Tom raised his eyebrows. ‘A ladder?’
Lola stifled a laugh and put her arms over Ruby’s shoulder, giving her a quick hug.
‘I tell you what, how about we go and make a nice pot of tea and later on this nice man will fetch you a ladder.’ She looked back over her shoulder, giving them a wink as she led Ruby back towards the house.
Chapter Fifty One
‘I had better go and help,’ Tom said, ‘show her where the kettle is, get the potatoes on to boil, stuff like that.’
‘Sure,’ Georgia agreed, ‘I’ve got some stuff to do myself, get our gear and secure the canoes somewhere out of sight.’
Tom hesitated, turning back and walking towards her. ‘Oh, I should help you with that and…,’
She waved him away. ‘Nonsense, you go catch up with Lola and Ruby, I will get Rebecca and the Apaches to help me.’
He arched an eyebrow. ‘Rebecca and…, oh I get it.’ He motioned to his face, making a smearing motion and then cocked his fingers behind his head imitating feathers. ‘Right, Apaches, kids eh.’
She smiled and turned away. For a scientist he could be a little naïve sometimes. Did he really think the bows were toys? That Jamie and Deedee were playing?
‘The sunsets around here are absolutely breathtaking,’ Georgia thought, as she and Rebecca carried the last canoe round to the back of the covered jetty and hid it next to the other one, under the line of shrubbery growing there. This evening was no exception, the setting sun streaking the sky with crimson, fuchsia and mauves. The intense colors reflecting across the lake and turning the world around them a soft pink.
As she stood up to admire it, she caught sight of a flight of swallows swooping and circling. Occasionally they would dart down, skimming just above the water’s surface before wheeling skywards once more. Even though the heat of the day still warmed her skin, she gave an involuntary shiver. As beautiful and graceful as the creatures were, they foretold the coming of fall, as they gathered together, readying themselves for their annual migration to Central America and beyond; reminding her that the long hot summer days would all too soon be over.
‘Are you coming?’ Rebecca asked, and Georgia realized from her tone, that it was not the first time she had asked.
‘No, I think I will just sit out here for a bit, you go on up. Call me though, if there is anything that I need to help with.’
Rebecca left without a word, her long braids swinging behind her.
Just for a moment she wanted to sit with her own thoughts. Soak in this moment of tranquility. She edged into the wicker swing seat, lifting Ant onto her lap and stroking her ears. She sat back, enjoying the gentle motion as she gazed out across the river, the air filled with the sounds of Katy-dids, frogs, and the twitter and warble of the swallows. Occasionally she could hear the faint sound of laughter floating down from the main house.
‘Ten years’, Tom had said. She had suspected it would take a long time, but ten years? By the time civilization got back on its feet, the children would all be adults. Deedee would be a grown woman. It was hard to imagine. Would Deedee even remember how it was before? How different her teenage years would be. No year books, or braces, or prom night. There would be no going to a mall with giggling girlfriends, or annual health checks, no makeup, or high heels, or getting her driver’s license, or any of those small steps towards womanhood. But perhaps it would be harder on Rebecca? She had already had a taste of those things, she would be more aware of what they had lost.
Georgia had known in her heart, that Three-eighteen was the result of something bigger than a terrorist attack gone wrong, but having it confirmed, made it terrifyingly real. For now there was no hope or expectation that help was on its way, or that this was all going to be a bad memory. This was shocking confirmation that they were totally on their own. There was no law and order, no one to turn to, only survival of the fittest and the quickest.
She felt a sudden fit of pique. If Nathan had been with her, all this would have been so much easier. When she had married him, ‘for better and for worse’ she had never in her wildest nightmares imagined it would be this kind of ‘worse’. But that is how it was, and this was how it was going to be from now on.
The constant stress of being the one in charge, and the one everyone relied on to have all the right answers, was mentally exhausting. And she had only been doing that for a little over a month and a half. She leaned forward, interrupting the gentle swinging motion of seat, as she held her head in her hands. How the hell would she manage for another ten years? Around her the dusk faded into darkness, surrounding her with shadows as she fought back hot tears of frustration, and grief and fear.
