Secluded

by Alana Terry

  “Well?” Willow jutted out her hip and frowned. “Aren’t you going to say anything?”

  Kennedy hardly looked up. “About what?”

  Willow stood silent and stared until Kennedy raised her eyes.

  “Woah, your hair,” she exclaimed once full realization set in. “It looks ... It’s ...”

  “Normal?” Willow finished for her. “Well, don’t get your hopes up too high. I told Nick that as soon as we’ve taken the wedding pictures, the first thing I’m going to do on our honeymoon is dye it. I’m thinking of going black again. Black with gray streaks. What do you think?”

  Kennedy was still staring. “So, is that your ... I mean ...”

  Willow smiled. “Yeah, I’m a natural brunette. It’s been so long since I’ve seen my real color I hardly recognize myself. At first, I was planning on doing it the same shade of red as the flowers, but then I started to think that maybe one day I’ll be a respectable old church lady, and I might not want my wedding pictures to stand out so much. I don’t know.

  “Oh, speaking of wedding pictures, have I told you what my dad did yesterday? He surprised us, sent Nick and me on this helicopter glacier tour with a professional photographer. It was wicked cold, but I’ve seen one or two of the unedited pictures, and it was totally worth it. But look at you. You’re freezing. Get into the car. I’ve kept it warming up while I waited.”

  Kennedy didn’t argue. Classic rock music was blaring when she sank down into the passenger seat.

  Willow sat beside her and smiled. “Hope you got a long nap on the plane. You’re going to have to stay awake for a while.”

  No. Kennedy couldn’t. “I thought we were going to head to the hotel and crash.”

  Willow snorted. “Well, there may be a few people who decide to crash, but I think everybody I know has already been invited.”

  Kennedy still wasn’t following. “Invited to what?”

  Willow raised her penciled eyebrows. “To my bachelorette party. Didn’t you get my text? There’ll be like forty of us, and we’ve got to go get ready because we only have five hours until they start showing up.”

  Kennedy was furiously scrolling through her phone messages.

  Willow laughed. “I’m just kidding. Don’t worry. There’s no party.”

  It was a miracle that Kennedy’s sigh of relief didn’t blow the rainbow heart decals off Willow’s dashboard.

  Willow was still chuckling as they rolled away from the airport curb. “You should have seen your face!”

  Kennedy did her best to share in the joke, but all she could think about was a steamy shower. Even with Willow’s heater blaring full-power, it didn’t penetrate her frozen core. She glanced out the window, surprised that there was actually traffic in a city this small. “So how far do we have to go to get to the hotel?”

  Willow turned her head and yelled, “What? I can’t hear you.”

  Kennedy repeated her question.

  Willow turned down the radio. “Well, we could head over there right now. We’re not too far, but if you don’t mind, I’d like to make a quick stop downtown first. There’s this cute little museum gift shop, and I still haven’t found the right centerpieces for the reception. I thought I might get some ideas there.”

  Kennedy didn’t mention that two days before her wedding was a little bit late to be shopping for décor. But as exhausted as she was, she still wanted to try to be a help to her roommate. “Sure, sounds interesting. I didn’t even know Anchorage had a downtown.”

  Willow mumbled something about Kennedy being a greenhorn and continued driving.

  As it turned out, downtown Anchorage was nothing more than a bunch of touristy shops lining congested streets. Willow spent a full twenty minutes driving in circles, hunting for a place to parallel park without traveling the wrong direction on a one-way street. Right when Kennedy figured she was going to fall asleep, Willow found a spot. “Well,” she said cheerily, “at least we’re close to the museum.”

  Kennedy didn’t want to leave the relatively warm car, but she made herself get out and stamped her feet on the snowy sidewalk to try to stay warm. Willow grabbed her by the elbow. “Come on, rookie. We’ll make a real Alaska girl out of you yet.” She led Kennedy into a small storefront entrance with bells on the door that clanged and jingled when they entered.

  An old man with spectacles about to fall off his nose smiled at them. “Welcome to the Alaska Historical Museum. I’m Jeb. You from out of town?” he asked, staring right at Kennedy.

