As Light Replaced Darkness

"Time to rise and shine" Jenna said to herself as she threw her covers back. She grabbed her pants from the floor and pulled them up her long legs. The air felt cold. Colder than usual.

She poured herself a glass of water. Her stomach felt strange. Something was off. Glancing around her small trailer she tried to comprehend the body weirdness she was experiencing.

The subtle anxiety grew. Jenna threw open the thin aluminum door.

As her feet touched ground, her knees bent. Like a hunting cat she crouched, splaying her hands wide like antenna receivers helping to balance her subconscious bent-knee crouching.

Her stomach turned and she almost vomited. "Where is the sun?" She asked herself in horror. The eery darkness irritated her sensibilities, accosted her subconscious and terrified her senses. Jenna knew that panic was not an option. "No one does well when in a panic," she reminded herself.

She could hear her father's voice in her head saying "you can take the girl out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the girl." Her small trailer sat like a lonely boulder on the hill her father left her as his legacy.

She headed to the overlook to try and make sense of her situation. The darkness loomed. The sun failed to shine. She tripped over some lumber near her building site. She forgot a flashlight in her rush. "See why panic is bad?" She pointed out to herself as she trotted the memory-worn trail to the overlook.

A mountain lion screamed in the distance. Coyote howls were in the air. Jenna drew the morning chill into her lungs, and tasted the crisp wind with her tongue. Morning scents were slightly off.

At this point Jenna began her reality checks.

"I need to listen to the news," she realized. "My phone isn't charged." She reminded herself. Peering into the sky, she saw the logical explanation for the first time. Blocked by trees surrounding her little home, she hadn't been able to clearly view the sky.

Her body responded with relief. She slumped onto the ground and leaned back on her hands to view the phenomenon more calmly.

Throwing her thick mane back, she laughed a sound that caused  flustering in the bushes nearby. "If I had checked the news even once this week, I could have avoided all this" she reminded herself.

The black sun began to yield a sliver of brownish-orange. Slowly the moon eked its way back to where it seemed to actually belong. NOT in front of the earth's precious heater. 

As light replaced darkness, Jenna moved from relaxed stillness. She trotted back towards her building site, anxious to begin the day's routine. Grabbing her ax, she hefted a chunk of wood onto her chopping block. In one clean lop, she split it in two.

Jenna fell into her rhythm. Her body heated up. With the wood she was preparing for her little stove, her movements thoughtlessly created a pile of fuel. She imagined the house she was building. Smelled bread baking in her kitchen. Saw dancing rainbows on the wall from the window crystals she would hang in them.

Jenna had been working building sites with her Dad since she was old enough to hand him a hammer. “A man’s home is his castle” he would say. “Someday I’ll build my own.” 

They planned and saved for years. Working seasonal carpentry jobs is a slow way to build a fortune. Raising a kid while doing it took focus. Without a mom around, Jenna and her Dad had become an inseparable team. They moved through life with a mission, a goal and a roadmap. He got permission for homeschooling with his need to move often argument.

First they saved money for land. Next they saved money for building materials. They lived in a small trailer he pulled with his truck. Finally they found and bought the land. 

There is never a way to factor in a car wreck. When the world goes black and tomorrow starts stretching time in ways physics forgot exists, it's good to have a plan to follow. 

The zombie nation is made up of car wreck victims whose loved one never made it home from the grocery store. Wreck me once, I’ll come rolling home anyway. Wreck me twice and I learn to avoid those who might try to touch that gaping wound I call my heart.

Jenna placed the last chunks onto the wood pile. She knew she had two chords, which should take her more than all through winter with such a small stove.

“I've earned a break,” she announced to herself. “And then I’ll work on the solar panel.”

A hummingbird almost dive bombed her head as it whizzed by. Jays were bantering in the trees. The air was warming with the essence of sage fragrances. Taking it all in, deeply, Jenna felt her heart move. 

“Wow” she said aloud. “This is a very unusual day, Daddy. Maybe you could have warned me about that eclipse, Eh?” She gazed around her homestead with the pride of a lioness. “Perhaps you’d like to join me in the sun?”

Jenna decided to stop at the pond. Stepping up onto the huge tree stump she used as a diving board, she looked across the water. Her mouth opened in quiet surprise. At the other end of the pond stood a bear. Like a sunworshipper, standing on his hind feet, his paws were spread wide and he seemed to be rocking back and forth in the morning light.

"Dad would have loved this," she thought to herself.

Jenna spread her arms and rocked in the sun along with her wild companion. She remembered a bow hunting trip she had taken with him a few years before he died. They had crawled quietly through the underbrush and suddenly saw two five point bucks battling for territory. "It just doesn't get any better than this" he had said.

"Oh yes it does" she whispered to herself as she swayed.