Six on Sunday - Six paragraphs from ILLUSTRA, an apocalyptic sci-fi romance
1. “I’m perfectly happy
with this one and with my server,” I firmly assured her, adding a professional
smile of my own. “Eva is doing a great job, in my opinion.” I resisted the urge
to check the girl to see how she was taking this whole scenario. Instead, I
stared directly at Vance. “Until that gentleman mentioned it, I had no
knowledge of her background or her history. And, frankly, I don’t care who she
bangs as long as she does her job and does it well.”
2. “Well, since she couldn’t raise the money like she needed
to, she began selling off her cattle a few head at a time. Then bits and pieces
of her land, until all that was left was just the few acres the house sits on.
Eva got a job at the restaurant to add to their income. It wasn’t long after
that that Mariam passed away due to cancer. At least, that’s what we were told.
From what I understand, Eva lives by herself out there, and she still has a few
chickens and a small garden that she tends to when she’s not at the
restaurant.”
3. Before we stepped out of the trees
and back out into the open field, the light took the shape of an inverted
diamond, with the flat part on the bottom and the point on top. Only the bottom
part floated above the grass by about a foot or so, like it was hovering or
floating in place. Inside its glassy, transparent sides flashed all those
different colors of light. The spectrum was off the charts. I froze in place, too frightened
and too astonished to go any closer to it. Eva noticed my hesitancy and came
back to grasp my upper arm.
4. “Yes, he does…sort of. It’s hard to explain. Yes, he has a
head and eyes, and two small holes I guess where his nose would be. And he has
a mouth. He doesn’t have ears like us, but he has holes on both sides of his
head, the way some animals have.” She smiled shyly. “He wasn’t terrifying
looking. Not like a monster or anything. Just…different.” Eva snickered. “Like
a Halloween costume.”
5. “I went to the sentinel every day. Sometimes after work.
Sometimes before work. Always on my days off. If he wasn’t there, all I had to
do was put my hand on that thing, and he’d join me. A side of that thing would
turn solid white, and he’d step out of it. I asked if the sentinel was some
sort of doorway to another dimension. He explained he was able to go from his
ship to here because it was a point of reference. I still don’t understand, but
it’s not important.” She spoke slowly, almost dreamily.
6. I was about to go
outside to fetch my phone when a scream of pure terror or pain erupted from the
rear where the trauma rooms were located. I remained in my seat, too numb to
move or do anything as two more people dressed in scrubs came running around the
corner of a nearby corridor and vanished into the ER. As the doors
automatically opened to let them through, I heard another scream and a deeper
voice yell something I couldn’t make out. A third voice hollered for someone to
call the sheriff, and it was at that moment I knew my worst fear for Eva had
been born.
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