SINK

PEOPLE TRAPPED IN A NATURAL DISASTER

It was the most epic of beautiful days. His approach was perfect in its detection. None. His prey unaware of the horrible fate executed with exquisite and deadly stealth. Aria was on her trampoline enjoying her brief moments in flight as she flips. Alaric came round the side of the house with a super soaker in each hand heavy with water he ambushes his bliss filled sibling. Oh the screams, oh the laughter. Aria swears her revenge, but Al is pretty confident her feeble mind cannot come up with something that could scare him. He parts with a fat joke. He observes how the trampoline is so much deeper in the ground now that she's on it. Aria ignores her brother 'the charity case', so deprived of any sense of humor. Back to denying gravity for the little girl, though gravity is a mother that never lets go of her child. The girl glimpses down to align herself she sees the ground around the entire trampoline has fallen into the earth some ten feet. She has no options but to fall into the hole herself. And though aria is far from being a fat child even her wee weight is enough to collapse the hole another 10 feet further. Alaric stands in horror for a mere moment before running into the house to inform his parents.

As captain of the Thermopolis Fire department, Avery Stewart spends most of his time explaining the thermo-dynamics of the ground beneath them to the tourists. Many of which are just making a pit stop before getting to Yellowstone. Fortunately he was up to the task of organizing the rescue of young Aria. Even being the one lowered into the hole to bring up the poor girl, shaken but otherwise alright. What was not alright was what he found inspecting the foundation of the homes on the block. They all show signs that suggest this morning’s sink hole is just the start. Captain Avery rushes back into town to see the Mayor. He must let her know that he fears the whole neighborhood is about to go under.

Mayor Aubrey is a reasonable woman but had trouble believing that an entire square block is in danger of falling 20 feet. After all she says it’s not like were in Florida sitting on Swiss cheese limestone. But as it happens she has some geologist from Ogallala on their way here today anyway. There is a true Fountain of Youth in this town but the only thing these waters truly keep alive is this community. The hot springs are not so hot today. The occasional drop in temperature is not unusual but today it’s as if someone turned off the furnace. Yet this is not the only potential disaster looming for Captain Stewart. It’s a 2 hour drive to Casper and he is already late and there is a Mrs. Stewart waiting to get picked up.

Ashley loves her dad dearly but 3 days with The Old Codger is a bit much. Obviously she doesn't fault her husband for being late but that doesn't make the wait any less unbearable. She reads his latest text that he is finally on his way, and joins her father on the porch. The old man comments on the beauty of the day, the particularly good lemonade he made this morning, and what sounds like a riddle. Why does steam come up from the sewers in New York City? Ashley has no clue and inquires why he is asking. He says that as he was sitting out last night he could see steam coming up from the sewers. He points for his daughter to look down the street. This time the old man is not just making up stories. The sewers are indeed steaming.

Plasma Organic Pressure just one of the senses we take for granted according to the magazine Mayor Aubrey was reading in her modest office. Just like Balance, often warning us that something is not quite right. Like a sound coming from everywhere and yet is nowhere. Is it possible she could really sense that slight shift in the earth’s magnetic field as millions of tons of earth prepare to move? She puts her magazine down. She can feel it now, an ever so subtle movement of the building that never sways. She walks to her window with a sense of dread. And before she could mutter the words she sees is not an earthquake, it’s a collapse.

"Appreciation for a thing grows in its absence." The Old Codger keeps saying over and over as part of one of his hour long ramblings. This time it was about the good old days of Green Stamps. Ashley is trying to express her general need for Avery to drive faster. I'm 10 miles over the speed limit honey he tells her. How would it look if the Captain of the fire department got a speeding ticket? Avery was on the road to Casper and just outside of his hometown when he could finally feel it. When driving at high speeds it’s hard to tell the earth is shaking beneath you. The stunned man pulls his car off to the side of the road and tells his wife an earthquake is happening. He had stepped out of the car but only for a brief moment. Looking back from whence he came he sees his hometown disappears into the earth.

Ashley stares at her cell phone as if it was supposed to do something. The words fall out of her mouth yet she doesn’t feel her lips moving. Thermopolis has been razed to the ground she says to her father. The Old Codger is not as stunned as one might think hearing the details of the catastrophe his son in law has harrowingly avoided. "If you listen closely enough to the earth she tells you her secrets." He says in his usual cryptic way. Ashley has no time for her dad’s whimsies at this moment, She sarcastically retorts. "Yeah well what’s she saying now?" The old man says with infectious certainty..."It’s time to go."

Avery has never driven so fast in his life. He made the remaining journey in just over 30 min, but was not feeling like he reached minimum safe distance yet. As he drove into Casper, bulges and cracks in the road were everywhere. The steam coming from the ground was breaking through any vent even faucets. The city was immersed in a fog. The Old Codger had called his buddy Ace who flew with him back in the day. Now Ace shuttles rich folk to Cheyenne and beyond. Today is a different cargo. His best friend, his goddaughter, and her husband who met them at the airport. Not a moment was spared taking off. As they flew high above it all it was clear hundreds of miles of the land above the aquifer was sinking into the earth as much as 500 feet in some places. From the edge of Wyoming and into Nebraska stretches a new grand canyon.

Once in flight the plane was difficult to fly but nothing ace couldn't handle. Avery looks out the window at the devastation. The sorrow for the loss of so much life and loved things is heartbreaking to say the least. He feels guilty for surviving. Guilty and grateful. Thankful for every breathe. He looks over at his wife. She's got her arm wrapped around her fathers and smiling at him like she was 12. She's showing him a website on her cell. The Old Codger will be able to redeem his Green Stamps after all, and then Avery gets a text. It's a message from little Aria. Their families go way back. She wanted to thank him for saving her life again today. Her mom took his warnings most seriously and they had left Thermopolis before the collapse. Tonight she will be sleeping safely in her grandmother’s spare bed. The futility of his day washed away. Every moment truly does matter. Avery imagines the faces of those bereft of hope and cries.

　

July 31 2016

Dedicated toTina Strausser and Eva Hildebrant

RIP, FOREVER YOUNG