Nebula Awards Showcase 2013 (2013)
“I’d been eight hours outside, checking for microfractures in the metal hull. Tedious work, that. I’d turned my helmet communicator off so as not to be distracted. The look on Jake’s face spooked me.
“What’s happened?” I asked him, seawater dripping from the hair of my beard.
“Jenna,” was all I got in reply. Which was enough.
I closed my eyes and tried to remain calm, fists balled around the ends of a threadbare terrycloth towel wrapped around my neck.
For a brief instant the hum...-and-clank activity of the sub garage went away, and there was only my mental picture of my daughter sitting in her mother’s lap. Two, maybe three years old. A delightful nest of unruly ringlets sprouting at odd angles from her scalp. She’d been a mischief-maker from day one—hell on wheels in a confined space like Deepwater 12.
Jenna was much older now, but that particular memory was burned into my brain because it was the last time I remember seeing my wife smile.MoreLess
“What’s happened?” I asked him, seawater dripping from the hair of my beard.
“Jenna,” was all I got in reply. Which was enough.
I closed my eyes and tried to remain calm, fists balled around the ends of a threadbare terrycloth towel wrapped around my neck.
For a brief instant the hum...-and-clank activity of the sub garage went away, and there was only my mental picture of my daughter sitting in her mother’s lap. Two, maybe three years old. A delightful nest of unruly ringlets sprouting at odd angles from her scalp. She’d been a mischief-maker from day one—hell on wheels in a confined space like Deepwater 12.
Jenna was much older now, but that particular memory was burned into my brain because it was the last time I remember seeing my wife smile.MoreLess
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