Eternal Heat

Chapter 2-2

“… a list sent to me by a friend in Washington, outlining some important four-one-one for all you listeners out there. Keep well hydrated and make sure children and the elderly are also well-hydrated. It will make you cooler.

“Stay out of direct sunlight whenever possible. Use a high SPF sunscreen even if you are already tanned. Even though flipped, the Earth’s magnetic field has yet to form up at the opposite poles. While it’s down, so is UV protection.

“Now, here’s one I didn’t know. Apparently the Earth has a second magnetic field not associated with the poles. Officials think, and should pray by my account, that this field will shield us from dangerous x-rays which pass through everything but stone and metal during the time it takes for the primary field to settle in after flipping.”

Their reaction comes from such things as engineers and techs would know. Emma and Robert stared into each other’s eyes as the possibilities mount.

“People could get sick, lose hair and skin, and not know why,” Emma offers.

“We could lose atmosphere and water from solar winds,” Roberts surprises even himself with this bit of knowledge.

“Like Jillian said, pray the magnetic fields hold,” Emma says soulfully, then, “Do you believe in God?”

He is silent for an awkward moment. She looks to find his gaze off somewhere down the road.

“I… haven’t really spoke to God since Katy, my wife, died three years ago. Pancreatic cancer… it was fast.”

“I didn’t mean to…”

“No, it’s fine. It just really knocked the wind out of me. Jillian couldn’t stay on the ranch much after that, so I had to adjust to life without both of them. This blessed disaster seems to have brought my daughter back home. Funny.”

Emma touches his arm, “I’m so sorry, Robert.”

“It’s also funny that I’m talking to a stranger about all this.”

“It’s okay,” she assures him. “I’ve known Jillian for so long and she talks a lot about you. So, in a way, I feel like I have known you for a good while.”

“So, we were all pretty religious then, prayed over everything. When Katy got sick, I prayed, Jillian did, everybody prayed. I guess the answer was ‘no.’“ He pauses in a thoughtful mist about the past, then asks, “And what about you, Emma? You seem like a churchy kind of girl.”

She politely challenges his remark, “You say that like it’s a bad thing!”

“No, no. It’s just you’ve got this sexy, demure thing going on,” he says, smiling at her with a younger man’s bravado. “But I sense some churchy upbringing.”

“Well, if you must know,” she muses to him. “I was born and raised a Catholic girl. My folks thought I’d end up in hell, coming out to California. Still talk with my folks on the phone and all, but my churching days are well behind me.”

He chuckles a bit, “Everyone’s pissed at God for one reason or another. Hell of a way to face a world disaster.”

“I guess it is,” she says forlornly.

Robert beholds his daughter in a sitting posture, using the Bluetooth devices and slightly hunched over her feather-light laptop, not unlike himself with his amateur radio. She is doing what she loves most, reaching out to people in hopes of being some help to them. She did so during her regular show helping them with affairs of the heart and continues doing a similar manner during this crisis. And while she is in her element, he has to wonder if all the giving has somehow interfered in her own personal life.

“Ro-bert,” Emma drawls out his name and continues when he looks at her, “I need a little personal time with Jillian. Do you mind?”

“Of course not,” he says and withdraws smoothly. “Come and find me when you’re done, and I’ll show you my radio shack. I can watch Jillian working some other time.”

He smiles at her and nonchalantly walks to the front door of his house, whistling for the dog to follow him. Bascom scurries out of the Escalade to follow his master.

Emma opens the passenger door and sits down calmly next to Jillian in the vehicle. While waiting for the right time to speak, she thinks about differing approaches to the subject of Robert, who was thoughtfully out of sight. She resolves that part of her discussion must include the kind of woman she is down deep, not the hot-to-trot image she portraits at work.

“And after the commercial break, I’ve lined up a song package with a sunny disposition just for you,” Jillian ends her on-the-air talk and taps the mute buttons on her earpieces.

“So, I don’t know how to say this,” Emma begins quickly, sounding a little out of breath. “I’m just going to say it. I’m attracted to your dad and I hope that doesn’t upset you, kiddo.”

Jillian looks at her friend, giggling at first, “Upset, me? What, you don’t recognize a setup when you’re part of one?”

Emma scoffs, “And here I thought I was getting lucky with your dad.”

“Oh, you are, sweetie. Daddy isn’t in on my little scheme. He really likes you and I’m just tickled pink.”

“Oh, yeah. Okay. Then you really don’t mind?”

She pats her friend’s arm, “Mind? I’ve been planning this for months. I’m happy for you guys, especially my dad. It’s time that he got on with life. Just don’t have s*x out in the open, is all I ask.”

“Oh, no problems there, which reminds me. I know you know that I date a lot of men.”

Jillian answers with a careful, “Yes?”

