The Long Fall of Night: The Long Fall of Night Book 1 (7 page)

He looked at Riley and smiled. “Hey, buddy. Can you go get Elliot up and show him where the bathroom is? Show him your room while you’re giving him the grand tour.”

Waiting until the boy was out of earshot, he returned to mixing the orange juice in a glass pitcher with more water than he wanted to use, but a big breakfast before they hit the road was a good idea.

“What if that’s not the worst of it?”

She threw up her hands. “What-ifs never help, Asher, and you know it. What if Dad had never gone to war? What if Mom hadn’t gotten cancer? Does it change anything, thinking about what could have been? No.”

He set his jaw, stubbornness shuttering his face. “I know, but those what-ifs are about the past. This is something we can prep for.”

“Oh, like crazy Uncle Marvin?” She nearly sneered. “You ever stop to think that maybe being in Afghanistan fucked him up a little bit?” She pointed her finger at the side of her head and twirled it.

He bristled. “No, he’s just seen shit normal people don’t have to in the name of protecting our country. He’s been on the front lines so you can sleep peacefully at night.”

“Oh, don’t give me that bullshit.” This time she did snarl. “Don’t get me wrong, I respect them for their service, but they left a hell of a mess in their wake. I’m proud of Dad, but it took me a long time to forgive him. Both of us grew up before we had to.”

Ash snorted, moving beside her to throw the empty juice can in the trash. “That’s because you went and got yourself knocked up by Evan Christianson at sweet sixteen. Not because Dad died the year before.”

The resounding crack of her palm on his cheek was more in his head than in the room, but it was still loud.

“Died fighting someone else’s fight,” she said fiercely.

He pinched the bridge of his nose, swallowing his anger and contrition for having said something so hurtful as to earn a slap. “They brought the fight to us. They used
our
planes as missiles, brought down
our
buildings. How many times do we have to go over this? What Dad did, putting off his retirement after 9/11, was the bravest, most selfless thing he could have done. It was how he looked after us and more.”

“Look, you can hero-worship Dad all you want, but
do not
leave me the way he did, by getting caught up in all these crazy end-of-the-world scenarios Uncle Marvin cooks up. That little boy may have been an accident,” she hissed, pointing defiantly at the back of the house where Ash hoped like hell Riley was busy trying to wow Elliot with his Lego collection, “but he’s one of the best things to happen to me. He’s my reason to keep going and try to do Mom and Dad proud, even if they’re not here to see it. I can’t afford to screw up now, and that includes not going on half-cocked adventures across the country. His future depends on it.”

Ash spread his hands, hating the pleading note in his voice. “Don’t you get it? The future we planned for is very possibly
over
. My degrees won’t mean shit because there will be no jobs, there will be no companies left to work for after
society falls to pieces.
We have to get to Uncle Marvin so we can ride out the shitstorm and maybe have any kind of future at all.”

“Will you listen to yourself?” The more upset she got, the more shrill she became. “I swear, Ash, I appreciate you looking out for us, and we’re in this together, same as we’ve always been, but if you’re going off the deep end, I need to help you, not the other way around.”

He was getting nowhere, and the needle on his temper rapidly approached the red zone. Gusting out a frustrated breath, he glared at her. “I’m not leaving you to deal with this.”

“What about your classes?”

“I don’t think they’ll be having them. City was dark, too. It’s not just Auburn that went out, Char.”

“Oh,” she said, as though the information surprised her.

“Yeah. The whole state is out. The drive up here was black as ink. Jersey and Pennsylvania, too, at least what we saw of them. Twenty million people, Charlotte. It took a month to restore power to eight million after Hurricane Sandy. Now do you get it?”

She chewed on her lower lip and moved to the back door, which reminded him to check their breakfast. He stepped around her. Flipping meat with tongs, he hoped it was finally getting through her thick skull the danger they faced.

“About five more minutes,” he said, coming back inside. She stared blankly across the tiny backyard with its neatly trimmed grass and freshly stained fence. He had to hand it to her—she didn’t have much, but she took good care of what she did have.

“I want to see what happens, Ash,” she finally said, looking at him as he pulled the trash liner from the can and tied the handles in a knot. “I’m not saying you’re right, but I’m open to the possibility you are. Can you give me time to be more sure before I drag my son away from everything he’s ever known?”