  She nodded. “Just flew in.”

  He scratched his cheek. “You look colder than a tourist in July.” He turned to Willow. “What about you? Where you from?”

  “Born and raised in Copper Lake.” There was a hint of pride in Willow’s voice.

  Jeb let out a low whistle. “Yeah, how cold does it get out there this time of year?”

  “It was thirty-eight below when I went out this morning to milk the goats.”

  “You have goats?” Jeb asked. “Any babies?”

  “We have two pregnant does, but they won’t kid until spring.”

  While Willow started browsing through the Alaska trinkets and souvenirs, Kennedy walked up and down the aisles of the small one-room museum.

  “That there’s about the Aleutian chain during World War II,” Jeb told her. “Japanese came and took over two of our islands. Only US soil they managed to claim the entire war.”

  Kennedy didn’t even know where the Aleutians were, but she wasn’t about to flaunt her ignorance.

  “And there,” Jeb said, “those were supplies they gave the Washtub recruits in Seward during the Cold War.”

  Kennedy replayed that last sentence several times in her head and still failed to decipher any of it.

  Willow, apparently forgetting that she was shopping for an Alaskan centerpiece, held up a pair of beaded earrings. “Dude, these are adorable. I have to get them.”

  Jeb seemed much more interested in giving Kennedy a crash course in Alaskan history than in making a sale. “You see our new ’64 display?” He snaked his way out from behind the counter and led Kennedy to panels of large black-and-white photographs on the wall.

  Kennedy squinted at pictures of collapsed houses, ruined railroad tracks, and massive cracks in roads and sidewalks. “What’s this?”

  “That’s our ’64 display. Didn’t I just say that?”

  Kennedy glanced at Willow for translation.

  “The big Alaska earthquake,” she explained.

  Jeb looped his thumbs in his belt buckles and nodded approvingly. “Largest earthquake on record in North America.”

  “Were you here then?” Willow asked.

  Jeb nodded. “Oh yeah. Wife and I just bought our first house in Turnagain. We had a bookshelf at the top of the hall. Darn thing chased me all the way down the stairs before crashing into the coffee table.”

  Kennedy had never felt an earthquake before, nor had she come across this part of Alaska’s past in her reading on the airplane.

  Jeb stared at the pictures on the wall. “Molly kept trying to run out the door to get to the kids. They were playing outside, but the ground was shaking so bad it just kept throwing her down. Like trying to run across a waterbed. We got out of the house as soon as it was over, and our front yard had turned into a cliff. Ten, maybe twenty-foot drop. Thankfully the kids were safe in the backyard.” He cleared his throat. “You should’ve heard the sound. Thought the Soviets were finally bombing us. That’s how loud it was.”

  Kennedy didn’t know what to say. Thankfully, Jeb seemed lost in his own thoughts as he stared at the photographs.

  Willow came over and plopped several items on the counter. “Found what I needed.” She studied her painted fingernails while Jeb rang up several new pairs of earrings, beaded moccasins, a colorfully died scarf, and a pair of men’s gloves. Kennedy didn’t bother to ask her about that wedding centerpiece.

  “You two girls heard about the volcano warning, haven’t you?” Je
b asked as he ran Willow’s credit card.

  Willow nodded. “Yeah, wicked crazy, huh?”

  He shrugged. “Some loonies came in trying earlier to tell me to close up shop and make for the hills. Saying the solstice marks the end of the world or some nonsense like that.”

  Kennedy ignored the flutter in her gut and wondered if she’d done the right thing by throwing away that book the man had given her at the airport.

  “So I told them,” Jeb went on, “the only thing the solstice marks the end of is each day getting darker, right?” He let out a wheezy laugh. “You two girls take it easy now. Stay safe.”

  His words followed them out the door, sending another shiver racing down Kennedy’s spine. Or maybe that was just the cold.

  “I didn’t know about that big earthquake,” Kennedy confessed as they headed back to Willow’s car.

