This Given Sky Read online

Page 6


  Beat, Thel screams that she hates both of them.

  Beat, they’re wearing orange jumpsuits that cost everything.

  Beat, it’s 1984 and they’re nineteen, cruising Main Street to Springsteen.

  Beat, Jake turns away from that silver warplane landing at noontime Shelby’s airport to take Thel’s hand and they go live in Hawaii with Sara, happy and safe.

  Beat, he has a son and Steve is happier with a lanky blond schoolteacher who knows he’s smarter than she’ll ever be.

  Beat, they all stay close to each other.

  And beat, Jake knows that what he sees out the windshield, that moonlit gravel road to wherever, no matter what the truths of physics may be, all he’s got is the night of this given sky.

  THE END

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook onscreen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  copyright © 2011 James Grady

  cover design by Georgia Morrissey

  978-1-4532-3753-3

  This edition published in 2011 by MysteriousPress.com/Open Road Integrated Media

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