*
Nick and Manon stood in the shade of some trees across from the Post Exchange, some of the few trees that had survived the quakes and Army Engineers bulldozers. In the helipad beyond, the engine of a Huey began to cough, then spit black smoke while drooping rotors began to turn.
“So,” Nick said, “what do you think? I shouldn’t have any trouble getting a job, not with so much reconstruction going on. Maybe lodging would be a problem, but I don’t see it being any worse than here.”
“I don’t know,” Manon said. “I don’t know where I stand with everything gone.”
“You’re standing in the same place as me,” Nick said. “I don’t know if I have a single possession left. Even these clothes belong to someone else.”
The Huey’s engine roared. Blades flogged the air. Manon looked up at Nick. “Because there’s nothing left?” she said. “Is that a reason to live with someone? Really?”
“It makes the decision easier,” Nick said. “I would think.”
She came slowly into his arms. Oh God, he thought as he kissed her, I hope this works.
He suspected, however, that it would. A few days ago, he’d been resigned to his own death. Now, having survived all that the river and all that mad, sorrowful humanity could throw at him, he had the feeling his luck was in.
Starting from nothing, sometimes, could be a good thing.
Dust and wind buffeted them as the Huey flogged its way into the sky. They winced away from the blast, then began, hand in hand, to stroll back toward the camp.
Nick smiled as he saw another couple heading toward them. “Hey there,” he said.
Arlette looked from one to the other, recognized in their eyes a mirror of the glow that was in her own. “Hey,” she said softly. “What’s going on?”
Nick let his arm slip around Manon’s waist. “Your mother and I,” he said, “we’re, ah, going to try this family thing again.” What have we got to lose? he thought dizzily.
A smile broke across Arlette’s face. She threw herself into her parents’ embrace. Nick hugged her and stroked her, warmth throbbing through his heart; and then looked up at Jason, saw him watching, standing a few feet away, a wistful, lost little smile on his lips.
“Congratulations,” Jason said. He had to tilt his head to the left to say it.
“Thank you.”
“My dad’s come,” Jason said. “We’re flying out later today. I wanted to say good-bye.”
Sadness whispered through Nick’s veins. He left Manon and Arlette and walked to the boy, put his arm around Jason’s shoulders.
“I’ll miss you,” he said. It was the truth, strange though that seemed.
Jason looked up, and desperate hope blazed across his face. “Can I come see you later?” he asked. “I’d like to come for a visit.”
“I don’t know where we’ll be living,” Nick said. “We may not have room.” His words faltered at the look on Jason’s face, at the blighted dreams and despair ... “We’ll try,” Nick said. “If we can arrange it, we’ll try to bring you out.”
Over Jason’s shoulder, Nick saw Manon flash him an exasperated look. Nick gave her an apologetic smile.
We’re a family again, Nick thought at Manon, you and me and Arlette. But Jason can’t have that. We owe it to him to be kind. It could so easily have gone the other way.
Hope flared again in Jason. “Thanks, Nick,” he said. “I’ve given Arlette our phone number in Los Angeles. She can call and let me know where you’re staying.”
“Good,” Nick said. “I hope we can talk soon.”
Jason threw his arms around Nick, squeezed tight. Nick hugged him back, careful of his broken ribs. “You’ll be okay,” Nick said. “You know that, right? After what you’ve been through, adolescence in Los Angeles is going to be easy.”
“I guess,” Jason said.
And then, as they stood in their embrace, the earth gave a sudden jolt. Thunderous booms crashed through the air. Nick and Jason stepped back, legs and arms both wide for balance, as the earth shivered, a series of sprawling, looping rolls that almost sent them tumbling like circus clowns.
And then it ceased. The southeast horizon roared as the earthquake sped away. Nick stood on the green earth, his heart lurching crazily in his chest.
“Aftershock,” Manon said, in the sudden, expectant silence.
Nick and Jason looked at each other, and Nick saw that they both understood the pitiless message sent in that moment by the violence of the earth. That the world was not done with them; that they were atremble always on the edge of the crevasse; and that in the end the world, this ancient and multifarious remnant of an exploded star would have its remorseless way.
THE END