• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 1179 0

for Otis, he didn’t feel it was the right time to break the news about his invention. Not until he knew for sure it was working, he told himself. For the next couple of days, three times a day, he checked the level of radiation in his shed with his Geiger counter, recording his findings in his logbook. Every time the reading was higher, until finally the needle went to the top of the dial, which meant at least 50 mrems. He hadn’t decided how and when to reveal to the world what he’d made, and he wished he could talk to Rusty about it. He didn’t want to announce his accomplishment until he’d made good and sure it was working.

One day he decided to measure the levels outside his shed, and he picked up radiation all over the backyard. How much was too much? He’d never cared enough to find this out. But when he saw Parson sniffing around in the yard, right where he’d been picking up radiation, he grew uneasy. He scooped her up and brought her inside.

That night he visited his grandfather in his den and posed that question. How much was too much?

For once his grandfather looked at him straight on. “Why are you asking, son?”

Otis, settling himself into the chair, was startled. His grandfather had never directly questioned him like this.

When Otis didn’t respond, his grandfather, who was staring at him, said, “You aren’t actually thinking of making one of those things, are you? Because that would be very foolish.”

Otis felt himself flushing.

“You don’t want to endanger people’s lives. Make them sick.”

Otis nodded, but he thought of Rusty and Parson Brown, and he himself felt sick inside. Did this mean his grandfather would not be proud of his accomplishment? If his grandfather wasn’t proud, would anybody be proud? He didn’t intend to endanger lives. He wanted to prove that it could be done, and done safely.

“You worked with radioactive materials and it didn’t hurt you,” Otis said. “You said it was a lot safer than people realized.”

His grandfather turned back to the TV set, to the news hour that he watched every evening. “Bad business about your sisters,” Granddad said. “Terrible. Your mother just told me. I knew something was wrong around here. Why did she feel she had to protect me? I’m their grandfather!”

“I don’t know,” Otis said. Had the news about his sisters jarred something loose in Granddad? He seemed more with-it than he had in a long while. He pictured Granddad’s head full of marbles, shaking and clacking.

The man on the news hour—the old guy with the bags under his eyes—was going on about Hurricane Grayson, which had made landfall again over Naples and was moving northeast across south Florida, flooding everything and drowning people. There was nothing about the war in Iraq, but lots of interesting facts about the hurricane.

“Areas in Florida have already received up to twenty-five inches of rain, causing serious flooding. Alligators were seen in flooded neighborhoods after high water forced them from their habitat. Hundreds of homes were flooded in Brevard and St. Lucie counties; some locations were inundated with up to five feet of standing water. Early estimates from Brevard County show ten to twelve million dollars in damages to homes and infrastructure. Hurricane Grayson had caused the drowning of one person swimming off Neptune Beach and another swimmer in Duval County. Three people were killed in traffic accidents. A twenty-eight-year-old kite surfer was critically injured in Fort Lauderdale when winds associated with Hurricane Grayson slammed him face-first into the ground and then dragged him through streets until he hit a building.”

Otis got caught up listening to the report and when his grandfather said something to him again, he’d almost forgotten what they were talking about.

“I was involved in a research study, a long time ago,” his grandfather said. “We thought we were doing the right thing, but we weren’t. We hurt lots of innocent people. Caused deaths. I don’t want you to ever take those chances.”

“I won’t,” Otis said in a matter-of-fact voice, but his ears were humming and he couldn