Ant snuffled at her ear, whining softly and pressing her little button nose against her cheek as she tried to find out what was wrong. Georgia hugged her close, and despite her despair she gave a half smile. ‘It’s going to be okay, my little squidgums,’ she whispered, into the soft ruff of fur around her neck.
Then she recalled the phrase that had pushed her in those first days. ‘Failure is not an option,’ and somehow, oddly she felt better for recalling it. She wiped her eyes, hoping it would not be obvious to anyone that she had been crying and with Ant trotting at her heels, went to join the others.
As she pushed open the door into the kitchen she was greeted by the warm glow of candles, and the enticing smell of home cooking and freshly baked bread. The children were laying the table, and Lola was standing close to Tom by the cooker, one hand lightly on his shoulder as he stirred at something in a large copper based pan. They turned and smiled as she came in.
‘Ah there you are,’ Tom said, ‘I was just about to send out a search party, dinner is nearly ready.’
As he spoke, Lola left his side and pulled out one of the chairs at the table, ‘Okay kids, you guys are down this end. Tom is at the head of the table, Rebecca you can sit next to me. No, not that side, the other side of me, I am sitting next to Tom, and Ruby, you can sit next to Georgia. I have put an extra cushion on the chair for you.’
‘Someone has made themselves at home,’ Georgia thought, suppressing a smile, as she took in the magnificence of the table setting. The crisp white linen cloth, candle light reflecting in the crystal wine glasses, tumblers and the water jug, which was touched with tiny pearls of moisture, promising chilled water and central to everything, the magnificent feast that awaited them.
Fresh rolls, canned butter, a mixed salad, stuffed mushrooms, butter glazed potatoes sprinkled with fresh parsley, and a huge platter of freshly caught Ozark bream, oven baked with lemons, tomatoes and a white wine sauce.
‘Really, there was no need to go to all this trouble,’ Georgia exclaimed as she helped Ruby to her seat and then hanging her shotgun over the back of her chair, sat down next to her.
‘No, it’s my pleasure and no trouble at all. I feel it is very important in these times to remain as civilized as possible. Lack of technology does not mean we have to turn into savages. Don’t you agree?’
Then before she could answer, he indicated her glass. ‘A little wine?’ he asked, holding the bottle up for her to see the label. ‘Perhaps you are familiar with it?’
Georgia couldn’t help smiling, she recognized the label, it was an Australian Riesling, ‘I do indeed, never thought I would be drinking that again.’
She held out her glass, and Tom expertly poured some into it, giving the bottle a little twist as he finished serving her. ‘Well I have chilled and opened it, in your honor.’
He went around the table, serving Ruby first, then making his way back to Lola.
Ruby discretely tugged at her sleeve, whispering in her ear as Georgia leaned in, ‘I seem to have left my change purse behind, do you have enough to tip the waiter?’
‘Sure thing,’ Georgia said, giving her hand a squeeze. ‘Leave it to me.’
‘Thank you dear, I knew you would have everything under control.’
‘Lola was right, it really was best to join Ruby where
ever her rambling mind led her.’
‘Can I try some wine?’ Rebecca asked.
‘And me too,’ Deedee chimed in.
‘That is up to your mother,’ Tom said, looking over at her as he held up the bottle expectantly.
And that would be me, their mother, for better and for worse. She hesitated, then nodded. ‘Just a tiny bit.’ After all, it might be the last chance they had, to taste wine, and at worst a sip or two would help them sleep.
Once the business of serving up dinner had been attended to, there was lull in conversation as they savored the best meal they had eaten in months. The silence broken only by the crackling from the cook stove, the clink of silverware on plates and the occasional, ‘can you pass the butter’, or ‘mmm, this is so good’.
Suddenly Rebecca lay down her knife and fork, looking over at Tom. ‘Can I ask you a question?’
‘Go ahead, can’t promise I will know the answer though.’
