December 2026

That afternoon, after the memorial, felt more like evening as Max and Beth sat in their hotel room.

Max was sitting at the chair next to the window looking outside at the black sky, wondering when he would see the stars again, wondering … out of all those galaxies, certainly there had to be other life on some distant planet in some distant galaxy, maybe even in ours.

Beth broke the silence. “Let’s spend what light we have by visiting apartments at our lunch hour these next few days.”

“I was thinking the same,” replied Max.

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, the two followed a repeating pattern. They woke, showered, left for the diner, had breakfast, then Max dropped Beth off at the Administration building and Max went to East Three Secondary to teach high school math and physics. At 11:30 Max picked up Beth and they would visit an apartment complex. There weren’t very many to visit. So by Friday, Beth had made up her mind.

Sitting in their hotel room Friday evening they decided to talk about the apartment. Max could tell which apartment Beth liked because it became the litmus test for the others.

“Are you ready to sign a one year lease on this two-bedroom apartment?” Asked Max.

“It’s right in the middle of town, centrally located so that if we needed to, either of us could walk to work, so, yeah, this will work for now,” responded Beth.

That Saturday Max and Beth signed the lease. With every day there was noticeably less daylight.

At the diner Monday morning, Alice asked, as she poured coffee, “Smiles and cheery faces. Do tell.”

Beth responded, “We just signed a lease on an apartment.”

“Ah, and now it’s time to shop,” said Alice returning the smile, then continued, “Inuvik is a small community, so you won’t find a major furniture store nearby. We recycle a lot of furniture here. You can also have stuff shipped in. I’ll put out the word and see if anything that might meet your fancy pops up.”

“Thank you!” Replied Max.

Across that week there was noticeably less sunlight each day. Max picked up Beth each day at lunch and they spent the hour or so shopping for the apartment. At Tuesday’s diner breakfast Alice said she had word that there was some rather new furniture for sale, and shared the name of whom to contact. Beth loved the furniture and by Friday the beds, sofa, end tables and kitchen table and chairs were delivered to the apartment.

By Sunday, December 6, the Polar Nights started. This is the period when the sun doesn’t rise. The next sunrise will be seen in early January, 2027.

That night, sitting on their newly acquired sofa, Beth said to Max, “tomorrow the 12 Days of Christmas Fireweed Community Market starts. That should be fun. We’ll get to better connect with the community.”

Max sat quietly. The fact that Christmas was a few weeks away struck him as a subtle shock.

Who is Hank M. Greene?

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