“I’ve been around horses so long I forgot they had a smell. I guess I’ve gone nose blind to it. To me the smell of a horse is as much a part of living as the smell of the pines, the smell of the night air.
“But you’re absolutely right. I guess you can smell him if you’re not used to being around horses all day every day.”
Now, in their Winnebago and rapidly putting the miles between themselves and Hesperia, Rocki and Darrell had time to ponder the experience.
“I suppose he could have rigged up a speaker system in the darkness to imitate the horse’s whinny and the hoof steps.
“Yes, I guess. If he faked it, though, he did a perfect job. I mean, everything was lined up perfectly with the smell of the horse as he walked by.
“And speaking of that, how in the world could he fake the scent of an invisible horse as it walked past?”
“I don’t know. I can’t think of a single way. And what would he have to gain? He’s comfortable in his life the way it is. He’s certainly not looking for fame or fortune. He’s the kind of guy who wouldn’t go on a talk show for all the money in the world.”
“I agree. He’s just a guy who misses his best friend. So… we agree he’s legit?”
“Yep, we agree. I can’t explain what happened out there. But I’d bet my life Cheyenne really came to visit him.”
“He must have been one heck of a horse.”
Chapter 18
Deputy Dave walked out of the bathroom, a towel wrapped around his body, a sheepish look on his face.
“I forgot something,” he said.
Julianna laughed.
She’d already noticed when he walked in he hadn’t carried a bag with him. No backpack either. Nothing which would hold a change of clothes.
“Yeah, you kinda sorta did, didn’t you dummy?”
“I’m sorry. I was distraught when I left. I mean, I’d just lost half my stuff to burglars and had a long and very distressing talk with Sheriff Myers.
“I guess I just ran off and forgot my bag.”
“So what are you gonna do? Wear that towel all night and into tomorrow?”
“I don’t know. I…”
Then something he said finally sunk in.
She said, “Wait a minute. What did you have a distressing call with Sheriff Myers about?”
“He got a call from the Department of the Interior. Actually, the National Park Service. They say it’s getting too dangerous here.
“They want us to mop up our operations and evacuate the area within thirty days.”
“Will that be enough time?”
“Sheriff Myers says it’ll have to be. He gave us all orders to comply.
“He said the sheriffs of all the other affected counties in Montana and Wyoming are telling their volunteers the same thing.”
Julianna was at a loss for words.
If that was the policy for volunteers from area law enforcement the ranger commander would issue the same directive.
She was supposed to check in with Ranger HQ every other day.
She hadn’t checked in in almost a week.
Undoubtedly she’d have a message from the commander waiting on her when she checked in.
“So we work harder. We move faster. We work longer hours. We can still locate and notify three hundred people or more before the thirty days is up. Can’t we?”
Dave started to object.
He was exhausted, and they were already working ten hours a day, seven days a week.
But he wisely bit his tongue.
If he professed to being tired, of needing a break, of nearing the breaking point, Julianna would have pointed out a few things to him.
She’d have smiled and called him a sissy.
She’d have reminded him that he was a manly man who went to the gym every day before the Yellowstone Caldera reared its ugly head.
He’d bragged about being in shape.
He’d bragged about being able to hike for hours over rough terrain.
She’d remind him that she, a mere mortal, was already hiking just as far as Superman, carrying just as much gear, putting her life in just as much danger…
… and wasn’t complaining at all.
Dave wisely chose to keep his thoughts of scaling back to himself.
But he never answered her question.
So she asked it again.
“I said we can rescue a lot more people in the next thirty days if we just put in more effort, can’t we?”
“Yes. Yes, Jules, we certainly can.”
Now he was more than exhausted. He was crestfallen.
He was getting ready to drop physically. He was being outworked by a little spit of a woman only half his size.
And now he was asked to do even more.
He looked and felt like someone who’d lost his last friend.
He didn’t know that Julianna was about to do something to vastly improve his outlook on life.
She changed the subject again.
“So. What are we gonna do about the clothes you very stupidly forgot to bring with you?”
“There’s only one thing I can do. I’m gonna get dressed again and go get them.”
“That’s stupid. You just got out of the shower. Now you’re gonna put that nasty, sweaty, filthy uniform back on so you can drive back and get them?”
“It’s the only thing I can do, Jules. They won’t get here themselves.”
“I’ve got a better idea,” she said as she pulled the towel away from his body and dropped it to the floor.
“Let’s declare this a clothing optional recreational area. Just for tonight.”
Chapter 19
The following morning Julianna sat at her kitchen table, having the first of her three cups of wake-up coffee.
Directly across from her sat Deputy Dave, who for some reason looked happier than he had in days.
