“Yeah, too bad you didn’t get that VW Bug you wanted. I’ll bet it would still run.”
Just as he said it, as if to prove his point, they heard the sound of an engine winding out and saw a dilapidated diesel work truck weaving its way up the street around the stalled cars and their stranded drivers. It looked to be a relic from the ’60s, if not older.
“Nothing electronic under the hood,” Grant answered when Casey gave him a questioning look. “People with old vehicles like that are in luck, but the problem is, the roads are so clogged up with all the new ones that they likely won’t be able to go anywhere. We’re better off with our bikes.”
“I suppose, as long as we don’t need to go far. Hey, I need to see if my roommate Jessica came home. Do you want to come up to my apartment with me to check? Then we can go ride around some if you want.”
“Sure. There’s certainly no hurry. Not much else I can do anyway.”
Casey was grateful for this unexpected turn of events that gave her an opportunity to hang out with Grant. She hoped it didn’t show in her body language because she was embarrassed for him to know that it mattered to her. She led the way up the stairs and unlocked the door. “It’s going to be hot in here without the AC, but at least it’s not summer yet.”
“Yeah, it’s actually pretty pleasant today. Usually when the power goes out down here, it’s because of a hurricane, and in hurricane season, it’s always hot.”
“I want to hear more about what it was like here after Katrina, if you ever have time to tell me about it.”
“Sure, I’ll be glad to, but we got out ahead of the worst of it and didn’t come back for a long time.”
“I can’t imagine what it must have been like to lose your home and everything in it.”
Grant just shrugged and said that wasn’t the worst part of it. He said that growing up the way he did he was used to being uprooted and moved to new places. As a result of that lifestyle, he said, he didn’t have a lot of possessions that he was attached to, like most people did. The worst part was that all his close friends had moved out of New Orleans and even out of the state after they were displaced and none had come back. He was essentially alone on campus, and though he had new acquaintances in his graduate classes, none of them were people he spent time outside of class with. He promised to tell her more about Katrina soon, and said that what he learned in the aftermath of that storm might come in handy considering what had apparently happened now.
It was obvious that Jessica was not in the apartment, and Casey could see no sign that she’d been back. She told Grant that she must still be at her boyfriend’s place or else had gone straight to campus from there without coming by the apartment.
“What about yours?” Grant asked.
“My what?”
“Boyfriend, significant other, or whatever.”
“No, I’m afraid not. I haven’t really dated since I started classes here. I just didn’t need the drama with all the work I have to do. I thought I would end up with my high school sweetheart, but he dumped me when he went to LSU.”
“That was a dumb move on his part, I’d say.”
Casey blushed. “Thanks, but it happens to everyone, I think. That’s why I haven’t bothered again for now.”
“I know what you mean. I keep myself free too these days. If not, I couldn’t do all the traveling I do between semesters.”
Casey started to say something but reconsidered. She was lost in thought for a moment but suddenly changed the subject. “If we can’t get the news on TV or the radio, and cell phones are not working either, how are we supposed to find out more about what happened to cause this? How will we know if other places outside the city are affected?”
“We won’t know anything by staying here… unless someone makes it here from areas that were not damaged. I don’t know, but if it
was
what I think it was, and it
was
caused by whatever caused that light display last night, I can’t imagine that it only affected our region. And if it was more widespread, how would anyone send a message here or get here? This could be a very serious situation, worse than any hurricane.”
“Well, I don’t see how it could be worse than a hurricane. I mean, no one is getting hurt because the power’s off and the phones don’t work. It’s not like there’s wind blowing houses apart or flood waters filling the streets. How can it be that bad?”
“Think about it for a minute, Casey. Think about all the people in the hospital, for instance, depending on machines that run on electricity to keep them alive. Think about people that need to
get
to the hospital, but now can’t. Think about all the stores that will have to stay closed and can’t sell food or anything else. What will everyone do when they can’t get anything?” Grant paused for a minute. “You can be sure people are getting hurt or dying because of this.” He suddenly got quiet. “You don’t even want to think about all the people who must have been flying in jets and other airplanes when this pulse or whatever it was suddenly hit.”
“What would it do to an airplane? If they stopped like all these cars did, couldn’t the pilots still glide them down or something? I’ve seen them do that in movies.”
“Maybe some types of small planes; not big jumbo jets, from what I understand. They don’t glide well at all, and there are not many places they could safely land. Besides, big airliners are even more dependent on computer controls than cars are. They can’t navigate without all that stuff to tell them where they are, how high they are flying, and how fast they are going. I think they would all crash if all that went out. At least that’s what I read somewhere.”
“Oh my God, if this had happened just a couple of days later, my dad could have been in a crash!”
“Is he flying somewhere then?”
“He’s supposed to be coming back here from St. Thomas on Thursday. But he couldn’t have been on a plane today, because he’s out in the ocean with my Uncle Larry on a sailboat. What would this do to a sailboat?” Casey suddenly looked frightened. “What if their GPS went out? How will they find their way back to land?”
“Where were they going?” Grant asked.
Casey told him all about the delivery trip, about how she and Jessica had sailed with Larry in the islands the previous summer, and how Larry had been sailing all over for years and years, but it was her dad’s first offshore voyage.
“I wouldn’t worry right now, Casey. It sounds like your dad is in good hands with his brother, and a real sailor like that can navigate without fancy electronics. They’re probably in about the safest place anyone can be right now, out on the open sea.”
