I thought about reaching over and squirting her with the windshield wiper fluid, but instead I just plugged in the charger and hooked my phone up.
“Did you find the charger?” Sarah asked.
“Yep,” I said as I put the key in the ignition and started the car. Or at least I turned the key. The car didn’t start. Didn’t even try to turn over. I took the key out, looked at it, and tried again. Nothing.
“What’s wrong?” Sarah asked.
“My car won’t start,” I said.
“So can you charge my phone?”
“Not if my car won’t start.”
“But, you said you could charge it.” Her voice had the same whiny quality Emma’s did when she was younger.
“How old are you, Sarah?” I asked.
“Fourteen. Why?”
“How long have you had a cell phone?”
“Since I was in first grade. My mom wanted a way for me to call her in case there was an emergency.”
“I’m going to try my Dad’s car and see if I can get my charger to work. If not, then you will have a story to tell your kids about how you were stuck without your phone for an entire night.”
“Ha ha,” she said. “I really want to take some pictures of the sky and send them to my friend Shelly.”
I closed the door to my car and walked back to the house while laughing at the young girl. Emma was sixteen years old and would have likely made friends with Sarah. They were both bright but naïve girls who focused more on their friends than anything else. I was focused on the growing feeling something horrible had happened. But I wanted to see if my dad’s car would start before I thought about it too much.
“Mom, where is Dad?”
“He’s in the house. Why?”
“I just need to ask him something,” I said as I left her talking with Mrs. Johnson.
I heard Sarah telling the older women how I wasn’t going to be able to charge her phone as I entered the house. Mom had lit several candles, and the flickering light from their flames combined with the odd colored ribbons in the sky made the house seem more foreign to me than any time before.
“Dad?” I called as I moved through the house.
“In here, Davey,” Dad replied.
I found him in the bathroom holding his electric razor.
“Shaving?”
He looked at me. “No, but I should be able to,” he said.
He clicked the switch on and nothing happened.
“I leave this on the charger and shave with it every morning. Even with the power going out, I should be able to shave completely on the charge.”
He placed the razor back on the charger. “Something odd is going on.”
“I know,” I said. “My phone died and so did Mrs. Johnson’s and her granddaughter’s. And my car won’t start, won’t even kick on.”
“It’s like all electricity just suddenly stopped.” Dad had a very worried look on his face.
“Do you have anything that runs on 9-volts?” I asked.
“Not that I can think of. Why?”
“Just want to see something. What about your smoke detectors?”
Dad snapped his fingers. “Yes, they have 9-volts.”
I walked out of the bathroom and looked down the hallway. I knew there was a smoke detector just outside my bedroom door. I reached up and could feel it.
“Here, stand on this.” Dad had grabbed a small step stool from somewhere. I stepped up on it and pulled down the smoke detector. I quickly removed the battery and touched it to my tongue. The buzz and shock was there as the battery was live.
“Well,” I said as I shook my head. “Batteries are still working. Let’s see if your car will start.”
We walked through the kitchen and into the garage. His large sedan was easy to move around as the ambient light shimmered in through the dirty windows set high on the garage wall.
Dad unlocked the driver’s side door with his key and sat down.
“Here goes,” he said as he turned the key in the ignition. Nothing. Not even the sputtery sounds that would have given me some hope.
“It’s dead, Dad,” I said.
“Yeah, she didn’t even try to start up.”
“Not the car, the world,” I said. “Something horrible has happened and I don’t know what it is, but nothing electrical seems to be working. Which doesn’t make sense, because the battery was fine.”
Dad closed the car door and came over to me.
“You know,” he said as he squeezed my shoulder. “Back when I was in the Navy, they told us about all sorts of weapons that were being designed. One of those was something called an EMP bomb. Electric something or other.”
“An electro-magnetic pulse,” I said.
“Yeah, that sounds right. Anyway, they said if it was to go off, it would fry all the electrical systems but not hurt anyone. It was a way to knock out a city or a defensive position and take the people captive without having to kill them all.”
“I don’t know if that is what happened, though. Look at the sky. It doesn’t look like it was a local event.”
“Maybe, maybe not. But not much we can do about it tonight. Let’s see if we can get some news tomorrow.”
“Sounds like a plan. Wish I could call Lexi and Emma and make sure they are alright.”
“I’m sure they are. They are probably asleep and will see the news tomorrow and try to get ahold of you.”
I nodded. “You’re right, we should get whatever sleep we can. The animals are still freaking out. Don’t know how I will sleep with all of that racket.”
Dad laughed. “You live in Chicago! When we visited, I couldn’t believe how loud it was at night. I didn’t think I could ever get to sleep.”
“I live in Oak Park, Dad. The city itself is much noisier.”
He shook his head and held up his hands. “If you say so, but I constantly heard cars and trucks on the highway. Out here are only the sounds nature provides.”
“Nature is providing plenty of light and sound tonight,” I said. “But I bet I can get back to sleep.”
“I’m normally up about five. What time do you think it is?”
I shrugged. “Don’t know. Sarah said it was about three. She was texting on her phone with some friends when it happened.”
“Sarah?”
“The Johnson’s granddaughter.”
“Oh, yeah. I’ve seen her around a few times. Three is early even for me. I’ll go get your mom and we’ll try to get some sleep.”
“Night, Dad.”
I went back to my room and shut the door. I kicked off my shoes and shrugged out of my jeans. I lay on the bed and tried to sleep, but the room was too bright.
I was worried about Lexi and Emma. Is what happened affecting them? If so, would they be completely freaked out? Or would they sit tight and wait for news? I thought Lexi would be able to handle it, but she had changed so much in the last few years. It wasn’t like I was living with a stranger, but she had changed. We all changed over time. We grew wiser and more set in our ways, more mellow and more short tempered, all the contradictory changes that move us from adolescence into adulthood and towards old age.
But she had changed dramatically in the last few years. She had lost the joy and sparkle in her eye when I would walk in the room. She found ways to spend time alone when she could. I wanted to talk with her about it, but I always felt as if it would crumble apart in my hands if I tried to take hold of it. So I watched it slowly disintegrate. That was the path I was on. I wished someone or something could show me how to stop it from falling apart.
With all of the fear over the events of the night, it was still my personal problems that meandered through my mind as I lay in my old bedroom. Somehow, I managed to fall asleep.
Chapter 3