Passing through the casual horizon of the coldness of the wind with the dust made into turbo skids, translated brown smoked fumes camouflaging the wheels ‘heavy duty features while watching the tug of war between day. It was daylight and for sure sunshine will soon gaze its early vitamins. Green and red light flashes in the northern sky became more vivid like New Year fireworks which painted the early morning heavens and no, it’s not a shooting star so don’t talk about updating the probability of realizing your wish lists. This is not any typical child’s play --- this is doomsday. Witnessing this spectacle in far south Missouri facade is definitely not a good indication.
My attention is divided as my eyes took alternative glimpses on the road and the skies illuminated by a minor solar flare dressed in a shooting star like phenomenon. To most, the occurrence of this events are normal but it is not; its danger whose imminence is so severe --- a worldwide genocide. Good thing that the atmosphere’s magnetic field has enough fire power to filter off solar flares expelling out the ill effects of solar radiation. However this should not be the case because earth’s magnetic field is getting thinner and thinner by the day, so beware.
The uphill drive was a grueling job that has long gone overdue. We both know that we have been passing the hard off road terrain all of our lives but this is the first time that everything feels abnormal like a death row convict on its way to the gas chamber room. I am not putting everything into exaggeration but the entire scenery scares me because for sure, if worse comes to worse, chaos will surely be an avenue for the reign of evil.
Light came as the early rays of sunrise beaconed from the east making my driving as well as our one way husband and wife convoy breed meaning of the sweetness of love. Still the red and green rays beamed passing the atmosphere as our speed made sense to anticipate what lies ahead --- it’s a beautiful day. Noticing that my Excursions speed declined as disclosed by my speedometer, I know that the fuse is going to be out soon. Changing the fuse is a bright idea but such move will ultimately be useless as our home is just hanging on in a distance. Thus, I stopped and pressed the car window open. Subsequently, my head went out of the driver’s window as I look back at Farah’s.
“Hey! Need some help here honey! The massive bush and fruit load must have been ecstatically enormous for my truck to bear!” my words ironed in an audible note.
“Ryan, what’s wrong? The fuse must have gone out too soon.” Farah asked curiously.
“Is your fuse still okay? I asked Farah. “Yes honey! They are alive and kicking! Farah replied with a hopeful smile.
“Okay then. Allow your truck to bump in my rear bumper. I want you to push me up until we reach home, okay?” I instructed Farah.
“Aye aye Captain! Just try to start your ignition. Who knows it might be working again.” She told me with awe and fascination.
Farah cranks the accelerator and here we go. The wheels of my Excursion begin turning. I held a firm grip on the spinning wheel and carefully maneuvered the bumpy uphill spilling of debris of rocks, wooden fillings of rotten trees and some small stones. In a gradual average speed, we were able to play bump cars like kids in the middle of a one way road. With expert maneuvering and superb driving skills, we finally arrived home tired and dropped dead exhausted.
I jumped off of my truck first while Farah is still fixing the windshield of her Expedition; moist vapor must have set her windshield blurry and stale so she took a time off clearing everything.
“Farah, help me unload the bushes, berries and fruit trees. Let’s make it fast.” I asked a favor.
“Yeah, I will. But I have to prepare the pots and potting soil for transplant” Farah humbly replied.
Unloading the plants are simple but to make things faster, a division of labor happened and thus, I will be the one that unloads the plants, bring it to Farah and its Farah’s turn to do the transplant process by putting the fruit and burry bushes in a potting soil stuffed container. I purposely let Farah do the “plant” transplant because she is gifted when it comes to planting --- she has a green thumb and thus plants find life to her kind caresses. Pots as well as fertile potting soil are already lined up for fast access. We did the whole process within an hour with me acting as Hercules the heavy weight lifter and Farah as the geisha tending with the plants. As soon as the transplant is done, I carried each of them and put it in a humid location --- yes, the barn. A fishpond is also nearby which is good as a source for watering.
