Austin Aslan - The Islands at the End of the World

“You bring the whole buffet with you?”

“It’s for later,” he says.

“Ah.” I frown. Is this one of those tragedies of the commons ?

Once we’re in the car, I read more of the article aloud:

“As crews repaired blown power transformers around the island, rolling blackouts were initiated throughout O`ahu under a conservation plan ordered by the governor.

O`ahu mayor Terry Kalali said, “Hang in there, O`ahu. We’ll be up and running in short order.”

I ask, “How are we supposed to get home?”

Dad smiles briefly. “It’ll be sorted out by the time our flight rolls around. Can you imagine if you were a tourist trying to fly home today?”

“Is the power out in Hilo, too?”

He pauses. “Probably not.”

We stick to residential side streets to avoid the jammed intersections. Pedestrians and cyclists also crowd the streets. We all study one another on this strange morning.

We arrive at the clinic right on time. I stare at the building’s front door from the car. Maybe I’ll have a seizure right away, end the trial on the first day so we can just get out of here.

The lights are off inside. The receptionist greets us. “Dr. Makani hasn’t arrived yet.”

“Are they going to be able to run any tests?” Dad asks.

The receptionist doesn’t know, but someone has left to get gas for the emergency generators. They need power before they can determine whether the machines are fried.

Dad and I wait outside and watch mynas and other birds flitter among the trees like any other day.

Dr. Makani run-walks up the steps from the parking lot, his dress shirt half tucked in. He listens to our report and suggests we stick around. “You’re off your meds now, Leilani. And you already had a small seizure. We might be on schedule if things get resolved quickly.”

We settle down in one of the rooms. The doctor takes my blood pressure and pulse. Dad asks, “Any read on what’s happening?”

Dr. Makani shrugs. “Rumors. My neighbor’s with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He said something about a geomagnetic storm, but I think he was just guessing. Space weather. Solar winds—or something—interfering with the Earth’s magnetic field.”

“That’s okay, let’s just look it up on the Web,” Dad jokes. We share a joyless laugh.

Dr. Makani continues, “He told me a story about a big geomagnetic event back in the 1850s that zapped early telegraph operators and affected compass needles. Sounds about right to me, but there wasn’t enough in the way of electronics back then for the impact to be widely felt.”

“So it’s a storm of some kind? It’s going to pass?”

“Should be temporary, he thinks.”

“Except for blown transformers and equipment malfunctions,” Dad adds. “Fried parts at the power plants will take time to replace—especially around here.”

Dr. Makani hands me a paper cup with a fat yellow pill in it. “Here’s your new dose.”

I pop it in my mouth and chase it down with some water.

Two hours pass. I’m starving. The lights come on. Dr. Makani enters. “It looks like we can proceed. Generators working, EKG seems okay. The MRI is a paperweight, but we’ll get by without it. No need to fast every morning anymore.”

“Yay,” I say.

Here I’ll stay, my head attached to electrodes, until I either have a seizure or make it to the end of the week.

Today, the whole world is on the fritz, and I’m working just fine.

The power goes on and off during the tests. I read magazines and check my phone for incoming texts from Mom or Tami. Nope. I try to read, but I have no focus. I can only listen to Dad scratching his chin as he grades, the crinkle of his homework papers, and the clicking sound of my own thoughts being etched onto reams of paper.

Dad eats some of his breakfast loot when my dinner is served. The sun sets, and a sudden calm descends upon Honolulu. Dad sits with me until a nurse asks him to respect visiting hours. He looks at me questioningly.

“Go,” I say. “Your beard scratching is driving me crazy.”

“I don’t have a beard.”

“Exactly.”

Dad chuckles. He gives me a gentle kiss goodnight and heads out. “I’ll be back first thing in the morning.”

Two minutes later he’s back in the doorway.

“Lei, come here. You need to see this.” Dad’s face is full of … awe?

“What is it?”

“Come outside.”

“Now?”

“Yes.”

He gets the nurse, who strips the electrodes from my head.

We step outside into a crowd, murmuring, looking upward.

It’s so dark. No streetlamps. Very few buildings visible. And the stars … they smear the sky with milky whiteness all the way to the horizon.

I look up higher and gasp. I feel the warmth drain from my face.

“What is it?”

Dad whispers. “Geomagnetic … solar flares …?”

Vibrant, yet cloudy and frozen, a hazy green knot dominates a quarter of the night sky.

“Aurora borealis?” I ask.

“Not really.” Dad’s been to the arctic, and he always returns with amazing photos of the northern lights. “Sort of. But this is less ribbony and more like … a pinwheel.”

“Well, this has to be what’s messing up the satellites and stuff, right?”

“I wouldn’t bet against it.”

“So as soon as it’s gone, everything will return to normal.”

Dad glances down at me. “That’s right, hon.”

“Dad?”

“Yeah, hon?”

“I want to go home.”

He gives me a grave smile.

We stare up at the strange glow in the night sky for several minutes. Finally, Dad nudges me. “Come on, you need your sleep.”

“Are you leaving?”

“I’m not going anywhere, Lei. I don’t care what the nurse says.”

We return to my room. None of the staff protests, and Dad makes himself comfortable in a large armchair a nurse drags in for him. We drift off to sleep in the darkness.

In the morning I wake not from a strange dream but to a strange reality. Dad runs outside to check on the sky and returns moments later to report that everything looks normal in the daylight. He holds up a new newspaper. We read the front page together:

ASTRONOMER: GREEN “CLOUD”

ENTERING SOLAR SYSTEM

MAY EXPLAIN OUTAGES

HONOLULU—A gaseous green haze materialized in the night sky above O`ahu and has grown more pronounced since it was first spotted Monday night.

Hovering high in the northwest after sunset, the celestial anomaly is believed to be the cause of satellite disruptions and other electronic failures that began at about the same time the haze was spotted.

Upton Donnell, an astronomer at the Bishop Museum,

observed the green light the night of the initial blackouts in Hawai`i. He says it is too early to confirm a causal relationship between the events or to speculate on why the anomaly might have disrupted satellites, shorted electronic equipment, and grounded airplanes throughout the state.

“It’s not an aurora,” Mr. Donnell explained. “It’s too far away to be ionized atmospheric gas. It’s not acting like a comet, either. This is something new to me.”

Mr. Donnell and his colleagues studying the phenomena say most of their telescopes and equipment are not working. They know that some metal composites and alloys are reacting differently. For example, cell phones, tablets, and computers from some manufacturers no longer turn on at all, while similar devices from other manufacturers experience only network communication failure.

“We’re dusting off old scopes and our slide rules, and we’ll keep the public informed as we learn more,” he said.