Ninety Degrees Out

“Gotcha!” Kallik screamed.

Jazz pounced, knocking the sturdy six-year-old boy backward into the straw bedding in an empty stall. He licked the boys face until he brought his hands up to push the huge Malawolf away.

“Get him Jazz,” Arimina yelled.

“Yeah, get him,” Alasie shouted at the same time.

“Jazz leave him alone,” Killika commanded. “Go find a rabbit to chase.” The dog yipped once and disappeared out the barn door.

Killika bent over to grab her nephew by the collar and hauled him to his feet. Tall for his age, the boy shook her off and stood looking at her with an unabashed grin spread across his face. His lower front teeth were missing, and she could see the new ones breaking through the gums. His black hair was messy, with bits of straw stuck in his thick shaggy bangs.

“I know it’s fun to scare the pants off your cousin, but you didn’t make a good impression on Arimina at all. You need to treat your guests with more care, Kallik.”

“Yes, Aunty.” Kallik’s eyes sparkled with suppressed mischief.

“Go clean up. It’s almost lunch time. You can come out here and help your father clean the stalls. In fact, you can start on them right after lunch. He’s helping your Uncle Chay change out the skis on the airplanes for floats.”

“But I want to go with grandpa!”

“You can’t now,” Killika said. She said it as sternly as she could.

“But I want to see mom,” Kallik’s voice quivered a bit.

“She’ll be back tomorrow.” Alicia said. “And Arimina, you will help do dishes after lunch. All Kallik did was surprise you. You’re lucky Jazz knew it and didn’t bite him. Never use a command like that unless you are truly in danger.”

“Alasie will help you. You’re big enough to load the dishwasher and clear the table now.” Killika met Alicia’s eyes with new respect for the woman. She liked her no-nonsense attitude. “Now let’s go inside and get ready to eat.”

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

“How was your day?” Chay was splayed out on his couch, watching the local news. He muted the drone of the reporter and the litany of death tolls and damages around the world.

“I like your sister. I like your brother too. How does that work between him, Armaruq, and Kanti? I could swear little Asiaq is a double for your sister.”

“You caught that did you?” Chay considered how much to tell her and decided he might as well get it over with. If Alicia turned her nose up at their unusual relationship, then he’d keep things cooler with her, and only offer friendship.

“It’s hard not to notice if you’ve got eyes in your head,” Alicia watched him through half lowered eyelids.

“They’re married. The three of them are a unit, and no one cares who fathered which child. Kanti is a generous soul with a heart as big as Denali. And they have been inseparable since they met in grade school.”

“Okay, then. What ever works for them. The kids sure miss their mom, and they call Armaruq Dad and Hakan Papa. It’s kind of cute to see how they make a family.”

“I’m the odd man out. My siblings have families and kids, me I’ve never pulled my head out of the stars long enough to find someone special.” Chay admitted, and almost slapped his hand over his mouth. Where had that come from?

“Me neither. I was always so much younger than everyone around me, they treated me like a kid sister. No one ever got close enough and the couple of guys I went out with, dropped me like a hot potato when I challenged their idiot ideas with solid science. I found out how insecure men can be around a really intelligent woman.”

“I like it, in fact, I love women who have the confidence to argue with me because I got it wrong.” Chay told Alicia.

“Turn the news up, I want to know how bad it is. I want to know what we’re going to have to do to survive this. With the flooding along the coasts, and power plants failing all over the world, we’re going to need to consider solar, wind and geo-thermal to get us what we need.” Alicia said as she slid over closer to him and reached for his hand.

“I know the big Aswan dam failed, Lake Mead is threatening to burst because of the quakes along the San Andreas fault, every fault line and volcano in the world is threatening. Only the mid-continent populations are safe, and that’s if they were ready for the freeze when they shifted. Europe should survive okay, but China is in trouble, spanned over the top of the north pole now.”

“No source of computer chips, so that’s another problem,” Alicia slipped her fingers between his.

“You make a great point about electrical energy. We’re going to need cooling, even if it’s only fans to help keep the air moving.”

Chay felt like a teenager sitting on his parent’s sofa thinking about stealing a kiss from his first girlfriend. He pulled Alicia a little closer to him and slipped his arm around her shoulders, to cuddle her closer. He found himself reluctant to push further and enjoyed the feeling of her breast as it lay against his ribs. His leg heated where their jeans touched.

“Did you figure out where the magnetic field ended up?”

“The north pole is almost directly in center of the Gobi Desert. My Chinese counterparts are in agreement there. It’s funny the Russian’s aren’t as badly affected, but their southern ports along the Black Sea are flooding. Lake Aral is filling rapidly from the tundra melt.”

“Listen to that, death tolls along the coasts are getting close to the one billion mark. The roads to higher ground are clogged with stalled cars, and two major pipelines through the lower US have shut down to avoid further spills.” Alicia shook her head, the wrinkles on her forehead deepening. “It makes the COVID pandemic look like peanuts.”

“More ominous? The super volcano under Yellowstone is showing activity for the first time in recorded history. So are the two others. We’re going to have a volcanic ash winter if they go up. So far, the volcanoes are erupting magma with very little ash. But if the big ones go…”

Chay let his voice trail off into silence. He wasn’t a natural worrier, but the rumbling on Redoubt and all the other local volcanoes had him concerned.

“We’re lucky we’re so close to the equator now. It might be the only place on Earth where people can survive what’s coming.”

Alicia reached for the remote and turned the monitor off. Lifting her eyes to Chay’s, she traced his lips with her index finger.

“Enough of the gloom and doom.” Chay’s voice deepened as he caught Alicia’s deep brown gaze. He never noticed till this second, she had tiny flecks of light gold close to her pupils, and then her eyelids fluttered closed as she brushed her lips over his.