Page 13 of Resilience on Canvas

“Yeah, I haven’t been, neither,” Robert said. “Maybe someday. And then I’ll report back on how happy them clams seem. How’s that?”

Henry’s face broke into the biggest smile, one that made Robert’s heart flutter.

“Yeah, I’d like that,” he said.

Robert smiled back, his heart still fluttering like mad. God, what was wrong with him? Until that morning, Henry wassupposed to marry Clara. Robert couldn’t let himself start liking the man inthatkind of way.

Henry sure was handsome, though.

Robert tore his eyes away, trying to rein in the unwelcome bout of nervousness or whatever this was only to spy some kind of huge black-and-brown cloud moving toward them. It was so massive that it took up most of the whole horizon to the north.

“Holy hell,” he said, pointing to it. “Hen, look.”

Henry turned, and his mouth fell agape.

“Dear Lord,” Henry blurted out. “What in the world?”

“We better start runnin’,” Robert said, taking hold of Henry’s sleeve and pulling him forward. “Gotta find us some kind of shelter.”

“Right.” Henry stumbled, not yet having taken his eyes off the sky. “Shelter.”

Robert looked up at the rolling cloud, too. Jesus Christ, it was enormous. And it was coming.Fast.Ain’t no way they’d make it back to town in time. Fear trickled up the back of Robert’s neck, making the little hairs there stand on end. He started frantically searching for shelter, but they were in the middle of a fucking field. Where would they even go?

Finally, he spotted a little farmhouse a couple of hundred feet from where they were.

“There,” Robert said, stopping and pointing over to it. “Let’s try there.”

Henry’s eyebrows shot up. “What, knock on some random person’s—”

“What choice do we have?” Robert clipped, tugging on Henry’s sleeve some more as he started toward the farmhouse. “Come on.”

Once Henry began following, Robert released his hold, and the two of them sprinted to their potential shelter. When they reached it, Robert pounded on the door.

“Hello? Anyone there?” He banged on it a few more times. “Let us in. There’s one of them black blizzards comin’. It’s a huge one. We’ll probably suffocate out here.”

No one answered. Dammit. Robert turned to find Henry. Out of the corner of his eye, he could still see the plume heading for them, large and ominous, big enough that Robert had the fleeting thought that maybe the Goddamn world was ending.

“Hey, uhm, Robert,” Henry said from in front of one of the windows. He was cupping his hands over it to see inside. “It’s practically empty. Doesn’t look like no one lives here no more.”

Robert tried the handle. It wasn’t locked.

“Hurry!” he said, pulling open the door. “Come on!”

The moment they were inside, Robert started searching the kitchen cupboards for something big enough to plug up the gaps where the dust could come in, like the thin strip of space between the floorboards and the front door, and Henry rushed over to shut one of the back windows, one that was still halfway open.

“It’s stuck!” Henry cried out. “I can’t close it!”

Slamming the cupboard shut, Robert went over to help. Together, he and Henry began pushing on the window rail, and for the first couple of tries, it wouldn’t budge.

Robert let out a yell, throwing his weight into it, and thankfully, that seemed to be enough. The window closed with a thick thud that reverberated through the house.

Nodding, Robert turned back to Henry, who sucked in a breath through his teeth and then began sucking on his finger.

“Splinter?” Robert asked.

“I think so,” Henry said, shaking his hand. “Dang.”

Robert clapped the poor son of a bitch on the back and then resumed his search.

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