The Wandering Island Factory Read Online Free PDF Page B

age eight and had a chip implanted, and then pointed out a mole on her neck where it was supposedly buried.
    He took it all as an elaborate joke or an overactive imagination, but her children seemed mortified.
    They drank coffee and sodas and played a very friendly game of UNO while watching cable TV for the rest of the night.

    Without a car of his own, he stayed the night, on the couch, and watched a local news report about how the island was going to be decked out in the states. It was a prestigious thing, a first of its kind, and Hawaii politicians were happy to take full credit for it, though they supplied little more than lava and had to be bribed with huge campaign contributions to stop road-blocking the project at every turn. It was hard not to be cynical about politicians, they caused six problems for every one they solved. In fact, it seemed like they created problems for businesses solely as a way of extorting campaign contributions from those same deep pockets.
    It was a shame that the biggest story of Hawaii was happening within sight of his job, yet he had to learn most of the cool stuff from a show on TV.
    Nobody cared about the behemoth anymore. It was old news and barely got mentioned.

    Startled, he quickly woke to a full sit.
    "So, you're dating my oldest," the mother said.
    It was still dark outside, she seemed to be the only one up. "Yes Ma'am."
    "You know, she's been—"
    "Yes Ma'am, I know. She's a great girl— I've been friends with her for years before we had a face to face. Look, I don't know if— I'm sure I don't know it all, but I know enough about what's in her past. She's special to me too.
    Dating her may look casual, from the outside, but I've made some real commitments even to get here. It's not at all like dating someone who lives around the corner."
    She stared at him like he had stolen the silverware and she was contemplating a strip search.
    He felt uncomfortable. "Honestly."
    She poked him in the chest with her finger. "I'm too young to be a grandmother," she said, then went to the kitchen and started the coffee.

[Chapter 6]
    At the end of his shift, he watched the news unfold live from the deck. It looked like two thin pencil-like tubes were slowly inflating in the distance. But scale was everything. On the two hundred acre floating island, they could easily be longer than blimps with the diameter of at least ten or twenty feet. The inflating tubes slowly carried the giant parasails a thousand feet into the sky as the island inched from view on what seemed like a windless day.
    He never would have believed it, but it seemed the most fitting way for an infant island to leave Hawaii, like the hundreds of teens who did the same things with surfboards strapped to their feet. The paper even linked the idea to one of its old stories about a local teen who parasailed to Mexico for spring break.
    The behemoth, on the other hand, remained stationary and was busy cranking out solid slabs again. Riding a different kind of wave, that of free publicity, they were getting flooded with orders, and it was looking like he could stay there indefinitely.
    If Gina would have him, that was.
    He watched it slip past the horizon, yet the sails remained visible (with binoculars) for an hour longer.
    When it was gone, he returned to his small room and checked his email.
    Two messages from his brother, one from his mom.
    His mom wanted him to come home.
    He couldn't afford the trip. In the states, what he made would be a small fortune, but Hawaii was very expensive, and he wasn't saving up as much as he should.
    He answered her last.

    Since he had it off and was so far away from home, Gina's family asked him over for Thanksgiving, and left Christmas open, if he could attend. The behemoth couldn't be shut down, not for a minute, without lava hardening in the tubes. It worked 24/7/365, and that probably meant that he would be scheduled for Christmas. Someone would, and he was still the lowest on the totem pole.