At Fault

by Beth Martin

  As the car slowed down, he looked ahead to see why they were stopping. He gasped in shock. The ground ahead crumbled to an end, a crevice stretching across the road. When they were at a complete stop, he raced out of the car, ignoring the pain radiating from his shins and the cold sticking to him through his wet clothes. A chasm had opened up, splitting the landscape in two. The road continued on the other side, perhaps ten feet ahead. There was no way to get across, and he looked down the endless abyss from the edge of the road.

  Grace joined his side and peered down at the chasm as well. “Fuck.” They stared for a moment before she broke the silence. “How far do you think it goes?”

  He looked right then left. The scar across the landscape stretched as far as he could see in both directions. It split the earth north to south. They couldn’t continue east to Last Chance’s town center. They would have to go west. “I don’t know.”

  “What now?” she asked.

  “Drive to Denver.”

  “Okay.” She turned around and walked back to her car. He looked down the chasm one more time before joining her in the silver sedan.

  ···

  As they drove west, Grace tried to start a conversation a few times, but Peter just didn’t feel like talking. After giving terse answers to her questions, she gave up and turned on the radio to fill their uncomfortable silence.

  It was starting to get late, and neither of them had a working phone or GPS to find their way to any specific location. Peter did know the way to Autumn and Sunshine’s house and gave Grace directions to their place. His friends would put them up for the night, and then he would be able to call Dr. Hall and figure out his next course of action.

  They pulled up to the small house, the gravel-covered front yard dotted with weeds and cacti, neither of the women particularly concerned with any landscaping beyond their vegetable garden in the back.

  Peter knocked on the door, hoping at least one of them was home. Autumn swung the door opened and exclaimed, “Peter!” before giving him a tight hug. “What are you doing here? Is this your famous accomplice?” She gave him a wink as she held out a hand to greet Grace.

  “This is my intern, Grace,” Peter announced as Grace and Autumn shook hands.

  “Please, come in,” Autumn said. He walked right in as Grace tentatively followed. He could smell a mixture of Indian spices. “Sunshine is cooking aloo mutter, and you know how she always over does it. I’m sure there will be plenty if you want to join us for dinner.”

  “It smells amazing,” he admitted. “If it’s not a hassle, dinner would be great.” Grace nodded in agreement. “Would it be possible for me to use your phone?”

  “Of course, let me go get it,” Autumn said.

  She disappeared down the hall as Sunshine called from the kitchen, “Who’s here?”

  He entered the kitchen, a sly smile on his face. “Hey, Sunshine.”

  “Holy shit, Peter,” she said, a smile spreading across her freckled face. As she gave him a hug, she noticed Grace entering the kitchen as well. “Holy shit, man. Why’d you bring a chick here? This house already has too much estrogen.”

  As Peter pulled back from her embrace he gestured at Grace. “Sunshine, this is my intern, Grace.”

  “Oh,” Sunshine said, giving Peter a knowing glance before hugging Grace as well.

  “Nice to meet you,” Grace mumbled into Sunshine’s dreads as she continued to squeeze Grace.

  Sunshine finally let go and focused her attention back to stirring the pot on the stove. “So what brings you two to Denver? Will you be staying long?”

  “I had hoped we could stay the night,” Peter ventured. “There was an earthquake, and it damaged the new generator and destroyed my lab.”

  “Oh man!” Sunshine said, placing a hand on his arm. “I’m so glad you’re all right. Of course you can stay. I’ll sleep with Autumn in her room and Grace can take mine. You can take the couch.”

  He smiled. “Thank you.” He knew Sunshine had a crush on her roommate, and any excuse to sleep in the same bed was good enough for Sunshine.

  Autumn came into the kitchen. “Here you go,” she said, handing her phone to Peter.

  “I’m going to go make a call,” he said, excusing himself into the living room. He could hear his two friends interrogate Grace as he tried to recall Dr. Hall’s cell number.

