Jubilee Year: A Novel (Erelong Trilogy Book I) - An Extended Sample

Chapter 2: HOT ROCK

Australia, 2020

It was late afternoon with dense cloud cover and still plenty of heat about. The girl of twelve years tossed aside a lock of dusty red hair and kicked the soccer ball hard across the street.

The tall, lean man with his thinning gray hair fluffed up in unkempt tufts, trapped the ball using a spritely foot plant that belied his aged appearance.

"Keep it low, Summer," he told his daughter. "Don't you break any more windows."

She flicked the sweat from her eyes. "I was testing how fast you are, Daddy."

"How did I do?" Pete asked.

"All right, for an old feller," she said and she gave a shrug.

"Hey, that's a bit cheeky," he exclaimed. He passed the ball to the tall youth standing on the centerline of the street.

Storm was lost in a daydream. But he snapped out of it as the ball passed by to strike the neighbor's fence. He scooped it up when it came rolling back, and caught too the startled face of the old woman watering her garden. "Hello, Mrs. Sedgewick," he said, giving her a cheerful smile.

The owner of the fence scowled at him before she turned back to her flower beds.

"Hey! You're not supposed to pick it up," Summer said to Storm in a tone of aggrieved righteousness. "That's a rule, isn't it Daddy?"

"Wait..." Pete Elliot said, holding up his hand.

He spat a glob of phlegm in the gutter and turned back to her only to begin coughing once again.

"Are you all right?" Summer asked as she walked up to him. "We can go inside for a break if you want," she said, smiling to hide her concern. "Anyway, when Storm starts messing up the rules, it isn't fun anymore."

"I need to catch my breath," he told her, and he turned away once more to spit.

Summer glanced over her shoulder at her brother. She bounced the ball like a basketball player working an opponent as she considered her options. The corners of her mouth curled as she thought about the ways she could retaliate.

"Smartass," Storm said. He knew exactly what the look on Summer's face meant. His sister never gave back twice as much as she received. She could be a formidable opponent at the best of times. And at the worst? Well, it was just a good thing he had a couple of years on her.

Pete took a few measured breaths and waited for the urge to cough to ease off. He marveled at how his two kids were growing up so quickly. Tall for her age, Summer was leaving behind the freckled, chubby little girl of yesterday. He gazed at her with considerable affection. Then, he realized she had frozen.

"Hey, what's up, Sum?" Storm said when he saw the look on his sister's face had changed to shock. "I wasn't being mean..." Then he realized she was past him. He turned and looked up.

A loud boom resonated overhead. The noise rattling the windows of nearby houses.

Pete passed the palm of his hand over his sticky brow. It was about time the damned clouds emptied on the town. They needed the rain. He squinted up at the clouds, looking for a flash of lightning. Then he saw it too.

Could it be a plane was going down? One of those terrorist incidences the newspapers were always fancying might happen over Australia. No one was safe on a plane anymore. Never mind the terrorists. This year it had seemed like a couple of planes crashed somewhere around the world each week. And they were only the ones being reported. He'd heard now it was military planes falling out of the sky and that they were never reported. Anyway, this couldn't be a plane. Apart from helicopters, the only air traffic he ever saw over Coona was the flying doctor.