  “Yeah, it’s a big deal around here. Mom was seven or eight. She had relatives living in Valdez at the time. Got a big tidal wave there. Her uncle was working the docks and disappeared. Never found his body. It was wicked intense.”

  Kennedy couldn’t even imagine. “Have there been any other earthquakes since?”

  Willow shrugged as they got into her car. “They come and go. I’ve lived through dozens, but none that ever caused any damage or lasted more than a few seconds. Most of the time, you don’t even know it’s an earthquake until it’s over. The one in ’64 lasted something like five minutes, and if you talk to anybody who remembers, it was terrifying. Mom still gets a little spooked by any sort of loud rumbling noise.”

  Kennedy focused on buckling her seatbelt and was proud that her hands didn’t shake. Two years ago, when her PTSD was at its worst, this kind of conversation might have triggered a full-on panic attack. But logically she knew she had very little to worry about. People had been living safely in Alaska for decades. Even with the weird seismological occurrences on the other side of the Cook Inlet, the kind of disaster Jeb was talking about was a once in a century kind of event at most. Even if another serious earthquake was doomed to hit Alaska in the next fifty or hundred years, there was no reason to think it would happen in the next few days.

  What would be the chances?

  CHAPTER 7

  KENNEDY’S PHONE RANG a few seconds after they got back on the road.

  She sighed and rolled her eyes before answering. “Hi, Dad.”

  “Hey, Princess. You made it in safely?”

  “Yeah. Everything’s fine.” Could he take the hint and stop worrying about her? If it weren’t for his constant paranoia, would she still struggle with anxiety as much as she did?

  “Great.” At least his voice was cheerful. “I’ve been keeping my eyes on the reports. Looks like that volcano’s been pretty quiet the past ten hours or so.”

  Kennedy didn’t know what to say in response.

  “Well, just stay safe, all right?”

  “I will.”

  Her roommate was chuckling when Kennedy ended the call.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “Your dad. Has he always been like that?”

  “Yeah, but he means well.”

  “Oh, I know he does. That man would seriously do anything to keep you safe. It’s wicked cute.”

  Cute isn’t the word Kennedy would have chosen, but she decided not to argue.

  “So what’s he think about the whole winter solstice, end of the world thing? Does he buy into that?”

  Kennedy shook her head. “No. I mean, there’s been some weird stuff going on lately, those typhoons and tornados and things. And obviously he’s convinced that the volcano’s going to erupt and bury us in ash. But more than anything, I think he’s worried people might start acting crazy. Like riots are about to break out all over Anchorage.” Kennedy chuckled, but surprisingly Willow didn’t share her laugh.

  “A lot of people are worried about that.”

  Kennedy glanced over to try to tell if she was joking.

  “Anchorage might not be that big of a city, but crime is awful here. It’s got one of the highest per capita murder rates in the nation. Same thing with rape. It’s terrible.”

  Kennedy had no idea.

  “Some of it has to do with the gangs in the Lower 48. The jails get so full they pay to relocate criminals up here. Just set them free in Anchorage. I would never want to live in a city like this.”

  “I wouldn’t have guessed.”

  Willow shrugged. “Most people wouldn’t. They think Alaska’s all frontiersmen and fishing and igloos, but there’s a major poverty and crime problem here. It’s something Nick and I have talked about. We still aren’t sure where God’s calling us after we get married because there are so many needs everywhere. That’s why we agreed for me to take the semester off, spend that time praying to find out what he wants us to do.”

  Kennedy wasn’t ready to think about returning to college next semester without her roommate. “How long will you be with Nick’s family in Washington?” she asked.

  “Oh!” Willow swerved so fast that Kennedy thought they were about to crash.

  “What was that?” Kennedy snapped her head back, checking the road for signs of danger.

  “I just missed our turn.” Crossing two more lanes of traffic, Willow backtracked down a somewhat shady-looking side street.

  “This is where we’re staying tonight?” Kennedy hoped her voice didn’t give away her concern.

  “No, silly.” Willow pulled the car into a crowded lot. “This is where we’re having dinner. Welcome to the Raven’s Claw, home of the best pizza in Alaska. Or anywhere else for that matter.”

