active tonight . . . and she hadn’t asked him to wait until the bear they’d seen was farther away. She hadn’t fussed, but her quiet “be careful” carried the weight of a benediction that warmed him all the way home through the red night.
Chapter Seven
The new day dawned as hot as the one before. The valley inhabitants began gathering early in the open field beside the bank. The big smokers and grills were operating, watched over by the tired men who had been cooking all night and refused to let others take over because they suffered from the stereotypical male fixation with grills and the belief that no one else could operate one as well as they could. The delicious smell of grilled and smoked meat permeated the air, making Sela’s mouth water even though she’d had breakfast, such as it was: a bowl of dry cereal, some nuts, and water. She hadn’t felt like bothering with making either coffee or tea because that would mean boiling water, and now she was feeling the lack, but that would soon be remedied.
Long tables were set up and covered with plastic picnic cloths. Some of the more enterprising women had big jugs of sweetened water and tea bags basking in the sunlight to make sun tea. Of course almost no one had shown up with nothing other than meat to cook; Sela didn’t know how the dishes had been prepared, but there were pots of beans, big platters of salad, mashed potatoes, and anything else the women could think of that needed to be cooked and eaten before it ruined. Sela had made a big salad, using all of her romaine lettuce before it went bad; better eaten than wasted.
There were some vehicles, pickup trucks that brought the heavy items, but for the most part people had walked to conserve their precious gasoline. Some kids had ridden their bicycles, and a few people had saddled up and ridden their horses. There were a lot of horses around, some used in tourist trail rides, some privately owned. She figured they’d see a lot of horse and bicycle traffic in the months to come.
Patio umbrellas and pavilion tents were set up for shade, folding chairs were placed around the tables, kids were running around shrieking and playing, and despite the seriousness of their circumstances the atmosphere was more like a giant picnic than a survival effort.
She and Carol and Olivia had loaded most of their stuff in Josh’s old Radio Flyer wagon and pulled it to the field, where Carol commandeered the space under a pavilion tent. At Sela’s suggestion, they had brought a small portable grill, charcoal, a blue enamel camp kettle, and a few bags of coffee. She and Carol swiftly got the charcoal going and the coffee brewing. Soon the smell of coffee was luring a constant stream of people to the pavilion, where they found themselves cornered into either offering ideas or volunteering to help—Sela hoped they were doing both, but one thing for sure, if they got a cup of coffee then their names were going on Carol’s list.
After helping herself to a single cup of much-welcomed coffee, she murmured to Carol, “I’m going to walk around, see who all is here and what they’ve done.”
“Take a pen and notebook, and jot down their names,” Carol replied, handing both items to her.
Good idea. She roamed the big field, not only noting exactly what different people had to share but also seeing who was the most organized and prepared, because they were the people Carol would want to talk to. She kept an eye on Olivia, who had connected with some of her school friends; there was a lot of laughing and dramatic gesturing going on. And she couldn’t help checking the perimeter to see if Ben would appear at a distance, watching but not joining.
He didn’t, of course; he was likely grabbing some sleep, which she wished she could do. After he’d left she had gone to bed and managed a few hours’ sleep, but already she could feel the lack of rest. When the cookout was over and some organization was in place, maybe she could catch a nap.
Not surprisingly, most of the talk she overheard was excited discussion of the red aurora.
“Did you see that sky last night?”
“I thought it was the end—”
“Damn it, I was so tired I went right to sleep and missed it—”
She thought the red aurora would be showing up for a