‘So are these CMGs you were talking about…,’
‘CMEs,’ Tom corrected
‘Yes, CMEs, are they a new thing? I mean, does it mean that the sun is getting ready to blow up or something?’
Tom chuckled. ‘No, that is not going to happen, at least not for another five billion years. In fact, solar flares have been noted throughout history, but it wasn’t until 1859, that one was actually observed by an English amateur astronomer by the name of Richard Carrington. He actually projected the image produced by an optical telescope through a broad-band filter.’
‘Doesn’t sound like an amateur to me,’ Lola said, ‘seeing as, he was the first person who managed to do that.’
‘Oh, I used the word in the sense that…,’ his words tailed off as he caught Lola’s teasing expression and her slowly crossing eyes. ‘Yes, I see, an amusing play on words…,’
Rebecca interrupted, sounding more than a little impatient. ‘Hang on, I still have another question, so…,’
‘Rebecca,’ Georgia warned.
Rebecca turned and glared at her, ‘I just want to know something else. Alright? You and Lola don’t seem to know much about anything.’
Georgia held her hands up in a gesture of mock submission. ‘Fine, if Tom is happy to answer your questions, fire away.’ After all she knew how it felt to want answers, and Rebecca was right, she and Lola knew very little about all that.
Tom caught her eye, giving her a sympathetic look. ‘Quite happy to,’ he said, then he turned his gaze on Rebecca.
‘But perhaps, Rebecca, you could consider conducting yourself in a more diplomatic manner in the future. I for one, would hate to find myself losing all respect for you.’
Rebecca flushed scarlet right up to the tips of her ears and Deedee smirked broadly as she loaded up another roll with butter. Unable to stop herself, Georgia threw a sharp look at Tom, but he did not notice. She could not even explain it to herself, but she was suddenly quietly furious with the man. What gave him the right to embarrass Rebecca like that? It was not his role to admonish her.
Certainly Rebecca had been a little sharp, but she was a teenager girl for goodness sake. The man was not her father, and at the thought of Nathan, despite her earlier flash of resentment, she suddenly found herself longing for him, missing him and his easy presence. The loving way he had with the children. He would never have spoken to the children like that.
Rebecca looked across the table at her, her eyes showing telltale moisture, her cheeks still flushed. ‘I’m sorry, she murmured, ‘I wasn’t meaning to be rude.’
‘It’s okay, honey,’ Georgia said, and she was about to add, ‘I understand,’ but Tom interrupted.
‘And your important question is?’ he asked, his eyebrows raised almost mockingly, as he stared at Rebecca.
Georgia felt her hackles rise. Rebecca sat silently for a moment, then Lola said, ‘go on Rebecca, ask away.’
She took a deep breath, folding her napkin over and over, then shyly met Tom’s eyes. ‘Okay, so I get that they mess up electronics and stuff, but if it’s such a big deal, with getting sunburnt and stuff, does it mean that those flare things are like mega x-rays that can cause cancer or something.’
‘I’m impressed,’ Tom said.
‘So am I,’ thought Georgia. That was something she had not even considered.
‘And that,’ Tom went on, ‘is a question that great scientific minds have also asked. The remarkable thing is that the intense activity of the sun, as it interacts with the earth’s magnetic field, affects extensive changes in humans. I won’t go into all the technical explanations…,’
‘And I thank you for that,’ Lola teased, exchanging a quick smile with Tom.
‘Yes, well, I um… I will just say that the pineal gland in our brain is affected by the electromagnetic activity. And there are studies showing significant correlations between hospital admissions and Solar-Geomagnetic Activity, with peaks matching an increase in the incidence of anxiety, depression, bipolar disorders and suicide.’ In fact the psychological effects of CMEs can result in headaches, palpitations, mood swings, chaotic or confused thinking, erratic behavior…, well you get the gist of it, the list goes on,’
Georgia stared at him, her mouth practically open. ‘Oh my God,’ that explains so much.’
‘You’re not kidding,’ Lola gasped. ‘No wonder there are so many crazies out there.’
‘Kind of like a Zombie plague,’ Jamie said suddenly. Everyone turned to look at him. He had been so quiet all evening.
