“How was it?” asked Patrick.
“The best,” said Helen. “I feel so clean, almost human again.”
After they all had glasses of water, the girls’ strength returned, and they took turn combing each other’s hair.
“When we’re done, we’ll look pretty,” said Marie. “Patrick, you think I’m pretty, right?”
Patrick didn’t know exactly what to say, but said, “Yes,” just to avoid confusion.
“You think I’m the prettiest girl in Pebble Lake, right, Patrick?”
Patrick said nothing. Helen recognized the uncomfortable situation.
“Nicholi, you think I’m the prettiest girl in Alaska, right?”
Nicholi was pacing around the room, talking to his hand. He never acknowledged her question.
“Marie, it isn’t wise to solicit praise like that,” said Helen.
“Why?” she asked innocently.
“Lots of reasons. For one, how would Lillian feel if he said you were the prettiest girl in town? Wouldn’t she feel sad?”
Marie said nothing. She just thought about it. Sam didn’t understand the issue and sat happily.
No one talked for a minute or two. Then Helen said, “Patrick, how do you want to manage your bath?”
“My chair should stay outside. It’ll get too hot and maybe burn us. If Sam and Nicholi can get me into the first room, take all my clothes off and carry me in, I think I’ll be okay on the bottom bench. You didn’t add more wood, I hope, so the temperature should be down now.”
“Oh, no, we didn’t add wood or water. Nicholi, you might want to go get five more gallons of cold water from the stream. There’s enough hot water in there already.”
“I eep uo” (I’ll help you), said Sam while looking at Patrick.
“Thanks, Sam. You always helped me in school with lifting and moving me. Will you mind scrubbing me?”
“O robm.” (No problem.)
“I’ll wash your hair,” said Nicholi. “It’s gross with mud and food.”
“Just tell them what you need nicely and the boys will help you,” Helen said to Patrick.
Chapter 26
Darkness
The following morning they all got up from their clean beds, feeling life wasn’t so difficult anymore. They had food and a warm place to sleep, and they were safe from bear and moose. They were discussing what to fix for breakfast when they heard the sound of jets flying overhead. Helen rolled out of bed, crawled over to the door, and opened it to look out.
“Oh, my God! Help us!” A giant black cloud was developing right over Mt. St. Augustine, and the wind had changed direction. She plunked her rear down in the doorway, closed her eyes to get her equilibrium for a second, and started her orders. “Everyone listen up, now! Marie, go get the clothes off the line!”
Marie didn’t move in her sleepy state.
Helen yelled like the others had never heard. “Marie, go now! Just put on your shoes and go!”
They all realized this was an emergency.
“Sam and Nicholi, go get water as fast as you can! Just put your shoes on! You all can get dressed later. Fill up the big water containers and the filtered water container to the top. Then get the number three tub, bring it in the house, and fill it up too.
“Lillian, go around and check all the windows. Make sure they’re closed tightly and locked. Close the vent in the steam bath and close the damper too. Then all of you check and help each other. If there’s time, use the outhouse.”
The cloud was growing, blowing higher and higher in the sky. It wasn’t over them yet, but it soon would be. They all quickly grabbed their shoes and started working. The first to finish was Marie. She threw the basket of slightly damp clothes on the bed and looked at Helen.
“Go to the outhouse” was Helen’s directive.
Marie was out the door in a flash. The boys were running between the clean flowing creek and the house, quickly dumping the water in the barrels and then outside again. Lillian finished her chores, grabbed a bucket, and started running along with the boys. Her goal was to fill the steam bath tubs, which held about twenty gallons of water. Marie joined her in filling them. Then Marie told Lillian to go to the outhouse while she could. Soon the boys had everything filled in the house, so they helped to fill the steam bath. When they were finished with that water, they closed both doors as tightly as possible.
The black cloud was now overhead. Both boys ran to the outhouse and relieved themselves.
“Helen, let’s get you to the outhouse too.”
