Leo got his wheelbarrow to the end of the plank road, and let a gang of people grasp his handles with him and help him tilt the stone out at the right place. After that he got out of the way and stood watching other people work. Restricted access to some of the weakest parts of the cliff meant that this was going to take days. Right now the rocks simply disappeared into the waves. No visible result whatsoever. Its like dropping rocks in the ocean, he said to no one. The noise of the wind was like jets warming up for takeoff, interrupted by frequent invisible whacks on the ear. He could talk to himself without fear of being overheard, and did. His eyes watered in the wind, but that same wind tore the tears away and cleared his vision again and again.
This was purely a physical reaction to the gale; he was basically very happy to be there. Happy to have the distraction of the storm. A public disaster, a natural event; it put everyone in the same boat, somehow. In a way it was even inspiringnot just the human response, but the storm itself. Wind as spirit. It felt uplifting. As if the wind had carried him off and out of his life.
Certainly it put things in a very different perspective. Losing a jobso what? How did that signify, really? The world was so vast and powerful. They were like fleas in it, their problems the tiniest of flea perturbations.
He returned to the dump truck and took another rock, and then focused on balancing it at the front end of the wheelbarrow, turning the wheelbarrow, keeping it moving over the flexing line of planks, shouldering into the blasts. Tipping a rock into the sea. Wonderful, really.
He was running the empty wheelbarrow back to the street when he saw Marta and Brian, getting out of Martas truck at the end of the street. Hey! This was a nice surprisethey were not a couple, or even friends outside the lab, as far as Leo knew, and he had feared that with the lab shut down, he would never see either of them again.
Marta! he bellowed happily. Bri-man!
LEO!
They were glad to see him. They ran up and gave him a hug.
Hows it going? Hows it going?
The two of them were jacked up by the storm and the chance to do something. No doubt it had been a long couple of weeks for them too, no work to go to, nothing to do. Well, they would have been out in the surf, or otherwise active. But here they were now, and Leo was glad.
Quickly they all got into the flow of the work, trundling rocks out to the cliff. Once Leo found himself following Marta down the plank line, and he watched her bunched shoulders and soaking black curls with a sudden blaze of friendship and admiration. She was a surfer gal, slim hips, broad shoulders, raising her head to the wind and howling back at it. He was going to miss her. Brian too. It had been good of them to come by like this, but the nature of things was such that they would all find other work, and then they would drift apart. It never lasted with old work colleagues, the bond just wasnt strong enough. Work was always a matter of showing up and then enjoying the people who had been hired to work there too. Not only their banter, but also the way they did the work. They had been a good lab.
The Army guys were waving them back from the edge of the cliff. It had been a lawn and now it was all torn up, and there was a guy there crouching over a big metal box, USGS printed on his soaking windbreaker. Brian shouted in their ears: they had found a fracture in the sandstone parallel to the cliffs edge here, and apparently someone had felt the ground slump a little, and the USGS guys instrumentation was indicating movement. It was going to go. Everyone dumped their rocks and hustled the empty wheelbarrows back to Neptune.
Just in time. With a short dull roar and whump that almost could have been the impact of a really big wave, the cliff edge slumped and disappeared. The crowd let out a shout that was audible above the wind. Now they could see through space to the gray sea hundreds of yards offshore. The new cliff edge was fifteen feet closer to them.
Very, very spooky. Leo and Brian and Marta drifted forward with the rest, to glimpse the dirty rage of water below. The break in the cliff extended about a hundred yards to the south, maybe fifty to the north. A modest loss in the overall scheme of things, but this was the way it was happening, one little break at a time, all up and down this stretch of coast. There was a whole series of faults parallel to the cliff, so that it was likely to flake off piece by piece as the waves gouged away support from below. That was how A, B, and C Streets had gone in a single night. It could happen all the way inland to the coast highway.
Amazing. Leo could only hope that Roxannes mothers house had been built on one of the more solid sections of the bluff. It had always seemed that way when he descended the nearby staircase and checked it out; it stood over a kind of buttress of stone. But as he watched the ocean flail, and felt the wind strike them, there was no reason to think any section would hold. A whole neighborhood could go. And all up and down the coast people had built close to the edge, so it would be much the same in many other places.
