When Gravity Fails
PULSE
When Gravity Fails
Pulse A novel By John Freitas
ISBN-13: 978-1514331699 © 2015 John Freitas. All rights reserved
Acknowledgment
Thank you NASA for everything you do.
“A fish swimming in the ocean does not know it is in the water until a wave comes.” Dr. Paulo Restrepo - Marlo-Pitts Observatory
Chapter 1
The one o'clock sun shines bright in the clear blue skies of Southeast Texas. Christine is in the laundry room, transferring clothes from the washing machine to a laundry basket. The warm and dry weather in rural Brenham makes it perfect to hang a large white sheet and clothes on a clothesline. The thirty four year old mother, with blue eyes and freckles peppered on her face gathers several clothespins, picks up the heavy basket and walks to an open door leading to inside of the house. An eight year old boy and a six year old girl are playing in the living room. “Kids, today is a beautiful day, why don't you go outside to play?" “Ok mom, as soon as I finish this game." answers the boy. The girl is too busy brushing and talking to a doll. The mother opens the laundry room door to the outside, the central alarm beeps a few times and a breeze of warm air enters the room. It is a little windy outside. The kids bikes are leaning against the house, not too far from the vegetable garden that is now populated with tomatoes, peppers and a few okra plants. Christine walks up to the clothes line, puts the basket down and hangs the first garment. They have been living in the country side for 6 months now. After being laid off from an oil company in downtown Houston, her husband found a management position in an ice cream factory nearby. Because the cost of real estate is low in this part of the state, they bought a three acre land with a two story house in a place that seems to be in the middle of nowhere. There are no other houses around them. The land is surrounded by a cattle farm meadow in one side and a corn field in another, so the three acres sometimes feels like one thousand. Christine likes the life in the country most of the time. She feels calmer with the constant contact with the outdoors which brings the fragrance of her lavender flowers, the dance of the butterflies and the singing birds. The air feels cleaner than in the city, but she does miss the busy neighborhood a little. She especially misses the quick access to supermarkets and stores. The family's two German Shepherds come to check on her with a wagging tail and a smiling face. They are two months old. The female licks her leg while the male grabs the shoe laces on her tennis shoe and pulls it. Christine looks down and smiles. "Hey, leave my shoe alone!" shouts out Christine while shaking her foot. The dogs hop around her with their tongues out for a few more seconds and leave. Christine holds a clothespin between her teeth and picks up a large white sheet. She throws one side across the line and starts spreading it. The sheet shines bright against the sun making difficult to look straight at it. The wind gently pushes the sheet against her face. "Mom, come here quick!" calls the boy from inside the house. "Mom!" calls the girl. "What happened?" shouts the mother while running towards the house still holding a clothespin. As Christine approaches the door, she feels light headed. She runs through the laundry room with the sensation she is going to lose her balance at any minute and a tickling feeling in her stomach. It feels as she is walking on an aisle of a descending airplane. Christine stops at the living room entrance. She let go the clothespin and uses both hands to grab each side of the door frame. She looks at the children and gasps.
"Look mom, we can fly!" says her son in an excited voice, while bouncing from a wall towards the ceiling. All the toys are hovering a foot above the ground, lightly colliding against each other. Her daughter is slowly coming down from the ceiling towards the sofa and as soon her feet touches it, she jumps up and back towards the ceiling, giggling The clothespin is still falling in slow motion half way from the floor, while spinning on its axis. ***
The alarm blared and instructions crackled through the speakers. Sean Grayson was used to the interruptions, but it startled him anyway. He gave the Stroganoff one more stir and then tossed the wooden spoon aside on the counter where it left an oily, brown smear of grease. Sean shut off the heat to the stove burner he was using and pushed the pan back onto one of the cold eyes. He double checked the dials on the stove again out of reflex to be sure they were off. There had been more than one company that had run out of the firehouse to go put out someone else’s stove fire only to come back and find their own quarters full of black smoke. No West Memphis firefighters had burned down their houses yet, but the town was small and the stories always made the paper. “Let’s go, Grayson,” Lieutenant Foster shouted. End of preview
When Gravity Fails
Pulse A novel By John Freitas
ISBN-13: 978-1514331699 © 2015 John Freitas. All rights reserved
Acknowledgment
Thank you NASA for everything you do.
