I feel the nail start to give and I edge my front tooth in further. I press down and hear the clip. Shit, a pain shoots through my cuticle. I went too far. It’s gonna be worse if i just leave it dangling, gotta pull the whole thing out now. I grimace.
“What’s wrong?” she asks me.
“Nothing?” I finish the job and see the speck of nail-root blood form.
“You’ve had your finger in your mouth to the knuckle for over a minute now and I can clearly see what you’ve been watching on your phone.”
“Do you ever worry about it all going wrong?”
“What goes wrong?” She asks and takes a sip of her coffee.
“All of it: science, physics. These guys did the math but it’s only on what we can perceive. What if there’s a whole spectrum of science outside of our realm of understanding? What if we got an answer…for questions without all the pieces?”
“I thought you said you quit smoking?”
“I’m just saying.” I pick up my backpack and americano. We get off the bench and start to walk back to the apartments. I point to a chain link fence.
“Like, this fence. It’s due east. Ya know, if the earth stopped spinning, me and you would fly directly through it at about 1000 mph. Talk about swissed cheese.” I laugh at my own joke. She doesn’t.
“Well good thing the earth can’t just stop spinning.” Subtle thunder in the distance.
“My dad used to say that was God bowling. Maybe it’s some other species’ version of game night? Maybe games on scale we can’t even comprehend!” I smile big and follow Beth’s face as it turns from a scowl into a look of disbelief. Her skirt is around her breasts. Her hair is standing straight up. She starts to leave the ground.
“What the fuck? ” I spit out, my heart pounding in my chest. Or maybe my throat as I see the ground getting further away from my feet.
“How are you— Holy. Shit. I’m weightless! Are we fucking floating?!” She doesn’t wait for my answer as she tries to push against air back to the ground.
“We’re in zero G! Or lite G ?” I gesture around at us not going any higher. . This was one of the ways. The earth’s core shifted and we lost gravity.I knew it would happen this way!”
I start to flip. I try to swim to the tree and push off. , I’m getting a little higher, don’t wanna float away. I duck around a bicycle floating past me and kick off a Mazda 5’s mini-mini van door.
“Hey! I’m starting to get the hang of this!” I yell to her. I see her look of panic as Mrs. Lobathan’s cat hisses mid-orbit around her and towards the Mazda.
“I think I’m supposed to feed her this weekend!” I think.
“I’m not sure that’s a huge concern right now!” she mumbles.
“Are you kidding, I take favors very seriously! Existential science threats or not!”
“I need you to focus right now! We are floating! Our neighborhood is floating! This is NOT GOOD.”
“It could be worse, at least we didn’t get thrown through a fence!”
She, mid-float, manages to throw me a scowl.
I follow the horizon and scan a Skittles rainbow of I75 rush hour traffic. Everything floating like some sky dealership named Cloud auto – used cars. These deals are sky high.
Beth grabs on to the Mazda and opens the door. She pulls herself in and motions for me to join.
“Shotgun!” I yell enthusiastically and backstroke my way to the passenger door. I pull it open and climb in as I fall heavy back into the seat. Like a ghost shoved me. Now he’s sitting on my chest, asking me why I’m hitting myself. The air becomes a bully and I can’t escape it. My nose starts to bleed. The Mazda smashes into the ground and we’re both smushed into the seats like the screeching halt of a rollercoaster.
“OW. I’m no expert, but I think they turned the gravity back on, and then some.”
“Ya think?!” Beth yells as her face compresses in pain. I see her hand stuck to the center council. I slowly inch towards it, I try to grab it to let her know I’m here. Like a good friend would. Maybe even a hero. The pressure intensifies. My nose breaks. A rib shatters and starts pushing its way out of my stomach. Glancing from the side of my eye I watch as her fingers totally flatten. Her bright red nails mush into her fingertips until they ooze out like a shitty microwave burrito. I finally make it to her hand. A sliver of finger bone breaks the skin flap. It pierces my finger as I reach for hers and breaks off. Blood trickles out flat.
“You… gave me… a… splinter!”
The noise she makes is animalistic, full of disdain.
“Im…. sorry..” I squeak out. The pressure feels so great at this point. My ear drums pop, I see flickers of specks in my eyes. I should have quit my job while I had the chance. I’m about to black out. I stare up at the bright sky. I knew this could happen, I just didn’t think I’d get to see the day. A rumble fills the remaining hearing I have. The pressure starts to lift. Blood trickles out of my nose and ears. I move my head, I can see my rib through my shirt. Beth looks like she just got in a head on collision. I’m sure I look the same.
The sky starts to vibrate. A sound similar to metal scraping metal engulfs my senses. I don’t even know how something can be so loud. I look to the middle of the sky; dark clouds that seem to be on fire shimmy and scurry unnaturally. A giant zipper forms.
“Can you see a zipper in the sky?” I manage.
“Yep.” Beth clocked it, too.
The zipper opens. 5 shapes resembling eyes move around. They all blink as one. A tendril of space dust slithers through the center and forms a cosmic hand. A piercing whistle of every sound I’ve ever heard happens deep in my soul. I cannot bare to hear that sound for more than a microsecond. I cry and piss and beg for it to stop. Silence. My brain processes and translates the sound to English.
“Sorry about that, I hit the wrong switch. Hope I didn’t cause too much of a whoopsie.” I hear the words clear as day though nothing spoke them.
The sound. The creature.
The tendril recoils back and the eyes blink and vanish as the zipper closes. The earth is still for a moment before it all comes into focus. car alarms and sirens. Screams and cries. Shouting. I look around. Total hell.
Beth looks at me and I shrug.
I believe him.
Global comment: Some of my feedback (like the stuff here) are on parts that are already totally well written. They’re subtle changes that minimize wordiness / exposition and might feel more organic.
ty!