  He punched in the digits, hoping he’d remembered them correctly, and waited as the line rang. “Hello?” Dr. Hall’s voice came from the phone.

  “Dr. Hall. It’s Peter Cork.”

  “Christ, Peter. I just heard about the earthquake on the news. That’s some bad luck. Is everything okay?”

  “Yes,” Peter began. “Well, no. There’s a lot of damage to the generator. I’m not entirely sure the extent of it right now, but when we went down there to check there wasn’t any power, so I couldn’t make a full assessment.”

  “Shit, Peter, you went down there? There’s a crack running the entire length of the US from New Mexico through Montana into Canada!”

  Peter paused, letting the news sink in.

  Dr. Hall continued through the silence, “I already spoke with Trish from SPS. They’re pulling the plug on your work.”

  “They can’t do that,” Peter protested.

  “You and I know very well that they can, and they have,” Dr. Hall said, his voice quiet yet stern. “We all knew that geothermal habitation was a pipe dream to begin with. The only reason it got as far as it did was because I sent the daughter of SPS’s CEO to be your intern. It was never really meant to be.” Peter was too stunned to respond, and Dr. Hall kept talking. “Look, my student Eileen Young is leading a few courses this quarter, and I need her help looking into the geological repercussions of the latest earthquake. This is an exciting development for ground-breaking research―excuse the pun. You could take over her courses and return to SLAU while you look for a new position.”

  His contract. Originally, he had been offered a two-year fellowship at SLAU. Immediately after arriving at the university, Dr. Hall had taken him under his wing. Peter’s original grant money went directly to SLAU, and his research in Last Chance had started under Dr. Hall’s guidance―both professionally and fiscally. Only after Grace had come to work with him had he gotten funding for himself. Now, it looked like he was back at the mercy of Dr. Hall.

  “Right, okay,” he said. “We’ll head there tomorrow. I’ll let you know when I arrive.”

  “I’m glad to hear you’re all right,” Dr. Hall said before hanging up. Peter set the phone down on the coffee table. Without funding from SPS, and no results from his expensive research project, he could pretty much kiss his academic career goodbye.

  ···

  Peter remained quiet throughout most of dinner while Autumn and Sunshine asked Grace all about her life as the daughter of a horribly wealthy and powerful man. Autumn popped a bottle of sake, which they all shared. Peter envied Grace’s youthful optimism while his future felt so uncertain. He hadn’t shared with them the details of his conversation with Dr. Hall, but Grace would probably figure it out as soon as she talked with her father.

  The evening dragged seemed to drag on forever. As Autumn opened a second bottle of sake, the four of them started playing a card game in the living room. As Peter drank more, he began to feel a little more mellow and started to finally accept his current situation. He could at least find a job teaching at a university. That could be enough.

  After Autumn won the second game in a row, Sunshine declared, “I’m going to turn in. Grace, I can show you where you’ll sleep.” Grace followed her into her room.

  “I guess I should go to bed as well,” Autumn said, studying Peter’s face.

  “Yeah,” he said, “I could use some time to myself.”

  “Sure thing.” Autumn put away the cards, then left Peter alone in the living room.

  He was only alone for a few minutes before Grace crept out of Sunshine’s bedroom to check on him.

  �
��You okay?” she asked.

  Peter poured himself a shot of sake from the bottle left on the coffee table and drank it in a single gulp before pouring another. “Sure.”

  “I borrowed Autumn’s phone and talked to my dad when you went to the bathroom earlier,” she said in a quiet voice. She stood next to the sofa, probably waiting for him to invite her to take a seat.

  He drank the next shot before looking up at her face. “You want some more?” he asked, pointing to the bottle of sake. She sat down next to him, poured herself a shot, drank it quickly, then set her glass back on the table.

  She took his hand in her own. “I’m sorry.”

  “Why are you sorry? You didn’t do anything.”

  “The research coordinator at SPS is adamant about shutting down your geothermal habitation research. She doesn’t think it’s safe. Neither does my dad.”

