Free Falling Read Online Free

her.
    Peeved and tired by the already long day, Sarah shook off her annoyance and focused on keeping up with her son.
    “Wait for us, John,” she called, hurrying to catch up with him and leaving David to his private reflections.
     
    Later that afternoon, stuffed with mutton and potatoes, they collected their purchases from Siobhan’s store and made the long walk home. John was tired and so fretful. Sarah began limping before they had turned the first corner out of town. And David’s shoulders were aching from carrying the heavy bag by the time, four and a half hours later, they finally walked into the frontcourt of Cairn Cottage at twilight.
    David opened the door to the dark interior of the cottage. He went in first and set the bag down. “Power is definitely out,” he called to them. “Give me a sec to get the lantern lit.”
    “I’m tired, Mom.” John sighed heavily.
    Sarah wrapped her arms around him, grateful they were so far away from the destruction and confusion of what was happening at home, and then feeling instantly anxious about her parents and what they might be experiencing at that very moment. It seemed like such a basic, little thing, she thought, to have a warm, well-lit place in which to curl up tonight. “I know, angel,” she said. “Just a few more seconds and you’ll be in bed.”
      A few moments later, the one room of the cottage glowed warmly from the kerosene lantern.
    “We’re good, family,” David said.
    Later that night, as John slept soundly in the big bed, Sarah and David sat on the porch with the lantern between them and finished off a bottle of Pinot Noir.
    “I can’t imagine what’s happening at home,” Sarah said, shivering in her heavy sweater.
    “I know.”
    “And you don’t have any theories about what happened? That’s so unlike you.”
    David sighed. “From what I saw,” he said, speaking deliberately as if carefully choosing every word, “and from what Siobhan heard from other people in the area, I think what happened is that a nuclear bomb exploded over London or maybe the Irish Sea.”
    “Oh, my dear God.”
     “And the reason that’s my best guess,” he said, putting his arm around Sarah and giving her a reassuring squeeze, “is because of the big flash we saw earlier and because none of our electronics work any more.”
    “Nuclear radiation did this?”
    “No, it’s called electromagnetic pulse. It’s hard to explain but the results of it are what we’re experiencing now.”
    “If it is this electromagnetic thing, how long until things get back to normal?”
    “Everything has to be rebuilt,” he said. “All the cellphone towers are fried, all the cars, the power grid. It’s a total destruction of the infrastructure.”
    Sarah stared out into the dark Irish night.
    “Oh, my God,” she said, her voice a whisper.
    “I’m sure everyone is already working on rebuilding things,” he said. “But it will take time.”
     “In the meantime,” Sarah said, “We’re safe?” She looked at him for confirmation.
    “We’re safe,” he said.
    She tilted her face up to her husband. They kissed and then sat in silence a moment. Sarah could see David was working something out in his mind. As the wife of a philosophy professor, she was used to long bouts of silence between them as he mulled through complex thought.
    “What are you thinking?” she asked.
    “Just wondering,” he said, rubbing her arm and looking out into the black Irish night. “Where do you imagine that damn goat is?”
     
    When they awoke the next morning, Sarah made cheese sandwiches and mugs of tea for breakfast. The first thing they did was locate the root cellar. They found potatoes, two cases of a decent Côte de Rhône, three bags of flour, sweet feed for the horses, and several dozen tins of meat.
    David dragged a bag of feed and the three of them went into the stables. It was obvious that the horses’ stalls had not been mucked out for weeks.
    “Oh, shit,”