American Weather

The air was dry and cold, the moon lit the path to my house. I was only just a couple of feet away. I could make it before ten, right? The cold air won’t kill me that quickly, will it? When I reached my apartment door, I fumbled with my keys to find the right one to open the door before I froze to death. Slowly I felt the ice on my hair begin the freeze and my fingers couldn’t move as swiftly to get inside. Then the alarm sounded. It was time. Those who were on the streets ran to the side of the road and hid in the alleys behind or in dumpsters. You could hear people screaming from a distance in horror. The blizzard was coming. I had to get inside before it got me. “Will I make it?” I thought. I couldn’t find the key to fit. Why do I have so many damn keys? Out of the corner of my eye I saw a woman waving her hand at me and shouting “Down here! Come down here!” she said. I took off running towards her away from the hell ball of snow. I turned into her apartment and she shut the door as the blizzard went by?

“Are you alright?” she asked

“I’ll get there, I’m just cold.” I replied

“Want some coffee?”

As she said that a little girl, no older than the age of four walked up to me and said in a soft voice, “Mr. Zebra likes coffee. It keeps him warm.”

I and the woman smiled at the little girl.

“So coffee?” She asked again.

“Does a Zebra have stripes?” I replied.

I sat cold and a little wet in her living room. The little girl sat across from me looking at me strangely.

“How old are you?” she asked

“Twenty-two, and you?” I said.

“Four...what’s your name?’

“Tom, and you?”

“Margaret.”

“Nice to meet you, Margaret.”

The room wasn’t getting any warmer, I began to shiver and worry that I won’t make it through the night. I could see that Margaret was cold too, she was wrapped in a blanket. Why was it so cold here? Doesn’t this woman have on the heat? Doesn’t she watch the news and know that she should have on the heat?

I turned on the TV to see what was going on outside. The anchorman appeared right after the commercial, he was talking about how the hackers have finally agreed to negotiations. A group hackers called Blue Crown hacked into the American Weather Satellite (AWS) and have been controlling the weather until they get what they want. That’s why there are nightly blizzards in California, and a heat index of 140 degrees during the day. Why is this happening? Who’s great idea was a weather machine? Of course the AWS was going to get hacked and used for wrongdoing. The woman came back with two cups of coffee and several blankets. I got up instantly to help her. I took some items from her hands and asked her for her names. “Jane.” she replied.

“Gosh it’s so cold, even in here.”

“Sorry the heat isn’t working, it broke last week.”

“You need a new one?”

“I need someone to go fix it.” she mumbled softly.

I took a sip of my coffee and made the decision to help her and the child, I sat up unwrapping myself from the blanket. I got this, right? “Let me try.” I said.

“Oh, no no, you don’t have to.” she said a little nervous

“I used to be an engineer let me try.”

“Okay, I’ll show you.”

She led me upstairs to the second floor of her house and showed me to a door. An old wooden door with a lock on it. On the door it had the word “ATTIC” on it. She handed me a box of tools and said, “Good luck.” I took the tools as she unlocked the lock and opened the door. The stairway was long way up.

“You’re heater is up?”

“Unfortunately. It keeps getting damaged from the weather.” I walked up to the attic, with each step it was getting colder. When I got to the top I saw the hole in the roof, and no heater. I sighed, and walked back down. She was still there, “What happened?”

“It’s gone.”

We went back down and made a fire in the living room. We won’t make it through the night, Lord help us.