This Impossible Brightness: A Novel by Jessica Bryant Klagmann

Author:Jessica Bryant Klagmann [Klagmann, Jessica Bryant]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Published: 2024-02-01T00:00:00+00:00

13

The last box in the newspaper office that Alma hadn’t opened sat stupidly on the top of a bookshelf, where it had, over the years, edged closer and closer to tipping off. Alma stood on tiptoes on a stepladder, bracing herself for the weight, not knowing if she should expect heavy or too heavy. Her fingers grasped the slippery corners.

It was too heavy. The cardboard box crashed to the concrete floor, the top bursting apart, old newspapers spilling out. As she shuffled the papers back together, throwing away the ones that had been soaked by the eternal puddles on the floor, she found she was holding one dated 2022 that had a picture of the Marconi National Historic Site on the front page. In it, there was a square building that looked no different from a house with the exception of the flags flying from its roof and a large window that spanned most of one side. On the grass in front of the building, kids were flying kites. At the very left of the photo stood a metal tower and next to it a sign, the kind describing interesting details of the site.

She’d seen this image before, from a different angle, in the photo Alex had sent her in his first letter. I’m writing a letter because this place reminded me of you, and we’re always having make-believe conversations in my head.

One hundred twenty years before the date of the paper, Guglielmo Marconi had made wireless history, at a time when communication was extending itself in all directions, beyond what could be accomplished by simply sitting in the same room.

Everyone, reaching out. Trying ever harder to speak to one another, to as many others as possible. Just over a century didn’t seem like that long ago when Alma thought about it.

And yet somehow it seemed like an eternity since Alex had been reaching out to her from that same place. Attempting to connect without knowing if his letter would ever make it to Alma’s mailbox. Miraculously, it had. And, miraculously, they had found their way to each other again.

A salamander wiggled from inside the rusted desk drawer, its shiny black body scurrying across the floor and up the wall. Jupiter’s eyes followed it, though he didn’t lift his chin from the floor. A short burst of static sent Alma’s hand to her pocket. She clutched the two-way radio with cold fingers, holding it near her ear. She’d been paying attention again, even closer than before, but everything she’d heard so far was frustratingly inconsistent.

There had been something about constellations, and Alma recognized the voice and accent of a philosopher whose name she couldn’t remember but who Alex used to quote frequently. But as he spoke, another broken voice came through—a stern woman giving a speech about a new type of alert system, something about weather. Equally unclear. The voices spoke on top of one another, and then there was silence again.

She was going to listen. That was her plan.

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