The girls got on both sides of Helen and helped her down the stairs and along the pretty green path to the fancy little building. The flowers greeted them with their bright yellow and orange faces. Once Helen was in the outhouse, the girls stood outside, waiting patiently.
“The black is starting to come down out in the inlet. It looks like black rain. Should we bring the washing machine back in the house?” asked Marie.
“Yes, good idea,” Helen called from the toilet.
As Helen got out, Sam and Nicholi carried Patrick down the stairs and stood him up in the outhouse. They helped him with his clothes and set him on the seat. They stayed at his side to balance him upright as he sat.
“Can you hurry it up, Patrick? The black rain is coming closer. It’s almost here,” called Helen as the girls helped her walk. Helen leaned on her sister heavily, but still used little Lillian for balance as they retreated back up and into the cabin. “I must be getting better now. My head is still swimming, and yet I can open my eyes a little without feeling like I’m gonna instantly throw up.”
“Good,” huffed Marie as they went up the stairs. “I’ll stop worrying then.”
“Get the tub,” ordered Helen.
Once inside they deposited Helen on a chair at the kitchen table where she immediately put her head down to rest. The girls carried in the washtub and returned it to its original location.
“Make sure the dampers are closed off for both stoves. Come on, boys, hurry up!” she cried. For once she hoped Patrick could do it quickly. Relaxing was difficult for him, but maybe he could today.
The cloud was starting to rain black streaks far over their heads when the boys burst out of the outhouse. They walked and ran as fast as they could with the extra weight of Patrick. When they got to the stairs, Marie and Lillian ran to their aid and each grabbed a leg. They burst in the door and set him unceremoniously down on the floor. Sam slammed the door just as the first whiff of sulfur came in the cabin.
“Lock it!” yelled Patrick.
“Did any of you find any grey tape or wide shipping tape?” said Helen.
“I saw some in that cupboard.” Marie walked over, opened it, and pulled out a large roll of grey and an almost empty roll of clear shipping tape.
“Tape the doors and the opening windows so the ash can’t get inside. Nicholi, since you’re taller, you do the door and the top of all the windows. Lillian and Marie, do the sides and bottom. Sam, you go around and look for any leaks where the ash is being sucked inside.”
After everything was secure, it became very silent. Everyone listened and watched. It was no longer morning, but more like dusk. The daylight dwindled quickly and then was completely gone.
Marie was the first to speak. “It’s black outside, like midnight time but even darker—no stars.”
“What happened to the birds? I don’t hear them singing. Will they be okay?” asked Nicholi, worried.
“Hope so,” said Helen and Patrick at the same time, sadly.
“Sam, are you farting?” asked Marie.
“No, dear, it’s sulfur from the volcano,” said Helen.
“Are we going to die?” asked Nicholi.
“I don’t think so. Helen, wouldn’t you think we‘ll be okay? Doesn’t it all depend upon the type of ash and how deep it gets outside?” questioned Patrick.
“Will the sun come back again? Are we going to live in the darkness forever? I’m scared, Helen,” cried Marie.
She went to her sister’s side and put her arms around her for a reassuring hug.
“Everybody, stop worrying. Some volcanos are really violent. This volcano blows up all the time like this. It has never thrown big rocks, just little stuff. Do you hear thumps on the roof? No, you don’t. It’s just ash, no big rocks. We might get a covering of about this big”—she indicated 1/8 inch with her fingers—“or we might get a foot of it. Whatever it is, we’re safe in this little cabin. It stinks but it won’t kill us.”
“Helen, have you ever been near this thing when it went off before? It’s interesting to watch,” said Patrick.
“No, I’ve just read about them blowing. Between Augustine and Redoubt, the activity is pretty much constant at one level or another. As a pilot, I try to keep an eye out for unusual activity on either one. This one caught me by surprise.”
“We smelt Sam’s farts, or you say sulfur, before the plane quit,” said Marie.
