At seven o’clock, daylight crept through the woods and across the patio. The natural world took shape, coated in a thick glaze of ice. The trees—white and feathery—were beautiful and dangerous. Most of the smaller pines were bent double; some would not survive. Felix counted three giant root balls in Duke Forest. Mature trees were down. Ella’s camellias bowed toward the ground, dripping icicles; branches littered the patio as if tossed there by divine beings playing pickup sticks. Nothing moved or breathed except for the birds participating in a frenzy of activity on the feeders.
Felix reached for the phone to call Eudora. No service. It had been a mistake to let her leave last night. He would send Harry over to check on her later—provided he could be careful. Ice and Harry seemed a lethal combination.
Around eight, Harry shuffled into the living room, wrapped in his duvet. “Power still out? It’s got to be, what, six hours at least?”
So Harry had known what was happening during the night but had chosen to deal with the situation alone. That was promising, showed backbone. The apocalyptic sounds of an ice storm could easily terrify.
“School’s closed today. No surprise there. I took a few things out of the fridge last night and left them in a cooler for breakfast and lunch. Some ham, some cheese, some lettuce. The milk. Please don’t open the fridge until the power’s back on. And I defrosted a chocolate croissant for your breakfast. Obviously, it’s not warmed.”
“Thanks.” Harry hurled himself onto the sofa. He grimaced and blinked, grimaced and blinked. “Do you think they’ll cancel tonight’s Valentine’s Day party?”
Felix collapsed next to him. “I’m sure they have already.” He glanced sideways at Harry. “Sorry.”
“I’ve never had a date to take to a school dance before.”
“Maybe you and your friends can persuade the school to reschedule?”
“I guess.” Harry popped his jaw—open and closed, open and closed. “I was just, you know . . .”
Felix nodded.
“’Course, I can’t dance, so maybe I’ve saved myself some major embarrassment.” Harry held up his hands and jiggled his fingers like a gospel singer. “In the immortal words of some famous and rather wise dude, shit happens.”
How could his moods be so mercurial? Had Felix been in Harry’s position, he would have fallen into a bottomless funk.
There was a loud crack and a crash from the street, and Felix jumped. Please God, that was not a tree falling on one of the cars.
“I hope the cars are safe,” Harry said.
Felix looked from the empty fireplace to the icy world outside the wall of glass. “We should have brought in firewood last night.”
Harry shivered. “Temperature’s plummeting.”
“The house wasn’t designed for brutal cold.” All the glass didn’t help.
Another crack that sounded horribly close to the bridge. If they lost the bridge, they would be trapped.
“Is Mom okay?”
“She’s still asleep.”
Harry blew into the air. “Look, I can see my breath.”
Felix got up. “I’ll see if I can start a fire.”
“I’ll help!”
“No. There could be live cables down, weakened branches, and—”
“I get easily distracted?”
“I don’t want you to go outside until I’ve had a chance to reconnoiter.”
Harry gathered his duvet around him. “I think I’ll go back to bed. Stay warm.” He shuffled off, clearing his throat.
Felix walked through the house to the side door, opened it, and then closed it quickly. A huge limb lay across the bridge, and the black walnut had split down the middle. Half of it was on top of the log pile. Terrific. He would have to hire someone to come out with a chainsaw.
“Harry!” he called as he retrieved his jacket and gloves and scarf from the hall. “I’m going to need your help after all.”
Harry bobbed out of his room. “’Kay.”
“But dress warmly and do exactly what I say out there.”
“Gotcha. Should I go to Eudora’s, see if she needs anything?” Harry grabbed his jacket.
“Let’s do one thing at a time. We’ll get a fire going, and then I’ll go next door and see if I can bring her over here.”
“Did you call Duke Energy? Report the outage?”
“Yes, Harry. That I did manage to do.”
“What did they say?”
“They have no idea when the power will be back on.” Why did that feel like a recurring theme in their lives?