Escaping Yellowstone

by Larry LaVoie

  “It’s space. Any number of things can go wrong, but there’s absolutely nothing we can do about it. That asteroid is going to pass by the moon in about thirty-six hours. I’ll breathe a lot easier after that.”

  Cody laughed. “I don’t know how many times I’ve said that. Usually when I’m having a root canal in the dentist’s office.”

  “I don’t think this is that bad. It’s more like a bad hair day. You know when you arrive at work and didn’t remember to remove a curler. It gets fixed right away if someone points it out to you.”

  “I never had the experience,” Cody said.

  “Really? I could swear that wave is made from a curler.”

  Cody shook his head. “What you’re looking at is all natural. What you see is what you get.”

  There was a knock on her door.

  “That’s my dad. Quick out the window,” Lisa said.

  Cody laughed. “You almost had me. Answer the door. I’m pretty sure he didn’t smuggle a shotgun into the park.”

  Lisa opened the door. Wendy was standing there with Tyler and Meghan all bundled up like they were going to brace the outdoors.

  Wendy saw Cody and said, “I thought you might be here. The kids and I are going to sit around the fire outside and roast marshmallows. Would you two like to join us?”

  Lisa turned to Cody. “I would.”

  “Give us ten minutes,” Cody said. “I haven’t unpacked yet.”

  When they arrived at the firepit on the back deck they found Meghan asleep in her mother’s arms and Tyler roasting a marshmallow using a long wire skewer.

  “Uncle Cody, sit by me,” Tyler said. “I got another roaster.” He picked up another long wire fork.

  “You sure there’s room for us?” Cody asked, looking at the tiny log bench.

  Other than the fire, the only other light was filtering out in a golden glow from the hotel windows. A few of the occupied cabins had lights glowing. The scene was a winter wonderland. The firepit was surrounded with several log rounds and a few rough plank benches. Cody used his gloved hand to brush several inches of snow from one of the benches for Lisa to sit. He squeezed in next to Tyler and stuck a marshmallow on the end of the skewer. Tyler was blowing the flames from a burning marshmallow.

  “You know there’s a secret to roasting marshmallows,” Cody said. “You need to keep it out of the flames and let it brown slowly, turning it just so.” He turned the evenly browned marshmallow toward Tyler. “You can have my first one. See if it doesn’t taste better.”

  “Cody’s really good with kids,” Wendy said.

  “I can see that,” Lisa said.

  “You know I can hear you,” Cody said. “You brought marshmallows and no Hershey bars and Graham crackers, what kind of a mother are you?”

  “I don’t want to spoil their futures as Scouts,” Wendy said.

  “I was a Campfire Girl,” Lisa said. “We were camping by a lake. It was the first time I looked up with wonder at the night sky.”

  “Now that’s something I didn’t know.” Cody said. He handed his roasting stick to Tyler and put a log on the fire.

  Wendy got up, waking Meghan. “I’m going to go in. I think the kids have had enough for the day.”

  “What about dinner?” Cody asked.

  “I’ll wash up the kids. Maybe that will wake them. Both missed their naps today and are dragging.”

  “We’ll see you at eight?” Lisa asked.

  “If I can get Blake away from his computer. He’s streaming the 49ers and the Vikings game. He was pretty upset the lodge doesn’t have TV.” She gave them a wide grin. “Thank God they have internet. He’d be impossible to live with.”

  “Yeah, I figured he would die without his big screen and his man cave,” Cody said.

  “Don’t make me go there,” Wendy said. “See you at dinner.”

  “Mom, I want another marshmallow,” Tyler protested.

  “You’ll spoil your dinner.” She wrapped Meghan in the blanket. “Come on Tyler, you need a bath.”

  “Mom!”

  “Don’t mom me. Say goodbye to Uncle Cody and Miss Wilson.”

  “Lisa,” Lisa said. “It’s okay if they call me Lisa.”

  “Bye, Uncle Cody and Lisa,” Tyler said, handing his skewer to Cody.

