As Marie talks on the phone, pulling the coiled cord
from the wall, her eyes rest on Howard’s map.
A band of spots mark the sites
of earthquakes where cables broke.
Connecting the dots, she sees a familiar shape.
Hanging up the phone, she waves her hands
to ask if she can drape his map over hers,
which she lays on the light table. As the beam
penetrates the overlapping papers,
the places where earthquakes began
line up with the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
Marie’s hands turn cold. She shouts with joy.
As Doc and Bruce run into the room, she says, The force
of all those earthquakes could have split continents.
Maybe, Bruce replies.
We’ll look into this more, Doc says. And meanwhile
keep it quiet so no one thinks we’re crazy amateurs.