by Wilson Harp
“What is it?” I asked.
“Northern lights,” Dad said. “Saw them occasionally when I was stationed in Maine with the Navy.”
“Yeah,” I said as I twisted my neck to look around the sky. “We get them every once in a while in Chicago. Have to usually drive out a bit to get a really good view. I didn’t think they would get this far south.”
“They don’t,” Dad said. “Never even seen a glimmer of them before. But I doubt they get this way even at the North Pole. Something is wrong.”
I lowered the shade and looked at my dad. His voice had a strain to it, but this one was different than when he worried about mom, or worried about money. This was almost a scared sound.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Listen to those dogs,” he said as he motioned outside. “Them and the coyotes aren’t howling at each other right now. And all the birds are riled up, not just the owls.”
I listened closely and could hear it. All of the local animals were upset.
“Let’s turn on the TV and see what the news is reporting,” I said. I started toward the living room.
“Power’s out,” Dad said. “No lights, no radio, no TV.”
“Let’s see if I can get a signal.”
I went to the side table where I had left my phone. I had set it as an alarm clock, but the screen was off. I tried to turn it on, but it was dead.
“I charged this before I went to bed,” I said.
“Your mom is looking for the flashlight in the kitchen,” Dad said. “Although as bright as it is, don’t think we really need it.”
I sat down and grabbed my jeans from the floor. I had just zipped up when mom came in the room.
“I know these batteries are brand new,” she said. “But it won’t work.”
“Go get some candles, then. We’ll get some light,” Dad told her.
I bent down and started putting on my shoes.
“Where are you going?” Dad asked.
“Out to the car, I can charge my phone out there. I can hit some news sites on the internet and find out what is happening.”
I picked up the keys from the dresser and headed outside.
The night sky was so bright, I felt like I had stepped into a large auditorium. I could see the stars if I looked for them beyond the sheets of color that rippled across the sky. I stood in wonder for a few minutes and just stared at the brilliant show nature was treating us to.
“Hey,” a voice behind me said. “Do you have a charger in your car?”
I turned and saw a teenage girl walking toward me.
“Uh, yeah. I do. I was about to charge my own phone on it. Who are you?”
“I’m Sarah,” she said. She pointed behind her at the Johnson’s house. “I’m staying with my grandparents this weekend.”
“I’m David,” I said. “This is my folk’s house. Let me see if my charger will fit your phone.”
We both had the same brand of phones so it looked like it would work.
“That was something, huh?” she said as I handed her phone back.
“What? The lights?”
“No, the flash. The lights were just there afterward.”
“I was asleep, I guess. Were you awake?”
“Yeah, I was texting a friend. Phone died at the same time as the power went out. Freaky coincidence.”
She was looking for confirmation, and she was scared.
“I guess. What happened?”
“Don’t know. Just a big flash outside, lit up my whole room. I screamed and woke up Grams and Pop-pop. When I settled down, I realized the power was out and my phone was dead. That’s when Felix went nuts and Grams had to let her out.”
“Felix?”
“Their cat. Just started screaming and running everywhere. Guess the flash spooked her.”
“I would imagine.”
“What are those lights in the sky? Is it something the government is doing? It’s kind of cool if so. Gives everybody enough light to see by if there is a power outage.”
I shook my head. “No, those are the aurora borealis, the northern lights. The sky does that when the sun hits the atmosphere a certain way near the North Pole.”
Sarah looked at me with a suspicious look.
“Are we near the North Pole? Isn’t that in, like, near New York or something?” she asked.
I laughed. “No, the North Pole is quite a bit north of New York.”
“Oh, well I’m from Louisiana so everything is north of us.”
“Sarah!”
We both turned to see Rose Johnson calling to her granddaughter.
“I’m here, Grams,” Sarah called. ”This man is going to let me charge my phone.”
Mrs. Johnson walked closer. “Is that David?”
“It is, Mrs. Johnson,” I said. “How are you doing?”
“Well enough I suppose, what with being woken up in the middle of the night with all of this,” she said looking up at the sky. “What are you doing out?”
“My phone died and I have a charger in my car.”
Mrs. Johnson fished out a phone from her tattered robe.
“My phone died, too,” she said. “Do you think you could charge mine?”
“Get in line, Grams,” Sarah said. “I already asked him and he said he would do mine next.”
I smiled and nodded. “Sure, if the charger will fit, I’ll get everyone’s up and going.”
I walked toward the car as I hit the unlock button on my key fob. No click. I tried it again and there was the distinct lack of the sound of my doors unlocking. I tried the handle, but the door was locked. I shook my head and unlocked the door with my key.
“David, are you out here?” Mom called.
“He’s out here, Abbey,” Mrs. Johnson said. “He’s going to help us charge our phones with his car.”
“Be careful, David.”
“I will, Mom,” I said as I slid into the driver’s seat. I wasn’t sure what she thought charging a phone entailed, but I would be careful.
