Edison’s Alley Read Online Free Page B

nature was by design.
Or maybe it was just because
she
liked
him
. Whatever the reason, they now held hands and sat at a table at the edge of the snack bar of the Colorado Springs Zoo, watching
Earth’s highest mammal species—the kind not protected from Petula by the safety of cages.
    “You remember how dark the reptile pavilion was, right?”
    “Yeah…” Mitch said.
    “And you see how bright the marble ground is right by the exit, right?”
    “Yeah…” Mitch said.
    “And you see that one single unexpected step, right?”
    “Sure…” Mitch said.
    Petula gestured with her hand, as if presenting him with some breathtaking vista. “Observe.”
    The woman who had just exited the reptile pavilion was fast approaching the nearly invisible step.
    “Uh…shouldn’t we warn her?” Mitch asked.
    Petula burned him with a glare. “Is there something wrong with you?”
    Blinded by the white marble, the hapless woman didn’t see the step, and never had a chance. And while some other people exiting the reptile pavilion had made mildly clumsy missteps, this
woman took a headlong fall; a wipeout for the ages. Her purse flew from her hands, disgorging its contents across yards of white marble, until it looked like the aftermath of a plane crash.
    The woman, now prostrate as if in some odd form of worship, was rushed by half a dozen people. They helped her to her feet and gathered whatever belongings were not already being carried away by
pigeons.
    “That was…intense,” Mitch said.
    Petula leaned into him, in a very friendly sort of way. “Some moments are too special not to share.”
    “I think we should help her, though. I mean, look at her.”
    Even with the assistance of several bystanders, the woman seemed seriously disoriented.
    Petula sighed in mild exasperation. “We can’t help her, because we didn’t help her.”
    “Huh?”
    Reluctantly, Petula reached into her purse. “I didn’t want to show you these, as they would spoil the surprise. But I suppose it’s better if you know.”
    And then she presented Mitch with a series of black-and-white photographs of this exact spot. One was an image of the very scene before them, as if it had been taken two or three seconds
earlier. Another was a shot of a man lying sprawled out in equal distress. And there was a third photo, of an entire family that had landed in a dog pile.
    And all at once Mitch got it.
    “The box camera.”
    Petula nodded. “I came here yesterday, set the camera for twenty-four hours, and started snapping pictures. I’ve been here several times before to enjoy the epic spectacle of the
human fail. But I never knew when the most spectacular falls would take place. Thanks to the camera, I can tell down to the minute. The second fall will occur at three seventeen. And this third one
at three thirty-two. I’m really looking forward to seeing how the family ends up like this.”
    Mitch was still having trouble wrapping his head around Tesla’s camera that took pictures of the future. “But if we know what’s going to happen, and we stop
it—”
    “We
can’t
stop it,” Petula pointed out. “The fact that we have a picture of it proves that it wasn’t stopped. And the fact that we’re not in the
pictures helping these people proves that we won’t.”
    “But we
could
.”
    Petula balled her hands into fists. “There are no pictures of you and me catching falling people. Do I make myself clear?”
    When Petula became adamant about something, Mitch knew there was nothing to do but let nature run its course without further argument.
    Petula, however, did realize that it was in her best interest to control her temper. She had to remind herself that Mitch was an imbecile, but only in the way that all fourteen-year-old boys are
imbeciles. She would help him outgrow it. A month ago Mitch Murló was barely on her radar. Funny how things change. She actually enjoyed her time with him, even when he made her angry.
Especially
when he