No house had gone over in the slump they had just witnessed, but one at the southern end of it had lost part of its west wall and been torn open to the wind. Everyone stood around staring, pointing, shouting unheard in the roar of wind. Milling about, running hither and thither, trying to get a view.
There was nothing else to be done at this point. The end of their plank road was gone along with everything else. The Army and county guys were getting out sawhorses and rolls of orange plastic stripping; they were going to cordon off the street and shift the work efforts to safer platforms.
Wow, Leo said to the storm, feeling the word ripped out of his mouth and flung to the east. My Lord, what a wind. He shouted to Marta: We were standing right out there!
Gone! Marta shouted. Gone like Torrey Pines Generique!
Brian and Leo shouted agreement. Into the sea with the damned place!
They retreated to the lee of Martas little Toyota pickup, sat on the curb behind its slight protection, and drank some espressos she had in the cab, already cold in paper cups with plastic tops.
Therell be more work, Leo told them.
Thats for sure. But they meant boulder work. I heard the coast highway is cut just south of Cardiff, Brian said. Restaurant Row is totally gone. The overpass fell in and then the water started ripping both ways at the roadbed.
Wow!
Its going to be a mess. I bet that will happen at the Torrey Pines river mouth too.
All the big lagoons.
Maybe, yeah.
They sipped their espressos.
Its good to see you guys! Leo said. Thanks for coming by.
Yeah.
Thats the worst part of this whole thing, Leo said.
Yeah.
Too bad they didnt hang on to ustheyre putting all their eggs in one basket now.
Marta and Brian regarded Leo. He wondered which part of what he had just said they disagreed with. Now that they werent working for him, he had no right to grill them about it. On the other hand, there was no reason to hold back either.
What? he exclaimed.
I just got hired by Small Delivery Systems, Marta said, still almost shouting to be heard over the noise. She glanced at Leo uncomfortably. Eleanor Dufours is working for them now, and she hired me. They want us to work on that algae stuff weve been doing.
What? he exclaimed.
I just got hired by Small Delivery Systems, Marta said, still almost shouting to be heard over the noise. She glanced at Leo uncomfortably. Eleanor Dufours is working for them now, and she hired me. They want us to work on that algae stuff weve been doing.
Oh I see! Well good! Good for you.
Yeah, well. Atlanta!
There was a whistle from the Army guys. A whole gang of people were trooping behind them down Neptune, south to another dump truck that had just arrived. There was more to be done.
Leo and Marta and Brian followed, went back to work. Some people left, others arrived. Lots of people were documenting events on their phones and cameras. As the day wore on, the volunteers were glad to take heavy-duty work gloves from the Army guys to protect their palms from further blistering.
About two that afternoon the three of them decided to call it quits. Their palms were trashed. Leos thighs and lower back were getting shaky, and he was hungry. The cliff work would go on, and there would be no shortage of volunteers while the storm lasted. The need was evident, and besides it was fun to be out in the blast, doing something. Working made it seem practical to be out there, although many would have been out anyway, to watch the tumult.
The three of them stood on a point just north of Swamis, leaning into the storm and marveling at the spectacle. Marta was bouncing a little in place, stuffed with energy, totally fired up; she seemed both exhilarated and furious, and shouted at the biggest waves when they struck the stubborn little cliff at Pipes. Look at that! Outside! She was soaking wet, as they all were, the rain plastering her curls to her head, the wind plastering her shirt to her torso; she looked like the winner of some kind of extreme-sport wet T-shirt contest, her breasts and belly button and ribs and collarbones and abs all perfectly delineated under the thin wet cloth. She was a power, a San Diego surf goddess, and good for her that she had gotten hired by Small Delivery Systems. Again Leo felt a glow for this wild young colleague of his.
This is so great! he shouted. Id rather do this than work in the lab!
Brian laughed. They dont pay you for this, Leo.
Ah hey. Fuck that. This is still better. And he howled at the storm.
Then Brian and Marta gave him hugs; they were taking off.
