“—Tension continues to build in the Caucasus as the government of Ossetia maintains its hard-line stance against the paramilitary group that claims to have stolen between ten and twelve kilograms of weapons-grade plutonium,” the TV said. Nita saw several different shots of men in military uniforms rushing around— Some kind of SWAT team, she thought. “—rumors of a nuclear briefcase weapon, and has threatened to sell the material to terrorist organizations in the area—”
Nita swallowed, and picked up the remote to change channels. But even on the nonnews channels, she kept running into screens that said NEWS BULLETIN or SPECIAL REPORT. Even the main cartoon channel had a news crawl running along the bottom of its screen. Are the network people crazy? Nita thought, annoyed. Don’t they realize how scared little kids are going to get when they see that? Do they think that just because they watch cartoons, they can’t read? She changed the channel again, finding herself looking at another BULLETIN screen. What the heck’s going on around here?
But she knew. It was the local effect of the Pullulus, which Tom and Carl had predicted: people being pushed further and further away from one another. She threw the remote down on the hassock by her dad’s chair. “Daddy?”
And then Nita jumped nearly out of her skin, because he was right behind her; she’d been so preoccupied with the TV that she hadn’t even heard him. She grabbed her dad and hugged him, hard, and said, “What were you doing there?”
“I live here,” her dad said. “This is my house. And yours, when you have time to get home to it.” He hugged her back, looking over her shoulder. “I didn’t expect you to come home just to watch TV, though.”
“I didn’t,” Nita said. “Daddy, where were you? I was worried sick! I tried to call you, and I couldn’t reach you on the cell phone, and you weren’t in the shop, and you weren’t at home—” She was almost babbling, and she didn’t care. “I started thinking maybe you’d been in an accident—or, or—”
Her dad kissed Nita on the forehead and hugged her harder. “What is it they say,” he said, “about living long enough to worry your children? Guess I’ve done at least that.” He held her away from him. “I had to be out of the shop this afternoon,” he said. “I had to take Mike to the hospital.”
Nita stared at him. “What’s the matter with Mike?”
Her dad laughed a little, though the sound was rueful. “He had an allergic reaction to some lilies,” he said. “He swelled up in the most incredible hives. He couldn’t see to work, or even get himself to the hospital; I had to drive him.”
“Is he going to be okay?”
“Yeah, they pumped him full of antihistamines and cortisone,” her dad said. “He’ll be all right in a couple of days. Meantime, I have to handle the shop by myself and make the deliveries, so the place’ll be closed while I’m gone. It’s no big deal.”
“But your cell phone—”
“Oh, that,” her dad said. “Everybody’s been having trouble with their phones the past day or so. We had another of your solar flares. Didn’t Roshaun say we might get some more of those after he and Dairine and the others fixed the Sun?”
“Oh my gosh,” Nita said. “I forgot. So much has been happening, and I thought—” She sighed. “Never mind.”
“It’s a pity you weren’t here last night,” her dad said. “We had a really nice aurora. You’d have loved it.”
An aurora, she thought. When did I last have time to look at the sky for fun? “Daddy,” she said, “this is going to sound really strange, but what day is today?”
“It’s April thirtieth,” her dad said.
“Oh, no!” Nita said. “We have to be back at school on Monday; that’s as much time as Mr. Millman could get us! What if we can’t, what if…”
Her dad sighed and sat down in his easy chair, though he didn’t lean back. He looked at Nita, concerned, and then glanced at the TV. It was still discussing wars and rumors of wars. “I know this sounds unlike me,” he said, “but don’t worry about that right now. How are you doing with what you left to do?”
“It’s too early to say,” Nita said. “But things are really messed up.”
“Yeah,” said her dad. He threw another glance at the TV. “The news is so bad right now.” He shook his head. “Let’s not get into it. Sweetie, you should get back there and concentrate on your job.”
“But what about you?” she said. Sker’ret’s ancestor was on her mind, and Dairine had left a précis in the manual about her meeting with Roshaun’s family. All Nita could think of at the moment was her father, alone in an empty house at a bad time.
“I’m doing okay,” he said, looking her in the eye. “Don’t distract yourself. I can cope.”
“But—”
“Honey, things here may be going to hell in a handbasket,” he said, “but after what you’ve told me, I know why. So when I feel awful, at least I’m privileged to know what’s causing it. For the meantime, you let me worry about this planet, and I’ll let you worry about all the others. If what you’re doing works, we’ll all have less to worry about here.” He smiled, though the smile was pained. “Dairine’s all right?”
“As far as I know.”
“Good,” her dad said.
“I have to call Kit’s mama and pop and tell them that he’s okay, too.”
“I can do that for you,” her dad said. “I need to talk to them anyway. In case the school decides to give us any trouble, we’re going to want to present a united front.”
“Okay,” she said. “I have to go check in real quick with Tom and Carl. As soon as I’ve done that, I’ll be going back.”
“Have you got enough stuff in your pup tent?” her dad said.
“Loads,” Nita said. “I’ll come back if I need anything.”
“Okay,” her father said. He looked at the TV, picked up the remote, and very pointedly turned off the TV. “At times like this,” he said, “you can pay too much attention to the news. Either they’ll blow up the world, or they won’t. Meantime, our job is to get on with life.”
“I think you’re right,” Nita said. “Daddy…”
She went to him and hugged him again. He hugged her back, hard. “You be careful,” he said. “But do what you have to. Don’t worry about me.”
She looked up at him. “I’m going to anyway,” Nita said. “But I will do what I have to.”
“Good,” her dad said, and pushed her gently away. “Don’t worry about the phones. Get in touch when you can, or just leave me voicemail. Okay?”
“Okay.”
“Then I’ll see you later.” He smooched her on the top of her head, and went into the kitchen, and outside.
“Bye-bye,” Nita said.
Standing there in the living room, she heard her dad start the car up and back out of the driveway. Everything was suddenly very quiet.
Hurriedly, Nita headed out the back door, locked it, and set out on the short walk to Tom and Carl’s.
***
She hadn’t had to ring the doorbell more than once before the door opened. Tom peered out at her. “Oh, hi, Nita. How’re you doing?”
He looked so perfectly normal that she could have wept. “Oh, wow, it’s great to see you!”
“It’s always good to see you, too,” Tom said. He stood in the doorway and looked at her quizzically.
This conversation somehow wasn’t going quite the way Nita had imagined it. “Where’s Carl?”
“At work. Where else would he be?”
That calm reply ran a chill down Nita’s spine. Wrong, this is all wrong.
“Uh,” she said. “Yeah. Listen, I thought I should touch base about where we’ve been.”