  “See you at dinner, pal,” Cody said.

  “I guess we’re all alone. Did you expect this place to be so deserted?” Lisa asked.

  “The park has about six hundred visitors a day on average, but most of them are on the weekends and this is the slowest time of the year. Actually, I’m surprised there are other guests at all. When I made the reservations, they said we would have the whole place to ourselves.”

  “I did notice another couple in the lobby when we came down.”

  “You mind?” Cody asked, moving onto the bench where Lisa was sitting.

  Lisa moved over to give him room. She looked up. “We need to find a dark spot to check out the stars.”

  “I know the perfect spot,” Cody said. “After dinner, we can grab a snowmobile and head out.”

  “They let you do that?”

  “I still have connections,” Cody said, winking.

  Everyone had finished dinner. They were discussing dessert when Blake arrived. “Look who showed up,” Wendy said, looking up at Blake.

  “Vikings lost,” he announced, pulling out a chair next to Wendy.

  Cody knew better than to get into a football discussion with Blake. “We’re just ordering dessert. The waiter suggested the bananas Foster, the bread pudding with caramel glaze, or a scoop of rainbow sherbet, if you don’t have room for the others.

  “I’ll have a double Jack Daniel’s straight up,” Blake said to the waiter.

  The others gave their orders.

  Lisa’s father lifted his glass. “I want to thank our host, Cody, for arranging this unique Christmas adventure for us.”

  They all lifted their glasses. Blake lifted a glass of water as his drink had not yet arrived.

  “Blake, I understand you are Personnel Manager at Intel. That must present many challenges.” Nathan was looking across the table at Blake.

  “A few,” Blake said. “I really don’t like to discuss work after hours.”

  “I can vouch for that,” Wendy said. “For a personnel manager, he’s very anti-social.”

  “You should work with the public like I do. You’d be anti-social, too.”

  Cody changed the subject. “Tomorrow morning we’re going to do some sightseeing. I have it on good authority it will be a clear day, but the high temperature will be minus twenty-two degrees. Dress warm and in layers.”

  After dinner, Cody and Lisa excused themselves and walked outside. There was a snowmobile parked near the entry. A paper with his name on it was stuffed in the hand brake.

  “Looks like Rick came through for me,” Cody said. “Rick is one of the forest rangers in this area.”

  “So, you’re going to make good on taking me to a place where we can see the stars?”

  “You’ll be as close to them as you are on the mountaintop in Hawaii,” Cody promised. “Put on your earmuffs, we have a bit of a ride ahead of us.”

  They left Old Faithful and traveled south for a few miles before turning off the road heading up a mountain trail. The trip took thirty minutes. Finally, Cody pulled off the trail. They were on a high plateau. The only light was from the headlight of the snowmobile. Cody turned off the key and they got off. He handed her a pair of snowshoes. “Let’s take a walk,” he said.

  Lisa looked up, but she didn’t have to look up to see the sky; it was like they were standing in it. Once their eyes were adjusted to the dark, they could easily make their way from the glow of the Milky Way and the millions of stars that appeared to be within arm’s reach. Cody found the spot he was looking for and wiped off what little snow was left on a flat rock that would become their bench. He opened a wool blanket and spread it on the rock. “And this is where I watch the stars,”
he said, sitting next to her. “It’s also a good spot for sunsets.”

  “Which way are we facing?”

  Cody looked up, found the North Star. “West. We’re sitting on the Continental Divide.”

  “Really?”

  “Well as close as we can get to it without scaling a few more rocks.”

  “Out there somewhere is San Francisco and behind us New York City. It’s as close to the stars as I’ve ever been in the United States.”

  “Higher than Mauna Kea?”

  “Maybe a little.”

  Lisa gazed in awe. “You’d think as much as I’ve looked at the sky I’d get tired of it, but it’s more incredible every time I look up.”

  “I feel the same way about Yellowstone.”

  “I can see why.”

