“And did it belong to Ray’s father’s father?”
“She’s not that old.”
“It gives new meaning to May-December romance, Jesse.”
Jesse shook his head, smoothed his hand over the truck door. “Everyone will be jealous.”
Bret rolled her eyes. “Oh, yeah, we’ll be the envy of all our friends.”
“See.” He gloated. “You see it now?”
“Are you fixing it?”
“Fixing what?”
“The body.”
“It’s in perfect condition.” Jesse lifted a finger as he instructed her. “They stopped making them.”
“I see why. It has got to be the most God-awful vehicle I have ever seen.”
Jesse’s mouth dropped open. “That is so wrong. You know what? Take a ride.” He opened the door.
“Ha!” She scoffed. “Get into that. No way. Where are you parking it?”
“Right here.”
“I don’t think so. That truck is the type people drove to the food line during the Great Depression.”
“So much you know. People who were poor didn’t have trucks like this back then. So there.” He nodded.
“Yeah, well, people who are poor have trucks like this now. So there.” She nodded back. “Move it to the alley.”
“Bret.”
“I hate it.” With folded arms Bret walked away. But his showing up with that truck wasn’t her shock. She ended up loving that truck. That came when Jesse decided it was too much of a pain in the ass to park that behemoth of a vehicle and sold it…to a collector for eight thousand dollars.
That was shock number one. The second came two days before Memorial Day in the mail. Mail she didn’t get when Luke grabbed it, and without thinking, carried it to his room. There it stayed until she collected his empty soda cans on Monday.
There were reasons it was a shock. Things seemed back to normal ecologically. But mainly, why was it mailed to her? Finding that envelope was a sign.
In her hurried state, trying to get the house cleaned, macaroni salad done and the kids gathered so they could head to her sister’s picnic, it was a normal holiday.
Three soda cans in hand, she spotted the stack of mail on top of Luke’s television. “Oh, here’s my cable bill. I’m killing him.” she said as the large golden brown envelope caught her attention. Getting a grip on the mail, she saw the return address. Africa. ‘D. Cobb’. Immediately she took the envelope into her bedroom. Jesse was in there getting dressed.
“What’s that?” he asked.
“From Darius.” Focused, she opened the envelope. “Feels like pictures.”
“Is he back from Africa?”
“This is from Africa.” She slid the contents out onto her bed. The exposed edges indicated there were indeed photos in there. Also inside was a sealed white envelope addressed to Bret and a hand written note clipped to the pictures.
The handwritten one read: You will find these disturbing. But they are a must see for our cause. I need you to research. Is this out yet? More in my letter. Darius.
Perhaps she should have read the other letter first. She gasped when her eyes set upon the first picture. Mounds upon mounds of bodies, men, women, children. They all looked the same; though the pictures were black and white, clearly their skin was unevenly toned, blotched. Their eyes were wide, their mouths agape, and dark tears, as if blood, flowed from their eyes.
Plague. A new virus? That was the first thought that hit her.
She couldn’t help it. She stared at each picture, growing more frightened by the moment. Gasping, whimpering.
“What the hell is he sending you?” Jesse snatched the pictures from her hand. “Something is not right with this guy.”
“Jesse, please.”
“No, Bret, please. What is this? It’s morbid.”
“It’s reality.” She peered up with sad eyes. “This is where he went. This is happening there.”
“What? What happened?”
She shook her head, and then with a trembling hand grabbed the envelope and opened the other letter.
It wasn’t the plague at all.
His letter read: “Bret: I hope that you opted to open this letter first; if curiosity got the best of you, I apologize. These pictures are deathly vulgar, but they speak a truth. I hope the envelope arrived intact. When I received the call about this situation in Africa, I was able to investigate because it deals with my field of specialty. Never did I expect the magnitude I witnessed. Obviously, the situation had decayed in the mere two days it took me to reach the town. Right now, as I compose this—well protected from what took the lives of those in the photos—another fifty have passed on. They are dropping like flies on a daily basis. On those lines, so are the birds, monkeys, and any other air-breathing creature. By the time you receive this letter, I am certain I will be preparing to return home, leaving a dead area, and witness to over five hundred lost lives. I give thanks to God that this area is remote. What killed these people wasn’t an illness of nature, but nature itself. Radiation poisoning….”
Darius went on to say how it wasn’t an explosion. In laymen’s terms he told of how the radiation had made its way through a vulnerability brought on by a current magnetic reversal our world was experiencing. It hit instantly, the radiation of fifty Hiroshima bombs detonating without the explosion.
An isolated area.
He also explained why he sent her the envelope. She had no scientific background or association with a university. Just on the chance the Africa incident was meant to be kept a secret, her mail was the safest and stood the least chance of being scrutinized.
He included sheets of data that he’d collected. He requested she make copies of everything, secure a set, and distribute the rest to Colin, Chuck and Virginia so everyone could review and contemplate them. Bret was to find out if the story had leaked at all to the public. Darius called it their evidence, and ended his letter with a line that would forever stay with her.
If it happened here…it could happen anywhere. This is scary, Bret. I believe we are in trouble.
