Death by Facebook

by Everett Peacock

  ~~~

  Alice felt like a college girl again. She was all infatuated with a new guy and immersed in a big science challenge, all at once! What could be more perfect?

  “Nothing, that's what,” she thought to herself, happily typing queries into her magma projection software.

  Twenty-two million cubic meters was a lot of anything. It could, she quickly deduced, cover the entire island of Manhattan ten inches thick. Five inches of coverage had just disappeared into the underground lava tube system and was heading for Kapoho, again.

  She turned to look for Jack, she needed an observation of Halema'uma'u. And she wouldn't mind just looking at him a moment. It had been a while since she had felt like this. His hair, she daydreamed, was long enough for her to fill both of her hands. Shaking that thought off, she returned to the task at hand, without the hair.

  “Jack?” she called, walking into the break room.

  Jack looked up from his prepackaged ham sandwich, then quickly to his left to see if anyone else was in the room with him. Besides Alice there were two others, reading a paper. He dropped his initial thought.

  “Yes, Ms. Alice?”

  She stood askance, one hand on her hip, the other up to her chin.

  “I need something from you, right away.”

  Jack stood up, watching her like a cat.

  “Yes, I need it right now,” Alice said, getting the attention of the two others in the room.

  Jack was a little surprised she was talking like this in front of others, but still managed to smile.

  “Am I the man to give it to you?”

  She nodded slowly.

  “Oh yes, yes, you are. I need a volume reading on Halema'uma'u big boy.”

  Jack grinned broadly. He looked to the two newspaper readers, one of them smiling and then returning to his paper.

  “Well then. I shall give it to you right away.” He picked up his sandwich and walked around the table.

  Alice immediately turned and went out the door. She looked back over her shoulder as he followed her into the hallway. That man, she said to herself, was going to make her job worth every penny they should be paying her above what they actually were.

  Jack practically ran to the laser room to retrieve what he needed and then in a moment was in the observation room where he and Larry had watched the hikers that night.

  The crater was obscured again with massive amounts of plume, and thus he would indeed need his laser observer. With this, he could fire toward the pit and get a reading about the level of lava.

  Lining up his view finder Jack pressed the trigger and immediately got a return.

  “That can't be right,” he shook his head, putting his eye back to the viewfinder and firing another laser shot.

  “What the heck?” The answer was the same. He thought he might actually be shooting at the rim by accident and not to the middle of the pit. He calibrated it on a known distance marker rangers had setup for just such a purpose.

  For the third time he picked his point as the center of Halema'uma'u and squeezed the trigger.

  “Holy shit,” he whispered to himself after seeing the same answer for a third time.

  Quickly, he got on the phone to Alice.

  “Yes, big guy?” she answered.

  “Alice.”

  She hesitated a moment, catching something in the tone of his voice. “What, Jack? What is it?”

  “Alice, Halema'uma'u is full! Again!”

  ~~~

  The tide and winds had done a great job of clearing the debris out of Champagne pools. Janet and Star luxuriated in its cool clearness as the noon tropical sun did its best to melt them. Impossible as that was, with them dunking their heads under water every few minutes, the sun was relentless. And, so was the cinder cone two miles away.

  Star could hear it now. Hissing and spitting and other obscene sounds the jungle or the beach was never supposed to bear. Fortunately the trade winds were keeping the fumes and plume behind them, pushing the great clouds away from the coast.

  They both seemed adept at ignoring the problem. Wally called them twice a day from the boats offshore, begging Star to come with him, to the safety of the sea. Neither Star nor Janet could leave, despite the ominous volcano. Star told Wally she would wait it out here, giving her strength to the land, and taking strength from it. But, she did find it extremely comforting that he could swoop in and rescue her if the lava got too close.

  Both women luxuriated in a splendorous denial. Taking long walks along the beach, looking for shells and smooth stones kept their minds off the unimaginable. It was however getting more difficult to ignore it all.