“Ryan, I’ll get the sprinkler to water them.” Farah suggested.
“Yeah, sure honey. But let’s just use the water from our fishpond because its content is filled with nutrients which will serve as fertilizer. I replied.
“Yeah, I know Ryan, the Coy Fish’s feces will surely make the plants healthy in no time.” Farah looked at me with a smile as she went inside the barn to get the sprinkler.
Farah came back with the sprinkler on her grip and dipped it up into the fishpond. Water was then evenly sprinkled to the new transplants. She was careful not to over drench the soil. The figure describes a typical mother nursing her child with breast milk. I perfectly enjoy the scenery of watching my better half appreciate the beauty of life despite an impending tragedy.
“There you go honey.” Farah laughed. “I have watered them fairly.”
“Yeah thank you. I hope they grow fast because we really need supplies in the days to come.” I added further.
“I know they will Ryan. By the way I have to go back in the house to wash the dishes and cook for breakfast. It’s almost seven o’clock in the morning.” She said, with a grimacing smile. She must have been so exhausted.
Farah’s words were clear enough for me to say yes, she can go and do what she wishes. My wife approached to give me a smack on the lips before she went off to our house. I could see her walk away but drifting vividly. I can see her curved hips sway from right to left complemented by her long brunette hair which camouflaged perfectly amid the early sunrise; isn’t it amazing that her vital stats showed off even from a back view standpoint?
I went on to check on the rest of our preparations. A 1,110 gallon capacity water tank is place to store rain water but unfortunately, rain hasn’t struck the earth floor a few years already so we must innovate. Good thing there is a sustainable volume of water left.
“Ryan, Ryan! Breakfasts ready! Come and get it honey!” she said.
“I’ll be right over!” I replied.
This is an indication that breakfast is already ready. I can’t wait to have my own chow time. What a perfect day to start a moment indeed. Filling up your organic biodegradable self with food to give you the nutrients you need. KI jogged towards the house, climbed up the mini stairs to reach the terrace. Reaching up to the screen door’s handle is easy when you’re hungry and so I swiped it open. The lingering sound of the squeaking rusty door hinges served as an alarm signal to Farah that I am already inside.
“Breakfasts ready honey! Bacon, eggs and with a sunny side up mix with some wheat bread in between.” She said.
“What a healthy diet you got there! And oh, you already washed the dishes and made the kitchen glittering again. I never expected that you still have adrenaline left.” I said.
“Come on, let’s eat.” I invited Farah who just said, “Okay!”
We pulled off our chairs to sit. I said grace for now because it was Farah who blessed the food last time. As soon as my prayer ended with a sign of the cross, breakfast ensued and yes, food is more delicious if prepared by your wife. Within a span of twenty minutes, breakfast came to a close.
I left Farah in the kitchen to take care of the washing chores while went outside the house to free my three German Shepherded dogs as well my six Shitzu lapdogs from their individual cages. It’s nice see these cuties run around the lawn playing and chasing each other.
I immediately visited our basement to give our electrical system a quick check. Going down the staircase on towards the underground seemed to be a perplexing routine because the
basement is close to an inhabited place; a place where both of us do not visit. The electrical lines, circuit breakers and electrical meters are stored in this place. The basement is comparable to a computer CPU --- this is where the heart is. The knowledge of the existence of solar flares and the possibility of it turning into a solar storm is an accepted fact. Back then, while I freed the dogs from their cages after I took my breakfast, the same blue and red lights has maintained its visibility despite the existence of the sun’s rays. I sat on the basement’s bench to ponder the possibility of our untimely extinction. Definitely, the gradual speeding of solar flares will inevitably weaken the earth’s magnetic field. Once this will happen, all of the living will surely perish. Thus, for purposes of giving a leeway in my desire to save the human race, I decided to disconnect the power connections. To save us from CME’s, that might turn electrically charged things into a huge electric conductor. This will surely be dangerous.