***
Bret’s mind wasn’t on the family picnic at all. Her actions, her lack of speaking gave it away. That and the fact that she snapped out, “Kiss my ass, Jesse.” As they walked into the backyard of her sister’s home and walked in separate directions, she kept true to her word to John and yelled out, “but I love you.”
Jesse gave her an odd look, thought she was being her usual sarcastic self and kept walking away.
How many times did she hear, “Are you okay? You aren’t talking.” How many times did she want to reply, “No, I’m not. I think the world is ending.”? Her family thought her crazy enough; she didn’t need to add fuel to their fire.
That envelope didn’t leave her side. Luke commented she looked ridiculous wearing the backpack, but all the copies were in there. Though Jesse wouldn’t let her drop off copies to Colin, she was able to convince him to go to the copy store en route to the picnic.
Why was Jesse so angry? She wondered.
“It’s Memorial Day, Bret!” he shouted in the car. “Not fuckin’ death day. Drop it!”
End of that discussion. She vowed that unless it had something to do with work, kids, or keep her promise to John, she wasn’t speaking to Jesse.
He was so bitter about it all. Bret had her theory. Jesse was angry because he was frightened. Life was finally going his way, and there she was with some influential scientists stating that the world neared extinction.
Bret rambled. She rattled with enthusiasm, between ‘quit hitting your sister,’ and ‘I can’t wait until the meeting’. What started out as a simple conversation where she was trying to impress Jesse with her budding scientific mind turned into a heated moment that could have exploded far worse than any volcanic eruption.
“Cosmic radiation,” she explained to him.
“What’s that?”
“It’s when the rays of the sun make it through the prot
ective layer of our atmosphere.”
“Like the hole in the ozone layer.”
“Sort of. But the cosmic radiation rays found a weak spot. Darius says there are lots of them now. The sun is what’s causing this.”
“Causing what?”
“What’s happening to the earth. Virginia is convinced it’s the sun. Solar flares.”
“Dude,” Luke poked his head between the front seats. “I saw this show once about a solar flare. It zapped out earth. Burned it completely. But that was right before the sun went nova.”
Bret whistled. “If the sun goes nova we’re all in deep shit. But we wouldn’t know about it.”
“So all those people in Africa,” Luke asked, “were killed by radiation?”
“Yep.” she answered. “Darius says it will happen again. Anywhere, any time.”
“What else?” Luke asked.
“The bugs, this is the beginning.”
“To?” he questioned further.
“He has a theory. Many. The data collected now will confirm one of those theories. I don’t even want to start thinking about them until they know for sure which way we’re headed,” she said. “Once they figure that out, we’ll be able to know what’s coming up.”
“Are you gonna talk about this at your meeting?” Luke asked.
“Yes.”
Jesse mumbled. “Doomsday meeting.”
Bret shrugged. “Possibly.”
“Can I go?” Luke asked. “Can I sit in?”
“I don’t see why not,” she replied. “I’d prefer not to take the girls. Casper, Andi, you don’t mind, do you? I can fill you in, though.”
Casper responded. “Um, I don’t think I want to know what’s going to happen, Mom.”
“Me either.” Andi added.
“Suit yourself,” Bret said. “Me and Luke will be there. It’ll be fun.”
Jesse’s foot hit the break.
“Is something wrong?” Bret asked him.
“Fun?” he said. “Fun?” his voice raised more. “This end-of-the-world talking is fun?”
“Well, I.…”
“Listen to you. Do you hear yourself?”
“It’s those pictures,” she defended. “They got me excited.”
Wrong choice of words.
“Excited?!” he shouted.
She hunched. “In a bad way. Bad way. Geez. Are you sure we can’t go to Colin’s? He doesn’t live far from.…”
“No!” Jesse yelled.
Bret closed off her ear. “Yell, why don’t you?” she muttered.
Luke snickered.
“No, Bret,” he ranted. “Cosmic radiation. Solar flare-ups.”
“Flares.”
“Whatever. You’re scaring the kids. Stop it.”
Bret snickered. “The kids could care less. They aren’t scared. I think I’m scaring you. Today.…” That was all she spoke. Jesse shouted out the line that brought forth total silence in the car.
“Today is Memorial Day. Take a break. Drop it.”
She did.
***
“You remember Chuck, don’t you?” Colin asked Virginia when she met them in the parking lot of the weather station.
“Of course I do.” She smiled politely, shook Chuck’s hand, and led them into the plain gray concrete building.
A simple check-in with a normal security guard came first, then off to an elevator that took them down three stories.
“Why the basement?” Colin asked. “Seems kid of weird for a weather station to be underground.”
“It was a bunker at one time.” Virginia answered. “Of course we could have it upstairs, but we wouldn’t be able to track incoming missiles as well. What better place to be.”
After a brief look at Chuck, Colin shrugged.
Virginia opened the door. “Here we are.”
“Nice set up.” Chuck commented.
The large room had two men working. Computers were set up at various workstations. They viewed maps on large-screen monitors. At least ten monitors lined a counter while the printing of data continuously filled the air like background music.
Virginia explained, “The images continually switch. Every ten seconds.” She pointed to one monitor. “Like.…” The image switched. “Now.”
