American River Review 2022 - copy - Flipbook - Page 46
AWE
BY SAM DEVINE
It was a clear summer afternoon in a
small town.
fountains of gold, purple flower
bursts?
Ernie was pulling the triggering wire
out of one of the old packing crates.
His white polo shirt
was sweaty and powdered with the
brown dirt of the baseball diamond.
He grumbled slightly as he worked,
not because of anger, though. He was
just tired.
“Yeah,” he said within himself. “It is a
kind of magic.”
Tiredness had become a way of life
for Ern lately. Ever since the operation, well, he couldn’t quite explain
it, but it was like this limited recovery
had taken his last illusion of youth.
“Look at the tottering old man,” he
thought. “Can’t even lift three rolls at
a time anymore.”
That used to be his favorite part of
setting up fireworks shows: grabbing
one roll of wire in eachhand and
picking up the third by pressing the
two against its sides, lifting all three
together like a juggler or a magician.
An image of sparkling silver boxes
bouncing between white gloves
flashed through his mind.
“So what,” he thought. “It’s not like
you’re a magician anyway.”
But wasn’t it magic when the sparks
streaked across the sky? Wasn’t it a
big trick, filling the night with giant
glowing spheres of blue and green,
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Jenny had known that.
“You just keep lighting up the sky,
Ern. Don’t think I won’t be watching.
You levitate all thosepeople right out
of their lawn chairs. You make sure
you don’t shoot anything too high up
and burn my wings, or else you’ll be
hearin’ it from me for all eternity.”
Eternity wasn’t half as long as the last
three and a half years had been. They
were infinitely more prolonged than
the previous 27 had been. He’d kept
working because he needed it to keep
himself occupied. He was technically
retired and working part-time in the
company’s office. It still left too many
hours in the weeks. He’d also never
really enjoyed desk stuff.
Training new techs was a lot easier
than doing a setup all alone, and
more fun than staying home
and watching the Price Is Right.
Training meant telling someone else
what to do. It was more pointing than
actual work. Things with Ben had
been slightly different, though.
Fresh out of college, Ben had been
inadvertently training Ernie – at least
when it came to the computer. Ben