The next evening, Caden and Trina sat on the couch in the living room and chatted with Evan and Jared via VP.
“It's a well-known fact that most deaf people tend to marry other deaf people,” Caden signed, “thus creating ‘deaf dynasties,’ as they’re called.”
Trina nodded in agreement. “And, as a result, deaf children who grow up in deaf families gain a better understanding of what it means to be deaf and that’s to their advantage.”
The TV monitor now showed colors in all the wrong places with Jared and Evan’s faces a bright green with a yellowish tint and the background a dark red.
Trina waved her arms to get Evan and Jared’s attention. “We can’t see you too well,” she signed. “The video quality is blurry with some squiggly lines.”
“Can you see us?” Caden signed to Jared and Evan as he waved his arms.
“Yes, we can see you just fine,” Jared signed.
“Yes,” Evan signed with a nod.
“Anyway, as we were saying,” Caden signed, “I don’t think it’s cool when hearing children of deaf adults think they’re superior to their own parents just because they can hear and their parents can’t.”
All the lights in the house and outside went out.
Diva yowled and hissed, her kittens mewled, Thor barked, and Abbott and Costello thumped their hind legs and bounded about their crate.
Trina rose from the couch and eased her way to the nearest end table, where she turned the switch on the lamp. It did not come on.
Power outage, Josslyn thought to herself. She fetched a six-inch-tall battery-operated electric candle from a dresser drawer and came down the stairs with Nathan behind her. They went into the living room. Josslyn felt along the wall for the switch plate and flipped the switches. Nothing happened.
Nathan went outside to the back of the house and felt along the wall for the switch plate. He flipped switches without effect, as well. I should’ve thought to get emergency lights, he thought, along with the security system when we had it installed.
The strobes from the door knock signaler, the smoke alarm, the VP, and the baby monitor all flashed in sync.
Maddie started to cry.
A security specialist at the Cernix Home Security Center was alerted to a possible break-in at the Bryants’ residence at 5311 Sierra Linda Drive in Knollwood Meadows.
He placed a call to the home. No one answered. He tried the number again and still did not get an answer. Then, he dispatched a patrolman to the address, to check to see what the problem might be.
The strobes ceased flashing.
Caden held his smartphone in his hand and pressed the icon for the flashlight app. The bright LED light came on and washed over part of the living room. The light then went off after fifteen seconds. Caden reactivated the app, but the light would not come on. So, he pulled up the camera app and pressed the digital shutter button again and again in rapid succession. He explained it was not to take pictures, but to light up the room.
“Great idea,” Josslyn signed. She went to the study and grabbed her digital camera. She returned and snapped the shutter many times, which emitted bright flashes of light.
“We were talking to friends,” Trina signed to Josslyn and Nathan, “when the VP and TV started acting up, then the lights went out. My tablet’s upstairs, but I’m not going up there alone to get it.”
“I’ll go with you,” Nathan signed.
As Nathan and Trina headed for the stairs, they saw yellow flashing lights filter through the living room window, the sidelights adjacent to the front door and the window in the study. Curious, they all went to the living room window. A security patrol car from Cernix Home Security Center was parked at the curb.
The patrolman sat in the car for a moment as he observed the houses on both sides of the street. The lights in the other houses were on.
Nathan opened the front door as the patrolman approached.
“Good evening, sir,” the patrolman said. He trained the light on Nathan's face.
Nathan shielded his eyes from the bright light with a raised hand. “I’m deaf,” he signed, then pointed to his ears and mouth.
“Okay. Let me see if I have something to write on.”
Nathan beckoned Caden to come over. “Bring your smartphone with you,” he signed to Caden.
Caden gave the smartphone to Nathan, who typed:
We’re deaf. Lights went out, cause unknown.
The patrolman took the smartphone from Nathan and typed:
Received alert and called house. No answer. Need security password.
Nathan typed:
Deaf.
The patrolman typed:
Ok. May I check breakers and the wiring?
Nathan nodded and stepped aside to let the patrolman in.
As soon as the patrolman stepped inside, all the lights on the property came back on, both indoors and outdoors.
“Hmph,” the patrolman said.
“I believe the spirit did this,” Josslyn signed faster than usual to Nathan.
“Not now,” Nathan signed with emphasis and a discreet wave of his hand, irritated.
The patrolman typed:
Where are the breakers?
Nathan led him to the back of the house and through the double sliding glass doors.
The patrolman trained his flashlight along the siding and located a small door. He flipped switches, and the lights in different rooms of the house went off, then back on. He also made a quick check through the rooms upstairs on the second floor. He came back downstairs and typed:
Everything checks out. Check with utility company and get electrician to check wiring.
Nathan typed:
Okay. Thank you.
Nathan closed the door.
“It was that damn spirit!” Josslyn signed. “Pardon my language. Something’s gotta be done to get rid of it, once and for all!”
“All right, calm down,” Nathan signed. “I know you’re upset.”
Caden waved a hand to get his parents’ attention. “Look . . .”
Trina moved to Josslyn’s side to see what was on Caden’s smartphone.
He lifted the smartphone to show them a series of pictures taken when he’d pressed the digital shutter many times to give the dark living room some light. What Trina saw made her cringe.
The pictures showed strange anomalies with orbs of various sizes and opacity, light energies in the form of vaporous blobs, and other indescribable, peculiar formations. One weird protoplasm in particular resembled a cylindrical tube of bright orange-yellow light that looked like snake skin coated with a glittery substance.
Another group of pictures showed a bright white luminescent cylinder of protoplasm with porcupine-type quills that protruded from it.
Yet another group of snapshots featured a blurred image, as if they had been taken while the object was in motion. One, at first glance, looked like yellowish-white flame, as though it had belched out of the nozzle of a flame-thrower, yet upon closer inspection, it appeared almost as if it had been an arrangement of capiz shells on a string.
Josslyn shook her head in wonderment. “This is too much for the human mind to absorb.”
“What in the world are those things?” Trina signed.
“They’re some type of spirits,” Caden signed.
“Let me see the pictures again,” Nathan signed.
After they looked at the pictures, asked questions, and formed their own conclusions, Josslyn lifted her digital camera, turned it on, and pressed a button to pull up the series of snapshots. “Let’s see what photos my digital camera came up with.”
They were similar photos to those shown in Caden’s smartphone, but taken from different angles.
“Demons don’t look like that,” Trina signed.
“Demons are deceptive,” Josslyn signed. “The Bible teaches us that they’re not just liars but pathological liars. They’ll give you what they want you to see and hear, not what you want to see and hear. I had to learn to read between the lines from a spiritual perspective.”
Trina craned her neck one way, then the other as she continued to gawk at the snapshots. She took the camera out of her mother’s hand and turned it around. “I’m thinking maybe the quality of the pictures is due to the refraction of the light when the flashes went off. That’s just how it is with electronic equipment.”
“All right, smarty-pants, time for bed,” Josslyn signed. “It’s late enough as it is.”
“I don’t wanna go to bed,” Trina signed, crestfallen. “I’m so scared.”
“I know, honey.” Josslyn pulled Trina toward her and embraced her for comfort. “Sometimes I get scared, too. We need to bear in mind that fear is a spirit and that God has given us not the spirit of fear, but of love, and of power, and of a sound mind. Pray and ask for God’s guidance and protection. Trust in Him and plead the precious blood of the Lamb over us and on this house.”
Nathan went up to Josslyn and Trina and put an arm around each. “Starting tonight, I'm going to have everybody sleep in the living room for the next few nights or few weeks or for however long. I’d like us to be by the front door so we can make a quick exit, if need be, should anything happen.”