by James, Mark
“Sounds great,” the president said. “Now Jack, you also never let the First Lady give you two a gift, any gift. So Mac and I put our heads together and came up with this. I think you’re gonna like it. It’s First Lady-approved.”
President Walker looked down at the remote in his hand and then over at Mac, “Mac, which button again?”
Mac first looked to Lani. “Lani, take a look at your laptop screen. Do you see the glowing green icon? Just hit it.”
Mac looked back at the president, “Mr. President, hit 5214.”
President Walker and Mac then walked to the center of the Oval Office, putting their arms around each other and waving like tourists. “See you two later. Enjoy the show…”
Suddenly, the image snapped to black and then, just as abruptly, into an image of stars. Another fast click and the entire wall morphed into an image of the Earth from orbit, blue and white and perfect.
“It’s beautiful,” Lani said, unable to take her eyes away.
The satellite adjusted and slipped to a lower altitude: over Africa, the Nile River meandering in silence. Then lower: an unidentified desert, two lonely lakes looking up like eyes. Then lower: a village and a small house, people walking across the dry dirt streets.
They watched as a young woman ran from the house after a small dog, which had seen something outside. The woman leaned over and picked up the object and the dog pulled at it, playing.
The satellite began moving past its aperture and the image blurred.
“My God, Jack, look at that,” Lani whispered, leaning into him.
The blurs of Aisha and the dog cocked their heads towards a voice coming from the house, her mother calling, and the dog ran back inside. For some reason, Aisha paused, looking around and then up, shielding her eyes from the sun.
From the brown of her face, a white blur appeared.
A smile.
Thank you for reading my book. If you enjoyed A Dark Perfection, please leave a review on Amazon.com at http://amzn.to/1lA9Svc. To contact the author, please visit www.ADarkPerfection.com.
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