Falling Lessons


 Lyrics Referenced
 
 
 
 
 
 [i]
 
 
 David Bowie. “Life on Mars,” track 6 on Hunky Dory, RCA
 Records, 1971.
 
 
 
 
 
 [ii]
 
 Rage Against the Machine. “Bulls on Parade,” track 2 on Evil Empire, Epic Records, 1996.
 
 
 
 
 
 Falling Lessons
 
 
 
 Stacey Elza
 
 
 Aurora Corialis Publishing
 
 
 www.auroracorialispublishing.com
 
 
 
 
 
 Falling Lessons
 
 
 COPYRIGHT © 2023 BY STACEY ELZA
 
 
 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used, reproduced,
 stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means—electronic,
 mechanical, photocopy, microfilm, recording, or otherwise—without
 written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief
 quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
 
 
 This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places,
 events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s
 imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual
 persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
 
 
 For more information, address the publisher at [email protected]
 
 
 Paperback ISBN: 978-1-958481-84-4
 
 
 Ebook ISBN: 978-1-958481-85-1
 
 
 Printed in the United States of America
 
 
 Cover illustration and design by Karen Captline, BetterBe Creative
 
 
 Edited by Renée Picard, Aurora Corialis Publishing
 
 
 
 
 
 Praise for Falling Lessons
 
 
 “Falling Lessons is wonderful from the very first sentence. It
 reminded me of Bridge to Terabithia, Seventeenth Summer, and several Laurie Halse Anderson novels,
 all of which I personally count as setting a gold standard for YA
 fiction.
 
 
 “The protagonist and narrator of Falling Lessons, Louisa, is
 not just a teenage girl whose life has suddenly been turned
 upside-down. She’s also smart, funny, self-aware, and possessed of a
 dazzling—and sometimes uncomfortable—capacity for experiencing the
 world around her with her whole body. Her story is about fish, frogs,
 hapkido, and hurricanes. It’s also about hanging on and letting go,
 falling in love and letting yourself be loved back. And because it’s
 told in Louisa’s remarkable voice, it’s a story that offers unexpected
 moments of wonder on every page and reminds you to find and savor such
 moments in your own life.”
 
 
 —Ann Claycomb, Silenced and The Mermaid’s Daughter
 
 
 ___
 
 
 “Stacey Elza’s Falling Lessons takes readers on a wild ride
 into the future—when the world as we know it seems quaint and
 technological advancement rules the day. Louisa, new to town and trying
 to fit in even with Tourette’s, must traverse a sick grandmother, a
 burgeoning crush, and a boyfriend left behind as she tries to build a
 new life for herself. Elza manages 
 
 Chapter 1
 
 
 If I’d just taken Callisto with me, maybe she wouldn’t be dead.
 
 
 But how do you take a goldfish with you when a hurricane is headed your
 way? Do you fill a plastic bag with water and put her in there, like
 some carnival prize? Or do you use a cooler? Or do you use your mom’s
 dough-rising bowl even though it’s 40 years old and made of black
 walnut and what am I even talking about? That wooden bowl would leak
 all over the car, and the fish would die anyway, and Mom would yank the
 bowl out of my lap and beat me to death with it because that’s her good
 bowl, dang it, and it’s an antique.
 
 
 I guess it doesn’t matter now. Callisto’s eyes look chalk-dust covered.
 They’re just white. Deleted. And I’m standing in the yard—where the
 lawn chairs used to be before they blew away—and I’m holding her in my
 gloved hand. And my mom, my boyfriend Ezra, and his mama are all
 staring at me, waiting for me to do something.
 
 
 Except I don’t do anything. I just stand there like an idiot, taking
 deep, whooshy breaths while my respirator hangs loose around my neck.
 Because even though the air is as hot and heavy as potato soup out