Chapter 2: The Last Day of Spring

1

'Please.'

'No.'

'Please, Junie.'

'I said no!'

June and Samuel Haven were walking home with ice creams in both hands and bags on their backs, it was the finishing day of school for both of the siblings and Sam was eager to seeJune's school as he would start grade 1 next semester in Bolton Elementary School but June said they would be late for supper.

Sam was five years old, turning six on August 21st. He has brown hair and hazel eyes hence he's very handsome looking, primarily for a kid his age; June, on the other hand, had blonde, medium-length hair with green eyes and freckles.

Skendåsgurg was a beautiful town to live in. For the most part, there were no natural disaster threats or nasty climate, and it was built on a valley that separates the Denmosgäk and the Kirstyäk Fjords that runs across southern Norway and enters the ocean near Oslofjord. There had always been concerns about the western mountains being weakened by the groundwater; geologists informed that there is little to no chance of a tsunami happening. Not very promising, especially since what happened in 1913

(no, we do not talk about that, praise god)

was a complete disaster. The north side of the mountain completely collapsed, and 30 cubic metres of land and soil slid into the Denmosgåk fjord and formed an 85-foot-high wave that killed 20 people and utterly annihilated the coast of Skendåsgurg, with 185 million something dollars worth of property damage, one-third of the lake was filled with debris and stone. Until now, scientists believed that since the incident, no more rockslides could be powerful enough to devastate the shores as the lake was too shallow to create waves higher than 10 feet. People who lived to witness it before would taunt people nowadays. One of the victims survived by going inside a car. Thirty years later was the day that the water rushed back with a cargo ship on its tip and levelled the town once more.

It happened two days after June and Sam returned home for the summer holidays.

They walked past Maxson Street and skipped June's favourite store. They kept walking home and by the time they did Sam ran into his mum's warm embrace. The sun was already fading and their ice creams had nearly entirely melted. The amber sunlight that reflected off June's cheeks made her look as though she was blushing. Sweat was running off her thin but smooth neck. She was smiling before she went for supper.

When she came down the stairs, her parents were busy eating beef lasagne. Sam ate a little too fast and choked during the process. She was so hungry that it took her half the time everyone else took to finish.

'Careful there, June, you could have suffocated yourself out,' remarked her father.

'I'm going to turn eleven next week, remember?' said June. 'and I don't think I want to go to summer camp this year, Sammy is going to get put down.'

'That is really funny, June,' said her mother sarcastically. 'Being eleven doesn't change the fact that your father is losing a LOT of hair.'

The kids laughed. Eventually, they stopped and Sammy started speaking. 'But I don't want Junie to go. I want her to stay home and play with me.'

'Grow up, Sammy,' said his mother. Not the first time. 'You can't stay with her forever.'

June, the truth to be told, loved Sammy in any way. He might be annoying sometimes, but her love for Sammy has never wavered once during the following years. She was tough against nearly anyone except him, their anticipation and bond with each other made them the first founders of a secret realm.

'Ok, mum. I'll go to summer camp, but I cannot stand Mrs Waynesen, she's just a bad teacher. Let's just accept that and move on.' June said forcefully.

'Sure thing sweetheart,' her father, Byron Haven said with a smile, 'why haven't you told me before?'

'Okay Dad,' June said and brought Sammy upstairs and switched off the lights, despite Sammy having already drifted off. I'll go kayaking or wakeboarding tomorrow on the Kirstyäk, it will be fun. She thought, and ten minutes later she also fell asleep in an endless dream. She dreamed of dolphins.

2

In the sweltering sun that same afternoon, a Finnish boy named Benjamin Faley was toying with his gold fidget spinner. At the same time, his druggy dad was too busy drinking in the bar to notice anything extraordinary with his only child. Ben was twelve years old and already famous enough to be shaking his principal's hands. He was born in Finland, and his mother died of stomach cancer when he was five. His father was a successful millionaire automotive engineer — the most advanced tech of his generation. Still, after Ben's mother died he went into a mental breakdown and refused to believe that she was gone forever. He began drinking and smoking and was diagnosed with schizophrenia, insomnia, and amnesia along with a list of other mental disorders as time went on. When Ben was eight he had thrown him across the room and passed out for several hours. He came to later that day to find his father sobbing about Ben having a midlife crisis.