“What if you want to see one?”
“Just pull it up.” She replied.
Chuck’s finger swirled around the screen. “The multi colors, are those weather patterns?”
“Actually, right now, on these four screens.” Virginia said. “Stew here is monitoring polarity. Like here.…” She pointed. “This red area is switching.”
“Looks like a cyclone.” Chuck said.
“It’ll be gone in a second.”
Virginia was right. The red circle was gone, and she said, “It’s Mother Earth reacting to the sun. Change in magnetic fields are normal.”
Stew, the tech, spoke up. “This isn’t.”
Virginia rushed past three monitors. “What do you have?” she asked.
“Northern Canada.” Stew replied. “Check it out.”
“Whoa.” Virginia commented.
“Whoa.” Colin repeated sarcastically then turned to Chuck “Whoa would be her scientific reaction to this very large red circle that takes up half of Canada.”
“Now what would be happening there because of this?” Chuck asked.
“Good question,” Virginia answered. “Stew, anything?”
Stew shook his head. “We have a sub up in that area. Nothing coming in.”
“Got something now.” Bill, the other technician, spoke. He ripped off a piece of paper. “They sent a watch.” He typed in the coordinates.
“Bring it up over here.” Virginia requested.
Stew did. “Okay, our area.”
Colin observed. “Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. I’m not up on this, but I see nothing.”
Virginia appeared puzzled “Strange. Bill? Anything else? That’s a large area.”
Bill shook his head. “I’m not seeing what they’re talking about. Things are clear as a bell, even on weather.…” his head jerked to the right to the three printers spewing out data. “What the hell.” He peered at the headers. “From three other subs.”
Stew just shook his head. “What are they saying?”
“What’s this black dot?” Chuck pointed. “It’s moving.”
“Glitch?” Colin suggested.
“Cloud?” Chuck guessed.
Stew shook his head “Not the right color. I’ll zoom in.” With a few clicks, he brought the image closer. “This is a large mass…shit. It’s in the air.”
Virginia aimed her voice to Bill. “What are they saying?”
Bill’s head slowly shook. “Can’t understand. This doesn’t make much sense.”
Stew added, “This one dot isn’t alone. Look…one here and here.…”
Bill slid the papers Stew’s way then looked at the monitor. “Those are the areas we got reports from.”
“What are the masses?” Virginia asked.
Colin laid his hand on Stew’s shoulder. “Can you concentrate on one? This one here.” He indicated. “It’s close to Pittsburgh. Give me a general area, and get in close.”
“I’ll try.” Stew replied.
“May I?” Colin reached for the papers and lifted them.
“Whatever this mass is, it’s slowing and looks like it may stall south of Pittsburgh.” Stew said.
“How far south?” Colin asked.
“Five miles.”
“Let’s call Bret,” Colin said. “To see if she sees anything. Something that large is gonna be visual very short.…” his paused, looked at the paper, then to the screen again. “Shit. Magnetic field disturbance.” He laid down the paper and lifted his phone. “I know what that is.”
***
The pickle protruded from the edge of the hamburger bun. It caught Bret’s eye and she found herself staring at it. Round, off edge, sort of like the earth was.
&nbs
p; “Something wrong with the pickle?” her sister Aggie asked.
“Huh?” Bret snapped out of her daze.
“Bug?” She snickered. “Whoops. Wrong word.”
“Ha ha ha. No. The pickle is fine. I was staring at it and the burger.”
“Can I ask why?”
“It’s there.”
“Okay,” she said.
“You know, ground meat alone doesn’t really hold together.”
“Not well. You need eggs, bread crumbs.”
“True,” Bret said. “We take for granted when we buy a hamburger that there is something inside of it that will make it firm and stay together,” she rambled. “But say the cook starts taking out a little of those bread crumbs and eggs each week, just a little. We won’t notice the gradual change. Before we know it, eventually he’d omit all the eggs and breadcrumbs and the hamburger will…fall apart.”
Aggie just stared.
“So many questions over this,” Bret said.
“The hamburger?”
Bret nodded. “Could we have stopped it if there was a way? On the other hand, had it progressed too far before we had a chance to notice it? Is the hamburger salvageable? If it isn’t and there’s no way to save it, can we still eat the hamburger? Yes, but it isn’t a hamburger anymore. It’s just ground beef. However…if it forever stays that way, generations to come will never know the hamburger the way we know the hamburger. Make sense?”
Aggie exhaled, stood up, and aimed her voice across the yard. “Jesse! Bret is really gone.” She walked away.
Her eyes strayed to where Aggie darted. The kids were across the yard, diving in and out of the pool. Bret was chilled, and swimming was not an option.
“I understood, Mom.” Luke sat down.
“You did?”
“You were making an analogy to what’s happening.”
“Yes, I was.”
He nodded and winked. “A little advice. You have to let people know you’re making an analogy or you won’t make sense.”
Bret started to laugh but stopped when her phone rang. “You have a point,” she said and grabbed the phone. “Hello?
A high-pitched whistle, like feedback, rang out.
Bret cringed, pulled the phone away and then heard her name.
Torn Page 10
