Rockets Versus Gravity

by Richard Scarsbrook

rrrrrrrrrCCRACKOOOOOOWWwwwwwwwww

  Do your fingers grip a little tighter, increase your stake in this tantrum of nature?

  Above it all, chain lightning dances a fragmented streak across the sky, free, alive with energy, immortal.

  But only for a fraction of a second. Its pattern is burned red, purple, then blue into your eyes when you blink, a mere afterthought of the free, crazy energy.

  The lightning is receding; the next flash is farther away, as is the next flash, and the next, and the flash that follows that. And soon the light is distant, and there is just a gentle, infant sprinkling, a small reminder of what had been.

  It is cool now, the air reborn, almost sweet to the lungs.

  You still have each other’s hands.

  And you are not the only ones.

  Notes

  The town of Faireville, which serves as the setting for some chapters, is fictional, although some details are borrowed from the author’s previous hometowns of Olinda, Leamington, Kingsville, and Petrolia, Ontario.

  The city of Toronto, on the other hand, is real (despite occasional arguments to the contrary). However, the author may have slightly reconfigured certain elements of the city to suit his fictional purposes.

  There are approximately five thousand homeless people sleeping either outdoors or in emergency shelters on any given night in the city of Toronto. A large number of these people live in the Rosedale Ravine, which borders Rosedale, the wealthiest neighbourhood in the city.

  The Church of the Holy Trinity is an Anglican church in downtown Toronto; its slogan is “Loving Justice in the Heart of the City.” The church holds an outdoor memorial service on the second Tuesday of every month to remember those who have died without a place to call home.

  All of the characters in this book are, in fact, characters, meaning that they are products of the author’s imagination. You can find out more about the author and the products of his imagination at www.richardscarsbrook.com.

  Acknowledgements

  “The Final Ring,” then called “The Third Ring,” was a finalist for the Fish Flash Fiction Prize, and was published, in a rather different form, in The Fish Anthology (Fish Publishing, Bantryr, Ireland, 2011).

  “Blink” was published in the Spring 2015 issue of Reed Magazine (U.S.). It was also shortlisted for the 2014 Seán Ó Faoláin Short Story Prize (Ireland).

  “Royal Blood” and “Coronation” were published as a single story called “Royal Blood” in the Winter 2014 issue of The Nashwaak Review.

  “Half-Life” was published in The Wild Quarterly, September 2014.

  An early version of “You Deserve Better! You Deserve More!” was published in Draft 9.6, the publication of the Draft Reading Series in Toronto, where the story was read for the first time in early 2014.

  A longer short story called “Downpour” (consisting of “Moving Is Easier than Renovating,” “Property of Riskey and Gamble,” “The Receptionist,” and “Half-Life”) was longlisted for the 2015 Short Fiction Prize.

  A very different version of “Storm” was published in Canadian Writer’s Journal, Fall 1999. A poem version of “Storm” also appeared in the author’s poetry collection Six Weeks (Turnstone Press, 2013).

  A poem version of “Rocks and Rockets,” called “Effect,” will appear in the author’s poetry collection Apocalypse One Hundred (Turnstone Press, 2017).

  Gratitude

  For generous support during the creation of this book, my sincere thanks to the Toronto Arts Council, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Canada Council for the Arts.

  I worked on portions of this book during my term as Writer in Residence at the North York Central Library (fall 2014). Thank you to Greg Kelner, Muriel Hart, Matthew Dimuantes, and everyone else at the Toronto Public Library for the opportunity to assist the public with their writing projects while also developing my own.

  Thanks to everyone at Dundurn, especially my editor, Shannon “the Fiction Guru” Whibbs. I also owe a debt of gratitude (and reciprocal proofreading) to my author friends who gave this book a final read-through before it went to press: Dan Perry, Heather Wood, Ann Ewan, and Valerie Connor.

  Thanks as always to my many fun, literate, and loyal friends. To once again paraphrase Bill Murray, “Be careful who you choose as your friends. I’d rather have four quarters than a hundred pennies.” Every year I add a few more silver dollars to my pockets, for which I am always grateful.