In the laundry room behind him the dryer hummed as it dried his uniform.
She’d gotten up at four in the morning and thrown it into the washer, but went back to sleep before it finished.
Having to dry it this morning would mean they’d get a later start than usual.
But maybe that wasn’t a bad thing.
It gave them a chance to talk.
Julianna said, “This complicates things a bit, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah, probably.”
“Are you regretting we did it?”
“No. I’m regretting we didn’t do it sooner.”
“I meant what I said last night.”
“Which one? You said a lot of things last night.”
“About the whole love thing. I mean, I’m not sure that’s what it is. It feels like it. It’s felt like it for awhile now. I was just afraid I felt that way because I was vulnerable. Because we were thrown into this bizarre and chaotic situation and I was desperate to make sense of it all.
“I thought maybe I felt I was falling for you because you seemed to offer the only stability in my life.”
“And what did you decide?”
“I decided it’s something more than that. I decided that I love you.”
“Me too.”
“You too? I pour my heart and soul out to you and you say, ‘me too’”
“I’m a man of few words.”
“You know, it makes sense from one perspective.”
“What’s that?”
“I mean…if we’re gonna die in this whole volcano thingy, it makes sense that we do that… thing we did… before we die.
“Otherwise our souls would wonder for all eternity what we missed out on.”
“We’re not gonna die in this volcano ‘thingy,’ as you put it.”
“How do you know?”
“Fate wouldn’t be that cruel, to finally bring us together, and then to kill us before we really got started.”
“Well, Deputy Dave… that was a very sweet thing to say.”
“Well, given my druthers, I’d rather not die until we can spend some
time together to see what develops between us.”
“My grandpa on my father’s side used to say that.”
“Say what?”
“Given his druthers. It’s an old people saying.”
“Sayings come and go, just like names and experiences. My grandpa used to say it too. That’s where I got it from.”
She fell silent and studied her coffee cup for a moment.
She was obviously looking for the right words.
“So… should I consider us a thing? Should I consider you my boyfriend?”
“That would be nice. I guess that’s how I see myself.”
“So I’m your girlfriend?”
“I guess so.”
“Yay. Now all we have to do is survive the next thirty days so we’ll see if we have anything in common besides the volcano thingy.”
“I guess.”
There was a knock on the door.
Dave started to answer it, then realized he was still naked.
“Probably not a good idea,” Julianna told him.
“I’ll tell you what. The laundry room has a door on it. Your uniform should be dry. Go in there and get dressed and I’ll get the door.”
As she got up he kissed her.
It was nothing fancy. Just a quick peck.
But it seemed to seal the deal. To make what they’d just discussed somehow official.
She answered the door with a smile on her face.
There was no one there.
She leaned out the door and looked both ways.
She caught the eye of a man working his way from one apartment to the next, attaching a hanging flyer to each doorknob and then knocking on each door to alert the residents it was there.
In the time it took her to answer the door he’d gotten four apartments away from her.
“Good morning,” she called out to him.
“Good morning,” he called back.
“You’re wasting your time,” she said. “Most of them are already gone.”
He simply nodded and went on.
He already knew most of the people in the area had already evacuated.
But he’d hit each door anyway, not knowing who might still be there.
He’d been given strict instructions not to miss anyone.
The electric company didn’t want any customers beating down the doors of their office, angry because they hadn’t been given notice.
Most of the flyers he was posting would go unread. But it was important he blanket the neighborhood and hit every single door.
Julianna took the flyer hooked on her own doorknob and walked back into her apartment just as Dave emerged from the laundry room, his pants now on and buttoning his shirt.
“Who was it?”
She didn’t look up, still reading the flyer.
“It’s from the electric company. They’re cutting power in fifteen days and closing their doors forever.”
Chapter 20
The magma in the Yellowstone Caldera has been bubbling and brewing for three hundred thousand years.
It was ready to come out.
The steam fissures which had opened up in recent weeks, creating what were essentially brand new geysers, was only the opening salvo in what would be the greatest assault on North America since there was a name for North America.
And in fact, this would be an assault on the entire earth, for there was no corner of the world which would not be affected.
There were plenty of oohs and awes when the fissures first opened.
Most people who saw the news footage didn’t realize the implications at first.
They went into tourist mode.
They decided they wanted to go to Yellowstone. To be among the first to witness these new geysers. One of them, it was said, blew steam two hundred feet into the air. It made “Old Faithful” look pathetic by comparison.
The first impulse among hundreds of thousands of people was to be the first in their family or circle of friends to witness such a natural phenomena.
To take selfies in front of it. To shoot video or to stream it live on Facebook.
