A Family Summer
Copyright© 2026 by Sonarflash2026
Chapter 8
Two hours later, dusty, sweaty and tired, they clomped in, finding everybody crowded into the lodge’s main room.
Beth squealed, launching herself at Dana. The seven year old wrapped arms tight about her sister’s waist. For a few seconds, her father looked as though he was seeing a ghost.
“Thank God!” Grace blurted. “Kenny! You’re alive!”
Dana’s father broke into a crooked smile. “We thought the quake ... well, I’m so glad you’re both safe.”
“You were up on the mountain! We thought you were dead!” Beth snuffled, face buried in Dana’s chest. “Volcano erupted!”
“It was a near thing,” Dana said, speaking more to her father. “We were up to the petroglyphs. Had one of my ... episodes, so we got off the mountain fast. Slid down the southwest face. Were just between the hay meadows and lake when the quakes started hitting. We took shelter behind an intrusion. Trees down everywhere so It was a long, dusty walk back from that side of the lake.”
“Well, we’re glad that both of you are safe,” Dan said, pacing before the big stone fireplace. “You should both know there’s no hydro, nothing on the radio, and no telephone. Not even cell. My sat phone only gets static. This must be the big one. A major disaster. The whole Pacific rim.”
“That’s because the satellites are all gone,” Dana said.
Dan gave her a blank look, shook his head and ran fingers along the varnished pine mantle. “No,” he said dismissively. “We’ve experienced a pole reversal, or some other tremendous event. A radical electromagnetic flux must have burned out all the microchips.” Like the electromagnetic pulse from detonation of a nuclear warhead.”
“It’s a lot worse than that, Uncle Dan,” she said, peeling herself loose from Beth, shrugging off her pack. Opening a zipper pouch, she took out her iPhone, switched it on, pulled up a rock selection, started it playing and increased the volume. “My phone is still working. No fried microchips,” she said to the room at large, turning to meet her father’s tired eyes. “Hasn’t anybody bothered taking a look outside? Besides the erupting volcano, hasn’t anybody noticed changes to mountains around this valley?”
“There was a huge earthquake,” Dan said belligerently. “Of course everything changed. That’s why a couple of volcanos have gone active!”
Dana sighed, trying to not roll her eyes. “Uncle Dan, perhaps you didn’t notice them when you arrived? They were extinct, not dormant. Now, they are active and considerably larger.” She turned back to her father. “There are now forests of giant oaks. They only existed in the Pliocene, up into the Pleistocene. Some kind of warp ... a time rift has dumped the lake and this valley back one hundred fifty thousand years.”
Looking at Dana as though she was losing her mind, Dan only shook his head. Her father pushed out of the sofa chair, crossed the room and hugged her tight. “Hush girl. Don’t say anything more. The children are already frightened. You must be in shock.”
Weathered, wrinkled and tanned, Eliza Burnette, the lodge owner and chief cook pushed from a rocking chair, heading for the kitchen.
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