Free Cristal - Novella by Anne-Rae Vasquez

were freakin’ out over here when the
earth-a-quake hit us. You can imagine that. I’m-a-sure that the
Pope fell off his throne and I’m not-a talkin’ about the one in the
Vatican.”
    He flashed his contagiously charming smile.
Angelica gave him a dirty look in return. Cristal had to hold back
a giggle.
    “Yes, I have to agree,” Angelica said,
turning to the camera. “It was a freaky experience. I cannot wait
to-a-hear what Zero has to say about this. Please explain why and
how you knew where we were supposed to be when it happened.”
    Angelica flipped her long wavy brown hair
away from her dark mocha eyes. Cristal envied how Angelica could
look both upset and sexy at the same time. Her naturally thick
pouty lips were what women would pay thousands for in Botox
treatments. Cristal looked over at Kerim, trying to read his body
language as he listened.
    Kerim’s face was expressionless. He was
listening but not reacting the way men usually do when they see
Angelica for the first time. Gabriel, who was sitting on the other
side of Cristal, was gazing at the screen. She could have sworn he
was drooling as he smiled, drinking in Angelica’s every word.
    Cristal looked back at the screen and caught
Harry’s gaze. He was watching her closely. She took a deep breath
and focused on what Angelica was saying.
    “The room we were in was shaking so much.
The floor beneath us, I swear, became like a jelly. Rinaldo and me
were so frightened. He was holding onto me and crying like a
bambina.”
    Everyone in the room laughed. Rinaldo raised
his hand and smacked her on the shoulder.
    “Ayyyy…what’s a matter with you?” Angelica
cried out, turning to him. “It’s the truth. You were crying like a
little baby girl.”
    She playfully hit him on the back of his
head.
    “Let’s-a-be serious,” Rinaldo said, turning
back towards them. “Zero, we want to know what the hell is going
on.”
    He pointed his finger towards the
camera.
    Harry smiled and said, “Let’s let our rep
from Haifa report first. Adel, please tell us what happened at the
two locations I asked you and your team to meet.”
    In the third window on the screen, a man
that Cristal did not recognize began to speak. He had dark black
hair, cut short on the sides, longer and wavy at the top. His
eyebrows were thick over large eyes that sank deep into his head.
He had a wide bridge over a broad nose and his skin was a cinnamon
color.
    “Hi, everyone. Nice to meet you. At the Gaza
location, our team member, Sami, experienced the ground shaking. He
was outside and he saw in the sky, the light streaks, which he
first reported as lightning. Then the sky turned blood red. He saw
an image forming in the sky like an oil painting. He sent us this
picture.”
    A photo appeared on the screen. Harry moved
the mouse and maximized the image. In the picture, the sky was as
Adel had described. The sky appeared to be a burgundy red.
    Cristal squinted and could see an image
where the lightning streaks were crossing each other.
    Gabriel was shifting his weight on the stool
beside her.
    He whispered, “It looks like a man.”
    Cristal focused her eyes at the image again.
It did look like a man. As Harry zoomed into the area, the shape
was becoming clearer. It seemed as if the man was pointing in a
direction to the east of him. As the picture sharpened, Cristal
could see the man’s facial features.
    She gasped.
    “Cristal, are you okay?” Kerim whispered in
her ear.
    She could feel herself fading out. The room
seemed to be spinning around her. This is how Dorothy must have
felt when her house was being swept away by the tornado, she
thought to herself.
    She felt Kerim’s arms around her as she
slipped off her stool.
    “Someone get her a glass of water! Cristal,
are you okay?”
    She felt herself being lowered to the floor.
She closed her eyes, as the thoughts in her head bounced back and
forth like a shuffleboard disc she had seen her stepfather play
years ago on the deck of