The Zombie Who Painted with Lightning

Leo clutched his small plastic zombie toy. His big sister had said, "Eww, that's scary!" but Leo didn't think so. The little green figure with one button eye and a friendly grin sat on his windowsill, watching the storm.

CRASH! Lightning flashed across the sky, turning everything bright orange for one magical second. Leo gasped. The storm wasn't scary—it was beautiful!

Suddenly, his zombie toy wiggle. Then it hopped. Then it danced!

"Hello!" said the zombie, whose name was Zing. "I've been waiting for lightning night!"

"You can talk?" Leo whispered, eyes wide.

"Only during orange lightning," Zing explained. "Come with me! We have important work!"

Zing grabbed Leo's hand (his plastic hand was surprisingly warm) and they floated out the window, right into the stormy sky.

"Watch this," Zing said. He reached up and caught a bolt of lightning in his pocket. Then he pulled out an orange crayon from nowhere and started coloring the lightning!

"What are you doing?" Leo laughed.

"Making everyone happy," Zing said. "Scary storms need orange magic. Look!"

Down below, people who had been hiding from the storm were now pointing up at the sky. The lightning wasn't white and scary anymore—it was glowing orange, like the most beautiful sunset anyone had ever seen. Children ran outside to dance in the orange glow.

"You turned a scary storm into something wonderful," Leo said.

"That's the secret," Zing winked. "Things aren't scary. They're just waiting for someone to add a little orange magic."

As the storm passed, Zing grew still again. Leo tucked him back on the windowsill with a smile. His sister was right that zombies were usually scary in stories. But she was wrong about something important: sometimes, the scariest-looking things just need a friend to bring out their orange magic.

Leo drifted off to sleep dreaming of lightning storms and the zombie who painted them beautiful.