Give Us This Day by Tom Avitabile

Give Us This Day by Tom Avitabile

Author:Tom Avitabile [Avitabile, Tom]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781611882094
Publisher: Prolific Works
Published: 2020-03-31T22:00:00+00:00


Chapter 30

Rock Group

5 days until the attack

Waterloo High School’s geology club was ecstatic as Mr. Herns, the earth science teacher and his club of six future geologists, piled into the van. They were headed for an historic first this Monday morning. The “first” was the first true seismic event that had been recorded so close to their school. It was the also the first since they’d gotten the grant to buy a Guralp seismic monitor. Mr. Herns had lobbied the school board hard for the purchase because he saw it as an excellent opportunity to hone the skills of these students in monitoring and analyzing tectonic activity. The nearby event it recorded over the weekend had the added bonus of the epicenter being in an abandoned quarry. That meant the possibility of years of exposed, oxygenated rock being shaken off and a new peel of earth revealed. If that happened, it could be a treasure trove of geologic purity.

Susan Wackner, a sophomore in the group, got permission for her boyfriend, Brendon, the quarterback of the football team, to tag along, as they did everything together.

“So why are we going here again?” Brendon asked from the rear seat, his arm around Susan.

“We may have had a mini-earthquake in the old quarry early Sunday morning or it might be nothing more than a landslide . . .” Mr. Herns said to the rearview mirror.

“That would be bad?”

“On the contrary, Brendon, that would be awesome, because a new strata of rock may be revealed for us to investigate. We’ll see.”

Brendon stuck his finger in his mouth and feigned a quiet gag response. Susan slapped him playfully on his shoulder.

The van pulled through the weathered gates of the old quarry past the long-rusting machines and through the notch into the bottom of the man-made bowl.

Mr. Herns got out of the school van and immediately spun around, looking for where the landslide had occurred. “That’s funny . . . Maybe it was a mini-quake after all. These walls don’t look like they have been disturbed in years.”

“A real mini of a quake; if it was only a point two-five on the Richter scale,” Susan said.

Then Mr. Herns looked at the floor of the quarry. He walked about fifty yards in a circle. The he stopped and bent down. He gathered up a handful of the newly loosened dirt and smelled it.

“Look, Sue, he’s eating the dirt. What a dipthoid,” Brendon said.

“Don’t be a child. I am sure he has a good reason.” Then she yelled over, “Mr. Herns, what are you doing?”

“Come over here . . .”

The club came to where Herns was crouching. He held up his dirt-filled hand. “Smell that?”

“Oooo, eek, that’s bad.”

“Yeah, but that sweet smell mixed in there, that’s glycerin.”

“Like sugar?”

“No, it’s what’s left after you explode nitroglycerin.”

“How do you know that?” Brendon said, trying to wrestle Susie’s attention back from the rock geek.

“We used it in the search for oil.”

“That’s dumb, blowing up oil.” Brendon grunted when he laughed.

“Brendon,



Download



Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.