“Well, I never get any call backs. I think it’s because I won’t sleep with them on the first date, you know? That seems to make me very unpopular with guys.”

Sensing that her friend is about to tear up, Jillian pulls her into an embrace and rubs her back soothingly, saying, “Oh, I know, sweetie. I know. But it’s going to be okay because my daddy is a real gentleman.”

“I can sense this,” Emma manages through minor stuffiness. “All I ever wanted in a man was someone who’d take the time to get to know me first.”

Jillian releases Emma and prompts her, “Glove box.”

She gathers some Kleenex from inside the hatch and pulls down the vanity mirror from above, dabbing tears from her eyes, “Thank God for waterproof mascara is what I’m saying. I can’t believe you set me up with your father.”

“You may thank me later,” she says glibly, then points to her Bluetooth. “My free time is about up. I’ll be okay here. Go hang out with my dad for a while. He’s dying to show you his radio.”

“’kay,” Emma almost whispers and kisses Jillian on the cheek while heading out of the car door.

Jillian cannot help but notice that her friend bounds lightly to the front door and realizes the good thing she has done for two of her closest people today. With mere seconds before she is back on the air, she compartmentalizes any introspection of her own love life in order to get her head back into the game.

“Welcome back to the Girl Jill Show. I’m Girl Jill. Those of you just joining us are probably aware of the catastrophe facing us all. As of eleven o’clock, Pacific Time, the sun has become stationary in the sky. More to the point, the Earth has quit turning so easily that no one noticed. No one except for yours truly.

“Satellites once in geocentric orbit are out of sight, so GPS and Sat Comm systems have gone bye-bye. I understand from my dad that cell phone towers may soon fall by the same way because they rely on GPS data to maintain their grids? Ah, no, I don’t know how all that works. We’ll just leave that to the communication engineers who are going to have to reprogram the towers to adjust for no GPS, I suppose.”

“Reading off the government list again, please don’t look directly at the sun. People, this ain’t rocket science. Hospitals are admitting patients who are going blind because of staring at the sun. Geez!!!

“Here’s my favorite. Curfews are being recommended for all states and those caught out after dark will be detained. Alright. You’ve been warned! Even though the sun is not going to set, make sure you’re not out after dark!”

Although somewhat anxious to see Robert now that Jillian has given the green light, Emma walks into the foyer at her own pace this time. Marble flooring that looks Italian, and peppered with veins of gold, guide one into the entrance from the front door, with two spiral staircases winding up from the left and the right. Through to the kitchen is the most direct path from the door and there are two doorways off to each side before the kitchen. The pure white walls are tastefully adorned with large photographs and paintings of both people and structures, which lends her to wonder about the Graves’ affairs.

Certainly, she does not know the people, save for Jillian and Robert. The backgrounds of the artwork feature horse stables, large barns, and houses in addition to this main one. They are all absent of address numbers, she happens to notice, but any explicit meaning escapes her. Still, the images pull her up several stairs on the left, halfway to the first landing, all inside an entranceway somewhat staggering now that she takes the time to enjoy it. So many people and circumstances, like young Jillian’s bust with a horse’s head and ribbons, or a gaggle of people on the front porch of some ranch-style home, again, without numbers. The curiosity launching herein is intriguing, but perhaps for another time. Robert is waiting and she is giddy to see him.

He is not found about the massive kitchen, though the lemonade service is still there, so she is hopeful for the pool area and is quickly out the back door. She finds him there, working through the contents of a test kit, being a good steward of the pool.

“Miss me?” Emma walks slowly up to him, hands relaxed by her sides.

He does not look up, closes the kit up and answers with a smile, “Not badly. But yes, I missed you.”

Robert looks at her and finds the woman is practically beaming through self-confidence. He wonders about the sudden difference between now and being so nervous ten minutes ago, then files that thought away as a woman thing.

“Jillian is good on her own for a while, so…” she pauses to look around for her idea of a radio shack, then continues, “This is a good time to show me your radio.”

“Well, let’s go,” he says, indicating a line of travel that begins near the flower garden and back at the sundial, “It’s some distance from the house to keep the intermediate radio frequency interference down.”

He has already sat down in a two-seater ATV, looking at Emma, who seems a bit perplexed, she says, “I’m confused. I thought we were going to your HAM shack?”

“Oh, we are,” he says graciously, pointing over the rise behind the flower garden. “It’s about a mile that way. You wanna walk it?”

She immediately sits and he starts the engine, owing her continued misperception to the day’s event. It is starting to get warm out in the open sun and the coming breeze from the open vehicle is welcome. Emma is grateful for the quietly humming engine, never one to cherish having to shout over engine noise. They head off along the slight upgrade of a perfectly smooth, dirt road with cut grass to either side.

“Robert. If you don’t mind me asking, just how big is your ranch?”

He smiles while keeping his attention mostly on driving, “Do you want that in miles or acres?”