I continued to pull off the wires and all the necessary connectors until I see that I have a decent estimate as to how we will be greatly affected by the power shortage. This disconnection has to wait until six o’clock in the afternoon tomorrow before doing a detour of our connections to alternative power generating systems. We have solar, wind and the traditional generator power. This must be enough.
I dragged a wind generator just to make sure that we have enough alternative energy source and tap it with the use of a treadmill motor to charge the new batteries I got at Wal-Mart as well as the old one’s laid in stock. These situations lead me to understand that when we are amid the challenge of survival, such that our lives are put on the line, innovations happen. Brilliant ideas will come out as well as sophisticated inventions will be realized just for the purpose of assuring a high probability of survival. This sense of urgency pushed me to the limit to improvise my own battery charger.
“How long will it take for us to be like this?” Farah exclaimed with me noticing.
“It’s going to be hard and tough,” I said. “By now, generous estimates of 70% to 95% of the world’s population will next year or two.” I frankly told her.
Although everything is just based on gross estimates, I can now see that we now have food supplies that could withstand for the next three years. And after that, we will be back in the primitive days; a time when technology was not yet invented. We will be like Cro-Magnons, growing crops and hunting food. Definitely our livestock supply will wear off in due time nor the fish in our pond will suffer the same consequence of being consumed. That excludes the possibility of burglars who are going to steal what we have just to survive. The dogs and the cats that we have only have a month of food supply. And on the proceeding months, these pets will also have its equal share of survival for their food and cat food will be substituted by food leftovers or worse scrap of spoiled edibles.
We unconsciously missed lunch spending long hours in the basement for the first time trying to figure out the perfection of my newly invented battery charger. I cannot give a generous test drive of my new invention until tomorrow evening, the date when I am going to transfer our electric lines to alternative power sources like solar, wind, and traditional generator. Our mind’s pre-occupied state instilled an extraordinary fixation towards anticipatory facts that offers hypothetical philosophies. Yes, solar storms and CME’s are just a possibility but in another angle, I see no arrogance in preparing for it --- disaster management.
Evening strikes… as the pathway in the basement stairs looms into darkness, I lit one of the propane gas lights that both Farah and I made. The scenery propelled by its gas fumes took me into a time travel situation on years of my early marriage living in the farm as a brand new couple without electric power running all day. It was tough life witnessed by a handful of memorial galleries of days of la niňa phenomenon which resulted into immense flooding due to non -stop rain and by the next year, an opposite el niňo didn’t come too late to severely dehydrate our fishpond to answer the call of devastation. These memories only brought about man’s undying campaign against global warming and climate change but sad to say, man’s heart remained stiff and hardened. Thus, this is the consequence.
But we were not forsaken. The toughest season of all, winter, gave us hope and life. Over the past months of the early years of our cohabitation, a number of heavy and strong rains occurred in the fall filling the frozen ground of our fishpond with water so that when winter came, the water in the fishpond froze making it to refill naturally bringing life to our stocked aquamarine investment. But not all come in sweet packages. However, the garden was not spared even a bit. The pain my wife and I felt that time was evenly melancholic. The el niňo phenomenon sucked all the earth’s liquid causing its surface to crack killing every form of agricultural life depending on it.
Although the rough message of nature’s revenge was felt, heavy rains resumed in the fall wetting the water away from a long time dehydration so that, when winter season came knocking at our door steps, our fishpond has already stocked water enough to wet the cracked grounds to life. The icy season kept the pond frozen but there is nothing to worry because at least a natural refill happened just in time to bring our fishes to life. While the past two years dealt with us with scarcity and bad fortune, we are optimistic that 2014 growing season is going to favor the odds of our survival for what we have left is just a minor salvage of fruit trees which is a month short.
“Come on now Farah.” I said. “Let’s go up now and sleep. Tomorrow is definitely a long day.”
“Okay honey, but just bring the propane lamp upstairs so that we have a light. Hold it firmly by your right hand” Farah suggested.
