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4:13 pm, the day before the Winter Solstice
THE PLANE LANDED WITH a jerk and then a roar that nearly deadened Kennedy’s senses. Just a few minutes after four, but the sun had already set. She didn’t know if her brain was playing tricks on her or not, but she shivered with cold when she looked out at the snow piled up on the sides of the runway.
She couldn’t wait to get off this plane. She’d been either in the air or waiting in some terminal for the past fourteen hours.
“You have someone here to pick you up?” the woman sitting next to her asked. They hadn’t talked much on the flight, only enough for Kennedy to know she was here visiting a new grandbaby.
Kennedy nodded. “My roommate’s coming.”
The grandmother smiled. “Well, tell her I hope it’s a beautiful wedding.”
“I will. And congrats on your daughter’s baby. I hope you have a great visit.”
It was almost heavenly standing up and stretching her legs once the slow deboarding process began. After traveling back and forth from China so often, Kennedy was still surprised at how much the simple four-hour time difference between Alaska and the East Coast could throw her off. Maybe the winter darkness had something to do with it. Her phone told her it was the middle of the afternoon, but her appetite was convinced it was past dinnertime and the sky was as dark as midnight.
She shifted her bookbag, which was lighter than normal since she was finally trying to get her eyes used to an e-reader. She could never fully give up on print, but it was convenient not having to lug around ten or twelve paperbacks whenever she traveled. In addition to studying up for her MCATs, she was reading as many books as she could about Alaska. Memoirs about kids who grew up in the homesteading generation like Willow’s mom, photographs from the Klondike gold rush and Kennicott copper mines, collections of Native Alaskan mythology, historical fiction from the time of the Russian colonization.
Her legs were stiff from inactivity when she made her way down the tarmac and into the Anchorage airport. Or the Ted Stevens airport, as everyone here called it. Whoever he was. She’d have to ask Willow. Kennedy had only recently realized how much unique culture was packed into this arctic state. Willow teased her mercilessly about her general lack of Alaskan knowledge, which is why Kennedy was finally studying up on its people and history.
“Excuse me, Miss.”
She turned around at the nasally voice. A tall young man, awkwardly skinny and long-limbed, rushed to catch up to her.
“Hi. I’m Melvin.” He held out his hand. “I couldn’t help but notice you reading on the plane. Do you like books?”
Kennedy was in no mood to enter into some random conversation with a stranger. She wanted to collect her suitcase, find Willow, and crash at their hotel.
He reached into his computer bag that was strapped across his shoulder. “I was thinking, if this is the kind of reading you enjoy, I’ve got an extra copy back home and wondered if maybe you wanted mine.”
She glanced at the cover. Why the World Will End on the Winter Solstice. Not a very original title, but at least it made it quite clear what the short paperback was about.
“That’s ok,” she said. “You should keep it.”
Melvin shoved the book into her hands. “No, take it. I mean it. You’ll want to be prepared.” He glanced at his watch. “It’s all starting soon.”
Kennedy took the book in hopes that it would get him to leave her alone.
Unfortunately, she was not so lucky.
“You know about the volcano, right?” he asked as they stopped in front of the baggage claim area.
“A little bit,” she answered. As if her dad hadn’t called her thirteen times in the past two days to warn her. Seismological reports suggested that one of the mountains on the opposite side of the Cook Inlet was about to blow. It wasn’t in an inhabited area, but the ash was supposed to cover Anchorage within an hour or two of the eruption.
“Well, that’s just the start.” Melvin grabbed the book out of Kennedy’s hands. After turning to the second chapter, he pointed to a constellation map as the suitcases began their descent down the conveyer belt. “See? It’s got all you need to know. You ever read the book of Revelation?”
Kennedy nodded.
Melvin’s eyes widened. “Really? Oh, well, ok then. You’ve heard all about it.”
“All about what?” She was glad when her suitcase came into view. That was one perk of flying into an airport as small as this one.
“About the sign in the sky, the great wonder. Revelation 12. Here.” He flipped ahead a few pages. “A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. You can read all about it. Where it talks about how these astrological symbols are lining up, just like the verse says, the crown of twelve stars, everything. And it all starts tomorrow on the solstice. That’s what I mean when I said you’ve got to be prepared.”
Kennedy did her best to fake a smile. “Well, thanks for sharing. That’s really ...” She cleared her throat. “That’s really interesting.” Grabbing her phone from her pocket, she added in what she hoped sounded like a disappointed voice, “Oh, that’s my friend. She’s waiting for me outside. I don’t want to be late.”
Without waiting for a good-bye, she grabbed her suitcase, braced herself for the biting cold, and headed into the winter darkness.