Read The Glacier for Free Online Page B

spies a pinecone lying on the ground. He picks it up and examines it. It’s a nice one. Big and full and complete. He turns it in his fingers, admiring the perfectly irregular radial symmetry.
    Suddenly the pinecone releases an electrical charge, shocking him, and he drops it.
    ***
    The fluorescent lights of the Convention Center flicker on and off over Simone’s head in the small industrial room. She looks up from her salt and pepper shakers.
    ***
    Baffled, Jonah watches the pinecone lying inertly on the ground.
    He picks it up again. The pinecone comes alive, pulsating with electric-blue light, like a bug-zapper. Now it has him with its current and he can’t let go. He reaches out with his other hand and grabs the metal surveyor’s rod stuck in the ground.
    The entire forest around him comes alive, exploding with electric-blue light. Tendrils of electricity arc across roots in the ground, spiralling up the trunks of trees and then crowning. The current jumps from tree to tree until the entire canopy of branches is humming, buzzing, and crackling with radiant blue light.
    ***
    BZZZT— The lights go out completely and Simone is in the dark.
    ***
    Gunner and Sue are tromping through the undergrowth, dodging brown branches and briars. Sue is marking trees with a can of orange spray paint.
    SUE
    Gunner, listen. I know this has been a hard time for you. I want you to know that I am truly sorry about the farm. I know how much of a blow it was and I know it isn’t any easier considering the nature of the work we’ve been doing.
    TSSSST. He marks another tree with paint.
    SUE
    But we’ve got good jobs. We get to work outside, not in some sterile office. That’s who we are. We’re outside dogs. And I think it’s kind of exciting. We’re out here on the frontier, cutting trail. We’re drawing the map and I think that’s kind of neat—
    Gunner stops abruptly and Sue crashes into him.
    SUE
    Whoa! Sorry…
    Gunner holds up his hand to silence Sue.
    SUE
    What’s the matter?
    GUNNER
    Quiet.
    SUE
    (whispering)
    What? What is it?
    GUNNER
    Do you hear something?
    Sue listens.
    SUE
    No.
    GUNNER
    Do you smell anything?
    SUE
    Like what?
    GUNNER
    Some funny smell.
    Sue smells, delicately probing the air with his nostrils.
    SUE
    I don’t think so.
    GUNNER
    Well do you or don’t you?
    SUE
    Well, I don’t know! What kind of smell is it?
    GUNNER
    Something burning. It smells like something’s burning.
    Gunner moves on and Sue follows on after him.
    ***
    Jonah stands at the center of the brilliant blue spectacle with one hand on the surveyor’s rod and his other hand unable to release the pinecone. He quivers and shakes, conducting the massive electric current as it contracts his muscles, fries his nerves, and lights up the entire woods.
    By the time Gunner and Sue arrive at Jonah, he’s standing in a funny position with the surveyor’s rod in one hand and a pinecone in the other. His eyes are rolled back up in his head. Otherwise, the forest around them is calm and normal. They watch him for a moment and exchange glances with each other.
    GUNNER
    What are you doing?
    Jonah drops the pinecone.
    From Jonah’s perspective, the network of electric blue current evaporates from the forest. He snaps out of it, startled and dazed.
    JONAH
    Oh— Wow. What?
    GUNNER
    What were you doing?
    JONAH
    Um. Nothing. I mean— Just having a look around.
    GUNNER
    Huh.
    SUE
    Well let’s keep moving.
    JONAH
    Yeah. Yeah, let’s keep moving.
    Jonah grabs his surveyor’s rod and takes off into the trees.
    Sue watches after him, dubiously, and Gunner examines the pinecone.
    ***
    The fluorescent lights come back on in the salt and pepper room. Simone is standing at her cart of salt shakers. She looks up at the long bulbs.
    She steps out into the hallway and looks in both directions. The long pink corridor is empty. A fluorescent light flickers way down at the end