Keeping the cringe off his face was difficult, but he nodded. “The sooner we go, the safer the trip will be, but we can wait a couple days. Elliot’s anxious to call his parents, so I’m going to scope out payphones in town and hope one is working. While I’m there, I’ll get groceries.”

“I have plenty of canned food,” she said absently.

“No harm in getting more before it’s all gone,” he said, trying to stay light.

“Who’s Elliot?”

“A, uh, friend of mine.” It felt strange calling Elliot a friend, but given the circumstances, and since Elliot seemed to want the job, he supposed there wasn’t any point in denying it. Especially after last night. “He’s the one who let me use his car to get up here so fast.”

Charlotte arched an interested brow. “A friend. You haven’t had friends for years.”

Ash threw his hands up and grabbed the trash bag, stomping through the door leading to the carport.

“I’m not some socially stunted moron, you know,” he hollered through the screen. “I am capable of real friendships.” He scowled at her upon returning to the kitchen, going to check the grill again, taking an oven mitt with him.

Charlotte gave a contrite laugh and followed him. “Baby brother, you’re one of a kind and worth your weight in gold.” She hugged him hard from behind, and he let her, hoping his loyalty would be noted, which he tried to convey with a pat on her arms. This was their way, fighting like feral cats, then forgetting it in minutes, knowing no matter what, they had each other.

“C’mon. I’ll introduce you to Elliot and make sure your son hasn’t roped him into building a Lego empire on the floor of his bedroom.” Ash pulled the hot pan from the grill and shut off the propane. “I still remember the curse words you invented last time you walked barefoot into his room with laundry.”

She snickered and allowed him to lead her down the hall after they’d set everything on the kitchen table. He stamped down his unease at being stuck doing nothing for the foreseeable future and, for the first time in years, introduced someone to his family.

Breakfast was a quick affair, thrown-together bagel sandwiches on paper plates to avoid unnecessary cleanup. Charlotte asked about Elliot’s classes, his parents, and his world travels when she found out he’d been out of the country several times. He was polite and told her tales of tropical islands, a multi-country European trip the previous summer, and taking a shark cruise in the Cape of Good Hope off the coast of South Africa when he was in high school.

Riley was fascinated. “Did you see a great white?”

“Yeah, several of them.”

“Did you swim with them?” The light in Riley’s eyes was unmistakable, and Ash couldn’t help marvel at the easy way Elliot had taken to the boy.

“Well, no. That dive certification is more intense than we had time for on that trip, and it’s dangerous to snorkel above them. But we were able to watch them swim pretty close to the surface, and the water there is amazingly clear.”

“I want to swim with sharks some day,” Riley announced, shoving his last bite of bagel in his mouth, making his cheeks bulge like a hamster storing nuts.

“God, you’re going to make me gray before I’m thirty.” Charlotte wrapped both hands around her glass of orange juice, knees drawn to her chest with her heels on the edge of her chair, tucked into herself.

She’s too thin again,
Ash thought. Remembering the diet food in her fridge, he narrowed his eyes.

“How’s the job going?”

“Same as always. Getting my butt pinched by the guards who think it’s okay because they leave me a tip.”

Ash nearly growled until he saw Elliot’s eyes practically bug out of his head, his face turning the deep crimson of embarrassment.

“Why don’t you start breaking fingers? I know you can.” Ash hated that she had sacrificed a chance to take nursing classes when he’d gotten his scholarships. Now she was stuck as a waitress in a shitty diner, working paycheck to paycheck and at the mercy of the assholes who dined there.

“Because I can’t afford to lose my job, Ash.” So simple, really. And infuriating.

“Well, when I graduate, I’m getting you out of here.” He stopped short. He’d always planned to help her go back to school once he was through, but now, he had no idea if plans he’d had for years, so ingrained into his psyche, would come to fruition. She grabbed his hand across the table when he went quiet.

“We take care of each other,” she said confidently. “No matter what happens.”

“That include me?” a new voice chimed in. Charlotte’s boyfriend Russ wandered in, plopping down in the remaining seat at the table, eyeing the pan of food. “How did you make breakfast sandwiches?” He grinned at her, his too-short, brown hair showing more scalp than Ash figured Russ realized. His smile was genuine, even if it didn’t conceal his disappointment at the meager food.

