Hurricane Martes: summer breeze
Summer is here and so is the heat. Martes, a pine marten whose emotions change the weather around him, is often in turmoil, yet, he can have a nice summer vacation day, can't he.
Hurricane Martes: summer breeze
By 3-000
"Boo!"
Martes yelled in fear as he came out of the bathroom. Then, when he recomposed himself, he angrily chased his younger brother.
"Junio!"
A small thundering cloud sprang inches over the marten's head, following him as he went after his brother. But it was like trying to catch a flash of sunlight: one moment he was there and suddenly... FLASH!, in another
"Did it work?" Ocaso asked from the armchair.
Junio appeared sitting next to him, looking expectantly at the middle brother. Martes burst into the TV lounge along with his storm, for a moment stirring the air in the room, however, he inhaled deeply and calmed down, dispelling the cloud. His brothers sighed in disappointment.
Although the three martens were quite similar, they couldn't be more different from each other. All three had the same brown fur, sometimes reddish with the right light angle, the same small ears, pointed snouts, and long fluffy tails. Ocaso, the elder brother, kept his fur long and wild; He was tall for his age, stocky, and took things calmly as if nothing could ever bother him. Junio, on the other hand, could not stand still. The younger brother was often climbing or throwing himself at something. He was so small he could only feel one thing at a time: explosive joy.
Martes was thin and lanky. He had two thick black caterpillars for eyebrows and short fur that bristled under the electrical static of its thunderbolts. His temper was so famous that almost everyone knew him by his nickname instead of his name: Hurricane. He hated that nickname! Just thinking about it clouded his day. Except for that day.
The streets vibrated under the intense summer sun, and the shadows of the houses did not dissipate the heat inside them. The mustelid brothers, in swimsuits, melted on the couch while staring dissatisfied at the screen. The deadbolts on the front door creaked, and their mother walked in with a gust of air.
"I arrived! Boys? Where are you?" Brisa asked from downstairs.
Her children moaned a 'here' from the couch. Brisa stopped in her tracks as she was hit by the room's hot air.
"How hot it is here!" she exclaimed. "What are you doing?"
"Nothing" the three replied.
Brisa turned off the TV and waved her hands in front of the three pairs of glassy eyes.
"What do you mean 'nothing'?"
"We have nothing to do" Martes replied.
"And it's too sunny to go out!" Junio added.
"Unless Martes..." suggested Ocaso, looking at his brother.
Martes looked up: nope, nothing, not even a cloud. He was too hot to be upset. Besides, how many times did he have to tell his brothers? His emotions rarely helped him. Who wanted to get rained upon while being sad or pursue his homework after a stress tornado? Or clear the clouds on a very hot day?! He couldn't help but feel cheerful and relaxed, after all, it was already the summer vacation! Although he had to admit his brother was not wrong: he would not dislike a cold front at that moment.
"Get dressed and go out" Brisa ordered.
Her children sat up surprised.
"But Mom...!" Ocaso protested.
"It's too hot outside!" June said.
"Go to the park, or the library, or at least here at the square, but get out of the house and do something."
The warm breeze tickled the fur on Martes' legs as he walked along with his brothers in line, taking advantage of every rickety shade on his way to the square. The afternoon sun continued to burn the deserted streets of the neighborhood with such intensity that Martes wished he was mad only for a cloud to shade him. Even when they took shelter under the lush trees of the gardens, they still did not see anyone else. Nothing could be heard, not even in the wind between the branches: they had the whole square to themselves.
The brothers approached the stone fountain at the center of the square. Martes sat and waited as Junio took the balloons out of the bucket they brought and Ocaso filled them with water in a faucet. While his brothers worked, Martes let his thoughts wander. He thought about things that worried him, that made him sad. Things that weighed him down like a backpack full of stones that he could not take off. They followed him like the shadow of a cloud, darkening even the sunniest day. And he thought it was all his fault.
"Thought cloud" Junio announced.
It was true. Martes looked over his head and there floated a fluffy white cloud, as dense as his thoughts.
"Is there any chance of rain?" Ocaso asked, hopefully.
His brother exhaled, shaking his head and dispelling the cloud. Ocaso shrugged his shoulders and distributed the balloons equally.
"Ok," he said, "everyone has his projectiles. There are no rules, just split up and let's start... now!"
