everyone, just as it did for her.
An SUV with parents seated in the front seat and two young children in the back pulled into the lot, moving too fast. The lurching vehicle pulled to one of the fuel pumps and stopped with a jerk. The man who’d been driving jumped out, swiped a credit card, and pumped ten dollars in gas before taking off again.
“Shut down the pumps,” Carol said, rousing herself, but Sela had already done so.
She grabbed some plastic bags and went outside to the pumps, covering the nozzles, the usual signal that there was no gasoline available. Her supply was small to start with, and if she wasn’t careful it wouldn’t last long. Once the power was down the gas would have to be pumped out of the tanks by hand. It wouldn’t be easy, but it could be done.
Her family was the focus, she reminded herself; they were most important in any crisis, but she did care about her friends and neighbors. She wouldn’t hang them out to dry. About half the generators in the valley were fueled by gasoline. Some were propane-powered, but not hers, and not her closest neighbors’. Before the power went out she’d need to go online and research how to access the gasoline in the tanks.
Jernigan would know how.
She dismissed that stray thought. Not only was he not approachable, but she needed to know for herself; she needed to stand on her own two feet. She’d learned that the hard way, after her ex-husband walked out. A lesson learned hard was a lesson learned well, and now she stayed safe because taking chances with other people was a good way to get her life stomped on.
Fifteen minutes later the school bus stopped in front of the store, and a line of cars stacked up behind the bus. One driver seemed to think about passing, pulling into the other lane by a couple of feet, but then thought better of it. The bus doors swung open and Olivia danced down the steps. Fifteen, tall and lanky with wavy light brown hair like her father’s, rest his soul, she was beautiful in a way only the very young can be. She was the light of Carol’s life, and an important part of Sela’s.
Olivia blew inside, her eyes wide. “Did you hear? All the teachers were going b.s. crazy. Well, some of them.” Her phone signaled an incoming text, and she looked down. “What did they call it? A mass . . . something.” She smiled at her phone as she read the text and then sent a quick and nimble-fingered response.
“Coronal mass ejection,” Sela said.
“Solar storm, Mr. Hendricks said,” Olivia said as she walked to the cooler to grab a Dr Pepper. Then she turned around and went down the center aisle. “Hey! Where are all the chips?”
“Put away,” Sela said, watching the road. Traffic had definitely picked up. Most cars kept to a reasonable speed, but a few were moving way too fast in their rush to get out of Dodge—or in this case, the mountains. Making a quick decision, she took her keys off the hook and went to the door, locking it and flipping the Open sign to Closed. Why would she hang around here and let Carol prepare on her own? That didn’t make sense. She had her own ice chests to fill, her own ice maker to put to work.
“Why are you closing up early?” Olivia asked. “Are you sick?”
“We have less than twenty-four hours to get ready for the CME.”
Now Olivia looked confused. “Get ready how?”
Carol said briskly, “We might be without power for months. We’ll need food, a way to cook it, and maybe even a way to stay warm if everything’s not up and running by the time the weather turns.”
Olivia didn’t move for a few seconds, her eyes big and round as she pondered the impossible. Then she asked, “Are you serious? Months? Will my cell phone work?”
“Doubt it. Maybe it’ll be bad,” Carol said, “and maybe it won’t. We won’t know until about this time tomorrow. But we’re going to be ready for whatever happens. The chips are already at the house, by the way, but don’t get your hopes up. We’re not opening a single bag until we’ve eaten all the fresh and frozen food. I have a cabbage I need to use before it goes bad, and the last of the tomatoes. We can’t waste anything, not now.”
“Unless they’re wrong,” Olivia