Despite all this, Ben has earned enough of his respect. Ben is #1 in class on every test thrown at him in school. At 10 years old, he constructed a prototype of a probe that could detect movement 20m underground; at 12 years old he illustrated a roadmap of possible insertions for Schrödinger's Cat theory. His IQ had once been proven to be over 200, but such talents can only be seen by opportunity.

And of course, he didn't have that.

His principal tried hard to persuade his father to invest his time and energy into his prodigy son, but he denied it for the whole length.

This is why Ben is still in Bølten Elementary School instead of Cambridge. Ben's inventions were originally going into production if it were not for his abusive father, Jayden Faley who destroyed the blueprints after he went to summer camp, Ben was in tears when he came back and his father

(Oh yes daddy)

stared at him with a grin and a grimace on his droopy face and said: 'Let's make your mummy proud shall we?' and burst into tears.

Ben has never had a crush on anybody before, he never felt what that feeling would be like, and he thought he never would. 'So did I, but then one day, I met your mother. She's a natural, and I fell in love with her immediately the day,' his father told young Ben, a year before his mother's death, 'I suggest you should do the same.' But now the dad I once loved was no longer there. thought Ben.

It happened during their end-of-year speeches, the sixth grade goes first in the finals, and without a doubt, Ben was one of them. The candidates gave their speeches and went back to being audiences. The fifth grade then comes on. June was the last in line, waiting anxiously for her turn. That was the first time Benjamin Faley and Juno Haven made eye contact. Of course, June would have known Ben well for him being so popular, but Ben had never closely looked at her as much as June did. None of them talked to each other on occasion. At that moment Ben was stunned by how beautiful she was and for a moment she was almost sacred, though most people thought Helen Vincent was the hottest girl in the school (she also has a crush on Ben and it's the fact that Ben knew she did which makes him anxious). But June wasn't the same as Helen, she didn't tend to show off, and Ben liked that. Oh my god. He thought. My true love is here and the Alphish people can't help us.

He kept thinking of her since then. For some reason, he felt less concerned for himself than ever after that, despite his father acting possessive and weird. Perhaps he'll get the milk one day. Ben had wondered. Then I will be free of my duties. He felt relieved for the last few weeks of school, things seemed to be getting better.

That is until the afternoon of the last day of school got a little too weird.

3

His father was scheduled to have a drinking party that afternoon and Ben got to stay in their gold-painted car that had air conditioning in it. He waited for his father to come back and

(drive while drunk)

take him home where he would go ahead and watch his favourite TV show while his father took his 'drunk nap'. Ben had to put the TV volume on minimum because if something interrupted his father's sleep he's gonna take a good hard beating from one of his dad's wrenches and then get shut outside. So if he could just be as good as he can then nothing can go wro-

But things happened somewhat differently this time.

Everything was fine when Ben waited in the car with his fidget spinner. After a while, if he got bored he would go over to the bar windows and check it out, at least, usually.

Ben looked through the window into a horror movie. Oh, my gawd. He saw the reflection of his eyes widen. Jesus please no. Later he would think back and he knew something was wrong. He knew because he always could see his father coming back at 5 o'clock at the very latest. But today he wasn't back even though it was six.

He saw most of the drunk people at his father's table were on the ground: some had blood seeping through their hands; broken liquor bottles were still clutched in their palms, all unconscious or asleep. His father groaned softly. Jesus Christ, what happened to you? He looked at his father, stunned and frozen in place, feeling nauseous as if his brain was swimming in hot water. He didn't dare to breathe out, his heart was pounding faster than a car piston. People at other tables were either too busy drinking or didn't seem to care. One of them quietly went to the counter and rang the police (his name, was Steven Hodgetts. He was the only adult who helped care for June and Sammy after the tsunami).

This was enough for Ben for one day and he took the keys and ran home before the police got there. He was surprised that a part of him felt relieved to be rid of Jayden Faley. Two hours later his father returned home with a grin and five hundred dollars in his wallet. He went past the living room to find his son in a giggling fit and when he looked at the TV he started giggling too.

