“Well, sit down then,” the farmer said when Tom and Mike hovered by the door, looking uncertainly around. Tom pulled out an old wooden chair near the stove and sat gingerly down. Cora smiled at him.
“I suppose I didn’t introduce myself yet. I’m Frank, and this is my sister Cora.” Cora nodded at them. “And that there is Fritz,” Frank said, pointing to the dog who was now making himself comfortable by the fire.
“Nice to meet you all, I’m Tom.”
“And I’m Mike.”
“And what events led to you sleeping in my barn?” Frank asked. Cora did something with her hands and Frank nodded. Mike started talking while Cora got out plates, mugs, and cutlery and arranged them around the table. Tom thanked her quietly when she placed some in front of him.
“You… you know about the asteroid, don’t you?” Mike started. Frank gave a curt nod.
“Yes. Very disconcerting news. Go on.”
“Well, we — Tom and me, were in Vancouver for a conference, for work.”
“We’re from Toronto,” Tom added. Cora started fussing over the stove and banging pots and pans around. Tom could barely concentrate on Mike’s words as the smell of bacon soon filled the air. His stomach growled in anticipation.
“Yeah. Anyway, after the news broke, we wanted to get back to our families — Tom’s got a wife and two little boys, and my mother needs help. We tried to change our flights and get an earlier one back east, but flights were being cancelled left right and centre, and the ones that were running were full. The stand-by list was insanely long. Everyone was trying to get back home — wherever home is — before it’s too late. They said they couldn’t get us on a flight until Friday and we were worried that we’d be waiting for nothing, and it would be cancelled by then as well. We figured we could either drive, or fly back. And it just so happens that I have my pilot’s licence. Just smaller planes, nothing big.”
At this point Mike trailed off, distracted by Cora piling their plates high with bacon, eggs, sausages, and fresh bread. Tom thanked her again and got stuck into eating the delicious breakfast. He told himself to slow down, but his body was crying out for more. Last night’s inadequate dinner had left him famished.
Frank let them eat in silence for a few minutes, and then asked, “and then what happened? I take it you got a plane and ended up crashing in my field.”
“Essentially, yes,” Mike continued after a long sip of steaming hot coffee. He’d gone a bit red. Tom wasn’t sure if it was because he was warming up after being out in the cold, or because he was embarrassed about crashing the plane. “We hired a plane from a place near Vancouver. The first part of the flight went according to plan. We made it across B.C., and across the Rockies. We landed just fine near Lethbridge and refuelled. I thought we’d be able to make it to Estevan before nightfall, but we hit a storm… and well, you saw the damage.”
Frank leaned back in his chair and scratched his beard.
“You almost made it. We’re about an hour’s drive from Estevan here.”
“Oh,” was all Mike managed.
Tom watched Cora. She was listening intently to them speak, and then pulled Frank’s jacket to get his attention. She made some shapes with her hands again, and Tom realised she was using sign language.
Frank shook his head at her. “No, it didn’t look like it.”
He looked up to both Tom and Mike staring at him. “Cora’s mute. She asked if your plane was salvageable. I said it didn’t look like it. Tail’s in one field, front part’s in another. I was expecting to find cold bodies in there, I don’t mind telling you!”
“Me too,” Tom muttered.
“So what are you going to do now?” Frank asked.
Tom and Mike looked at each other. Mike shrugged. Tom put his knife and fork down and rubbed his face.
“We don’t know,” he said.
“You’ve got a young family back home, do you, Tom?” Frank asked.
Tom nodded. “Yeah. My wife, Claire, and our two little boys. Noah’s three years old, and Tristan’s one.”
Cora gestured to Frank again. Frank signed back to her. Tom watched, fascinated as they went back and forth.
“If you’re sure,” Frank eventually said out loud. He turned back to Tom and Mike.
“Cora — we — would like to help you boys get home. As much as we can, anyway.”
“You don’t have to,” Tom started. Frank held up his hands.
“Cora is insisting. If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the past sixty-two years, is that I should do what my older sister says. She’s usually right.” Frank looked at Cora fondly.
“Thank you, then.”
“Now, we don’t have a spare plane or anything like that, but we do have an old truck that works perfectly fine, and we can spare you some food and more appropriate clothing to get you on your way.”
“That’s extremely generous of you both,” Mike said. Tom nodded in agreement.
“We can pay you,” Tom started. Frank and Cora both shook their heads.
“No, Cora won’t hear of it. Not at this time, not with, well, you know.” He pointed upwards.
“Thank you, then.”
“No time like the present, old pop used to say! Have you finished?” Frank nodded to their plates.
“Yes,” Tom cleaned up the last of the bacon. “It was very good, thank you very much. I needed a nice hot meal after last night.” He smiled at Cora.
“I bet you did. All righty then, come upstairs, we’ll find you some spare clothes. Mike, you’re about my size give or take.” He looked Tom up and down. “I reckon some of Tobias’ old stuff should fit him, don’t you think, Cora?” Cora nodded.
Mike and Tom followed Frank through to the living room and upstairs while Frank explained that Tobias was their baby brother.
“He’s off somewhere in the South Pacific, got a calling to be a missionary, you see. Got a post card from somewhere called Tuvalu a few months back. He was in Africa before that. We haven’t seen him in years. Just get the odd post card or letter showing up every now and then. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind in the slightest, lending some clothes to some young men in need.”
Within a short amount of time, Mike had been furnished with a proper winter coat, gloves, boots and fresh socks.
“Toby’s stuff is somewhere around here,” Frank muttered. “Hang on, I’ll be back in a minute.” He left them sitting in a spare bedroom. The bedspreads reminded Tom of his great-grandmother’s house. Frank came back after a few minutes, holding a musty old coat and some boots that also wouldn’t look out of place in his great-grandmother’s house. He held them out to Tom.
“It’s not as pretty as this other one, I’m afraid but it will have to do. I don’t think Toby’s updated his wardrobe since the sixties…” Frank said, and scratched his beard again, and the shrugged. “Oh well, it will keep you warm, even if you’re not winning any fashion shows.”
Tom took the proffered clothing. “I never was very fashionable.”
“Just as well then!”
Frank left them alone to change.
“Can you believe our luck? I feel like someone must be watching over us,” Mike said quietly.
“I dunno, if someone was watching over us, wouldn’t we have not crashed and made it back to Toronto?”
Mike shrugged. “Be a sceptic if you want, my friend. I’m just saying it could have been a lot worse. We might have frozen to death last night. Or Frank might have turned out to be a cranky old bastard who set Fritz onto us instead of inviting us in for breakfast and helping us get on our way again!”
“Yeah, we’ve been lucky, I admit. Now let’s hope the luck holds out and we get home in one piece.”