  Once inside the restaurant, Kennedy doubted that even the most delicious pizza in the universe could warrant a ninety-minute wait. After three and a half games of smart phone Scrabble and another forty minutes from the time they ordered until their food arrived at the table, Kennedy would have been willing to eat roadkill moose or fried whale blubber.

  Fortunately, the food was just as good as Willow had promised, even their vegan pizza made with cheese alternative. They finished dinner with nothing left over. “Come on.” Willow grabbed Kennedy’s hand after they’d paid the bill. “If we hurry, we’ll make it on time.”

  “Make it where?” As far as Kennedy knew, the only thing she had to make tonight was her hotel room bed.

  “There’s that new movie out. Remember? The Christian flick about the end times. I haven’t been to the theater in months, and I’m really curious about this one.” Willow unlocked the car door and got in. “You know, I read all of Revelations. I even wrote down my questions to ask Pastor Carl, but he’s so busy with church and still gets those bad headaches after his accident, and I hate to bother him. So what I was thinking was we can go see the movie tonight, and on the drive home tomorrow, we can go through the list because I know some of them are really basic. If you could answer those, then I wouldn’t have to feel guilty for wasting Pastor Carl’s time later on.”

  “It’s getting pretty late,” Kennedy began tentatively.

  “Oh, don’t worry about that. The theater’s right around the corner.”

  “I’m not sure I’ll be able to stay awake.”

  Willow smiled. “I know. I’ve heard it’s super cheesy, and we’ll probably get a lot of good laughs, but I’m still curious about it. Especially with what everyone’s saying about the winter solstice and those constellations lining up like in that prophecy.”

  Kennedy had read the book the movie was based on years ago. It was an engaging story, but she wasn’t sure how useful it would be for helping Willow understand Revelation, at least not without someone like Carl to help her make sense of what was biblical and what was fiction.

  Thankfully, last fall Carl had astounded his doctors when he woke up from his coma, but he got tired more easily and sometimes suffered such debilitating migraines he had to take a day or two off work. Willow was right about one thing. If Kennedy could help get some of her questions answered, it would give Carl more time to re
st and focus on his family and his preaching and his recovery.

  The problem was Kennedy had no clue what she thought about the end times. The only solid opinion she had on the matter was that she hoped to be buried and dead long before any of the events in Revelation started to unfold.

  “Why don’t you ask Nick?” she asked.

  Willow strummed her fingers on the steering wheel in time with the music on her radio. “Oh, you know Nick,” she sighed. “I love that man to death, but when he starts talking theology, you better have a master’s degree if you want to keep up with him. Which is probably why he and my dad get along so well.”

  Kennedy didn’t have time to come up with any better plans before Willow pulled her car up alongside a miniature trailer in an empty parking lot. “Come on. I’ll get you a coffee. That way you’ll be able to stay awake.”

  “I’m really not sure ...”

  Willow nudged Kennedy playfully. “Stop being so uptight. You don’t have any classes to get up early for tomorrow. It will be fun.”

  CHAPTER 8

  KENNEDY HAD NEVER SEEN a drive-up coffee hut like this before, but Willow told her they were all over the state. “I read online that if you took every stand in Alaska and stacked them from one point to the other, they would stretch all the way from Anchorage to Santa Barbara.”

  Kennedy wasn’t so sure about that, but she could at least appreciate the convenience of grabbing a hot drink without having to get out of the car. Willow rolled down her window long enough to give her order then shut it again to keep out the cold.

  Kennedy was surprised to see the girl inside was wearing nothing but tight shorts and a tank top. “She must be freezing.”

  “Don’t worry, she’s probably got a couple space heaters in there. I’m sure she’s perfectly toasty.”

  Kennedy tried not to stare while the young girl mixed their drinks.

  Willow raised her eyebrows at her. “Sheesh. Haven’t you heard of a bikini barista before? They’re all over Anchorage. That’s why these coffee stands make such good money.”

  “So they get paid to look pretty in their swimsuits?”