I fished out the phone charger from the glove compartment and slipped the bottle of mom’s pills in my pocket since I saw them. I would just have to make sure I didn’t walk close to the little pick-pocket when I went in the house.
I sat back up and jumped as Sarah had moved over to the car and was staring into the windshield with her face almost against the glass.
I thought about reaching over and squirting her with the windshield wiper fluid, but instead I just plugged in the charger and hooked my phone up.
“Did you find the charger?” Sarah asked.
“Yep,” I said as I put the key in the ignition and started the car. Or at least I turned the key. The car didn’t start. Didn’t even try to turn over. I took the key out, looked at it, and tried again. Nothing.
“What’s wrong?” Sarah asked.
“My car won’t start,” I said.
“So can you charge my phone?”
“Not if my car won’t start.”
“But, you said you could charge it.” Her voice had the same whiny quality Emma’s did when she was younger.
“How old are you, Sarah?” I asked.
“Fourteen. Why?”
“How long have you had a cell phone?”
“Since I was in first grade. My mom wanted a way for me to call her in case there was an emergency.”
“I’m going to try my Dad’s car and see if I can get my charger to work. If not, then you will have a story to tell your kids about how you were stuck without your phone for an entire night.”
“Ha ha,” she said. “I really want to take some pictures of the sky and send them to my friend Shelly.”
I closed the door to my car and walked back to the house while laughing at the young girl. Emma was sixteen years old and would have likely made friends with Sarah. They were both bright but naïve girls who focused more on their friends than anything else. I was focused on the growing feeling something horrible had happened. But I wanted to see
if my dad’s car would start before I thought about it too much.
“Mom, where is Dad?”
“He’s in the house. Why?”
“I just need to ask him something,” I said as I left her talking with Mrs. Johnson.
I heard Sarah telling the older women how I wasn’t going to be able to charge her phone as I entered the house. Mom had lit several candles, and the flickering light from their flames combined with the odd colored ribbons in the sky made the house seem more foreign to me than any time before.
“Dad?” I called as I moved through the house.
“In here, Davey,” Dad replied.
I found him in the bathroom holding his electric razor.
“Shaving?”
He looked at me. “No, but I should be able to,” he said.
He clicked the switch on and nothing happened.
“I leave this on the charger and shave with it every morning. Even with the power going out, I should be able to shave completely on the charge.”
He placed the razor back on the charger. “Something odd is going on.”
“I know,” I said. “My phone died and so did Mrs. Johnson’s and her granddaughter’s. And my car won’t start, won’t even kick on.”
“It’s like all electricity just suddenly stopped.” Dad had a very worried look on his face.
“Do you have anything that runs on 9-volts?” I asked.
“Not that I can think of. Why?”
“Just want to see something. What about your smoke detectors?”
Dad snapped his fingers. “Yes, they have 9-volts.”
I walked out of the bathroom and looked down the hallway. I knew there was a smoke detector just outside my bedroom door. I reached up and could feel it.
“Here, stand on this.” Dad had grabbed a small step stool from somewhere. I stepped up on it and pulled down the smoke detector. I quickly removed the battery and touched it to my tongue. The buzz and shock was there as the battery was live.
“Well,” I said as I shook my head. “Batteries are still working. Let’s see if your car will start.”
We walked through the kitchen and into the garage. His large sedan was easy to move around as the ambient light shimmered in through the dirty windows set high on the garage wall.
Dad unlocked the driver’s side door with his key and sat down.
“Here goes,” he said as he turned the key in the ignition. Nothing. Not even the sputtery sounds that would have given me some hope.
“It’s dead, Dad,” I said.
“Yeah, she didn’t even try to start up.”
“Not the car, the world,” I said. “Something horrible has happened and I don’t know what it is, but nothing electrical seems to be working. Which doesn’t make sense, because the battery was fine.”
Dad closed the car door and came over to me.
“You know,” he said as he squeezed my shoulder. “Back when I was in the Navy, they told us about all sorts of weapons that were being designed. One of those was something called an EMP bomb. Electric something or other.”
“An electro-magnetic pulse,” I said.
“Yeah, that sounds right. Anyway, they said if it was to go off, it would fry all the electrical systems but not hurt anyone. It was a way to knock out a city or a defensive position and take the people captive without having to kill them all.”
“I don’t know if that is what happened, though. Look at the sky. It doesn’t look like it was a local event.”
“Maybe, maybe not. But not much we can do about it tonight. Let’s see if we can get some news tomorrow.”
“Sounds like a plan. Wish I could call Lexi and Emma and make sure they are alright.”
“I’m sure they are. They are probably asleep and will see the news tomorrow and try to get ahold of you.”
I nodded. “You’re right, we should get whatever sleep we can. The animals are still freaking out. Don’t know how I will sleep with all of that racket.”
Dad laughed. “You live in Chicago! When we visited, I couldn’t believe how loud it was at night. I didn’t think I could ever get to sleep.”
“I live in Oak Park, Dad. The city itself is much noisier.”
He shook his head and held up his hands. “If you say so, but I constantly heard cars and trucks on the highway. Out here are only the sounds nature provides.”
