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for a tow truck.

As the sun began to set, the tow truck arrived. He towed us to the house. Volta had calmed down on the way home. My phone was out again, so I charged it and called Suzie to put her mind to rest.

That was the start of that summer. The summer passed quickly. A few watches stopped. Some batteries drained. And a lot of sparks flew.

On the second to last day of Volta's stay, we had a big barbecue dinner. My kids and Volta, along with my father in law, Bill, had a grand time telling jokes and shooting sparks. Halfway through our barbecued ribs, a bolt of lightning hit the transformer across the street. All the power went out in the neighborhood. We lived in the woods, so it was pitch black. I fetched a couple of flashlights and handed them to what I thought was my daughter. It was Volta. She turned one on and it went out right away. I took the other one back as it too went out. Volta burst into tears and ran out of the room. On the way, she knocked over a lamp with no shade. She caught it by the bulb. The bulb lit up. Everyone froze. Volta stared at the bulb, then slowly looked at us with her jaw open.

She stood the lamp back up. It went out as she let go. More tears welled up as she grabbed the bulb again. It lit up again.

I quickly unscrewed a bulb from the light above the table. I ran over to Volta and handed it to her. Both were glowing. She stopped sobbing and began to smile. Then the lamps faded again. Volta returned to crying, and the bulbs lit up once again.

Volta's crying created electricity. In other circumstances, she only conducted it, but as she cried she generated it. When Volta realized it, she started laughing hysterically. And of course, the lights went out again. She couldn't stop laughing, though, so the lights stayed out. Everyone joined in the laughter in the dark.

It was then that I realized that Bill needed his breathing machine while he slept. If he didn't have it, he could die while he slept. Now I knew that it would be until at least the next morning until we had power back on. No one would come to fix it at night in this town. As everyone's laughter subsided, I gathered their attention. Volta had made her way back to the table, so we were all together. I told everyone about the breathing machine. No one had thought about it, not even Bill. I then told Volta that we may need her to cry again, a lot. With that, she indeed started to cry. I quickly brought her to the room with the breathing machine to see if it would work.

It did.

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