Read Online Shadows by Peter Cawdron - Free Book Online Page A

but once night fell, everyone returned to the lower
levels, which was fine with her and Charlie. They'd made something
of going against the flow, coming up to the top level when rarely
anyone else was present.
    Sheriff Cann tended to work
late, and it had become something of a tradition to say a pleasant
hello to him as he left for the night, normally around nine or ten.
Susan suspected he enjoyed seeing them up there in the quiet of the
evening. From his perspective, they were one teenaged couple he
didn't need to worry about. And he turned a blind eye to Charlie's
kitchen raids, so long as Charlie cleaned up after himself.
Charlie, of course, loved seeing someone in a position of authority
apply a little common sense and flexibility.
    Susan sat there in front of
the view screen, watching the clouds blow by. The deathly grey of
the hillside at night had once terrified her, but Charlie had
taught her to see beyond that, to see the stars as a sign of
hope.
    Charlie brought out a plate
of cold meats, a bread roll and some salad in one hand and a large
drink in the other.
    “ Thank
you, ” she said, picking up a chicken drumstick and biting
into it.
    He sat down next to
her.
    The clouds parted and
several stars were visible in the sky.
    “ Beautiful,
aren't they? ” she said.
    “ I've been
reading about them, ” Charlie said. “ They look
tiny, but they're actually huge, beyond anything we could
imagine. ”
    “ You're
loving this, aren't you? ” she
asked.
    “ Loving
what? ”
    “ Loving the
fact you've let me in on your little secret. ”
    “ Yes, ” he replied. “ I guess I am.
It's nice to be able to share my excitement with someone
else. ”
    Susan leaned into him as
she kept eating. Charlie put his hands around her waist.
    “ Space is
fascinating, ” he said, his eyes locked on the
wall-screen.
    “ I saw
pictures of stars last night, ” Susan said. “ And there was a golden planet with a series of beautiful
rings stretching around it. ”
    “ That ’ s
Saturn, ” Charlie replied. “ Apparently,
it ’ s a big ball of gas. ”
    Between
bites, Susan said, “ It is astonishing to
realize those pinpricks of light out there are bigger than the
silo. ”
    “ Oh, so much
bigger than the silo, ” Charlie replied. “ They're
bigger than the entire Earth, millions of times bigger. Some of
them are planets like Saturn, others are massive furnaces like our
Sun, but they make the Sun look small. They're so far away, the
sizes and distances are mind-blowing. And there's so many of them,
far more than we can see with our eyes. ”
    “ Really? ” she said, biting into the bread
roll.
    “ Yes. The
numbers are stupidly large. I've never seen so many zeros in all my
life. There's millions upon millions upon millions of them and
they're millions of times larger than anything we've ever
known. ”
    Susan sighed. There was
only one lone star visible now as the clouds closed in, swirling
through the dark sky.
    “ Each star
has its own planets, just like Earth, ” he
continued. “ Sometimes, I sit
here wondering who's staring back, wondering if someone is out
there looking at our sun and seeing just another ordinary,
unassuming star floating among billions. I know it sounds silly,
but I wonder if they wonder if there's any life down here. Sad
thing is, if they could see our dead world, they'd never see us
living in a hole in the ground. ”
    Suddenly, Charlie become
animated. He couldn't sit still.
    “ Oh, I can't
believe I forgot! Oh, woe is me, how could I
forget? ”
    “ Forget
what? ” Susan asked, finishing up the food on her plate
in a matter of minutes. Her mother would have scolded for inhaling
her food, but she was starving. She could have eaten another plate
full of meat and barely felt it touch the sides of her throat on
the way down.
    Charlie jumped to his feet,
he was so excited he had to move. Susan smiled, more to herself
than for him. This is what she loved about Charlie, his raw love
for life