“Nature is providing plenty of light and sound tonight,” I said. “But I bet I can get back to sleep.”
“I’m normally up about five. What time do you think it is?”
I shrugged. “Don’t know. Sarah said it was about three. She was texting on her phone with some friends when it happened.”
“Sarah?”
“The Johnson’s granddaughter.”
“Oh, yeah. I’ve seen her around a few times. Three is early even for me. I’ll go get your mom and we’ll try to get some sleep.”
“Night, Dad.”
I went back to my room and shut the door. I kicked off my shoes and shrugged out of my jeans. I lay on the bed and tried to sleep, but the room was too bright.
I was worried about Lexi and Emma. Is what happened affecting them? If so, would they be completely freaked out? Or would they sit tight and wait for news? I thought Lexi would be able to handle it, but she had changed so much in the last few years. It wasn’t like I was living with a stranger, but she had changed. We all changed over time. We grew wiser and more set in our ways, more mellow and more short tempered, all the contradictory changes that move us from adolescence into adulthood and towards old age.
But she had changed dramatically in the last few years. She had lost the joy and sparkle in her eye when I would walk in the room. She found ways to spend time alone when she could. I wanted to talk with her about it, but I always felt as if it would crumble apart in my hands if I tried to take hold of it. So I watched it slowly disintegrate. That was the path I was on. I wished someone or something could show me how to stop it from falling apart.
With all of the fear over the events of the night, it was still my personal problems that meandered through my mind as I lay in my old bedroom. Somehow, I managed to fall asleep.
Chapter 3
The next morning wore the appearance of normality. The smell of bacon and coffee told me Mom had cooked breakfast while I slept. I headed to the bathroom to relieve myself and then brush my teeth.
“Morning, Davey,” Dad said as I approached the bathroom. “Toilet isn’t flushing right and the sink has almost no pressure.”
I turned the cold water on in the sink and the water dribbled out. I brushed my teeth and then used the bathroom. The flush was fine, but barely a trickle of water filled the tank again. After a few seconds I realized the main water tank in Kenton was probably empty from the town all participating in their daily morning rituals and the pump that forced the water up was probably off line. I decided even trying for a shower was a useless endeavor and headed to the kitchen for breakfast.
“Morning, dear,” Mom said as she saw me sit at the table. “How do you want your eggs?”
“Scrambled will be fine, Mom,” I said as I looked at the hearty breakfast she had laid out on the table. Bacon, biscuits and gravy, fried potatoes and a cut up cantaloupe made my normal breakfast of a bowl of oatmeal and coffee seem sparse. A cup of coffee and a large glass of orange juice stood ready at my place at the table.
“I think I’m going to walk into town and find out some information,” I told Dad.
He was looking through some old papers he had pulled out of a dirty manila folder.
“Sounds like a good idea, Davey. But I may need you before it gets dark tonight,” he said.
Mom came and took my plate to serve the eggs as I looked closer at the papers Dad held.
“Is that the land deeds for the house?” I asked.
“Yes, and for the Anderson’s old place as well,” he said. “Looking for where their pump was in relation to our house.”
“Pump? I don’t remember
them ever having a pump.”
“They had it sealed up when they got city water. It was a few years before you were born. I helped Charlie cap the well. I still have the old pump itself in the shed.”
I remembered seeing an old pump in Dad’s shed when I was growing up, but I never thought to ask where it came from.
“If we need to access that well, we will have to dig into the soybean field,” I said.
“Why on earth would we need to access a well?” Mom asked as she sat my plate in front of me. “The water will be back on a little later. Just like the power.”
“I’m sure you are right, dear,” Dad said as he flashed her a big smile. “Just part of my silliness, I suppose.”
“Well don’t drag David into your silliness. He is too old and smart to start thinking that way.”
I smiled as I ate my breakfast. It felt like home with Mom and Dad bickering over little things. I realized anything they disagreed about over breakfast was not serious. They never picked at each other about things that couldn’t be changed or were in any way permanent. It was about things that would easily be forgotten within a few hours at the most.
It made me wonder about how I spoke to Lexi. Did I disrupt our time together with issues that stressed her out? Did I question her about things she had no control over?
“David?” Mom asked.
“What?”
“I asked you when you were planning on going into town.”
“Oh. Sorry, got lost in thought there. I’m heading in right after breakfast.”
“Could you swing by and check on Ruth Walters? She lives alone now and I don’t know if anyone will think to check on her with the power out.”
I looked at my plate and was shocked that all of my breakfast had been eaten.
“Yeah, Mom. No problem. Give me her address and I’ll check on her.”
Mom went to look for a paper and pen. When she left the room, my Dad leaned over.
“Did you bring her pills in, last night?”
“Yeah,” I whispered back. “I put them in the second drawer of my dresser.”
“Ok,” he said. “I’ll go look for them. I won’t find any magazines in there, will I?”
“No,” I said as I stood. “That was over twenty years ago. Let it go.”