  The ground was constantly rumbling softly under their feet, the fishermen were still anchored in the deep water a half mile out and the pools were completely empty of tourists, locals and for some strange reason even the turtles. Paradise seemed under siege and its only defenders, two women of undetermined fortitude were unprepared for such a battle.

  It was a peaceful scene on the surface. Both Star and Janet were singing old hippie love songs, eating papaya and coconuts. Star had found some old chocolate chip cookies she had stashed for special occasions. Swinging in their own hammocks under the deepening blue of a late afternoon they finally discussed the volcano, like they might an old boyfriend.

  “You know,” Star said, chewing softly on the sweet chocolate dough. “I've dated worse.”

  Janet laughed out loud. “Really? Worse than hot tempered, blowing his top, pissing everyone off around him?”

  “Well, maybe similar,” Star pushed her foot along the cool sand under the tall coconut palms so she could swing a little higher. “Certainly some with about as much hot air and definitely several with just as toxic of breath!”

  Janet giggled like a little girl. “And that complexion! Seriously!”

  Star enjoyed her cookie for another moment thinking of more insults.

  “And, I've dated a few, handsome types, even beautiful, that thought that once you fell for them, you know, totally in love, when you became dependent on them, then they could do as they please...”

  “Yeah, bastards,” Janet agreed.

  Star continued. “They could just up and destroy it all, lay waste to everything good around you, and then act like I've should have known better.”

  Janet could see that Star was getting upset, that her eyes were closed as she swung lightly in the hammock. She was squeezing them tightly shut.

  Janet swung around to let her feet hang out the side of her hammock and stopped swinging. “Star,” she tried to say but saw her friend now crying harder. She stood and went over to her, putting her hand on the still swinging hammock. “I feel lucky, for you. I feel you will be lucky here.”

  Janet looked around for a moment. It was indeed the most beautiful place she had ever been, and it wasn't just the postcard qualities that abounded everywhere. It was the mana, the feeling in the shadows of the palms, the soft whispers of the gentle breezes and the constant singing of the ocean. It was manifested most obviously in this older woman who had come to her rescue on the side of a rainy road.

  “Star, you always say the volcano must destroy in order to create.” She lightly stroked the hair of her still crying friend. “But, why would it destroy what it has worked so hard to create?” Janet looked across the bay, sparkling in the late afternoon sun. “This place, this wonderful, wonderful place has created you. This island has spun you from the sand, from the sky and sea into its loving expression. You are, my friend, the very thing paradise must breathe through.” Janet looked out at the first star of the evening, shimmering in the clear tropical air. “Without you, here in your cove of palms and hammocks, and chocolate chip cookies the world would be just another rock in the darkness of space.”

  Star opened her watery eyes in a great big smile. “That's beautiful Jimmie. Thank you.” She wiped her tears as best she could with her paisley shirt. “I've never heard you speak so … I don't know, so, well sweetly.”
r />   Janet dropped her head to watch her own toes flex in the sand, embarrassed a bit by her eloquence.

  “It just felt,” she wondered how to explain it. Looking up she blinked and added “It just felt like my heart had it to say.” She stood up and walked slowly back to her own hammock. Sitting back down, she got quiet a moment, all the while staring at the ocean beyond.

  “I feel like I have destroyed too, Star. But for me, I have created nothing.”

  “Oh Jimmie, don't do that,” Star said gently, sitting up herself now. “Don't go there now, it's too soon.”

  Janet pushed herself against the sand and lifted her feet so she could swing. “I know, I know. But, it's true, and it won't be any less true in a month. Or a year.”

  Star kept silent, letting Janet continue.

  “The volcano, here,” Janet continued. “It destroys but it rebuilds what it took away. It eventually makes it all right.” Leaning back into the hammock she placed her fingers into her hair. “Star, I've destroyed things I can never bring back. Ever.”