  “Turn around,” Cody said. They looked into the eastern sky. He put his arm around her. “So, what do you think? The moon is rising. Where would we see your Angel?”

  Lisa pursed her lips in thought. “It should be close enough about this time tomorrow. Do you have a pair of binoculars?”

  “You want to come up here tomorrow night and watch the fireworks?” Cody asked.

  Lisa stood looking at the moon. It was nearly full. She pointed out the craters. “The earth would look like that if we didn’t have an atmosphere.” A breeze picked up snow crystals striking them in the face. Lisa turned toward Cody. “That wasn’t nice,”

  Cody wiped her cheek with his glove and kissed her. “We better get back. I told Rick I’d be back by midnight. We don’t want him sending a search party for us.”

  “He knows where we are?”

  “I told him. Just as a precaution.”

  She snuggled up to him. “I feel safe with you.”

  They kissed again and Cody led her back to the snowmobile. When they arrived back at the lodge, Rick was inside the lobby waiting. Cody introduced Lisa to him.

  Rick had been a ranger stationed in Yellowstone Park for twenty-nine years. He had been married until two years ago when his wife was diagnosed with lung cancer. “She passed away last year,” Rick said.

  “I’m so sorry,” Lisa said.

  “You care for a beer or a hot toddy,” Cody asked.

  “No, it’s past my bedtime. I’m going home and putting another log on the fire before going to bed. You want them again tomorrow night, right?”

  “Yeah, An asteroid is supposed to pass by the moon tomorrow night. You know us scientist types. It doesn’t take much to amuse us.”

  “When I was a boy and I had a pretty girl, looking at the stars was a lot different.” He grinned.

  “I’ll bet,” Cody said. “Thanks again. If you’re around on Christmas, we’ll be right here. You’re welcome to join us for dinner.”

  “Thanks, I might take you up on that.”

  They watched Rick load the snowmobile onto a trailer fixed with skids and drive off pulling it behind another snowmobile.

  “He’s a nice man,” Lisa said.

  “There are a lot of them. We’re like family looking out for each other.”

  “Okay, now you’re going to make me cry. I know how much you want to stay in Yellowstone.”

  Cody swallowed hard. “We better turn in. The guide doesn’t want us to be late in the morning and I don’t want to make a bad impression on your parents.”

  “They love you. My dad actually said he tried to fix you up with me when he first met you. That’s not like him at all.”

  “He told you that?” Cody shook his head back and forth. “I thought he was a desperate father with an ugly daughter he wanted to get married off.”

  She slugged Cody on the shoulder. “You didn’t think that.”

  “Ouch, you pack a mean punch.”

  “You didn’t deny it.”

  “I’m just trying to be honest. When parents go shopping for dates there is usually something wrong.” He pulled her close to him. “If you want to know the truth, I made up that stuff about land tides so I could talk to you after I saw you on TV.”

  She gave him a tight-lipped grin. “You found out I’m smarter than I look.”

  “Now that would be impossible.”

  He walked her to her room. They kissed and said goodnight.

  Inside her room, Lisa opened her computer and checked the NASA-NEO website for the latest news on Dark Angel. There was no mention of the second asteroid traveling with it. She would try to find time in the morning to call Ashlar and see if he had any late breaking news.

  In his room, Cody opened his laptop and checked the YVO website. He entered his password and pulled up the information on West Thumb. The ground was still rising. He made a mental note to keep the family away from that area.

  Chapter 17

  December 21

  It was a five-minute walk to the Old Faithful viewing area. Cody checked his watch and clued them in on the facts about Old Faithful geyser, most notably, that it didn’t erupt every hour.

  Cody’s mother Susan played trip photographer as she grouped the families together on a bench in the Old Faithful visitor area. There were only two others in the area and she asked a man to take their combined family picture.

  Once the picture was taken, Cody got up and played park guide, a role he had played many times. He stood in front of them with the mound of the geyser behind him.

