, 2019

      A common admonition in creative writing pedagogy is, “Cut as many adjectives as possible.” I propose that this rule springs from mere prejudice. The post Stop Hating on Adjectives! appeared first on The Millions.

      7 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Lightning Within Us

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      The Lightning Within Us - Mary Emerick

      Jfbook_preview_excerpt.html}|ے7vÉDuE EJbG1JT%TyS"K|8 OK28!H`c_^{_ބS3?U? }/z9~cUna̓ϪWmD7D\za #? A^Uw>$w9w*}˟|󻛿'7OկF7i̯=O_qcOǟ_s֗-a߼|>|-]3PϾxmNvGf7ac=ǏKsmGH ^ Ϳ0TItȿն*DC*:&!9p,]7²T qӃLhhi=Ρq`݊e&ʃYWq!u` 0/Dp`Q dXQ 4kQ7h%)u&C3'Mn1ׇ[Yn3զ=GBLb<rN+ 21P5KrFtBVuu'{IuVw#?61\IV9~ lY1$Y; ia?`/M~$|tMږ^1G8U"1;f4pi7Zoo&|AZFUsdӞZ4U? CD5 K9f5.=,6%7e3HN2LgmH;sk822|{:4#lRsNqWHBq)bXjbC2R A1<<8mS?5dnn@%gwA꩘3DM;d @q0صm#<]CCBc*l;#\y!ifrT<{BM2lA)$s8 %`؇ּLC#. ##jXICIz{TlOj? c/qZ-[w hJ?5SDPN/W"ԙ@< L gh@L\,U9BpvC5NJ<*}rĵ#(Jf$ p|% !ź|e,L섘air.@;MB JB[E a焎βohaȡKUNx5y,F8͟p+“a̾!Ao 1V<,HOݼX[p> Ea.܄@^CGM}-`JH)}+ƽFB* ܛYb"I"ʫ-bhy$:9(aI~OÅ\TӦ M?\M=Mo8 =^=٨_Q.:ڊ' Ǒ$?6Mƛ)?aK*7,_%M$WA~?A靲q6zx[m|C\*5j:h8.N~9>Hp&!ɸa@ mcL8US؞'?N YMiHH4F2mݮKyh ޷=2#]OlplA 5$:#.\ r:w"Y s}Vqw=% V_2T ʠ%$\\o1s#ҍ =x1#=<岁aɂFnMZk""ʔ(D,*~w(0Lr+o|ٽ&vn+8z ÊJ6, KP0Qz zHfU3+Hr _*$񀼽_3F8H8*5Y,ظe_lJ3C1r]&O7gN> {<)28]~q$|Z cf(Әx*zX El 3*Kr Ą='8ir)p!9}}hşvB2t"uH/v%L$bJ' 1DSu1QsЍ$EaH w`ߥ:3'痘V2` J# JE`c.>ϋq \FQ"߂uէrA2)*ti)nUDE9!k Iܧq5̑dL4l&:–9 abhsyN#!lN!䌚Ns9G@gFۘsq 'jlE (O-rhɝFO֒ݤr#0q= Loy&f?dĘĠ[.srZtҞ;; \ӍZ{|.װlR.B녬M-gzް KJN7bd"K|N&qJU#ҫY$٥Pȷead@$ lD|PUwΪZ_=>:$U´& ڳE &wt`!<[ :ōzH%gu#̖nչڼ=Hc~͚n QE^rnr"VDZ y-N9R yP6g׮\n\(* -cs0%}UV 9āa^U瀛BjsٴU >>JJ&MksC2N:NƅlN'EP`~:0\ʵ(:B .GyM7wk7G veD><Ǫ8[AWDY!spTif{{q,(M.ZYLo#2a!"@ Nݧ4R}3mnS:UKK P' 80L"sR>+ :T:Rz`tMEizXI'} q]Q#ѳ5b[wm8]A%dT'iL5a@RHD1nP\۸f8)qS꘺+t+ԝ$TnE- ;'zL\X~_2Pģ$|,e(gZQaM\ >zf2qy~R/A?&FJxb&)H8-MU#Ѭ 8K%3 d딹PvҋĠgzi"JfV O1[:2Ws]cҝ䙇Lj<$hN[$*t82qVY‡u8.㎝=+T$$4,5ڭpY̤N>Hd }όP1Q zB¸,; ?-x9mgatGJrS䳪.ѥe[NGy7 z)uXm 2\׍$D:@ZLoshS5ifnm"lȬzEO *]FZJwϤ0W&>RITc+K-jUm*kϹ4 WAS[1vŦ*Ւkũ'hü6c7< 婇x' &zWrFH],9U c1YԮݭFl9P5 9Ka%YHP-*G!AUv$ҬNK: $!$VI?S Bs5@.Rxٺ"Ǵ/|7!pTYM Qe:nl;[,0Z$ld r`VPsQ+kuf(0&=XCƇj޿'ZAkR*t/9Ғ y*@nWӰ~;z0"u݌eΞQ>(^0\uxCѭQHif!rt[j$2W;*M߰Fۮ_LևĻt"%$)X]95m^~.>+*`e5j 8¾g N5}j53*9IMBqχl7]p͝rMBw;vdyEhRC+؊? ǔ]vv!V,Uѕ|7 ǎ,2)8YZz爐vӜNR.sʗO2okVzZ~;Pٕ⼄0Ժ1&F%4ߥ6 *qkxd3cW*|2{KAmYibd\1˷G_"L_v1 H*ROnTr=r_}Vi =31+,rVd\9r!"V~OaӀΦHX8K-jo ɟRcZ؉%xzst+LjE)a+YX z1ĺnG]DX&].  b*[T$z0e¼<@`g},^>^ٸ I4?zv0ɀz^J0%? 5ymRD+v=r5՚W_]y9zP^%E;m@umr}EDoJ3krMN}*^A9xJEZddrBs:Z3zu.?JĽ)hаaΝ MӛJpk\EEόGguJ:Ӣ0ڍOJ$\Vʺ7^1*{ݔq &2q7iYUnN@`'F65MOil٭yTk|GcbY|Je7JԚ=^7!i4P]DoMڴT+U1]cRX놇FA2<=[*vLy0akE.FKtYCMx+CnSu >A%t}-A/] Kɰ^@R;< 6Rʓ[Iөxp$pޓljԎ˒'^zv=mgW!XLo sL`֎$}
      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1