Read Online Approaching Oblivion (Jezebel's Ladder Book 4) by Scott Rhine - Free Book Online Page A

shape. I’m putting it off because it’ll make Lou
horny all the time. He calls it ‘easy access.’”
    Rolling
her eyes, Yuki said, “Like he needs an excuse. I’m sure those incredible
growing breasts of yours lit his fire weeks ago. I’ll bet you two have as much
sex as the rest of the camp combined.”
    Mercy
blushed and refused to comment.
    Pushing
a small cart full of grain bundles into the barn, Sojiro changed the subject
for her. “What are you going to call little Lou?”
    “ If
it’s a girl, Amelia Earhart. If it’s a boy, Lancelot Stewart.”
    “Lancelot? Ack.”
    “My husband’s real first name is
Kai and my father was Percival. It’s an Arthurian theme.”
    “And Lou signed off on continuing
the cruelty to the next generation?”
    “He’s lobbying for Angus, which
means lamb. I never understood why ranchers use that name for beef.”
    “Stewart or beef. Either way, we
can call him ‘Stew,’” Sojiro joked. “He’ll like it because it rhymes with
‘Lou.’”
    “You are not nicknaming my baby
before he’s even born.”
    Yvette spoke, like thunder out of a
clear sky. “She’s jealous.”
    “What?”
asked Mercy.
    “Pratibha’s
been trying to have a child of her own,” Yvette informed them. “You succeeded
without trying and before getting married. You’ve offended her sense of morals
and fair play, but mainly, she’s jealous.”
    “I
think you’re right,” Mercy said.
    Yuki
rose to her feet. “Well, as much fun as we’ve had with girl time, I have to get
back to the grind.”
    “What’s
your next task?” Mercy asked, glancing at the cart.
    “We
thresh the grain that has dried enough. Sojiro works the blower while I beat
the stalks and toss them in the air.”
    “The
dried grass blows away, but the grain falls,” said Mercy, excited.
    “Yes.”
    “We
can help.”
    While
they were working, Park stopped by and presented Yuki with a bundle of
handwritten pages. Puzzled, she flipped through the heavy math to reach the drawings
at the end. “Long rods pounded into the ground at different distances from the
same gravity generator… this describes a proof-of-concept heater.”
    Park
shrugged. Softly, he mumbled, “It’s sort of like demonstrating electricity from
a potato—not very practical, but it shows you had a good idea.”
    “Wow.
You’re amazingly smart. I can’t begin to grasp half of these equations,” Yuki
said, smoothing out her hair. For the first time since Mercy had met her, Yuki
actually seemed shy. “Thank you,” she said with a delicate bow that showed off
a tinybit more skin than it should have.
    “I
won’t disturb you further,” Park said, excusing himself hurriedly.
    Mercy’s
only comment was, “He must have used up his whole word quota for a month.”
    The
hours of farm work made them perspire more than Mercy thought possible. She
used the word ‘torrid,’ and Yuki teased her about it for the rest of the
afternoon while they winnowed grain. Their sweat made bits of chaff stick to
them like confetti at a parade. Her skin itched as bad as the ivy marks on her
ankles.
    The
moment they finished, Mercy tore off her T-shirt to reveal the sports underwear
she used for swimming. Jogging to the docks, she squealed, “Last one in is a
rotten egg!”
    All
three of the women’s hats blew off in the race. Yuki fell behind quickly,
unused to any daily fitness regimen. Yvette beat Mercy by a nose and cannon-balled
off the side of the pier first . . . only to land in the mud flats a meter from
the actual water. The farther the ship traveled through space and consumed the
water as fuel, the more the lake receded.
    Mercy
launched off the end of the pier into the clear shallows. When she spotted the
mud dripping from her friend’s backside and legs, she pointed and giggled like
a schoolgirl. The nurse responded by slinging a mud ball at her chest.
    “Ouch,”
Mercy complained.
    Yuki
hid on the pier behind the whiteboard people used to sign out the