Lets try to stay in touch you guys, Leo said sentimentally. Lets really do it. Who knows, we may all end up working together again someday anyway.
Good idea.
Ill probably be available, Brian said.
Marta shrugged, looking away. We either will be or we wont.
Then they were off. Leo waved at Martas receding truck. A sudden pangwould he ever see them again? The reflection of the trucks taillights smeared in two red lines over the streets wet asphalt. Blinking right turn signalthen they were gone.
CHAPTER 10
BROADER IMPACTS
It takes no great skill to decode the world system today. A tiny percentage of the population is immensely wealthy, some are well-off, a lot are just getting by, a lot are suffering. We call it capitalism, but within it lies buried residual patterns of feudalism and older hierarchies, basic injustices framing the way we organize ourselves. Everybody lives in an imaginary relationship to this real situation; and that is our world. We walk with scales on our eyes, and only see what we think.
And all the while on a sidewalk over the abyss. There are islands of time when things seem stable. Nothing much happens but the rounds of the week. Later the islands break apart. When enough time has passed, no one now alive will still be here; everyone will be different. Then it will be the stories that will link the generations, history and DNA, long chains of the simplest bitsguanine, adenine, cytosine, thyminelove, hope, fear, selfishnessall recombining again and again, until a miracle happens
and the organism springs forth!
Charlie struggled to his feet and stood next to his bed, hands thrown out like a nineteenth-century boxer.
What? he shouted at the loud noise.
It was not an alarm. It was Joe in the room, wailing. He stared at his father amazed. Ba.
Jesus, Joe. The itchiness began to burn across Charlies chest and arms. He had tossed and turned in misery most of the night, as he had every night since encountering the poison ivy. He had probably fallen asleep only an hour or two before. What time is it? Joe, its not even seven! Dont yell like that. All you have to do is tap me on the shoulder if Im still asleep, and say, Good morning Dad, can you warm up a bottle for me?
Joe approached and tapped his leg, staring peacefully at him. Mo da. Wa ba.
Wow Joe. Really good! Say, Ill get you your bottle warmed up right away! Very good! Hey listen, have you pooped in your diaper yet? You might want to pull it down and sit on your own toilet in the bathroom like a big boy, poop like Nick, and then come on down to the kitchen and your bottle will be ready. Doesnt that sound good?
Ga da. Joe trundled off toward the bathroom.
Charlie, amazed, padded after Joe and descended the stairs as gently as he could, hoping not to stimulate his itches. In the kitchen the air was delightfully cool and silky. Nick was there reading a book. Without looking up he said, I want to go down to the park and play.
I thought you had homework to do.
Well, sort of. But I want to play.
Why dont you do your homework first and then play, that way when you play youll be able to really enjoy it.
Nick cocked his head. Thats true. Okay, Ill go do my homework first. He slipped out, book under his arm.
Oh, and take your shoes up to your room while youre on your way.
Sure Dad.
Charlie stared in his reflection in the side of the stove hood. His eyes were round.
Hmm, he said. He got Joes bottle in its pot, stuck an earphone in his left ear. Phone, give me Phil Hello, Phil, look I wanted to catch you while the thought was fresh, I was thinking that if we introduced the Chinese aerosols bill again, we could catch the whole air problem at a fulcrum and either start a process that would finish with the coal plants here on the East Coast, or else it would serve as a stalking horse, see what I mean?
Hmm, good idea Charlie, Id forgotten that bill, but it was a good one. Ill give that a try. Call Roy and tell him to get it ready.
Sure Phil, consider it done.
Charlie took the bottle out of the pot and dried it. Joe appeared in the door, naked, holding up his diaper for Charlies inspection.
Wow Joe, very good! You pooped in your toilet? Very good, heres your bottle all ready, what a perfect kind of Pavlovian reward.
Joe snatched the bottle from Charlies hand and waddled off, a length of toilet paper trailing behind him, one end stuck between the halves of his butt.
Holy shit, Charlie thought. So to speak.
He called up Roy and told him Phil had authorized the reintroduction of the Chinese bill. Roy was incredulous. What do you mean, we went down big-time on that, it was a joke then and it would be worse now!