“Yeah, that’s right,” said Nicholi. “Is this what hurt your plane?”
“I think so, but we’ll never know for sure since the plane is now underwater in Cook Inlet.”
“We went through that grey cloud that stunk like this. Then right after that, we went over the water and the engine stopped,” said Marie.
“It has to be the stinky volcano that hurt your plane,” said Nicholi. “Wasn’t it Pompeii where the entire town was buried in volcanic stuff and all the people died right where they were?”
“Yes, Patrick, it was, but this is a different kind of volcano. They’re all different.”
“I want the daytime to come back,” Marie whined.
“E oo” (Me too), whimpered Sam.
Helen put out her arm to Sam and he came over and gave her a bear hug that actually hurt her. Then he sat down beside her and put his head on her lap and held onto her leg.
“We’re gonna be okay. Don’t worry. Just be grateful, all of you, that Nicholi found this wonderful cabin for us to be safe in. Okay, can you guys help Patrick back up into his chair?”
It took a bit of teamwork, but soon he was back in the chair with his waist belt on and feet secure again.
Lillian walked over to Nicholi and gave him a hug. Surprised that anyone touched him, he tried to relax. He put his giant stiff fingers on her little back and let her hold on as long as she wanted. Normally he would scream if someone touched him. He didn’t like it, but Lillian was different.
They stood watching the darkness for a very, very long time. Eventually Nicholi started rocking back and forth, talking to his mirror, and Lillian let him go. She squatted down in a corner of the room and cried. Patrick and Helen sat quietly and watched with worried looks. Marie sat on the floor next to her sister with a look of terror on her face, holding onto Helen’s thigh like a frightened little toddler.
Sam had her other leg secure in his grasp. While looking out the window on the west side of the cabin, “Ook” (Look)! he screamed with delight.
Sam, Marie, and Nicholi went over to the window. Even Patrick turned his chair and tried to drive it in that direction. Helen stayed where she was sitting.
“What?”
“Light. I see a little light,” said Marie, relieved. Helen looked at her watch and realized they had been watching in the pitch black dark for over twenty minutes.
“It looks like a little tunnel where light’s coming to us,” said Marie.
“It’s giving me hope. Hope to have another day of beautiful sunlight,” said Patrick.
“Me too. I never realized how important seeing the sun every day was to me. It’s still so quiet,” said Helen. “I can see a little light now to the south, thank God.
“Oh my, Helen, everything is grey,” said Marie as the day lightened. “It’s kind of like a layer of snow covering the ground except everything looks dark dirty grey.”
The ground, leaves, trees, and colorful wildflowers around the cabin and hillside were all a flat shade of dark grey. Even the water in the creek was muddy-colored compared to usual and no longer glistened as it flowed. The rail around the edge of the porch was covered in about a half inch of ash.
“Can we go out in it now that we can see?” said Nicholi.
“No. It’s still falling. It isn’t good to breathe it and you might get it in your eyes. I’m afraid we’re stuck in the house for a while. I’m not sure how long. It probably still smells strongly of sulfur out there, because we can smell it in the house. We’re safe in here. The water’s full; we can set up an emergency honey bucket in the corner if anyone needs to go to the bathroom badly. We’ll be safest here.”
“Anyone want to play Crazy Eights?” said Marie.
“It’s too dark to really see the cards now, but the ash will blow another direction at some point and then we could read them,” said Patrick.
“Sam, hand me the Coleman lamp that’s hanging near the pantry shelves,” said Helen, pointing at it so he could find it.
Sam got up immediately and picked up a book.
“No, not a book, the Coleman light.”
He picked up the poker for the fireplace.
“Sam, look at me—the green thing hanging over on the wall.”
He touched it and looked at her for reassurance.
“Yes, that thing.”
He took it down and handed it to her.
“Thank you, Sam. Good job.” She tried to pump up the pressure, but found the movement to be too much for her head. “Nicholi, would you do it? Nicholi. . . Nicholi?”
