“Of course,” Charley said. “There’s a phone in my den. I’ll show you where it is. We can make lunch while you’re talking to your parents.”

Lori turned to Carl. “Should I call your mother too?” Carl’s mother lived in Minnesota as well. “That would be great,” Carl said. “Tell her I love her and that I’ll call her later.”

While Lori was on the phone, the others went to the kitchen. Charley started taking bread, lettuce, tomatoes, and lunch meat from the pantry and the refrigerator. As Dave and Carl pitched in to help, Charley flipped on a TV set on the counter. “I understand that in about an hour the vice president is going to be sworn in as our new president. I’m sure we all want to hear what’s he’s got to say.”

By the time Lori returned, lunch was ready. “Did you get in touch with our parents?” Carl asked.

“Yes,” Lori said, “and they’re very relieved that we’re okay and that”—she smiled at Charley— “we have such a good place to stay.”

They settled down around the giant table in Charley’s spacious, wood-beamed kitchen to a platter of sandwiches and chips and a large pot of coffee. The kitchen was warm and inviting, with colorful Spanish tiles and traditional decor. It was a great place to relax and a good place for Carl and Lori to start getting some answers to the questions that burned inside them.

Carl’s mind was racing now more than ever. There were so many gaps to fill in. Why was the L.A. tragedy happening? Was all this just a freak of nature, or was it really something more? Why were their lives being spared? Was it possible that there was, after all, a God in the universe? And, if so, was it possible that the meteor and the heat wave and all that had been happening to them were acts of God, as so many people seemed to believe? He was perplexed. There was a certain fatalistic comfort in believing God was a myth. But if He did exist, what possible purpose could He have in letting all these bad things happen to people? And, more troubling, what was His purpose for their lives? Carl realized that, in light of their current predicament, these were things he needed to know.

CHARLEY SAID A BLESSING over the food and invoked God’s care—not only for himself, his guests, and their loved ones, but for all those on the West Coast who were standing in the way of unimaginable tragedy. Both Carl and Lori found themselves sniffling and wiping tears from their eyes as Charley talked to God in such an intimate way.

He seems to know God personally, Lori thought, as she listened to Charley pray. As he prayed, she thought about people she and Carl had known for years. She thought about all the people and places they loved back in L.A., most of which would soon disappear forever. She remembered all the good times and the good friends. She thought of the things she wished she had never done, words she had never spoken—old wounds that would never be healed. She glanced briefly at Carl and recognized from the expression of deep sadness on his face that he was feeling the same way too.