To make everyone they knew jealous.
For most, that lasted only a few days.
Then scientists and volcanologists began showing up on every television channel.
Showing up with dire warnings.
The next step for most Americans was worry. For if the scientists were to be believed, twenty percent of the United States would be turned into dust and dirt and rock in a massive explosion.
An explosion the likes of which had never been witnessed by modern man.
Or pre-historic man either, for that matter.
They’d been told that the only living creatures to witness a larger catastrophe were the dinosaurs.
And things didn’t work out so well for them.
Next came denial.
The scientists were saying Yellowstone hadn’t erupted in three hundred thousand years.
Give or take a day or two.
Naysayers and those prone to rationalization were trying to convince their friends and family to chill out.
“If it only erupts every three hundred thousand years, there’s no way it could pick this particular year to erupt. I mean, just look at the odds. The odds of it erupting in any given year are just one in three hundred thousand. Right?
“I mean, right?”
A noted scientist went on cable news and was asked just that question by an interviewer.
The first answer the scientist gave the interviewer was nonverbal, yet unmistakable.
He looked at the man as though he were a special kind of stupid.
Then he chose his words carefully, wanting to but realizing it wouldn’t be nice to call the man a moron.
“Three things,” he said.
“First, any prehistoric man around on the day before the last eruption, if told the volcano only erupted every three hundred thousand years, might scoff and say the same thing you just said. And he didn’t fare well when the volcano erupted the next day.
“Second, it has to erupt sometime. Why not next year? For that matter, why not tomorrow?
“Third, perhaps you’re right. Perhaps you’re safe. Perhaps now would be a good time to buy real estate at ground zero. I understand it’s a buyer’s market. Go now, before you miss out on the deals.”
With that the scientist stood up, unhooked his collar microphone and dropped it onto the chair, and walked off the stage while shaking his head.
He wasn’t invited back to that particular network.
The interviewer disappeared from the network the following day.
Some rumors said he went to the Yellowstone area to shop for a house.
Other rumors said he was fired for asking stupid questions.
Even the naysayers and doubters fell into line when the President of the United States announced he’d be giving weekly briefings on things the government was doing to do to provide an orderly evacuation out of the danger zones.
That was when things, as young people like to say these days, suddenly “got real.”
Now it was pretty much accepted that the Yellowstone Event was going to happen, and sooner rather than later.
What was in dispute was the “when.”
The scientists couldn’t agree.
They were like the three TV weathermen in every city in America.
They all got their data from the same source: the National Weather Service.
But the weatherman on one channel might forecast a five percent chance of rain the next day.
His counterpart on another station might forecast an eighty percent chance of rain.
The third local weatherman might forecast sunny skies and not a drop of rain anywhere in the viewing area.
The data they got from the National Weather Service was the same.
It was the way they each interpreted it which was different.
Scientists trying to predict when Yellowstone would blow were walking a simi
lar path.
Some would guess right.
Most would be wrong.
Most were guessing at least two years out.
Wayne Hamlin was saying “any day now.”
They couldn’t both be right.
Meanwhile, a second crack in the ground opened up north and east of Turbid Lake.
A second river of lava began to flow.
Chapter 21
Mamie Sellers didn’t get out much anymore.
It wasn’t her doing.
The Department of Motor Vehicles, damn them, refused to renew her driver’s license when she turned seventy five two years before.
“Your reaction skills aren’t what they once were,” they’d explained. “We’re afraid that if something happened and required an immediate reaction, like someone turning front of you and requiring you to slam on your breaks to avoid a collision, you might not be able to stop in time.”
“Let me see if I understand this, sonny. You’re afraid that some idiotic moron might pull out in front of me, so I can’t drive anymore? Because some idiot might do something stupid I must be penalized?
“Do you realize how stupid that sounds, sonny?”
The man had shrugged.
But he had no better answer.
Mamie was no shrinking violet. She was headstrong and pig-headed and never minced words.
She said, “I’ll tell you what, sonny. Let’s make a bet. I’ll bet I can punch you square in the nose before you can duck. If your reaction time is slower than my punch I get my license. If you can duck out of the way you can keep it.
“And I’ll tell you what you can do with it.”
The man wasn’t amused.
Mamie was escorted out of the Department of Motor Vehicles.
She’d lost the battle. She was bloodied but not bowed.
And by God, she’d still win the war.
She kept her car. They couldn’t take that away from her, as long as she didn’t drive it.
She continued the payments on the car, and kept its registration and insurance up to date.
And she made a deal with the Rogers family, who lived right next door.
Ted Rogers had just lost his job.
His wife Linda was recovering from a long illness and was unable to work.
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