Paradigm Rift: Book One of the Back to Normal Series Read Online Free PDF Page B

boy, and get in here." Denver grabbed a final look around and slid into the passenger’s seat.
    The Chief dropped his voice. “Pretty sure she’s circled anyway.” Denver wrinkled his brow. McCloud explained. “You know circled… married .” The Chief held up his hand and traced around his ring finger several times. “Circled.”
    The squad car backed out of the slot and eased into the uptown lane. The breeze through the open window played with Denver's hair. "I do believe you are the very first stock broker I've ever had in this squad car," the Chief said.
    Denver perked up. I knew it. This is the government messing with me. Nice slip up, fake cop. Denver smiled. "Now, how could you possibly know that?"
    The Chief adopted a mischievous look. "I know people!” He glanced over at his passenger. “ Nah —just kiddin'. I found information in your wallet. Detective work, it's my job. Or, one of my jobs."
    Denver refused to be amused and took in the view, stunned at just how big this fabricated town was turning out to be. The Chief glanced over at the jaded stare in the eyes of his captive yet not captivated audience. McCloud changed the subject. "Jumpers."
    "Excuse me?"
    "Jumpers. That’s what they call us, I mean, that's what we call ourselves. Me, you, us, we're Jumpers."
    The Chief waved at a few of the locals as he slowed for a stop sign. Denver angled towards the Chief, willing to entertain this comical stranger for a little while longer. He glanced down at the pistol. It could've been in his hands in just over a second. That brought a strange sense of comfort.
    "It started in the mid-to-late ‘40s,” the cop began. “Now Doc and Ellen can explain it a whole lot better'n me, but it had something to do with nukes—"
    "Nukes? Nuclear weapons?"
    "That's what Phil and the others have told us. All that atomic testing did it. Manhattan Project they called it. Doc said those bombs created little holes, little rips in the space-time-continuum thing."
    Denver called to mind another recent car ride and another conversation with a curious six-year-old less than twenty-four hours ago. He smiled as he glanced up at the sparse clouds. "Invisible cracks in the sky ."
    The Chief was on a roll and didn't seem to notice Denver's reaction. Denver, on the other hand, noticed just how smoothly McCloud delivered his little speech.
    "Anywho...apparently these little time portals are pretty harmless,” McCloud continued. “They don't bother anyone or anything. Well, at least not until they're supplied with huge, and I do mean huge, amounts of energy."
    They made a wide left turn and the Chief's attention shifted abruptly to a couple of young men on the sidewalk. He slowed and leaned out the window. "Charlie Wilson! I better not catch you hotroddin' out on 66 tonight!"
    The young men responded with nods and waves. The Chief chuckled and accelerated. "Kids! They all think they're the next Mario Andretti. Anywho...what was I sayin'?"
    "Huge energy."
    "Oh yeah...listen, lemme ask you a question. What’s the last thing you remember before you came here, here to Normal?"
    Denver gazed out his passenger window. "I was in my apartment. I had a few drinks, it was a rough night. I fell asleep and then I woke up in your little government-sponsored freak show here."
    The Chief either ignored or dismissed the last little jab. "What else was going on? How ‘bout the weather?"
    "The weather?” Denver asked. “Well, it was about as nasty as my soon-to-be-ex: Rain, stormy."
    McCloud motioned with his hands in an effort to get Denver to elaborate. "And lots of...?"
    "Lots of... what ?"
    "Lightning, son! Lots of big, huge, lightning bolts."
    He stared hard at the Chief, a man who now seemed a bit more credible.
    McCloud continued, "Lightning. Guaranteed. Bet my life on it. It's the only common denominator for all of us Jumpers. Everyone has the same story. One second we're living our lives, then BAM! CRASH! Lightning bolt, and the next second,