Ninety Degrees Out

Edward Narson sniffed twice as he exited the tent. The wind shifted overnight, and the manure pile behind the barn wafted through to the ranch house and canvas structures on the opposite side of the the grass runway.

Harry walked beside him, his easy stride keeping up with him. The kid was growing. His brown head would top his own soon.

“I don’t think we’re in any danger out here, but I want to go up the trunk road to where they rounded up the horses. Uki told me there’s a rough 4by4 trail coming in from the northwest.” Edward shifted his rifle off his shoulder. “Take this, and the ammo belt.” He handed them to Harry.

“Are we taking one of the new horses?” Harry asked.

“Jake says there two ready to ride if you are a strong horseman. I think your skills are up to it. I’m not as good. I’ll take Papa Stargazer’s mount. Dasan is busy manning the radios this morning. I like the way he’s organized a time for us to contact each other everyday.”

“Pretty neat the way that works. I never knew things like that ever existed. Radios were only for music in a car, or maybe like in the song Convoy. For truckers to talk to each other.”

“Keep an eye on the time, we don’t want to miss our check in, especially since we’re going to away from the main compound here.” Edward walked into the dim interior of the barn.

“Where’s your hat, Dad?” Harry asked.

Edward’s heart did a quiet stutter. When had this stubborn teen changed his mind?

“Shit forgot it again. Used to forget my helmet in the field too. Caught a few reprimands about it while I was in the army.”

“What was it like? I mean it had to be gross treating injured soldiers,”

Harry’s question startled him. Was the boy thinking about military service?

“Gross isn’t the half of it. Blood and guts, brains splattered,” Edward’s voice broke at the memory. “But the satisfaction of snatching people back from death’s grip is like nothing else I’ve ever felt. I’ll put up with the nightmares to do it all over again.”

“I was wondering. I’ve heard you talking in your sleep. Scary. You sound like there’s horrible things happening.”

“First on site. When the radio barks medic, you move without thinking about your own safety. You trust the rest of the men to cover your back. Bullets whizzing, mortar fire, you can’t even imagine what it’s like unless you’ve been in it.” Edward decided not to sugar coat his experiences.

“Kind of thought so. I’m thinking about going into medicine. What path, I don’t know yet. It’s going to be a few years before universities are back in.”

“How old are you Harry? The truth, not what you told me so I wouldn’t let you watch out for Greg and Peter.”

“I really am sixteen. I’ll be seventeen on the twentieth of August. I was in grade eleven. Honors student. I couldn’t let anyone know how much I miss school. I had to be the tough one. Greg and Peter, they have it worse than me. I mean at least I might find my real dad, but I don’t think so. He wasn’t the best guy either.” The words rushed from Harry in a torrent of mixed emotions.

“Why do your brothers have it worse?”

“Can I call them brothers? I mean we’re family now, at least I think we are.”

The boys comment came out as a half whisper before he continued.

“They watched their houses burn after they collapsed in Homer. They weren’t supposed to be out. They snuck out to go see if they could get some crabs and clams, but the earthquake hit. You found us walking up to the cliff, not to long afterward.”

“I’m sorry they had to see that,” Edward said. “I’ll have to see if we can get them talking about it. It helps.”

“They have nightmares like you do,” Harry confessed. “I do too.”

“We’re all going to have them for a while. We were awake watching the northern lights when the flip happened.” Edward told him. “You had to be there to understand what it did to our bodies. We lost our balance, the vertigo had the girls puking, and my wife got a headache so bad I thought she was going to have a stroke.”

“Thanks for telling me. It explains why I couldn’t eat without getting sick. Greg and Peter had headaches. Peter complained that his ears hurt. We lived next door to each other.”

Musty puffs of grain dust and tiny pieces of broken straw raised from their footsteps as they went down the main passage in between the stables toward the corral.

“I like the smell in here. I love the horses. Sometimes I think I’d like to be a cowboy or maybe a guide like Jake too,” Harry said.

Edward nodded. He couldn’t blame the kid for changing the subject. “You don’t have to decide. In the meantime, keep learning from Doc Mike and from Doc Anya too. Eventually things will settle down and formal education will start up again. For now, practical stuff is more important. Like how are we going to convince that stallion to come over here so you can saddle him?”

“I’ve been working with Jake.’ He went over to a patch of grass past the bare area where the horses reached through to crop the field around the corral. Pulling several handfuls, he released the sweet scent of freshly mowed lawn.

Harry whistled, a trill reminiscent of a meadow lark’s call and the pinto stallion’s ears twitched. The horse turned from the far side of the enclosure, trotting over to where they stood. His white face with the brown blaze on his forehead reached between the top two rails of the fence, eager for the treat Harry extended.

Edward realized why Harry was confused. The kid was a natural. He literally had the the proud mustang eating out of his hand. This trip up the access road was a blessing. Could he build on the trust they established? He wondered if Harry even noticed he called him Dad. There was no word on what might have happened to his father. The Coast Guard was still trying to figure out who all the missing were, and how many of them were buried in mass graves outside of towns all over Alaska.

“I’m only using a saddle blanket.” Harry grabbed the colorful cloth and climbed over the fence. “You get your horse ready. We’ll go make sure there’s nothing up the trail. Grange said they didn’t see anything, but we can’t be sure it’s still good.”

“I’ll meet you on the runway,” Edward turned back inside to find the placid mare he usually rode.