Somewhere 20 kilometres from their house, a faulty crevice of a mountainside was expanding to a critical level. A loud creak echoed in the night, through the entire fjord, several rocks as large as a man broke apart from their main structure and plunged 200 metres into the fjord, creating several metre-high waves that flowed across the large body of water. When they reached the shores of Skendåsgurg they made some loud sounds and flipped over some small boats. The people were fast asleep and were unaware of the danger that might occur soon. Very soon…

4

June had a wonderful dream. She was racing her mother riding dolphins that surfed on water, at one point she even surpassed her mother and laughed with triumph. The wave got higher and higher, and so did June and the group of dolphins. Eventually, it got so high that she could see the summit of the mountains, riding on the wave, she could see the remains of the northern mountains that lay beneath the rows of meadow and leaves. She yelled laughter as the wave roared on and on, she could see Skendåsgurg…

Her vision shifted and she wasn't on the wave anymore. She was on top of a building inside of Skendåsgurg, above her thunderheads grumbled and birds screeched frantically as they fled the town at top speed. The sky wasn't blue but black, a cloud of fear engulfed June's heart. A rumble came from the distance of the Denmosgåkfjord and the ground trembled fiercely. June looked around to see herself riding on the crest — that high, roaring wave except there was nothing triumphant about it now. Now it was black and looming like a demon threatening to destroy Skendåsgurg. The June riding on the wave was laughing — but it did not match her eyes. The dolphins were gone, and the town was slowly disappearing in the tsunami wave, she heard a huge CRACK –

'IT'S GONE! IT'S ALL GONE!!!!!' June gasped and scrambled awake, her ears ringing and her heart pounding. A few seconds later the door opened and her mother stood there. 'Is something wrong, June?' She asked.

'No, I'm all right,' said June, 'It's all right, mum, it was a dream…' She was about to confront her that nothing was wrong when Sammy came in with his PJs and said he had a bad dream, a nightmare.

'It happens, Sammy.' said her mother calmly, 'we all get tired after a long school term. When I was your age, I got so scared that I ran into my mother's bed and had goosebumps all over me. Now I want you to forget about it and go back to sleep, okay? Both of you. Don't you want to surf on the Kristayåk tomorrow?'

'Okay, mum.' replied June, not unkindly. But Sammy was still freaked out and wanted to sleep with her. June agreed. He promptly went into bed and was asleep in five minutes. Gender wasn't all that important. June thought. He is my brother and I love him. That matters. Nothing else.

She fell asleep while her alarm clock ticked on and on. At 4 a.m., it started to rain.

5

June paused her story to take a drink while Ozin lit an enriched cigarette. It was constructed like an old tobacco pipe but with clay. Sam was sitting on his office chair thoughtfully, his eyes were closed and his hand was supporting his chin, his brows creasing slightly.

June poured herself a jug of beer and noticed Ozin looking at her closely.

'What's up, Ozin?'

'Alchohol makes us sick, you should reconsider drinking something else, that's all,' said Ozin. Jesus. He has never changed. He looks the same as when we first met him. She went over to the kitchen table, and Sam was already waiting.

'What happened next?' asked June.

'Hm?' said Sam, confused.

'Like after this whole thing. What happened with your family?'

'Oh!' He smiled a little. 'Well, we were financially struggling after we came out of the mountains. We came to Kristiansand, remember?

'And when we separated I married Cora 8 years ago. We have two kids and I must say, you came here at a convenient time because Jamie would have driven you crazy. Anyway, Ozin, the council reconsidered giving you a travelling visa?'

'Yes. They permitted me to come back. But now every Alpino must only stay for 18 hours each moon cycle. There is no reason to rush this, but we gotta sleep as well, you know?'

'Right, right,' June took her hands out of her pockets, what happened next? The day before the tsunami? She felt that part of the memory was blurry, suppose-

'The Faley Affair,' blurted Sam. Suddenly aware, he grew pale.

'Oh gods,' June felt a shiver run down her spine. Sam winced as if a buck knife had sliced through his stomach. Something will happen soon. Sam clutched his glass.

And that something wasn't very delightful.