Girl Out of Time


 
 
 
 
 
 This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
 Copyright © 2023 by Clyde BoyerAll rights reserved.
 No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
 
 
 
 Published by Girl Friday Books™, Seattlewww.girlfridaybooks.comProduced by Girl Friday Productions
 Cover design: David FassettDevelopment & editorial: Reshma KoonerProduction editorial: Katherine Richards
 ISBN (paperback): 978-1-954854-22-2ISBN (ebook): 978-1-954854-64-2Library of Congress Control Number: 2022919774
 First edition
 To Dulce and Jacob, my North Stars, my dearest family, and my reason for being here. And to the readers young and old, may this make you laugh and wonder and inspire you in uncertain times.
 Prologue
 Anna Armstrong’s plan was so simple, she wondered why no one had thought of it before. She stood at the edge of her bed with her arms held high and her knees slightly bent. All she had to do was find a high enough vantage point and then jump as fast and as far as she could. Her mom had taught her about gravity, and she had a vague idea about velocity. If she could leap fast enough and at the correct angle, she could break free of Earth’s atmosphere, up and out toward the stars in the night sky. Her first solo flight into space.
 Anna stood at the edge of her bed and began the countdown.
 “Five, four, three, two, one . . . liftoff!”
 The flight lasted exactly 0.86 seconds, enough time for Anna to make a noise like a rocket before falling to the hardwood floor with a thud. Dazed but undaunted, Anna rolled over and looked up at the stars she had glued to her ceiling and wondered if it was a trajectory problem or a lift problem.
 Anna’s second launch came two years later. She had learned a lot from her earlier mistakes and realized that she alone did not possess sufficient energy to break Earth’s gravity. She smiled, thinking back to her younger self. No, she needed a lot more power, and this time no cape. It only added drag.
 So, what would provide enough power? A catapult? Helium balloons tied to a chair? No, where would she find that many balloons anyway? But the trampoline in the backyard might just do the trick. There were times she had bounced so high she was sure she had reached the tops of the trees that encircled her home. All she had to do was generate a little greater force and there was no telling how far she could go.
 With the help of the neighborhood kids, Anna dragged the trampoline to the edge of her house. She climbed onto the roof through her bedroom window and looked over the edge. From her vantage point, the trampoline below looked so small. She licked her finger and checked the direction of the wind before inching her way to the edge of the roof. This time, she decided to count down silently to herself.
 “Five, four, three, two . . . just one small step . . . one!”
 Whoosh was the sound she made going down. Boing was the sound she made going up and out across the lawn. She tucked into a ball and spun a full circle before landing in a honeysuckle bush near the edge of the lawn. Dazed but undaunted, Anna rolled over and watched a jet fly overhead; the contrails made perpendicular lines in the blue August sky.
 Anna’s third attempt to reach space never came to be. She spent the summer after seventh grade working in her father’s shed while her parents were far away on business. By now, she had learned of real space travel and solid fuels and rockets that could carry giant payloads to other planets. She might not be able to make it into space herself, but she could build a rocket.
 And she was close. So close. After a month of experimentation and spent fire extinguishers and the smell of burning plastic, Anna had landed on the right mix of corn syrup, sugar, rust, and stump remover for rocket fuel. She had fashioned a rocket body out of PVC and fins out of balsa wood. There was even an attachment for her old digital camera to take video as the rocket shot into space. The launch was scheduled for July 20, the anniversary of the first moon landing and the day her mom and dad would be returning from their long trip overseas.
 Anna sprawled out on the grass in the backyard and waited for her parents to return. The launch was meant to be a surprise, a Welcome Home message written out across the sky. Time passed and the shadows from the trees stretched slowly across the lawn until the entire launchpad was covered in shade, but there was still no sign of her parents.
 From inside the house, the phone rang. She didn’t pay any attention at first. But then she heard her Aunt Claire talking loudly, which was rare. Worse was the sobbing sound that drifted outside and the silence that followed. Anna silently counted down from five and then closed her eyes as the screen door swung slowly open. She was floating in space.
 Anna didn’t believe in magic or the ability to read minds. She was a girl of science, after all. But even before she saw her aunt walk across the evening lawn, even before the rare embrace, she had a sick feeling that the world she knew was over. Her parents wouldn’t be coming home again.
 
 Something had happened to her parents’ taxi en route to the airport. “Roads are dangerous in that part of the world,” someone had said to Anna. She just couldn’t remember who had said it.