Alien Day by Rick Wilber

Author:Rick Wilber
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

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There was a lot of whistling going on. She came out of her daydream and saw Smiles coming up toward her, waving, whistling some kind of warning, pointing at the sky. Kait turned to look, and there, out to sea, was a squall line, dark and green, with waterspouts, a line of them, dropping down into the water. Behind it there was a wave, a big one, coming their way. The word came to her: seiche. That was why the water had receded; it had been pushed away by the wind. And then, when the wind shifted, back the water came, a kind of tsunami. It would wash all the way up this small beach, and partway up the bluff, probably.

It was headed their way, and coming fast. Kait scrambled down off the boulder and ran toward Smiles. When she got to her, Kait turned around once more to look at the squall line and the waterspouts and that wave, and it all was coming, too fast.

She looked around. All the S’hudonni were gone, into their homes and into the water pools. They could stay down for hours; they’d be fine under the water, swimming back and rebuilding when it all passed by.

But Smiles had stayed with Kait, who couldn’t hold her breath for more than a couple of minutes at best. Kait had to climb. Smiles went with her, trying to get to the bluff and get up it before the squall line and then the wave hit them.

Together, the two of them ran toward the steps that went up the bluff fifty meters or more, and then they were on them and climbing. The wave caught them about three flights up, and as it turned out, that was just high enough.

Kait and Smiles had to wait a full day before the storm was finally done with them. They couldn’t get back to the village even after the water receded; the wind and rain were too much for Kait. They found a cave near the top of the bluff, though maybe cave was too grand a term for the indentation in the soft clay. It went into the bluff for four or five meters and it angled slightly to the right, so it got Kait out of the wind and the rain, at least.

After the height of the storm had passed by, Smiles left the cave and walked down to the storm-tossed beach, huge waves still crashing in right up to the bluff, to see how the Mother and the other villagers were doing. Then she swam out to get Kait a meal.

After a while, she brought back the news that the villagers were fine, having weathered the storm underwater for the most part, and that they would be rebuilding as soon as the wind let up. And she held in her small hands two eel-like creatures. She told Kait that they were delicacies, and Kait was hungry enough to not question that idea, though they were repulsive to look at, covered in a kind of mucus with a greenish tint to it.

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