Ash stiffened. “Barbecue grill and a cake pan.”

Russ made himself a sandwich while Charlotte pried a new paper plate off the stack. “Here, hon.” She passed it across to him as he dove in like a starving man.

“Bacon’s too crispy,” he said through a mouthful. “And weren’t there eggs?”

Ash scraped his chair back and stood. “I didn’t trust the eggs to still be good.” Unable to put his finger on why, Ash had never liked Russ. He was a nice guy, pleasant enough to Charlotte, but there was always a barb to his comments, as though the things people did around him never quite lived up to his expectations. And Russ judged them for it.

Charlotte turned her attention to her boy. “Riley, why don’t you get dressed? We can go to the park today since there’s no TV to watch.” Obediently, Riley scurried from the table.

“I can take him with me to the store if you want,” Ash offered. “I need to find Elliot a working payphone so he can get back to the city in daylight.” He’d prefer to go to the store immediately, but given he’d agreed to give Charlotte time to think about leaving, and that he didn’t want to worry his nephew needlessly, a couple hours of normality wasn’t out of the question.

“I’d like Riley close by,” Charlotte said, jumping up to get Russ a red plastic cup from the stack on the counter for his OJ. “If you don’t mind. I know you haven’t seen him in a while, but I’d feel better if he was home and not dealing with crazy people freaking about the power.”

Ash was about to say he understood when Russ spoke first. “It’s not that bad out there, Char. People are just waiting for the electricity to come back. I even saw some people mowing their lawns on the way over. If Ash wants to take Riley to the store, it won’t hurt anything.”

Charlotte met Ash’s eyes and shrugged. “Okay, if it’s not bad,” she agreed half-heartedly.

“Nah,” Ash said, appeasing her. “If you’d feel better keeping him close, there’s no reason you shouldn’t. I just thought it would be something normal to do to distract him.”

“Well, it’s up to Charlotte, but I don’t think it’s a big deal at all,” Russ said, licking his fingertips of the grease from his sandwich.

“It is up to Charlotte,” Ash reminded him, not liking the insinuation that Russ had a say in any decision concerning Riley. Then again, maybe Ash was just being the asshole younger brother who didn’t think any man was good enough for his sister. “Come on, Elliot. Let’s get our shoes on. We’ll go with Riley to the park, and the store after.”

“What was that all about?” Elliot asked quietly as they went to retrieve their shoes.

“Charlotte is good at many things, one of which is picking dickheads to date. Russ is the latest moocher, and he always
seems
nice enough, but man, that guy rubs me the wrong way.”

“Are you taking him with us?” Elliot asked.

Ash studied him. “Not if I can help it, but I thought you were going back home. That changed?”

Elliot looked distinctly uncomfortable. “I don’t know. Depends on if I can reach my parents. Maybe they can tell us something.”

“Fair enough.” He called to Riley, who slipped into the living room with a wary glance at the kitchen.

“Is he coming, too?” Riley asked of Russ, who had decided the makings of the last sandwich belonged to him and was chewing with gusto and waxing lyrical on the ingredients that would improve the breakfast tenfold.

Ash shook his head. “Don’t worry, kid. He looks comfortable where he is.”

“Good,” Riley said sullenly, punching his hands into the pockets of his jean shorts and hanging his head. “He’s always happy to show me stuff, but whenever he does, I don’t seem to get it completely. Like I’m not doing it how he tries to teach me.”

Ash stood and ruffled Riley’s hair. “That’s not your fault, kid. A student is only as good as his teachers.” It was bullshit, though, and Ash knew it. The teachers in this Podunk town had never been able to keep up with him, and Ash’s senior year, he’d spent a good chunk of it teaching himself from books the science teacher, Mr. Libby, his favorite of them all, had ordered for him. They’d learned the concepts together, though any practical application of the experiments was out of the question. Ash suspected Mr. Libby had purchased the texts himself, though they were very expensive, but the chemicals for much of the lab work were out of the average teacher’s price range and tightly controlled substances anyway. They’d had to settle for watching YouTube videos of some of the better ones and observing the results visually.