The brothers dispersed quickly. Martes kept the balloons in his pockets to get around better. He ran and hid behind a tree. When he looked out, the square was empty, there was no one in sig... There! Ocaso's red T-shirt flashed behind the fountain. He carried the balloons hardly until one fell and exploded in his shoes. Martes laughed at him. BANG. A burst of water hit him in the back of the head and Martes discovered Junio behind him. He answered immediately with a balloon, but: FLASH. His brother was no longer there and the balloon burst on the ground.
"You can't hit me!" cried June, appearing somewhere else.
Ocaso spotted and headed towards them. The siblings ran one after another, laughing and yelling, happily. Balloons flew in all directions. Junio's ones came from anywhere and hit anything, while he flashed from one place to another like a sparkle, hitting himself with his own balloon. Ocaso's ones were more accurate and, since aiming at the younger brother was impossible, most were directed at Martes. Martes could not concentrate: his aim was bad; his balloons barely brushed his brothers.
Martes didn't notice a slope when running and stumbled, falling face-first to the ground. His brothers' last balloons ended up soaking him.
"You lost!" mocked Ocaso, celebrating with Junio.
The hit had stunned Martes. The cheers of his brothers sounded far away. If he had been younger, he would've cried immediately, but now he was older. Bigger, tougher, and more mature, he could control himself, right?
Ocaso and Junio stopped when a huge gray cloud appeared over his brother and poured out torrential rain. Martes stood up and stumbled forward until he sat down in the stone fountain. He wanted to avoid it, yet, tears poured from his eyes like a river. He was ashamed of what his brothers would think: that he was crying because he had lost a game. The truth was, he didn't know why he was crying or at least why he couldn't stop. So many things were spinning in his head, so many things he felt in his heart, that the only thing the hit did was open the doors and let everything out.
"It was just a game" June muttered, approaching him.
The rain fell with more intensity. Martes cried with his face buried in his hands. He could be very sensitive and his climates very diverse, but his brothers knew him very well. They had grown along with that unpredictable temper, learning to distinguish details such as the color of a cloud or the intensity of a wind. They noticed the lack of furious lightning, as well as the embarrassment haze rising from the ground. Ocaso and Junio sat on either side of Martes, getting soaked in no time, and said nothing.
They sat there until the rain subsided. Martes wiped his nose and said between sobs:
"It's not that. I don't feel bad about losing, it's just...just..."
And he told them what he thought and felt. The things that worried him, the things that scared him, the things that made him sad. Junio leaned his little head against his arm:
"I think about that too."
Ocaso hugged Martes, placing his chin on his middle brother's head:
"You know it's not your fault, right?"
Martes closed his eyes, feeling his brothers' warmth. They stayed like that until the rain disappeared completely, leaving only a little haze around. Then, in silence, the brothers got up, picked up the balloon pieces, threw them in the trash, and returned home.
Every day, from when the sun set on the horizon until the first stars appeared, Ocaso was able to do incredible acts. Although home magic shows were in the past, his brothers still gazed at him with illusion. Sometimes his fur would turn brightly colored like a chameleon, other times he could walk through walls and become transparent like a ghost. But that afternoon, Ocaso placed his hands on each brother's shoulder and a strange sensation spread to the tip of each of their hairs.
Martes felt like a drop of water melting into the sea, taking off the heavy backpack he had been carrying and took a breath, really breath. Becoming light. Floating.
Now a summer breeze, the three brothers rose above the streets and rooftops. As they flew, they breathed the vastness of the sky, felt the twinkling lights of the city, and listened to the day falling asleep. Little by little, as the blue hour ended, Ocaso's magic dissolved and the three brothers were left standing in front of their house, corporeal again, although lighter.
"Karaoke?" suggested Ocaso.
Martes and Junio accepted euphoric. When Brisa returned home, her children were still singing at the top of their voices.
"How about pizza?" she asked when they took a break.
The three martens shouted with joy. While they waited for the pizza delivery man, Martes arranged the tablecloths on the table, but Brisa interrupted him:
"I was thinking we'd eat it with a movie."
After a long argument, the family finally decided to watch a movie they hadn't seen in a while. They watched it amused as they enjoyed the meal. Outside, the sky was still clear, dotted with distant stars. Martes was happy and maybe that caused a little more heat, but that night nobody felt bad about it.