  Star felt a wave of grief emanate from Janet, but one that quickly receded into a puddle of sadness. She watched Janet sink into that puddle, slowly. If she could offer any hope it must be something that could speak to her recent trauma at the clinic in Hilo. Maybe that, she thought, could offer some consolation.

  “Jimmie, look, that baby wasn't right for you, wasn't good. But you can always have another, find a good guy, you know.”

  “No. No Star. You see, my curse is that I don't want to create anything.” Her voice gave away some emotion, but Janet kept it well masked. “I don't know what I want actually. Nothing I guess. I want nothing.”

  Star watched the young woman say words that made no sense to her. She tried to let the words fashion some kind of meaning as she silently listened, but that idea was quickly overwhelmed by a large explosion behind them.

  Both of them jumped a little, especially when they heard the artillery type sound whirling over head. Quickly they both got out of their hammocks and walked out toward the beach for a clearer view of the sky.

  “What is that?” Janet asked, looking up into the dusk.

  Crackling and popping in the purple sky above them was what they first thought to be a meteor. As they watched the arch it followed they saw it splash only a few hundred yards out into the ocean. Quickly, two others followed, smaller and splashing closer.

  “Shit!” Star hissed. “Lava bombs!”

  Another larger, heavier explosion some distance away rumbled the ground with a shock wave. It was followed immediately by what sounded to Janet like a waterfall. A very large waterfall.

  Janet looked to Star with some hope of an explanation. 'Lava bomb' didn't make any sense to her. She grabbed Star's arm.

  “Lava what?”

  Star was shaking but didn't realize it until Janet held her. “The volcano honey. It's shooting out big rocks, popping them out like corks.”

  Janet let go of her arm, horrified. She ran around to the driveway, looking for the cinder cone. She couldn't quite see it so she ran a few yards up the road just in time to see a steaming, glowing rock about the size of a basketball rolling toward her along the asphalt road. The cinder cone, in the far distance looked like a giant firework, the kind other kids were always allowed to set up in the street. The kind that shot fire and sparkles and tons of smoke out of its top to the cheers of all around.

  Those had always been so beautiful to her. This one was of course quite different she thought, turning to run back to Star. This one would not stop in thirty seconds. This one looked alive, and somehow hungry.

  Janet took a few steps before it hit. A burst of static swept through her head, surprising her enough to stumble and pause. Quickly putting both hands up to her head she tried to push her increasingly long red hair into her head. Anything to quell the noise, the chaos. The static, her personal monster, her resident demon simply shouted louder.

  “Jimmie!” Star was yelling above the increasing volume of the cinder cone. “Jimmie! Are you hurt?” Star ran over to Janet, saw she wasn't injured and quickly moved out to the road to see what Janet had seen.

  She noticed several still smoking lava bombs on the road where the asphalt ended but her eye was immediately drawn up toward the cinder cone. Star had seen it all before, on TV of course. But, now, right in front of her she could hear it. Her ears told her she was too close. Too close - to the massive amount of liquid rock fountaining over a hundred feet into the early evening sky. Too close – to the splattering sounds of the falling lava, louder than her own racing heart. Too close - to escape.

  She turned and ran back to where Janet was still immobilized, now on the ground, on her hands and knees.

  “Jimmie!” Star had to shout about the roar. “What's wrong honey? Come on, I'm going to call the fishing boats and see if we can get out of here.”

  Star tried to pull Janet to her feet. She could hear her friend moaning pitifully, but managed to get her almost up when they both were thrown to the ground. Another earthquake, somewhat larger, had moved through. A large rumble continued to move under them.

  Janet had rolled over, curling up now, holding her head. Star was dazed but managed, as she sat back up, to catch a strange sight. All the coconuts in her grove fell at the same time, thumping the ground so solidly she could feel it.

  Suddenly, by certain instinct of having lived so close to the ocean for decades, she stood up and looked over at the beach. There she watched horrified as in the remaining dim light she saw the water receding.