‘Yeah,’ Deedee said. ‘Except it’s not the walking dead, it’s the walking that are making everyone dead!’
‘I think that is meant to be ‘living dead, not walking dead,’ Rebecca pointed out.
‘So,’ Deedee shrugged. ‘Same thing.’
Georgia gave an involuntary shudder. ‘So basically it can make people really aggressive?’ she asked.
‘Absolutely, as the magnetic fields intensify, the human brain can react with a mixture of deadly emotional tantrums and unadulterated killing sprees. According to the research of Professor Raymond Wheeler of the University of Kansas and the Russian scientist Alexander Chizhevsky, solar storms can directly cause conflict and wars. Their research showed that as the sun cycle peaked, there was a rise in human unrest, uprisings, rebellions, revolutions and war between nations.’
‘A simple yes or no would have sufficed,’ Georgia thought, but at the same time she found herself drawn in by his words and as he spoke, more questions were forming in her mind. Never mind that he was bordering on overbearing, his answers might explain why the sunlight was a little different now, and whether that strange wind and glowing hill tops she had witnessed some weeks back, was related to all of this and...,
‘So what can we do?’ Lola asked, her voice somewhat subdued. ‘I mean, to avoid it.’
‘Not a lot, I’m afraid.’ Tom said, ‘except…,’ he left the word hanging.
‘Except what?’ Lola prompted.
‘You can always stay here with me and my son, I will protect you.’
‘I bet,’ Georgia thought, as Ruby tugged once more at her sleeve. She leaned in just in time to hear Ruby whisper, ‘odious man.’ Glancing quickly around to see if anyone else had heard, Georgia couldn’t help but smile.
‘Interesting offer,’ Lola said as she held her glass out to Tom. ‘This seems to be empty.’
He topped up her drink, then as Lola took a sip, he slipped his arm over her shoulder in a most familiar way, whispering something in her ear. Lola smiled up at him, and then looked over at Georgia. ‘Back in a minute, Tom wants to show me something.’ Then without a backward glance, they headed into the main part of the house, shutting the door behind them.
Chapter Fifty Two
There was a momentary silence after Lola and Tom left the room and Georgia found herself hoping that Lola was not playing with fire. While she had to admit that this had been an interesting and somewhat educational interlude in their travels (and the meal had been wonderful), the way the ma
n had spoken to Rebecca had revealed another side to him, a side she did not like. She pushed her chair back and stood up,
‘Has everyone had enough?’ she asked, as she began stacking dishes, starting with Tom and Lola’s plates. She assumed they had finished, after all they had left the table.
There was a chorus of yes’s and Deedee was tasked to gather all the food scraps together for the dogs. Ruby, meanwhile had nodded off in her chair, so, not wanting to wake her up, they tiptoed around her as they worked together clearing the table. Once the chairs had been quietly pushed back into place, Bryce went off to fetch more firewood in readiness for the morning.
Jamie, Rebecca and Deedee clustered around her at the sink, waiting with dishcloths as she began to wash the knives and forks. It seemed to her that the room had all of a sudden grown very still, the sensation of a house just vacated, the tenants gone. Reminding Georgia suddenly of those early days, when it had just been herself, and the three children and they had been waiting for Nathan to come home, before they had met Lola.
Then she realized that what she was feeling, was a sense of impending loss. A dawning realization that perhaps Lola would be remaining here, and that tomorrow they would be continuing on their way without her.
‘What do you think Tom wanted to show Lola?’ Jamie asked, startling Georgia out of her reverie.
‘I bet he wants to show her something,’ Rebecca muttered as she noisily shoved silverware into a drawer and slammed it shut.
Ruby gave a startled snort, and then slept on and Georgia pretended not to hear Rebecca’s comment, concentrating instead on keeping a very straight face while she answered Jamie. ‘I imagine he just wanted to show her some of the features of the house. He spent a lot of time and money setting up this place. Did you know for example that the windows are bullet proof and…,’
Survivors of the Sun Page 49