Saving Sky Read Online Free Page B

big chain stores.
    At every filling station they passed, there were lines snaking out onto the street, blocking a whole lane of traffic—except for a few that had signs out front saying CLOSED: NO GAS .
    Mouse had her nose pressed to the window. “Wow,” she said. “Good thing our cars run on sunshine.”
    â€œYes, honey,” Ana said. “But most people still use gas, and things are going to be pretty rough for a while. I wouldn’t go around school bragging about our electric cars and our solar panels.”
    â€œWhy do you always think I’m going to do stupid things? I’m not a baby.”
    â€œI’m sorry, Mouse.”
    â€œI don’t brag about our stuff.”
    â€œGood.”
    â€œBut you need to understand…” Luke had shifted into his lecture-the-kids voice. Sky recognized it right away. “Lucky as we are, compared to most people, this is going to affect us, too. The long-haul trucks that move goods around the country also run on gas. And—well, with all those refineries shut down…”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œThere are going to be things we can’t get anymore.That’s why there was such a crowd at the store.”
    â€œAll those people knew this would happen?”
    â€œYes, Mouse. They figured it out. We did, too. That’s why we left so early.”
    â€œOh.”
    Sky sat numbly in the backseat, listening quietly, turning it all over in her head. The shelves at Albertsons would be empty soon. Then what? Would they just shut the doors, and turn out the lights, and send everybody home? What about the drugstores? What if people got sick and couldn’t get medicines? And the clothing stores, too, and the gas stations? With nothing to sell, the shops would all close one by one until Santa Fe became a ghost town. Whatever it was you wanted or needed, you’d better be prepared to grow it yourself, or make it, or buy it locally—because otherwise, you wouldn’t be able to get it at all.
    â€œYou all right, Sky?”
    She must have moaned or something.
    â€œI feel kind of sick.”
    â€œOh, sweetheart,” Ana said, “try not to worry too much. We’ll manage. We’re in good shape, really. It’s just going to be a little… different for a while, that’s all.”
    â€œI know, Mom, but…”
    Ana reached across to the backseat and gave Sky’s hand a squeeze.
    They pulled into the Home Depot parking lot. It waseven bigger than the one at Albertsons, yet every space was taken. There wasn’t a crowd at the door, though. The people were already inside, shopping like their lives depended on it.
    â€œTake the girls and go on in. I’ll keep circling till I can find a place to park.”
    â€œOkay,” Ana said.
    â€œI’ll get the heavy stuff—the lumber, and the sheet plastic, and the plywood, and the fencing, and the propane. That has to be picked up around back anyway. You get a cart and do the garden center and the rest of the smaller items. If you see something we forgot to put on the list, grab it. We’ll meet up at checkout. If I can’t find you when I’m done, I’ll call you on your cell.”
    About an hour later, their cart nearly bursting at the rivets, Ana pulled into one of the many long checkout lines. She phoned Luke to tell him where they were. Then there was nothing to do but wait.
    Sky watched the people shop and found it disturbing. Everyone was pushing, and grabbing, and arguing. No one was polite. No one smiled. You’d think those were the very last lightbulbs that would ever be sold on the face of the earth.
    Who knew? Maybe they were.
    A family pulled into the next line over. They were dark-skinned and foreign-looking. The husband wore a beard,and the wife had covered her hair with a lavender head scarf.
    They had two children—a cute little girl, younger than Mouse, and a teenage boy. He was taller than his