He was pacing around the room in his other world again, but was listening to enough of what was happening that he snapped out of it. After a lot of coaching from Helen and several tries, he learned how to hold the pressure with his thumb and pump at the same time. He pumped until he could barely pump anymore, and then he learned how to close it by screwing it off.
“I’ll light it,” said Helen. With her head flat on the table, she lit it, and soon the whirring sound of a burning Coleman lamp filled the cabin.
“Nicholi, would you please help me get to the chair?”
Nicholi took her arm and helped guide her over to the stiff-backed chair made of logs and padded with homemade cushions covered in moose print fabric. Once settled in she leaned back with her head relaxed, and soon she was seeing normally again.
“Let’s play cards,” said Marie as she picked up the lamp and moved it over to the middle of the table.
Nicholi, Sam, and Lillian joined her.
Patrick whispered softly to Helen, “Nobody’s coming now, right?”
“Yes—I ’m sure we won’t see any planes today. There’ll be so much ash in the air that no one would fly over, much less land here. If a plane did land, they’d disturb this stuff up into the air and maybe get it in their engine.”
“What about a boat?”
“After the cloud goes away and the air clears, a boat could get here. I can’t imagine any boat owners wanting to get near Augustine for a while, though” said Helen. “If this stuff landed in Homer or the Anchor Point area, everyone is going to be pretty leery. I know I wouldn’t have come this direction if I’d known about Augustine. But as far as a boat, hopefully this stuff will just sink in the water unless it’s like pumice and floats, which I doubt. Hopefully someone will come.”
“Yeah, I never heard about pumice coming from this volcano,” said Patrick. “I’d say we aren’t going anywhere today; that’s for sure. This is going to be a good day to play games, eat, and maybe take another steam bath or something.”
“I think you’re right on that. I wonder how deep this stuff is going to get?” Helen said.
“Yeah, me too. It’s interesting to watch though,” said Patrick.
“It’s a first for me, probably all of us, to be so close to an active volcano. Good thing it isn’t Mount Saint Helens. We’d be dead by now if it was. That was a true disaster.”
“So you think we’re going to be okay?” asked Patrick.
“”Seems so to me.”
The cut
e young man smiled and said with relief, “Good. Glad to hear it.”
Chapter 27
News Update
Auntie was once again watching TV. Truth was, she didn’t want to do anything else. She had eaten dinner with Harvey and was doing dishes while keeping an eye on the upcoming news report.
“Good evening, everyone. This is the KBER Five O’clock News,” announced Matilda. “Mount Saint Augustine erupted today for more than three hours, spreading large quantities of ash to an altitude of over two miles into the atmosphere in a north to northwesterly direction. The ash has not made it to Anchorage as of today, so our airport is still open to all national and international flights.” Film footage was shown of the giant explosion and the rising black cloud around Augustine. “We have an interview with Adam Conright, who works for USGS and is a pilot here in Anchorage. He has some safety tips for pilots and residents of Anchorage.”
A picture came on the TV of a man standing beside a Piper. “To make sure your plane isn’t damaged if the ash does come to Anchorage, cover as much of your plane as possible and in particular the engine,” said the man. “If ash gets inside the running engine, it acts like broken glass and very quickly destroys your motor.” A picture came on of a pilot putting wing covers and an engine cover on his plane. “If ash gets on any metal parts of the plane, it can damage the finish, so it’s wise to clean it off as soon as possible. It also could damage some of your instruments, so keep all vents and windows shut and locked.
“Volcanic ash is very hard on all cars, engines, even electronic devices like computers. The ash works like pumice and is very abrasive, even if it feels soft like cake powder. If it gets on your car, hand wash it as soon as possible. Try not to use your windshield wipers until you’re sure the area is clean. Also, change your air filters and your engine should be okay. Cover your computers, printers, and other electronic devices with large plastic bags. If the dust gets in the house, it will be attracted to all electronics.”
Let Us Be Brave Page 16