“A fish swimming in the ocean does not know it is in the water until a wave comes.” Dr. Paulo Restrepo - Marlo-Pitts Observatory
Chapter 1
The one o'clock sun shines bright in the clear blue skies of Southeast Texas. Christine is in the laundry room, transferring clothes from the washing machine to a laundry basket. The warm and dry weather in rural Brenham makes it perfect to hang a large white sheet and clothes on a clothesline. The thirty four year old mother, with blue eyes and freckles peppered on her face gathers several clothespins, picks up the heavy basket and walks to an open door leading to inside of the house. An eight year old boy and a six year old girl are playing in the living room. “Kids, today is a beautiful day, why don't you go outside to play?" “Ok mom, as soon as I finish this game." answers the boy. The girl is too busy brushing and talking to a doll. The mother opens the laundry room door to the outside, the central alarm beeps a few times and a breeze of warm air enters the room. It is a little windy outside. The kids bikes are leaning against the house, not too far from the vegetable garden that is now populated with tomatoes, peppers and a few okra plants. Christine walks up to the clothes line, puts the basket down and hangs the first garment. They have been living in the country side for 6 months now. After being laid off from an oil company in downtown Houston, her husband found a management position in an ice cream factory nearby. Because the cost of real estate is low in this part of the state, they bought a three acre land with a two story house in a place that seems to be in the middle of nowhere. There are no other houses around them. The land is surrounded by a cattle farm meadow in one side and a corn field in another, so the three acres sometimes feels like one thousand. Christine likes the life in the country most of the time. She feels calmer with the constant contact with the outdoors which brings the fragrance of her lavender flowers, the dance of the butterflies and the singing birds. The air feels cleaner than in the city, but she does miss the busy neighborhood a little. She especially misses the quick access to supermarkets and stores. The family's two German Shepherds come to check on her with a wagging tail and a smiling face. They are two months old. The female licks her leg while the male grabs the shoe laces on her tennis shoe and pulls it. Christine looks down and smiles. "Hey, leave my shoe alone!" shouts out Christine while shaking her foot. The dogs hop around her with their tongues out for a few more seconds and leave. Christine holds a clothespin between her teeth and picks up a large white sheet. She throws one side across the line and starts spreading it. The sheet shines bright against the sun making difficult to look straight at it. The wind gently pushes the sheet against her face. "Mom, come here quick!" calls the boy from inside the house. "Mom!" calls the girl. "What happened?" shouts the mother while running towards the house still holding a clothespin. As Christine approaches the door, she feels light headed. She runs through the laundry room with the sensation she is going to lose her balance at any minute and a tickling feeling in her stomach. It feels as she is walking on an aisle of a descending airplane. Christine stops at the living room entrance. She let go the clothespin and uses both hands to grab each side of the door frame. She looks at the children and gasps.
"Look mom, we can fly!" says her son in an excited voice, while bouncing from a wall towards the ceiling. All the toys are hovering a foot above the ground, lightly colliding against each other. Her daughter is slowly coming down from the ceiling towards the sofa and as soon her feet touches it, she jumps up and back towards the ceiling, giggling The clothespin is still falling in slow motion half way from the floor, while spinning on its axis. ***
The alarm blared and instructions crackled through the speakers. Sean Grayson was used to the interruptions, but it startled him anyway. He gave the Stroganoff one more stir and then tossed the wooden spoon aside on the counter where it left an oily, brown smear of grease. Sean shut off the heat to the stove burner he was using and pushed the pan back onto one of the cold eyes. He double checked the dials on the stove again out of reflex to be sure they were off. There had been more than one company that had run out of the firehouse to go put out someone else’s stove fire only to come back and find their own quarters full of black smoke. No West Memphis firefighters had burned down their houses yet, but the town was small and the stories always made the paper. “Let’s go, Grayson,” Lieutenant Foster shouted. End of preview
