No Ordinary Day by Tate, Harley (best large ereader .txt) 📕

and neighborly chats. All in all, it’s almost like a mini vacation.”

Emma cast a worried glance at Gloria. “Haven’t you heard? It’s not going to be a few days or weeks before the power is back on. It’s going to be years.”

His smile faded. “Don’t think you need to go pulling my leg in the given situation, do you?”

“I—I’m not.” Emma pressed on. “The solar flare killed the grid. We don’t have the capacity to build it back anytime soon. You need to be conserving your resources and convincing everyone in town to work together to find a way to prepare. You need to think long-term, not for the next couple of weeks, but the next couple of years.”

“Well, if it’s all the same by you, we’ll keep taking it one day at a time.”

She opened her mouth to argue, but John grabbed her above the elbow and squeezed.

The mayor’s tone shifted as he turned back to Gloria. “Now about that food and water.”

Emma stayed silent as Gloria negotiated two full tanks of gas in exchange for two cases of water, a case of canned chicken, and two Costco-size boxes of energy bars. After handing the lock back over to the mayor, they piled back in the vehicles and pulled away from the farm, leaving the mayor and the woman with the rifle behind.

When they disappeared from view, Emma turned to John. “Do you think most people are like that?”

“Like what? Dressed like an extra in a Clint Eastwood western?”

“No.” She crossed her arms, not in the mood for levity. “In not understanding the gravity of the situation. Thinking this is temporary.”

“My guess is, yes they are. But eventually even the holdouts will have to come around.”

“At least they didn’t shoot first this time.” Holly eased forward, bracing her hands on the seats. “Maybe we’ve just been unlucky. Maybe most people will still be reasonable if given a chance.”

Emma sincerely hoped the teenager was right.

Chapter Sixteen

Holly

Apprehension grew like her hair in the humid air as they crossed the Mississippi state line. Raymond flashed his lights as he pulled over to the side of the road up ahead and Holly feigned sleep. She pulled Tank closer to her side, snuggling against his fur as the Jeep coasted to a stop.

John and Emma quietly exited the vehicle and Holly exhaled a trapped breath. She rubbed Tank’s head behind his ears. “What if this whole thing is a huge mistake?” She nuzzled his fur, voice barely louder than a whisper. “What if my mom kicks me out before I’ve even said hello?”

Holly looked up and shielded her eyes against the late afternoon sun. “Maybe I should’ve told them more. Explained how my mom left and never looked back.” Tank butted his head against her side. “She returned my letters when I was just a kid. Never sent me a birthday card. Never acknowledged I even existed.”

She snuffed back a wave of snot. “But I had to do something, right? I had to be worth something. Emma and John don’t need some kid weighing them down. They only took me with them because I had nowhere to go. I’m nothing to them. Not family. Not even a friend. All I am is a pain in the butt. If I can’t give them somewhere safe to stay, why would they keep me around?”

The door to the Jeep opened and Holly jumped.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” Emma smiled as Tank nosed past her to hop out onto the ground.

Holly stretched, pretending to wake up. “It’s okay. I could use a little break myself.” She hurried outside and relieved herself behind a row of scraggly bushes before meeting the others on the side of the road.

As she tightened her ponytail, Raymond walked over. “You’re sure you know how to get to your mom’s place?”

Holly nodded. “We’ll have to take state highway 32 until we reach town, but I know how to get there.” She cast a sheepish smile at the ground. “I might stalk it a bit too much on Google Earth.”

Emma reached out and patted Holly on the back. She bristled but didn’t shake her off. She hated how weak she came across, how helpless. If she failed to give them a place to stay… She shook her head to clear the thought. It’ll work. It has to.

They drove the rest of the way into middle Mississippi, past an old farmhouse with a falling down barn, a trimmed field dotted with cows, and on through the cloying stench of pig farming. Holly directed John to turn onto the main road leading into Valleyville, Mississippi. It was just as Holly remembered it from the Internet.

Turn-of-the-century houses lined Main Street, all in varying degrees of disrepair. One house with a wraparound porch tilted to the right like old Mrs. Tenenbaum, Holly’s fifth-grade teacher. Another sagged in the middle, porch steps dusting the ground.

A woman swept the cracked concrete path leading to a small bungalow on the corner. She stared as they drove through and unease lifted the hairs on Holly’s arm. She pulled her sleeves down to cover her fingers before pointing at the upcoming stop sign. “Turn left at the ‘welcome to Valleyville’ sign.”

It was one of those murals painted during some brief revitalization, years before Holly was born. The promise of the bright red letters fading and chipping as the decades stretched on. Did it look as sad and broken to the town residents as it did to Holly?

She straightened up in the seat as John turned the corner. “Just keep driving. It’s the last house up on the hill.”

As they drove past the closed barbershop and a vacant diner, they left the last dregs of town behind. The road rose with the terrain and the house, all six bedrooms and five baths according to Zillow, rose with it. Even from the distance the lights twinkling in the windows caught Holly off guard. Did they have power here?

Unlike the peeling paint and