  For their abundant love, support, and encouragement, my thanks as always to my wonderful family, especially my parents, Mike and Judy Scarsbrook.

  And, as always, this book is for Bluebell, my love, my muse, and my best friend. For evermore.

  Also by Richard Scarsbrook

  The Indifference League

  Sexy, racy, hilarious, and even moving, The Indifference League is a story of what happens when the starry-eyed optimism of the Greatest Generation crashes into the obsessions and fears of the New Lost Generation. Under the faded banner of Superman, Wonder Woman, and other heroes past, steps the Indifference League: The Statistician, Time Bomb, Hippie Avenger, SuperKen, SuperBarbie, Miss Demeanor, Mr. Nice Guy, Psycho Superstar, The Drifter, and The Stunner. All archetypes of Generations X and Y, they are here to show us just how much things have changed. Sex and love. Religion and politics. Left and Right. Right and Wrong. Can anyone be a hero in an age where the lines are so blurred? When they meet again at The Hall of Indifference for a long weekend together, The Indifference League will fight to find out. Or not.

  More Fiction from Dundurn

  Festival Man

  Geoff Berner

  Travel in the entertaining company of a man made of equal parts bullshit and inspiration, in what is ultimately a twisted panegyric to the power of strange music to change people from the inside out. At turns funny and strangely sobering, this “found memoir” is a picaresque tale of inspired, heroic deceit, incompetence, and — just possibly — triumph. Follow the flailing escapades of maverick music manager Campbell Ouiniette at the Calgary Folk Festival, as he leaves a trail of empty liquor bottles, cigarette butts, bruised egos, and obliterated relationships behind him. His top headlining act has abandoned him for the Big Time. In a fit of self-delusion or pure genius (or perhaps a bit of both), Ouiniette devises an intricate scam, a last hurrah in an attempt to redeem himself in the eyes of his girlfriend, the music industry, and the rest of the world. He reveals his path of destruction in his own transparently self-justifying, explosive, profane words, with digressions into the Edmonton hardcore punk rock scene, the Yugoslavian Civil War, and other epicentres of chaos.

  Copyright © Richard Scarsbrook, 2016

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other­wise (except for brief passages for purpose of review) without the prior permission of Dundurn Press. Permission to photocopy should be requested from Access Copyright.

  All characters in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Editor: Shannon Whibbs

  Design: Laura Boyle

  Cover design and art: Laura Boyle

  Additional art (ring): iStockPhoto.com/sigurcamp

  Epub design: Carmen Giraudy

  Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

  Scarsbrook, Richard, author Rockets versus gravity / Richard Scarsbrook.

  Issued in print and electronic formats.

  ISBN 978-1-4597-3386-2 (paperback).--ISBN 978-1-4597-3387-9 (pdf).-- ISBN 978-1-4597-3388-6 (epub)

  I. Title.

  PS8587.C396R63 2016 C813’.54 C2015-908164-

  C2015-908165-3

  We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the
financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and Livres Canada Books, and the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishing Tax Credit and the Ontario Media Development Corporation.

  Care has been taken to trace the ownership of copyright material used in this book. The author and the publisher welcome any information enabling them to rectify any references or credits in subsequent editions.

  J. Kirk Howard, President

  The publisher is not responsible for websites or their content unless they are owned by the publisher.

  Visit us at: Dundurn.com | @dundurnpress | Facebook.com/dundurnpress | Pinterest.com/dundurnpress

  Return Navigation

  Part 1

  Rocks and Rockets

  Part 2

  The Final Ring

  Blink

  The Code

  YYZ

  Part 3

  Moving Is

  Inconvenience

  Property of Riskey and-Gamble

  Maple Leaf Sermon

  Part 4

  The Receptionist

  Royal Blood

  Half Life

  You Deserve Better

  Part 5

  Sangria Red and Ocean Blue

  The Toes of One Foot

  James Yeo

  Coronation

  Part 6

  Storm

  Notes

  Acknowledgements

  Gratitude