Ninety Degrees Out

The house shook, and the glass he left on the table skittered across the surface like a free dancing figure skater. Alicia reached out to catch it as it took the plunge toward his kitchen floor.

Jazz sat, pointing his muzzle to the ceiling, and howled as they turned to rush back into the great room. A boom echoed, and the floor shook, bouncing as if were on the end of a bungee cord.

“Mommy, mommy,” Arimina screamed.

“It’s okay, it’s okay sweetie. It’s just an earthquake.”

“A bad one at that. That must be at least a 6, maybe more,” Chay said. “Let’s get out of here. I don’t think we’re in any danger, I’ve built with quakes in mind.”

“What happened to the ice dam? Can we go look?” Alicia asked as she rocked her daughter in a tight hug. “And why didn’t Jazz warn us this was coming?”

“My thoughts exactly on the ice dam. Let me make sure the power’s going to stay on while you get your boots on Arimina,” Chay said. He went to check the breakers in his garage. None of them had popped. Coming into the front hall he waved his guests toward the back door beside his fireplace. “As to why Jazz didn’t warn us about the quake coming, I’ll bet it’s because of the flip. He’s as confused as we are.”

Alicia nodded, “It will mess with the migrating birds, and any animal that uses the magnetic fields for navigation. I wonder what’s happening with the whales.”

Chay nodded before he spoke. “We’ll go out the back. I want to show you where the path to your place is in any case. If the roads are going to flood and mud is a problem, you’ll be able to get here by walking along the canyon.”

Chay stabbed at his cell phone screen and called his brother. He had to know if he was safe.

“You okay?”

“Yup, you?”

“I’m on my way out to see if the ice dam shook loose. I can’t believe I got through to you so quick.”

“Damn lucky, call volumes were settling when I called Dad a few minutes ago. Wait five minutes and service will be unavailable again. I warned my guys about the blockage before the quake. We’re ready for the creek to go nuts. Kids are in the house, and they’re staying there. We have no damage, but that was a big one.”

“We’re good here too. I’m heading over to Alicia’s place after this. I’m not sure how those big plate glass windows on the Markham place held up.” Chay remembered what it was that bothered him about the renos he watched during the summer. He saw Alicia nod at his comment and mouth the words, me too.

“As long as Armaruq has your little ones safe, I’m good. Those two are a handful.”

“Our wife should be back soon. I hope she can find her way. She headed up to Redoubt to pick up the group studying the rumbles we’ve had for the last few weeks yesterday.” Hakan replied.

“Fingers crossed. She’s a smart pilot. At least it’s clear, the clouds are gone, and she can fly by sight if she needs too.”

“Who the hell is Alicia?” His brother sounded puzzled.

“She won one of the grants the university was giving out to zoologists. She’s up here to study the polar bears.”

“Shit, she’s going to flood if that ice dam doesn’t break.”

Chay knew his brother was right. “I’ll let you know what’s up as soon as get my eyes on it.”

Chay hung up, a waved at Alicia to follow him, snapping his fingers for Jazz. His faithful dog at his heels, he stopped long enough to pull on his rubber boots and watched as Arimina pulled hers over neon pink socks.

“Ready?” he asked.

“Can we leave our stuff here? It’s getting pretty hot out there.” Alicia stripped her sweater off tossing it on the bench beside the back door. Her daughter’s pink down parka was already there.

“Me too?” Arimina tugged her turtleneck up, but it stuck as she struggled to get it over her chin.

“Hang on a sec, I’ll help you get it off,” Chayton said as he tugged it over her face.

“Was that an earthquake?” Arimina asked as soon as her sweater cleared her mouth. “Is it going to happen again?”

Chay threw her sweater beside her mothers. “We shouldn’t have another one that strong. But there will be aftershocks.”

“I don’t like them. They scare me.” Arimina declared.

Yanking the door open, he motioned them through into the air lock, closing the inner barrier. Opening the outer door, he whistled, and Jazz launched out, disappearing into the forest. It had only been an hour since he’d jogged down the path, but it was mushy now, with the squishing suck of muskeg pulling at their boots. He stopped as he reached the edge of the forest, realizing the spruce and quaking aspen had shed their winter burden of snow.

He knew he had one grizzly den on the property, and he whistled for Jazz. Two sharp high-pitched notes brought him trotting out of the underbrush with mud up to his belly.

“Jazz, guard!”

His command was sharp and the Malawolf sat between the forest and his guests where the path disappeared between the trees.

“Stay here, I’ve got to go back and get my cow bell as well as a gun. I’ve got a bear den on my property, and we have no idea what this did to their hibernation.”

“What does he mean, mommy?” Arimina asked. “Did the earthquake wake the bear?”

“I’ll explain while he goes to get the things we need.” Alicia spotted a moss-covered log and pulled her daughter over to sit.

“I’ll be right back. Jazz is a great bear dog, and he knows what to do to scare them away.”

Shit, shit, shit. I should have remembered Ursa’s den. She’s probably got a couple of cubs by now. Tiny too. She going to be bitchy and protective if she wakes up early, and with it this hot, she’s going to wake up. Hopefully not today. Please the Creator not today.

Chay sprinted the path back to the house scooping up the cow bell from the shelf by the outer door. Reaching up over the storage cabinet he pulled his shot gun down, loaded it with slugs, and flipped the safety on after chambering the first shell. He hoped he didn’t have to use it, especially not on a sow, but better safe than sorry.

Astrophysics might be a nerdy profession, but he had to be in shape to deal with life in Alaska. Speaking of work, he knew exactly what his next project was. Stick the radio signal work on the back burner, he needed to find out what the hell had happened to Earth’s magnetic fields. Were the poles still to the north? He didn’t want to turn on the news. Radio or otherwise, it wasn’t going to be good. Flooding on the coasts would be incredible. He couldn’t imagine what it was like to be awake when the flip happened.

Slinging the shotgun over his shoulder, he began to jog back to meet his neighbor. At least Jazz wasn’t kicking up a fuss, so no bear. Yet.

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Arimina’s questions always came at the worst times. But her vow to herself was never to belittle them or keep information from her daughter. Remembering the first time she read a book to her, when she was beginning to talk, she thought of her own dismay when she realized Arimina was equally as intelligent as she was.

After only a month of nightly bedtime stories, her toddler was reading. At first, she thought it was memory, but the day she brought half a dozen new books home from the second-hand store down the street, and her child read them perfectly she knew her daughter was special.

“Why would the bear wake up early?” Arimina repeated her question. “I would wake up from an earthquake. It scared me.”

Alicia wrapped an arm around her daughter, keeping half an eye on Jazz where he stood. The dog was staring intently into the trees. His nose wrinkling as he sniffed the breeze.

“Because even though we are still in Alaska, sometime over the last 24 hours, while we were sleeping our planet did a tumble. Do you remember the globe in your room?”

“Um, I think so.”

“Remind me to show you how it is now when we get home.”

“Okay, but because of how hot it’s getting, and the sun is out, when we were dark all the time before, the bear will think it’s spring.”

Arimina’s forehead wrinkled as she concentrated on what her mother had told her about bears. Explaining the polar bear project, and why they were moving away from their family, hadn’t been easy. God knows she missed her mother and free weekend babysitting as much as her kid did.

“That’s right, and the earthquake didn’t help either,” Alicia told her daughter.

A low warning growl rumbled from Jazz, and Alicia looked up to see him pacing along the edge of the trees. The muddy path between the dark green spruces was clear, but she could hear twigs snapping. Was that bear awake?

Where the hell was Chay?