Stone Cove Island Read Free Page A

said.
    “Your dad’s about to be busy, I guess. Lots of work to be done.”
    “Yeah, I guess it looks that way,” I answered.
    Charlie handed me a cup of coffee and gestured to the door. I followed him outside.
    “That’s about the worst way I can think of to find out what’s really going on. Local news sites and gossip magazines. Let’s go over to the
Gazette
and see if Jay will let us look at their wire service. Even just their Twitter feed would be better info than this.”
    Jay Norsworthy was the editor of our local paper, the
Stone Cove Island Gazette
—an island fixture. Charlie had interned for Jay at least one summer, and I could tell how happy Jay was to see him the second we walked in the door.
    It was chaos in the tiny office. Jay was racing between his computer and the AP wire printout. His only companion was his black Lab, Sparkler. The
Gazette
had its owngenerator, and Jay had gotten their Internet connection half working, but there were no landlines up anywhere on the island. For a dizzying, manic moment, I felt a wave of relief. It was amazing that Jay was still managing to get the paper out on schedule, by himself, despite everything that was going on that morning. Maybe things weren’t as bad as they seemed.
    “Charlie, I could really use your help with the Wi-Fi. It’s been on and off, creeping like a snail when it does work. Maybe you can work your magic.”
    “I can try.” Charlie pulled the latest printout from the wire and handed it to Jay, then passed me his coffee and stooped down to take a look.
    “Jay, is your house okay?” I asked. Jay lived in a cottage near the west bluffs; there was worry about erosion out there even in an ordinary storm.
    “Slept here,” he answered, his eyes still on the computer screen. “I knew I’d have to get the paper out early today once I saw what we were in store for last night. I hope it’s still standing. It might be halfway to Rockport by now though.” He laughed, but I didn’t hear any humor in his voice. Here he was trying to jury-rig his Internet connection to get the town paper out and he didn’t know if he still had a place to live.
    Unconsciously my gaze went to Charlie. We exchanged a look. No one, I realized, really knew how bad things were yet. We would only find out by degree. My relief faded, leaving a dark hole in its place. What if people had died?
    “Was anyone …” I hesitated, then choked out myquestion. “How soon will we know if anyone is missing?” I wasn’t sure how to put this.
    Jay’s expression was grim. “No one has been reported missing yet, as far as I’ve heard. But everyone’s still taking stock. We should know more this afternoon. The churches are setting up check-in stations with hot food and drinks—the ones with propane stoves that can
make
hot food, anyway—and there’s an evacuation center at the high school. They said only about fifteen people stayed there last night, but I’ve heard lots more are moving over this morning, the ones that can’t stay in their homes.”
    “Do we know how many?” asked Charlie. He was squinting at the tiny copper pins in the USB ports, his fingers working to reattach the haphazard wiring in the block of drives and modems.
    “Not yet. That’s my next stop.”
    “This thing is flaky,” Charlie complained. “Even on a good day.”
    “Don’t I know it,” muttered Jay.
    Suddenly I felt the full weight of how powerless I was. Sparkler padded up to me, eyeing me as if I might have brought kibble as well as coffee. It seemed crazy that we were inside, reading reports off the wire service about what was happening to us, right now, right outside. I wanted to get back out and
do
something, anything, so I wouldn’t feel so useless.
    I peered over Charlie’s shoulder at some more papers piled on top of the modem. The text confirmed what Nancy had told us: no power for up to a week, no ferry service for the foreseeable future, possibly until the spring depending on