Read Online Fighting Gravity by Leah Petersen - Free Book Online Page A

pride of accomplishment, and confidence in what I had done, and if anyone was going to resent or judge me, it would be for something I had done by choice and through hard work.
    But now, the jealousy on the faces of many in the crowd felt like a force all its own. I hadn’t asked for this and, as once-in-a-lifetime an experience as it was, I would have been happy sitting in the back of the room between Kirti and Chuck. But I followed, because that was what I was supposed to do, and tried to ignore all the eyes on me.
    I was led to the seat at the immediate right of the emperor and my mouth went dry. The servant just nodded reassurance, so I stood behind the chair. What else could I do? Director Kagawa, who had been sitting on the emperor’s right during lunch, was now at my right. I looked over at him, taking pleasure, at least, in having moved him down a notch. He didn’t look at me, but stood and offered the blessing.
    I couldn’t say the last words. Standing by the man himself, it felt ridiculous on the one hand, and frightening on the other. The emperor didn’t seem to notice that anyone in the room had just wished him eternal life, let alone that I had not.
    We sat, and the emperor turned to Lord Sifer on his left and continued the conversation they’d been having in the lounge. It gave me time to get my bearings. The food was brought for us and servants came along pouring wine. My goblet was filled like everyone else’s. I looked over at Director Kagawa who gave me a stern, admonishing look. I grinned at him and sipped the wine. I’m sure it was a very fine vintage but it didn’t taste very good to me. I didn’t see what all the fuss was about.
    I had just taken a large bite when the emperor turned to me and asked a question. I coughed, trying to clear my mouth in a hurry, but he seemed content to wait. We chatted for several minutes and I watched him to figure out how I should be combining eating and talking with a concern for manners that wasn’t a priority among teenaged boys at the lower tables.
    The emperor drew Director Kagawa into the conversation without talking over me, but I was freed from the obligation of talking and ate in silence. I tried more of the wine, hoping it would improve with time. That probably wasn’t the most intelligent thing to do while sitting beside the emperor, not knowing my tolerance for alcohol.
    After a while, and another conversation with Lord Sifer, the emperor turned back to me. “So Mr. Dawes, how do you come up with all these marvelous discoveries of yours?”
    I shrugged. “They just come to me. The Stimulated Emissions theory came to me in math class from something we’d been studying in physics. The Intermolecular Force theorems were from one of those half-dreams you have when you’re not quite awake yet. And I’ve been getting ideas from listening to my friend Kirti play.”
    He raised his eyebrows.
    “She’s a pianist. And we like to hang out in the practice halls. She’ll play whatever occurs to her at the time, and I’ll watch the interactions of different forces or systems in the music and sometimes it gives me ideas.”
    “What do you mean, you watch them in the music?”
    No one had asked me that before. Then again, I’d never tried to explain this to anyone else. It just…was. But you don’t just tell the emperor “I dunno” and move on.
    “Well, when I close my eyes, the music is like a paintbrush that’s creating pictures from the notes and harmonies. Listening to the music is like watching the interactions of things you can’t see otherwise. It’s different than clinical observation. It’s more…fanciful I guess.”
    He kept watching me, considering, in a way that made me want to squirm. “That’s one of the most interesting things I think I’ve ever heard, Mr. Dawes. Do you see this sort of thing often?”
    “All the time. But not all the things I see make any sense, once I really think about them.”
    “Hmm,” he replied.