I came first while Farah was on the trail. I raised my right hand up to increase the lighted coverage until we reached the living room. Farah stayed in the living room while had a double check on the dogs outside. I called them out towards to lure them to their cages and locked it. Good thing they have obedience training. I then got in the house and locked the doors and windows to safety.
I then put my left arm around Farah --- looking at the wall clock, its 9:10 PM. What a long day it has been. We then entered our room and locked the doors. I place the lamp beside the bed table to act and serve as a lampshade substitute. Farah moved on with her nighties while I was just on boxers.
Chapter 4
Farah’s direction is addressed to the comfort room. Ah, women, they just can’t get away with their before sleep routine. I peaked at the comfort room to give myself a shave and a toothbrush. Our comfort room has two doors and one of which is the shower and Jacuzzi area covered in a silhouette touch with translucent glass around it. I cranked the lavatory faucet to have myself ready. I got my toothbrush from the comfort room’s closet and put toothpaste on it. Water simultaneously gushed from the shower room and the lavatory with Farah doing a shower I doing some dental obligations.
“Ryan, how did the improvised battery charger go? Is it working?” Farah asked with an echoing voice.
“Ahhh…iths awkhaay…honhey, iths fine!” I replied in a slurred way, toothpaste bubbles hindered my speech partially in a linguistic squabble with my toothbrush facing its bristles in my palate steadily.
I made two strides of gargles and spits and the brushing is done so next, the shaving cream. I mashed the cream and applied thoroughly to face and hit on my triple blade Gillette Smooth shaver to pass on my face to trim the beards and mustaches. Farah continued on her shower rituals, applying shampoo to her hair and her ever favorite Carrot Tanning Soap on her body. I paused for a while and stared at the silhouette glass. The glaring and yet ecstatically astonishing semi-transparent body shape partially exposed her feminine curves and luscious assets half-bared and half viewed with her nighties hanged across and on top the shower room’s glass aluminum boarders. What an interesting ice breaker indeed. After two minutes of window shopping, I stepped out the room, grabbed a towel and tapped my face up to dry --- off to the bed!
I sat on the bed reaching for the propa
ne gas lamp to have its degree illumination decreased. The fire controller of gas light was made of brass metal coated with silicone rubber so the heat generated by the fire stays in there without the possibility of burning my thumb and pointer fingers. The room became dim as the combination of the outside darkness loomed over to the inside which even gave more emphasis to the a.k.a. “candle light dinner” that we are not supposed to have because it’s late. I grabbed a two days old The Missouri Inquirer newspaper with shocking headlines of spotted solar flare phenomenon captured by the Hubble telescope. I put my reading glasses on to revisit the past news to read it. The news article firmly categorized the effect of solar flares which is absolutely dangerous to man and the places that are at a “high risk” are the first world countries --- countries that have so much technological advancements and breakthroughs like Japan, Russian region, China and of course the United States. The dilemma now is the more technology you have, the more risk you’ll get.
I move to lie down on the bed to make myself comfortable; lying and reading at the same time, skimming down the paragraphs, sentences and words of the newspaper headline in throwback mode. My back comfortably laid back on the water bed cushion giving absolute relaxation worn out muscles and spine due to long hard days of chase. Though the pain is imminent and felt, it is tolerable. The beddings were all in white embroidered by flower and scorpion embroidery design of just pure contours of fine linen stitches with the absence of colors. Everything is pure and simple but yet elegant. My head was enveloped with an anti-snore pillow giving absolute fluffy hold to me neck and head. The headboard was made of redwood to sustain the attacks of termites --- this is our first bed since we moved in.
Drops of water creating a splatting sound on the comfort room floor while Farah continues to cleanse then, suddenly, the showers reached into a full stop. I stared waiting as her cleaned up “ready to sleep figure will come out. She came out not with her white silky nighties but on plum lingerie while her long brunette hair constantly held and dried by a towel curled over her head.
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