Bennett had either dropped it in his drunken stupor, or had been robbed.He knelt and bowed his head for a moment No prayer, just a few seconds of stillness. They had spent their childhood years together; he owed Bennett something. He reached the bottom of the slope below the supermarket and saw what he took to be a pile of brown rags, but closer inspection revealed a rigid hand, its fingers clutching the gelid air as if trying to take hold on life itself. “Say hi to her for me.” He waved to Mrs Quintero as he pushed against the exit door.Outside, the rising wind drove the temperature still lower. “I’ll keep it in mind.” Moving in meant being a part of the professor’s ever-changing extended family, which meant looking after sick kids and hysterical, gangrenous parents “Shari will be sorry she missed you.”I’ll bet, he thought.

He was suspicious of Shari since the accident; she was too nice to him now. Without asking, Kallie knew who.”How is she?” he said finally The professor grinned “Missing you, naturally She always asks after you. She still talks about the time – “”I know.” He cut the conversation short, uninterested in hearing an embroidered account of how, a year ago, he had saved Shari’s life. “I have to go.”"I understand,” the professor answered with mock solemnity “You’re a busy man. I think it’s time you considered moving in here with us while the generator still holds out. You get used to the smell, and it’s worth it to be warm.”"Thanks for the offer,” he mumbled, rebuttoning his coat. Became very belligerent when challenged.” He clicked his tongue disapprovingly.That was it, then No chance of getting his wallet back now.

It was hard enough staying alive when you were sober, let alone drunk.”Someone else was looking for you,” said the professor, an almost playful tone in his voice. Tuesday.”Kallie could not imagine why he still bothered to work out the names of individual days Nobody else did “What was his name?” he asked.”Mr Bennett Sat in the beverage department all day He was very drunk when he left I warned him not to go outside, but he wouldn’t be stopped Wouldn’t even take his overcoat. They would learn soon enough.”You were listening, weren’t you, Kallie?” he asked wearily, throwing his crayon away.”Heard it all before, prof Nothing we can do, right?”"Right A friend of yours was in the other day. The Royal Commission of Environmental Pollution’s report into the flooding of Egypt and southern China – “But the children were all saying “Pancake, pancake,” and the professor’s lesson, always the same lesson, was wasted They were too young to understand, anyway. Then, in less than a decade, the other great pumps died, transforming the weather patterns of the world in the wink of an eye We are in uncharted territory now. One of Mrs Quintero’s boys started repeating the word aloud.”Without a pump to drive it, the Gulf Stream, one of the sea’s warmest currents, stopped almost overnight.

The Gulf Stream kept Britain and northern Europe warm, and now it’s gone. Chance plays a large part in the survival temperature of our planet. In the seas of the world there are five natural pumps that drive the great currents of the oceans. The European Sub-Polar Ocean Programme found that one of these, the Odden Feature, powers a deep cold current that helps to control the circulation of the North Atlantic Ocean. It is caused by a vast tongue of ice in the Greenland Sea.”Kallie quietly helped himself to a tray of sausage rolls Mrs Quintero had defrosted. They tasted like putty.”Back in February 1993, Greenland’s winter ice receded due to global warming, and the tongue of ice failed to form, dissolving into pancake ice.” He paused here to write the word PANCAKE on the wall with a blue crayon.

The professor did not take kindly to being interrupted.”Cores drilled from the centre of the Greenland ice-sheet should have warned us.” His dull monotone blunted the most interesting facts. The kids looked bored, and exhibited the distracted mannerisms of the unwell. “They proved that the climate of the earth fluctuates far more than was ever previously realised. The last ice age took very little time to occur, perhaps just a decade or two, and lasted for over 100,000 years. Kallie was sure he would continue to make them even if no-one showed up at all Today he was teaching Mrs Quintero’s children, and another boy he had not seen before He stood at the back and raised his hand in silent gesture. “There’s lychees in syrup on Aisle 6, and pesto sauce in jars,” she added listlessly “Make sure you take some You need to keep your strength up.”Why? he thought What the hell for? “Thanks, Mrs Quintero.