The Heat

Penny clutched the locket in her hand and stared at the scene before them. Even while living in one of the city’s tree-lined communities she had thought it was ugly but now it was nothing but a cracked, dead world. The Heat had altered the city landscape into something almost unrecognizable and the young woman was hesitant to venture into the alien territory.

“Aahh geez, Lizzie,” breathed Penny, “it reminds me of those beetles we saw for the longest time after about a year of The Heat. Remember, they were all curled up and dry and they turned to dust when we just barely touched them? This place looks like it’s going to just go POOF and disappear in a huge cloud.”

Her sister gave no response and when Penny looked over, she was climbing out of the cart.

“Grab the bags and let’s start loading stuff into them. We’re gonna need to walk, there’s no way the horses are going to be able to pull us through this crap. And don’t forget mom’s backpack!”

“Aren’t we going to get some sleep first? I’m exhausted and the sun is coming up. I say we rest for the day then head into whatever that is as soon as the sun goes down.” Penny looked toward the dry, treeless wasteland that was before them and shuddered. She couldn’t believe it had taken her a year of The Heat before she had moved back home to tough it out with her mom and sister.

Lizzie continued packing water and dried goat jerky into her bag and offered no response to her younger sister.

“Hey, Lizzie, I’m talking to you! How long are you going to ignore me? You’re not the only one who misses mom and it would be nice if I could talk to my sister about how I feel.”

“YOU miss mom? Whatever, Penny. You only miss mom because she’s not here to do whatever you want when you want. If you had really missed her, you would have come home the FIRST time she begged you to leave this dump. Do you have any idea how stressed she was that whole first year when we had no way of contacting you, no way of knowing if you were even alive? Pretty sure that stress didn’t help her heart.”

“That is a really sucky thing to say, Lizzie, and it’s totally not fair. You know how mom is, telling me it was no problem, that I had to do what was good for me. She never let on how much it bothered her. I probably would have tried to leave earlier if I had known but I figured she had you and Nora and was super happy with her favorite girls.” Penny’s voice quavered but she refused to allow the tears to come.

“Favorite girls? Come on, you know better.” Penny felt her sister move next to her and turned slightly away so Lizzie couldn’t see her face. “Besides, you know mom’s favorite has always been Nora. You and I? Commoners.” Lizzie nudged her sister’s shoulder with her own and then threw her arms around Penny, “I’m gonna kiss you if you don’t look at me, young lady!”

“I want a kiss, I want a kiss!” shrieked Nora and ran toward her mom and aunt, throwing her arms around their legs and holding on tight.

Both girls landed in a heap on the hard-packed dry ground, laughing among their tears. All except Nora, who looked at them quizzically.

“Why are you crying? I thought we were kissing.”

“We’re crying because we miss Grams so much.” choked out Lizzie as she gathered her daughter in her arms and gave her a big squeeze.

“It’s okay. Grams said she will watch us and I think she’s riding a n'unicorn,” stated Nora firmly. “I want to ride a n'unicorn with Grams.”

“A unicorn? Nah, Grams is riding a giraffe!” shouted Penny.

Lizzie reached over and grabbed Penny’s hand. “I’m sorry, sis. I’ve just been so upset that mom is gone and I feel like I’m lost. How are we supposed to do this without her? I didn’t mean to take it out on you and I really apologize for that low blow about her heart. I’m pretty sure there’s a lot that made mom’s heart worse but I can guarantee that you coming back home made it better.”

The girls lay still, watching the sky as though looking for clouds of rain to roll through as it used to when they were children living in Seattle, where it felt like there was nothing but rain. Finally, as if the two shared the same thought, they climbed to their feet and began unhooking the horses, tethering them in as much shade as possible. With a sigh, Lizzie shook out a small handful of grain for each horse, mutely showing Penny the almost empty feed sack. Then they gathered their bags and climbed under the cart, hoping it would shade them while they slept. Once settled, Penny began speaking.

“I have a plan. Let’s keep the horses with us. I’m sure we can trade them for a couple of tickets to the space station and we can use some of the cash for the third ticket. We save the rest of the money for a living when we get up there and the locket can be ours to keep. Something to remember mom.” Penny lay on her side and watched her sister’s face.

For a moment Lizzie stared at the underside of the cart. She finally rolled over and faced her sister before speaking.

“That is an excellent plan. Keep the locket hidden somewhere on you, not in the bag. That way if we run into trouble and lose a bag, we don’t risk losing the locket. We’ll get a fresh start once the sun goes down and I think we can make it to the space station transport in one trip. Hopefully, soon we’ll be up there, living in the stars, new lives, and everything.”

***

Penny woke before the sun had gone down completely and lay still, listening to her sister and Nora’s breathing. She closed her eyes when she heard Nora move around and waited while the little girl scrambled across the ground toward her aunt. Then she threw herself at Penny, landing on her stomach, tickling and laughing.

“Wake up, wake up!”

Penny began squealing and shouting with laughter, rolling over on her side and taking Nora with her. “Best alarm clock, EVER!” Penny laughed into her niece’s ear. The routine fun ended quickly and too soon all three girls were covered and ready to lead the horses into the deep bowl of dirt they stood on the edge of. The city was laid out before them but looked like a potato covered in pits, and each pit a black, empty sinkhole where a road or highway used to be. Even in the moonlight they could see the scorched trails of fireballs that had traveled from the nearby ocean that burned everything in their path, including any birds left in the air. The Heat had destroyed everything, leaving behind a dead planet. Water had dried up and the girls could see channels of rock through parts of the city where there used to a river. The air was still as death, silence in the place of crickets, an ongoing sound of nothing instead of the rush of traffic. Even at night, the air was hot and still, surrounding the girls like a heavy blanket, like being suffocated.

In unison, Lizzie and Penny started down the hillside toward the transport that would take them to their new life. As she walked, Penny slid her hand around the locket she had tucked away in a zippered pocket in her skirt, her fingers tracing the word, “LOVE”, on the front. She could see in her mind the engraving on the inside front, “To Infinity and beyond – Grams” and knew that her mother’s love would follow them all the way into space. Maybe Nora was right, maybe her mom would be riding a unicorn.