“But how will I
know
?” Casey was distraught. Grant put his arm around her and she turned to him and hugged him with both of hers. “He won’t be able to call me when they get to land. I won’t even know if they made it or not.”
“I hope I’m wrong about the extent of this, Casey. I really do,” Grant said as he returned her hug with a reassuring squeeze. “I hope this was somehow local and just affected the city. That way, they can get outside help in here fast and get things running again.”
Casey had never given much thought to how much everything in modern life was dependent upon electronic devices and the power that made them work. Like everyone else, she imagined, she just took it for granted that all these things would keep on working just as they always had. Most people had never considered the possibility of a situation like what was going on today. She was grateful that Grant was with her and that he seemed so knowledgeable. She wanted to just stay in his arms where she could momentarily forget her worries, but she felt his embrace relax, signaling an end to the hug, and she reluctantly pulled away.
“So what do we do now?” she asked, hoping that whatever it was, they could do it together.
“Do you still want to ride around some on the bikes? Maybe we can look for your roommate, and listen to the talk on the streets.”
“Of course. We could try going by Joey’s place to see if she’s there. He lives in a little cottage on the grounds of an old mansion on Philip Street. It’s about three miles west of here, over in the Garden District.”
“I know the area. It’s where the rich people live.”
“It’s just a rental, but yeah, his parents are loaded, I think.”
“Let’s go, but I’m getting kind of hungry. We’d better find something to eat first.”
“I’ve got pizza in the freezer,” Casey said, “but no way to cook it.”
“Let’s see what we can find somewhere on the way. We’re going to have to start thinking about more than lunch too; if the power stays off, food will run out fast.”
“I didn’t think about that,” Casey said.
“You haven’t been through a hurricane. It’s okay. Leave that to me. I know all about this stuff.”
Casey was becoming more impressed with Grant all the time, and in a twisted kind of way, she was almost glad the lights had gone out. When she thought about it, she knew he lived alone, and with everything shut down, he probably didn’t have too much else to do right now. This would give them a reason they otherwise would not have to spend time together—time that she hoped would help them get to know each other even better. It seemed that Grant liked her company and wanted to help her. If not, he would just do his own thing, as he was used to being on his own.
They made their way to the busy maze of Magazine Street, which was much narrower and seemed even more crowded than St. Charles Avenue, with stalled cars, pedestrians, and throngs of other people riding bikes. They found a line outside a pita sandwich shop that was serving what food they had left and the rest of the semi-cold sodas from their coolers to customers who could pay in cash. Casey never carried bills on her, always relying on her debit card to make even the smallest of purchases. Once again she felt stupid and embarrassed and had to admit to Grant that she didn’t have any money. Grant told her not to worry, he had money on him, so they were in luck and got in line standing beside their bikes, where they could overhear all sorts of wild speculation from those around them about what could have happened. Theories ranged from terrorist attacks to government conspiracies and even an alien invasion. Many people in this city that never sleeps had been outside and had seen the bizarre lights that flashed across the sky in the wee hours of the morning. It was obvious that there was a growing sense of frustration at all the unknown aspects of the situation, and even though it was only March, by late morning it was getting hot and humid. Gathering clouds threatened the afternoon rain that was typical in the Big Easy. When the rain started falling it would only add to the annoyance of all the suddenly stranded drivers who found themselves unable to get to wherever they had been trying to go that morning.
Grant bought all the bottled water and Gatorade they could stuff in their book bags, along with some one-serving bags of baked potato chips, the only extra snacks the shop still had a supply of. Then they pedaled off to make their way to Joey’s house, where they hoped to find Jessica. Along the way, Casey told Grant that the relationship between Jessica and Joey probably wasn’t going anywhere. It was more of a physical attraction than anything else. Joey was arrogant and impatient and didn’t seem to care much about listening to what anyone else had to say. He didn’t have much time for her roommate anyway, Casey said, adding that he was a pre-med student barely keeping his GPA above the minimum, thanks to all the time he spent partying with his friends.
“Sounds like she should have dumped him already, if you ask me,” Grant said.
“Yeah, I keep hoping she’ll move on. She deserves better.”
Casey set the pace as she led the way down Magazine until they came to Philip, where she turned right, heading towards the river. “Here’s the house, just ahead on the right.” She pointed.
They pulled into a narrow drive that led into a beautifully landscaped semi-tropical garden of date palms, philodendrons, and oleander, and followed it past the white two-story mansion to a separate guest house in the back of the grounds. Joey’s black Audi was parked in front, but Jessica came to the door alone when Casey knocked.
Casey reintroduced Jessica and Grant, though they remembered meeting briefly one morning when she and Casey were walking through campus together.
“I was just getting ready to start walking home, since Joey’s car wouldn’t start this morning,” Jessica said. “He flipped out about it pretty bad. I tell you, I’ve had about enough of his temper. We both had nine o’clock classes, and by that time, whatever caused the electricity to go out and all the cars to mess up had already happened. Joey just went nuts. I don’t know if you noticed it in the driveway or not, but he kicked a big dent right in the driver’s door of his car, blaming it on his dad for buying him a
used
Audi. Then he took off running towards campus. I decided not to bother. I didn’t have anything I couldn’t skip today and besides, I knew they wouldn’t have class with no electricity. I went back to bed, because I sure didn’t get any sleep last night, and I was a bit hung over.”
Grant glanced back in the direction of the car and rolled his eyes. Jessica was a beautiful girl by any standard, and he was surprised she put up with such an asshole. “Did you guys see the lights last night?” he asked.