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Tessa
“Mom, I can’t find the remote!”
Tessa dropped the laundry basket onto the cedar chest at the foot the king-sized bed. Moose collapsed on the carpet by her feet, huffing as he closed his eyes.
“It was one flight of stairs,” Tessa teased the English chocolate lab. “What are you going to do when your dad gets back and drags you out on runs again?” Moose opened one eye and stared at her with his tail thumping at some of his favorite words.
“Mom,” Emily’s high-pitched whine drifted up the stairs. “The T.V. isn’t working and I can’t find the remote anywhere.”
“Where did you put it last?” Tessa pulled out the faded blue t-shirt with the embossed Navy Corpsman letters stamped across the front that had somehow avoided the washing machine for the past six months. Three more days. She smoothed out the wrinkles and folded it against the bed. Three more long days, but then he’d be home from deployment and she was taking a kid-free vacation somewhere. She always said it, but this time she was…
“Mom!”
“I’m coming.” Tessa left the unfolded laundry in the basket. Moose groaned as he stood up again and dutifully followed her back down the stairs.
“Did you check the couch cushions?”
“Uh huh.” Emily nodded, her red and unruly curls bouncing on her head. “Peppa Pig is gone and I didn’t touch any buttons or anything.”
“You lost Peppa too?” Tessa’s jaw dropped in mock horror.
Belly giggles erupted from the girl. “No. Peppa went away when the man came on T.V.”
“Well then let’s go see if we can make him go away.” Tessa laughed as she reached for her daughter’s hand.
Toys littered the light blue and white checkered rug that stretched out across the stone tile floor. It was a miracle they’d found a rental with carpeted bedrooms in Southern California since every builder seemed obsessed with tile. Honestly, it was a miracle they’d found a rental at all in this market. A whole house to clean just to watch your kids destroy it.
“Did you drop it in the toy box when you pulled all this out?”
“I already looked there,” Emily said.
“Did you check in the…” Tessa’s voice trailed off as she stared at the television screen. The volume was turned down, but the local news anchor sat at his desk, moving his mouth with urgency. A red emergency alert banner ran across the top of the frame with the warning: This is not a drill. Shelter in place orders are now in effect.
“Mommy.” Emily tugged at her hand. The color drained from Tessa’s face as she watched the screen in confusion, trying to make sense of the words.
“Go find the remote.”
“But I don’t know where it is.” Emily stomped her foot on the floor and sent the Barbie dream car flying across the rug until it smacked into a half-naked Ken doll with his arms bent behind his back. Her eyes widened when she realized what she’d done. But Tessa didn’t scold her for the tantrum. She moved in a trance to the television and pressed the plus sign for the volume.
“I repeat, Governor Ronan has ordered that all residents are to stay at home until service centers are established. Help will be coming soon for those who need it. Stay off the roads to keep them clear for first responders and aid workers. Jeanie, have we got Doctor Mitchell on the line yet?”
The screen darkened and a loud beeping blared through the house from the television and the phone on the kitchen counter from the national Emergency Alert System explaining that this was, in fact, not a drill and “Stay at home orders are in effect.” Emily screamed at the sudden sound, clamping her hands over her ears, and Tessa ran her fingers through the girl’s hair to soothe her even as her own heart began to race. The news program returned and her phone buzzed on the counter with its familiar ring.
“Peppa Pig?” Emily asked hopefully as Tessa sprinted toward the kitchen. Landon was with a Marine Expeditionary Unit as a hospital corpsman for his Marines and traveling home by ship from Hawaii. It was the first time in six months she’d left the phone out of reach. He wouldn’t call her until they were stateside and got service again. She knew that. Yet, the familiar panic at missing one of his calls sent her sliding in socks across the tile floor and ripping the phone from the charger.
She bypassed theemergency alert notification on the screen, punching the green answer button with the pad of her finger, and barely registered the 208 Idaho area code. It’s not him. She pressed the box against her ear and ran back to the living room.
“Christ, Tessa. I’ve called you fifteen times in the past two hours.” The gruff voice blasted through the speaker of the phone as the screen on the television split into two, one video with the news anchor adjusting his microphone and the second screen showing a woman in a red blouse who was yanking her hair into a ponytail. Dr. Mitchell the credentials at the bottom of her screen said.
“Dad?” Tessa pulled the phone back from her ear, checking the digits again to see the landline number from the sheriff’s office.
“I need you to listen to me,” he said.
The news anchor stared at the doctor. Tessa focused on her too, ignoring whatever her father was about to say. “Thank you for joining us on such short notice. Can you explain what is happening with this solar flare?”
“It’s not just solar flares. The solar flares and extra activity we saw over the past twenty or so hours are what we would normally consider typical if not a bit intense solar storm. This is something different. It’s a coronal mass ejection which in the simplest terms is an explosion of plasma and magnetic field from the sun. Our SOHO satellite at Lagrange Point 1 registered the first of the CMEs heading earth’s way about three hours ago.”