  “Oh my god!” The words never made it to her ears with all the other noise around them, but she felt them in her heart. They spoke as a dagger of fear thrust deeply into her chest and twisted back and forth.

  She turned back to Janet quickly. “Get up, Jimmie! Now!” She pulled on Janet's shirt, trying to find her armpits to forcefully pull her up. “Now!” she screamed.

  Janet was completely overwhelmed. She could barely hear her friend yelling at her. It was just too much to move. She could feel her friend pulling on her shoulders and relented a bit, but felt she could not cooperate, could not move right now. The stress, the fear, the bubbling insanity just below her consciousness was rapidly rising.

  Star was hitting her now, hitting her on the back. “Get up! Now!” Looking with trepidation she turned again to the ocean. It was obscenely misplaced, the entire bay was a hollow bowl of coral and sand. The dark ocean had left it there, alone. Movement caught her eye off to the right, around the point. It didn't make sense to her mind, this large frothing movement where there should be none. A strange movement where there was only a point of land extending out to sea.

  In a momentary flash of clarity that spoke directly to her primal survival instincts she stood, dropping her hands away from Janet. Frozen with terror, she managed to find a fragment of control for a split second, enough to scream an alert. An alert to all who might hear the last warning, the last chance to save themselves, indeed the last human voice they might ever hear.

  “Tsunami!”

  ~~~

  Up in the high jungles of Volcano village people were still shaking from that last earthquake, a frightening reminder that it wasn't just lava that could destroy.

  Larry and Shirley, with their two little dogs right under their feet, were looking at the incredible plume rising above the jungle. It was indeed impressive, beautiful, amazing and historic. Unfortunately, it was only two miles away as well.

  They had lived close to the volcano for well over a decade and knew the risks and the protective terrain between them and Halema'uma'u. Lava from the massive crater would certainly never flow into their yard. Statistically it was safer than living on the beach, considering hurricanes, storm surf and the occasional tsunami.

  However, volcanoes had other bad habits besides simply pouring lava all over the landscape. Fumes from such massive plumes could be quite toxic, lava bombs could pepper the land for up to two miles away – putting them within ra
nge, and earthquakes could tear the ground and your home's foundations apart.

  “You know, Shirley, I better give Jack a call and see what the latest is.”

  “OK Larry,” Shirley said, leaning down to pet her nervous dogs. “I'm going to go see if I can squeeze any more stuff into the car.”

  Larry nodded to her as he listened as well to the ringing of Jack's cell phone. He stood and watched the plume roll like a thunderstorm pouring into some hole in the sky.

  Jack's phone answered but sounded like it was still in his pocket.

  “Hello? Jack?” Larry looked at his phone to confirm it had indeed connected.

  “Larry...we're...” Wind noise or rustling was distorting his voice.

  “Jack, what's going on over there?” He looked at his phone again. It was still a live connection.

  “Larry...we're evacuating for God's sake...” Suddenly his voice became clearer. “I'm running to my goddamn car.”

  Larry felt a tinge of fear creep into his heart. “Jack, you said you're what? Evacuating?”

  Jack was only steps behind Alice and all the other Hawaiian Volcanoes Observatory employees running to their vehicles. He jumped into the passenger seat of Alice's Ford 150, closed the door and pulled the phone from his shirt pocket.

  “Larry, we're getting the hell outta here! Halema'uma'u is overflowing and that last quake took out most of the windows and some walls.”

  Jack leaned over and gave Alice a big kiss on the cheek as she accelerated out of the parking lot.

  “Larry, you still there?”

  “Yeah, Jack.” Larry had that sinking feeling that things were growing dangerous. “Where are you headed?”

  Alice was the lead car and rocketing toward the exit to the National Park when she slammed on her brakes, getting a lot of attention from her co-workers just behind her.

  There were large cracks in the asphalt ahead. Several trees were down as well, partially blocking the road.