Ninety Degrees Out
Chapter Forty Eight

“How are you?” Jett asked as Catherine came down into the garage. Now that it served as a barn, there were three large stables for the horses. The wood they used was salvaged from homes destroyed in the earthquake. Free for the taking, it took some ingenuity to figure out how to get it back to the ranch and distribute it. In the end the big old hay wagon served the purpose with Terry driving. They made their way up from the ranch onto the pathway along the canyon rim before pulling the wagon through into Chay’s yard.

One of Kanti’s last trips brought a maximum load in with her Twin Otter. Of course, they built stalls for the horses at Chay’s place, and now they would see if Aaron needed more to finish out the ones he was building at Sara’s place. He wondered what her story was. The burn scar was a livid reminder of her struggle to survive.

Catherine brought carrots as treats for the horses and eased a halter onto her gelding. Jett took the saddle off his horse and ran a quick brush over his sweat slicked back.

“What do you think? We’ll stake them down in the grass out front this time?” Jett asked. She ignored his first question and responded to the next one. He wondered how rough the day had been. Cat was still pretty spooky when she had no one around to distract her.

“Sure, they’ve pretty much taken care of the back. Who knew they would be great lawnmowers?”

“If we can get sheep and goats, they’re even better. But that’ll bring the bears and cats right down onto the ranch. Probably better if those aren’t part of the husbandry end of things.” Jett said.

“Yeah, but still, another source of meat and fiber. I expect we’re going to go back to the old ways, so spinning wheels and knitting needles to make blankets. I doubt we’re going to need mittens, sweaters, and scarves. Maybe if we get a rainy season when it gets colder.” Cat opened the door to her horse’s enclosure and snapped a long lead onto his halter.

“How fast is it going to happen?”

“As long as Yellowstone doesn’t decide to blast a plume of ash instead of magma fountains, it will take a few years. The smaller ones are making contributions to the atmospheric dust concentrations, but not as quickly.”

Jett led his horse out behind Cat. Clopping down the driveway they turned into the deep grass in the ditch. Cat pulled a hammer out of the loop on the leg of her cargo pants as Jett handed her a sturdy stake.

“We’ll keep an eye on them from the front room window,” Jett said as he knelt to hammer his own steel peg into the ground.

The horses stood nose to tail with comfortable loose leads attached to their halters as they cropped the rich green grass.

“I’ll get some salads together for us. I’ve got a lot of good stuff from the garden. Do you like snap peas?” She sounded like her nerves were stretched a little to thin.

Jett followed her into the kitchen and walked up behind her as she filled a colander with washed lettuce, radishes, and carrots. There were even a few grape tomatoes. Scallions lay in a bunch on the counter, and the chopping board had a chef’s knife ready beside it.

“Talk to me. How bad was your day? I’m sorry I wasn’t back earlier, but we had a lot on the go down on the ranch.” He drew her ponytail to one side and kissed the back of her neck. This wasn’t the time to tell her about Erik’s offer and his new position in the community.

She turned, her eyes welling, and burrowed into his chest.

“Awful, and good, and I was scared silly by every creak and groan in the house. But I survived. I made it through almost eight hours alone. I grabbed my pistol about a hundred times, and then took it out into the garden while I did the weeding. I wish Bear was up here. I miss having a dog. Do I even make sense?” Her voice shook, but her words were determined.

“Of course you make sense. Anything you did to make yourself feel safe was good. I don’t even care if you sent a stray shot off. It worked to help you get through it.” Jett cradled her face in his hands as he looked into her eyes. Then lowered his lips to hers. His kiss was soft, a gentle reminder of the way things should be between lovers.

She responded by linking her hands behind his neck. Her mouth nibbled at his lips until he opened for her and time stood still. When she pulled away, as breathless as he was, he whispered, “You’re the bravest person I know. Facing up to your fear like you did today, was amazing. I’m still sorry for being late.”

“I was pretty freaked out when you didn’t come back on time, but I heard the radio calls Erik made. I knew what was going on. Another family for us to bring into the Ranch. That and Deborah? I think she’s living with Earl, right?”

He could feel the tension leaving her as she leaned against him.

“Yeah and now we have Captain Edward Narson and his family coming down from the ridge above the Ranch, you know the hill where the trail riders go all the time?” Jett explained.

“I do. There’s a beautiful meadow up there. We should take a ride up there sometime.” Cat finished chopping the scallions a reached up to grab a couple of plates. After putting the salad together and adding a few strips of smoked salmon on top, she handed one plate to Jett.

“Let’s go back into the living room to eat. I want to watch the news and keep an eye on our horses.” Jett suggested.

“I want to see the volcano report. Isn’t it crazy how CNN is making sure everyone knows what’s happening? It used to news only when one of the blew enough ash into the atmosphere to shut down the big airlines.

“But now, it’s crucial to our survival and my geology specialization is critical to what the world does to keep survivors alive. Do you know how much colder China is going to get? Middle Earth, when it was Antarctica, doesn’t hold a candle to where China is headed. Listen to what they’re saying.” Catherine stabbed a fork into one of the plump grape tomatoes on her plate.

Jett put his plate on the coffee table and turned the volume up on the Smart TV. For once the news cast was streaming properly. It had been mostly a miss for the last few days. The report on Yellowstone was horrifying. The estimate on casualties was close to 300,000. El Capitan was half buried already. The magma was oozing out of the top of the caldera at an unprecedented rate, and the hot spot in the atmosphere above it, was beginning to create its own weather system. Yellowstone mountain was picking up altitude at almost a hundred feet per day.

“Okay, we still have a chance at a slower drop in temps. Looking at the boiling mass of magma you can see why we have a low pressure region building over it though,” Cat said.

“That, and from what they are saying all the volcanos on the equator are settling. Even Erebus is settling down to a dribble of magma. It’s the volcanos in the temperate zones like Russia, Indonesia and Europe that are spewing explosive ash plumes. And as the earthquakes are starting to become less violent, those are dropping activity levels as well. Did I get that right?” Jett summarized.

“Essentially. We’re still going to see a drop huge drop in average temperatures. At least four or five degrees Celsius. That’s going to cause a major ice age. The little one that ended in the 1800’s was only a drop of two degrees.” Cat told him.

“Shit! How far down will the ice come? I mean latitude wise?”

“Best I can calculate? Somewhere close to the fiftieth parallel,” Cat guessed.

“Damn. We’re not going to be nearly as hot here either. Might need to keep those fireplaces working.”

“Exactly. And we’re going to have to do double the maintenance on the wind turbines. Ash grit gets in everywhere even when you don’t really notice it in the air.” Jett made a mental note to add the chore to regular upkeep scheduling. It went right along with cleaning solar panels every couple of months.