“We should stock up again before we leave,” Claire said around a mouthful of delectable brie.
“Yes. Definitely.”
She tried to give Noah a cracker with a smudge of what Claire considered to be delicious blue cheese, but he took one sniff and turned his nose up at it.
Claire jumped and grabbed for her phone eagerly when it rang.
“Tom!” Lisa straightened up and watched her intently. Even Noah looked at her curiously.
“Hey.” Tom’s voice came through quietly. She pressed the phone closer to her ear.
“How are you? What’s going on?” She’d hoped he’d be on a plane by now, if not home already. “Where are you?”
“I’m sorry, my love. I’m still in Vancouver.” Claire’s heart dropped. She sat down slowly on the couch and reached for a cushion. Lisa motioned to ask what was going on. Claire ignored her.
“Vancouver?” Claire echoed. Lisa frowned at her.
“Yeah, but we have a plan,” he said quickly.
“What happened? Why aren’t you on a plane?”
“It’s crazy out here, Claire. We couldn’t get on a flight. They’re cancelling them left right and centre. The earliest they could put us on was Friday and that wasn’t guaranteed. We tried other airlines too, and flying into a different airport too, but no go.”
Claire shook her head slightly at Lisa. She didn’t know what to say.
“How… what are you going to do?” She needed him back. She couldn’t face this alone.
“Well,” he paused as if working up the courage to say the next part. “This is going to sound a bit crazy, but Mike’s got his pilot licence. We’re going to try and get a small plane and fly back ourselves,” he said in a rush.
“What? For real?”
“Yeah.” There was silence on the other end of the line.
“That’s… I mean… um. How long has Mike been a pilot for?” She was staring at Lisa when she said the last part, who looked more than mildly alarmed.
There was a silent pause before Tom eventually said, “a couple of months.” Claire’s stomach flipped over.
“What! A couple of months! No, Tom. That’s insane. I want you back as soon as possible, but I want to back alive! Can’t you… I don’t know, hire someone with a bit more experience to fly it for you?”
“Honey, it will be okay. I promise.” Tom sounded like he barely believed that himself.
“You can’t promise that,” Claire said more harshly than she’d intended.
“I know, but I’m trying and it’s either this or a road trip.”
“A road trip would be safer,” Claire muttered.
“At this time of year? No, not really. And it would take ages. I need to be back with my family.’
Claire took a deep breath and closed her eyes. “I’m sorry. I know. I’m just worried sick about you.”
“It’s okay. I understand. I’m trying my best to get back to you as soon as possible. How is everything there?”
“It’s…” Claire was about to say ‘not great’ but she didn’t want Tom to helplessly worry. “It’s fine. There’s been a bit of trouble Downtown apparently, but we’re fine here. Lisa’s here at the moment. She talked to your Uncle Jim. When you get back, we’re all going to go up there for a while to sit things out and see how they turn out.”
“Ah. Yeah, that’s a good idea,” Tom said. “I’ll keep in touch and let you know when we’re leaving. We should be back sometime tomorrow or the day after. Probably the day after.”
Claire took a deep breath. She didn’t like this new plan. “Okay. Stay safe. I love you.”
“I love you too, Claire. Give the boys a big hug and kiss from me and tell them I’ll be there to do it in person soon.”
Claire really didn’t know what to think of this new fly-it-yourselves plan. She’d met Mike a handful of times, and he seemed like a nice enough guy. Perhaps a bit emotionally immature when it came to women, and he still lived in his mother’s basement and seemed to survive solely on pizza and take-away butter chicken (according to Tom), but he was a nice guy. She just wasn’t sure that being a nice guy qualified him to fly her husband and the father of her children safely home. She crossed her fingers, toes and wondered if there was anything else she should cross. It was a pity she didn’t believe in any gods. Now would be a great time to pray.
“What did he say?” Lisa asked impatiently while Claire just stared at her phone. Claire shook her head slowly and repeated what Tom had told her.
“Crazy men.” Lisa rolled her eyes. “Oh well. At least they’ll be home tomorrow.”
“As long as they don’t—” she glanced at Noah who was busy now giving a tea party to a host of teddy bears. “C-R-A-S-H,” she spelled out.
“Don’t think like that,” Lisa said softly.
“I don’t think I’ll be able to stop worrying until he’s home,” Claire admitted.
“Understandable,” Lisa nodded.
The two women sat in silence for a while, just watching the two boys play.
“How are you meant to react when you find out the world’s going to end?” Claire said eventually. She’d read a few apocalyptic novels over the years, and seen a couple of the asteroid movies, but they always seemed to be populated by determined survivalists with insane hunting skills, or they actually worked at the space agency or something productive, and had something to focus on; Claire didn’t have any of that. She could probably chop a chook’s head off if she had to, if it was for her kids survival, but she hadn’t fired a gun since she was fourteen and out rabbit shooting with her father. She’d cried when she’d shot her first rabbit. Bill hadn’t taken her out again.
“I don’t think there’s really a manual or etiquette for this kind of thing,” Lisa said after swallowing her mouthful of cheese.
“Hypothetically we’ve always known the world would end one day. The sun will expand and swallow the planet in billions of years. This planet has a time limit. It’s just…”
“A billion years is a long time, yeah,” Lisa agreed.
“It’s not just a long time, it’s inconceivable to most of us. A million years is an impossibly long time. Just think how different Earth was only a million years ago? How different our society was even a thousand years ago, only a hundred years ago.”
“Hell, it’s changed a lot in the past thirty years as well,” Lisa said.
“You’re right,” Claire said. “What more could we have achieved, given the chance?”
“I would hope that we’d have figured out a way to protect ourselves from asteroids,” Lisa said dryly.
“You never know… there’s still time.”
Lisa stayed for another hour before leaving to pick up Molly and pack. She wanted to be ready to leave as soon as Tom returned.
Claire decided it was time to learn more about this asteroid heading their way. She fed the boys and ensconced them in the living room in front of the telly. Before having children she’d always sworn never to use television as a babysitter, but of course the reality was different.
Noah picked his favourite DVD. He’d already seen the movie five times in the past few weeks, but Claire was just grateful he didn’t insist on watching it every single day like her sister Lucy had when she was four or five. Their dad had finally ‘accidentally’ taped over the damn thing. Lucy had been inconsolable, but at least they weren’t subjected to any more Pete’s Dragon showings.
Claire set herself up at the little table in the corner of the room to do her research and soon got lost in a winding series of websites and forums, some more credible than others. It all seemed to depend on how big the asteroid was, what it was made of (there were differing reports on both of those key points and Claire wasn’t sure who or what to believe), and where it landed. If the asteroid landed on top of them, or even relatively near them then obviously they’d be toast. One article she read even stated that if the asteroid struck the opposite side of the planet, then it could cause volcanic eruptions on this side. Great. If it struck the ocean, then it would cause a mega-tsunami. Debris would fill the atmosphere causing catastrophic changes to the biosphere. A horrific firestorm. Civilisation ending catastrophe.