Robert Appleton - Cafe at the Edge of Outer Space.pdf - Robert Appleton - allforjesus2001

Café at the Edge of Outer Space

Our gentle footsteps seem invasive, illegal somehow. The dark tunnel effect is

dizzyingly effective as we tiptoe out onto a three-hundred-and-sixty degree stellar

walkway. I hold my breath. If Emma’s hand wasn’t squeezing mine, I’d be head

over heels off balance instead of head over heels in . . . liking her a lot.

Hotshot.

It’s a deep-bone thrombosis of stars and gravitational attraction. Body to

body, orbit to orbit, me to her. We’re cosmic trespassers, and I feel just as

transparent as the see-through window encasing us. She looks right into me, her

warm breath reaching my cheek where it lingers. Utter silence. My heavy

breathing now feels part of oblivion, hers a solar wind from light years away.

We’re together now, though. So together. She roves her flat palm from my side

across the front of my t-shirt, exciting a halo that dissolves down through my

entire body. As I take that hand, I’m a wisp at her mercy. Her fingers pulse magic

as we draw near, and her breasts press against my rib cage. Near. No fear.

We’re…

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Robert Appleton

any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,

recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without

permission in writing from the publisher.

This book is a work of fiction. Characters, names, places and incidents either

are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any

resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is

entirely coincidental.

An Eternal Press Production

Eternal Press

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Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada,

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To order additional copies of this book, contact:

www. eternalpress.ca

Edited by Heather Williams

Copyedited by Rose Vera Stepney

Layout and Book Production by Ally Robertson

eBook ISBN: 978-1-897559-16-1

First Edition * July 2008

Production by Eternal Press

Printed in Canada and The United States of America.

Page 2

Café at the Edge of Outer Space

Robert Appleton

Page 3

Robert Appleton

Strangely, I find an air of nostalgia where there is no air. I’m looking out of a

window that never needs cleaning from outside. It’s pretty much impenetrable,

too. Just the faint threat of things over which we’ve no control – you know,

asteroids, solar flares, terrorism, things like that. “Facing space,” they call it.

Something to do with a rite of passage. Everyone leaves Earth at sixteen – that’s

the law – and we’re not allowed to return until our twenty-sixth birthdays. Talk

about a graduation.

There’s a kind of window over the Earth as well. It isn’t solid, it’s translucent –

a hazy helmet of cloud and pollution. Great Britain passed by a few minutes ago. I

could just about make out where I lived, more or less dead centre on the island.

Apparently, Britain used to be much bigger. And warmer. More sandy beaches,

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Robert Appleton - Cafe at the Edge of Outer Space.pdf

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