  Peter poured himself another shot, but didn’t immediately drink it. He looked at her hand holding his own, then up at her concerned face. “I knew it was too good to be true.”

  “What do you mean?”

  He pulled his hand away and drank the waiting shot of sake before replying. “I haven’t put in my time. If I had more experience, took more time to iron out all the details, I wouldn’t have made such a costly mistake. Getting all the funding upfront… well, I wasn’t ready. I blew it.”

  “Don’t say that.” Her voice wavered. He didn’t understand why she was being so emotional. She would be fine. They were only a few days into the quarter. She could still register for courses and continue on like this snafu had never happened. “You deserve to do your research, and it’s not right that SPS has pulled out after the first little hiccup.”

  Peter laughed. “Little hiccup? The North American plate has started splitting in half. All the drilling and fracking is literally splitting the continent in two.”

  She shifted back, putting some distance between them before saying, “What happens now?”

  “We go back to SLAU. You take some classes. I’ll lead a few. Life continues.”

  “What about your research? And Last Chance? And the crevice?”

  “Best to forget.” He gave her a weary smile, then glanced away, her face reminding him that he would be losing her as well. Maybe it was just the alcohol, but he thought he might actually miss her.

  She leaned toward him, closing the gap between them again. “I was looking forward to spending the quarter with you.”

  “Me too,” he admitted, swirling the remaining sake in the bottom of the bottle. She continued to study his face until he looked up at her pleading eyes. She leaned into him, kissing his cheek softly. “We should try to get some sleep before driving to LA tomorrow,” he said.

  “Right,” she said, standing up. “I should go to bed.” After she disappeared into Sunshine’s room, Peter tipped the last few drops of sake into his mouth.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  “Are you sure leaving your car is a good idea?” Peter asked as a TSA officer directed Grace to move through the metal detector. Peter picked up her bag, the only piece of luggage between the two of them, as it came out of the scanner while Grace put her shoes back on. They had left Autumn and Sunshine’s house early, way before the sun had come up. There was plenty of time to make it to their gate, but Grace seemed to want to get there as quickly as possible.

  “Well I’m not driving all the way back to LA,” she said, flipping her hair over her shoulder. She grabbed her purse from his hands and started walking again. All morning, she had barely looked at him and had given him a generally cold attitude. He was unsure of what was causing her icy behavior.

  Normally he avoided chit chat, but he was genuinely confused about what would happen to her car, which they had left in the airport parking deck. “You’re leaving your car in Denver?” he asked again.

  “No,” she huffed, walking even faster down the terminal. “You’ve made it perfectly clear that I don’t need to return to Last Chance, like, ever. I’ll have it shipped to Los Angeles.”

  “You didn’t want to drive?” He would get reimbursed for the cost of his plane ticked by the SLAU geology department, but he wouldn’t have minded taking a brief road trip with Grace.

  She stopped abruptly. “I know you don’t drive, so you wouldn’t know that this short, two-hour flight takes twenty fucking hours by car.”

  “I didn’t know.” He quickly blinked, but her angry face wasn’t an illusion.

  “Of course you don’t,” she snapped before turning and resuming her fast walk.

  They arrived at their gate a solid hour before their flight’s planned departure. When he took a seat near the gate, she found another seat as far away from him as possible. She proceeded to leaf through a magazine and ignore everything going on in the busy terminal around her.

  Peter got up to browse the news stand. He was going to pick up a paperback novel to read on the flight, but the headline of the local newspaper caught his attention. Scientists Stumped by Catastrophic Colorado Earthquake. After reading through the first page, he purchased the paper and returned to his gate to sit and read the rest of the article.

  He was pretty sure there weren’t any seismologists in Colorado, so all the local scientists quoted in the article only had a general grasp of earthquake activity. But the article did have some raw data which Peter had not yet seen. The quake had hit a 5 on the Richter scale in Denver, but was closer to an 8.6 in Last Chance. The epicenter was about 25 miles north of Last Chance, and the resulting chasm it caused spanned most of Colorado with a maximum depth of 500 feet.