  “Some things you need to know about Old Faithful,” Cody said. “At one time it did erupt on the average of about once an hour, but the time between eruptions has been getting longer. Right now, the average time between eruptions is ninety-one minutes. Another interesting fact is early settlers once used Old Faithful to wash their clothes. They would throw their garments in the mouth of the geyser when it was idle and collect them when the geyser spit them out an hour or so later. The temperature of the water is two hundred four degrees, so they were sterilized as well as washed. The steam in the geyser is as high as three hundred degrees Fahrenheit so washing wool clothing didn’t fare too well.”

  The women laughed.

  “I don’t get it,” Blake said.

  “And that’s the reason I don’t let you do laundry,” Wendy said.

  Cody checked his watch. “We’re due for an eruption at any minute.” He took a seat beside Lisa.

  “You’re a pretty good guide,” Lisa said. “You must have had a lot of practice.”

  “I did undergraduate work here as a guide. I never knew it would come in handy this many years later.”

  There was a rumble and the geyser burst into life. The steam rose high in the air. In the sunlight the steam condensed into ice crystals that Cody called diamond dust. “You only get the diamond dust during the winter months,” he said, “the rest of the year it’s just water and steam.”

  “It’s like watching fireworks,” Lisa said.

  Wendy was trying to get the kids to sit back down. Tyler was jumping up and down on the bench and Meghan ran toward the exploding geyser. Blake grabbed Meghan by the arm and swept her up into his arms and planted her on his shoulders.

  “You can see better from up here.”

  “Thank you,” Wendy said.

  When Cody had checked the weather report, it had said the expected high for the day would be -19ºF. Everyone was bundled up against the elements. “Come on we can make the loop before lunch,” he said. “Everybody nice and warm?”

  He and Lisa led the way holding hands along the snow-covered boardwalk.

  ***

  NASA Headquarters Building, Washington DC

  December 21

  The sweeping concrete and glass structure that Martin Downing called home during the workweek was quiet, as NASA employees took time off to be with their families over the Christmas holiday. Many had taken early leave to catch flights, leaving some offices with only a skeleton crew during the coming week. Martin had worked in a second-floor office for two years. He loved his job, and even though there were several layers of management above him, he had fought hard to get to this this level in managem
ent, even costing him his relationship with Lisa. The fact that many were not around during the holiday didn’t bother him. The lack of personnel gave him the freedom to make decisions that might be made by his superiors if they had been there.

  He picked up a folder with an e-mail attached to the front with a paperclip. He couldn’t remember the folder arriving and had no idea how long it had been sitting there. He read the e-mail. It was from Keck Observatory, Ashlar Shari. He didn’t recognize the name.

  Dark Angel’s closest approach to the earth would be 2:13 a.m. GMT December 23. That would be 9:13 p.m. December 22, in Washington DC. “That’s tomorrow night,” he said out loud, although no one else was in the room.

  He pulled up the JPL link that was tracking the asteroid on radar. A warning screen was flashing in red. He clicked on it and an explanation was written on the screen. The three asteroids would collide at the same time as Dark Angel passed by the moon. The best viewing places on earth would be the western part of the United States shortly after sunset in the Pacific Time zone.

  He reviewed the simulation one more time. It showed Dark Angel passing by the far side of the moon. He stopped the simulation and forwarded it one frame at a time until he could see the first companion asteroid called Demon move closer, apparently influenced by the gravitational force of the earth and moon in alignment, but the influence seemed too great. He backed off the image until he could see the relationship of the sun, the earth and the moon and the approaching asteroid. Dark Angel was represented by a red line on the screen. It and its companion asteroids were too tiny to see on the simulation. He zoomed in until he could see Dark Angel again. This time it made more sense. The exact point of impact was when the smaller asteroid was in alignment with the earth, the moon and the sun. There was not enough data to include the new asteroid in the simulation. They hadn’t determined if it was a moon rotating around Dark Angel, or a companion to Demon. If it was a moon, it could be pulled out of orbit as it rotated around Dark Angel. He got on the phone and contacted Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.

  “Feliz Navidad,” a cheery voice answered.