The Long Dark by Billy Farmer (best book club books for discussion .txt) 📗

thing. Sam told me later that Tom had been the one who wired it up incorrectly. The important part was, it was running. Now we just had to hope the damn thing would continue running for the ten or so miles to Barrow.

Chapter 4

We had expended a great deal of time making the Shining operational, but it was out of the lean-to and Tom was driving it around the small open area in the center of the Patch. The positives were it was still running, and it seemed to operate more or less as it was supposed to. The negatives, well, it was the Shining, and no one knew if it would run for ten minutes or ten hours. We would hope for the best but expect the worst.

We were nearly finished putting the few items we decided to take with us in the back when Titouan showed up. He didn’t say a single word to anyone. Instead, he climbed the passenger-side track, put his bag on the rear bench seat, and sat beside it. His pouty face and bag in the seat told everyone he didn’t want a traveling companion. As if anyone was going to cry because he hogged the seat. By that point he would’ve had to pay someone to sit by him.

Everyone was loaded in and as ready as you would expect given the circumstances. Tom was tasked with driving, well, because, he just was. None of us had ever driven on the ice road before, so it didn’t matter who drove. I mean it wasn’t rocket science. If we looked for blowouts, which were essentially holes in the ice, and kept our speed under seven miles an hour, we wouldn’t fall through the ice and drown in the cold waters of the Arctic Ocean. No pressure.

It didn’t take long for the first issue to arise. We knew we had to stay near or below seven miles per hour. The problem was the damn speedometer stopped working a few minutes into the trip. It’s not like the Shining was a hot rod or anything near that because it sputtered along to beat all hell. It was disconcerting not being able to see if we were going a safe speed.

Avery, of course, chimed in, saying, "Because we are not near land, rebounding pressure waves should not be an issue. If we stay in a nominal proximity to the desired speed, then we should not fall through the ice.”

I think he was talking about the cause of blowouts, but who knows. No clarification was asked for.

The second and more serious issue was the recent heavy snow had covered the ice road. There’s a good deal of maintenance that goes into keeping an ice road safe. I didn’t know everything there was to know about it, or even a little bit, but I knew that unmaintained ice was bad, and that we had ten or so miles of it to navigate.

Thanks to the unprecedented amount of snow the Patch and outlying areas had received, Tom thought he could feel when the Shining went too far off course to the left or right because of the banks of plowed snow on either side of the road. Since they were steep and of a decent size, we hoped they would corral on the ice road, like how go-cart tracks keep go-karts from leaving the track.

We were maybe fifteen minutes into our trip when Avery spoke up. “Has anyone thought about what it might feel like to drown?”

“Sweet Jesus,” Tish said, surprise raising the pitch of her voice an octave or two. “Really?”

“It is a serious question,” Avery said, without a hint of inflection that would lead us to believe he was joking. “It is times like this when we should contemplate living and all the travails that coincide with it,” he continued.

“Tell your idiot to shut up, William,” Titouan cried from the back seat.

“Oh, hell, ya guys are bein too rough on ol’ boy. He just breakin the ice,” Sam said.

“You’re as bad as he is. Except you realize what you’re doing,” Tish said.

Sam feigned being offended.

A few moments passed, and Avery was back at it. “I am genuinely curious--”

“It’s been warm lately… You realize we could fall through the ice at any point,” Titouan said. He sighed and then paused before finishing his thought. “The only thing you’re worse at than fixing things is conversation.”

“Even with the warmer than average temperatures, the ice is thick enough to support the weight of this vehicle. We are safe, Titouan,” Avery said. “Besides, fear should motivate us to explore the unknown, find out about it, and see if that fear is warranted. If I am analyzing what you just said, I think your fear is based on false conclusions derived from ignorance.”

Titouan began saying something shitty when I interrupted him. “Well, I’m pretty sure fear of falling through the ice is warranted. How about you ease up a bit? I didn’t bring my antacids.”

“It’s pretty damn obvious nobody wants ta talk about yer serious question, Faux. I’ll talk ‘bout somethin ‘at scared me ta death when I’s a youngin. It ain’t ‘bout fallin through no damn ice, ‘cause I don’t swim and the cold makes my pecker shrivel up, but it’s still a story ‘bout ‘plorin fear. Like you done said, it’s important ta explore yer fears.”

“Oh, God,” Tom said, sighing.

“I swear on my Aunt Betsy’s life, God rest her soul, what I’m ‘bout ta say is true. It all started when I’s in the Ozarks with my friends.” He stopped. “Can ya hear me back ’ere, Titouan?”

“Eat shit,” Titouan barked.

I turned to Sam and said, “Just get it over with.”

He cleared his throat before continuing. “I was prolly ‘bout fifteen at the time, I’d guess. Anyways, we lost track of time doing what boys do, and it was nightfall ‘fore we knew it. I got separated from ‘em on the way home, and got plum turned around. As