  Peter read over the numbers again. Something wasn’t right. Dr. Hall had cited a different span for the crevice when they spoke yesterday. Why would they put the wrong figures in the newspaper? Unless Dr. Hall was wrong.

  He looked up from his paper to see Grace quietly standing in front of him, waiting. “Hey,” she said softly.

  “Hello.” He folded up his paper and placed it on the chair next to him.

  “May I sit?” she asked.

  “Of course,” he said, waving a hand over the empty seat to his right.

  They sat in silence for a moment before she spoke. “I just talked to my dad on the pay phone. He doesn’t give a shit about research or the earthquake, he just wanted to know my flight number so he can send a car to LAX.” She glanced at his face for a moment before looking back down at her hands in her lap. “I’ve been so… consumed by what has happened and how inconvenient it is for me that I forgot how bad this all must be for you. I’m sorry.”

  “That’s just how life goes.” Now he had to look forward to teaching lecture halls packed with freshmen and applying for jobs yet again. With nothing to show for his research project in Last Chance, the best he could hope for was another postdoc for only a couple years in a different city. He had gotten used to the nomadic lifestyle of academics and prided himself on being able to pack all of his earthly belongings into two suitcases. Still, he had looked forward to spending another year in one place. He idly ran a hand over his beard before looking back at Grace, who had picked up his newspaper.

  “Eight point six. Not bad. I’m surprised we made it through unscathed.”

  “Well, almost,” he said, lifting the bottom of his green canvas pants to reveal the angry purple bruise on his calf.

  “Ouch! I almost forgot the golf cart fell on you. Does it still hurt?”

  “Only when I try to walk fast.”

  “Sorry.” She bit her lip. “I got a little bitchy, didn’t I?” She flipped through the article briefly before handing it back to Peter.

  They sat waiting for their flight to start boarding. From the large windows lining the walls, Peter could see the planes lined up at the runway, patiently taking their turns and waiting to lift off. As soon as one plane barreled forward, smoothly ascending off into the sky, the next plane slid up to replace it.

  “Seems silly that we can’t stay here and investigate that new chasm,” Grace said. “You’d think it woul
d be a geologist’s gold mine.”

  “Dr. Hall and one of his students are coming here to do just that.”

  “Why not you?” She placed her hand briefly on his knee before pulling it back to examine her fingernails.

  “It’s not really my area. I focus on geo-thermodynamics. This is more in line with what Dr. Hall does.”

  “You can’t tell me that all the recent drilling and fracking had nothing to do with that earthquake and the chasm,” she said, raising her brows.

  “I guess that’s what Dr. Hall will try to prove.” Peter clasped his hands together. He had suspected that fracking had caused the tremors and had been trying to show that they were related using the data from his equipment in the well. Now Dr. Hall had all his data and there was nothing specifically tying Peter to it other than proximity, at least before he boarded the plane.

  “Fuck him. Stay here. You should figure out what’s going on and get all the credit.” She smiled triumphantly at her idea.

  “That would be nice, but you’ll recall that without funding from SPS, my paychecks come from the geology department. They need me to teach classes, not start research projects that won’t get published until long after I’ve left SLAU.” While they were talking, a boarding announcement for their flight came over the PA. People around them were gathering into a queue to board the plane while Peter and Grace continued to sit, deep in conversation.

  “You’re leaving SLAU?” Grace asked.

  “This is my last quarter.”

  “Why can’t you stay?” Grace leaned forward and ran her hands nervously through her hair.

  “My contract was for only two years.”

  “But you were going to stay in Last Chance for another year…” Peter couldn’t blame Grace for not understanding the details of pursuing a career in academia. It was certainly different than any other profession, and sometimes didn’t make sense even to him.

  “Only because I had corporate funding. Then I could have remained affiliated with SLAU as I got paid by someone else to do my research. Then all the papers I write would say ‘Dr. Peter Cork, SLAU’ without them having to spend a dime.”