obviously it didn't.
"You can't go to LA -- don't be ridiculous. What makes you think the guy will give you an interview?" Frank stubbed out his unfiltered Camel in the over-flowing ashtray and leaned back in his ratty swivel desk chair. His stare was as harsh as his voice, and Niki knew he didn't really want an answer. She stood in front of his disgusting desk, arms folded across her chest, waiting for the last word. As if on cue he added, "The Courier won't pay for it."
Niki was ready for this. "I'll pay for it myself, then. I'm going Frank, even if I have to take vacation ." It was the first time the young reporter could ever remember looking down on her boss literally and figuratively. Despite his crusty appearance and nasty habits, Frank was a respected newspaperman and Niki's mentor. He's the one who discovered her "nose for news." How could he, of all people, not understand why she had to go after this story? Who cares if Los Angeles is two thousand miles from Ottumwa, Iowa. This shouldn’t be about money. Niki turned away, afraid she might cry. Then defiantly called back, over a blaze of wild, wavy auburn hair, "In fact, schedule my time off. It's less than a month away." Once outside the Editor's reeking office, she slumped against the wall, and exhaled loudly.
It's even worse out here, she thought as she coughed and choked her way through the haze and maze of heavy wooden desks in the open newsroom. What constituted reporters for the Courier were mostly chain smoking, middle-aged men with yellow-stained shirts and teeth. When she got to the spot designated as her "desk," she could hardly hear herself think. There was no partition to separate her from the clattering of old manual typewriter and teletype machine racket bouncing off the walls. Some loud mouth sports jock sat about a foot away yucking it up on the phone. She collapsed into own creaky desk chair and stared at the calendar she had taped to the wall.
Two dates on the 1982 "Year-at-a-Glance" wall calendar were circled in heavy red ink -- February 3, which would have been her mother's 60th birthday, and March 10, the day the world was supposed to end. The events were inextricably linked, at least in Niki’s mind.
Niki had never been to L.A. but that wouldn't stop her from making this pilgrimage. From the moment she learned 36-year old astrophysicist John Gribbin would make his first U.S. appearance, she knew she had to cover the event. The respected scientific author was "crossing the pond" (as the Brits say) to speak at the Los Angeles Griffith Observatory, promoting his latest book and scientific theory "The Jupiter Effect."
Gribbin was Niki's idol,and had been since she'd "discovered" him in college. He didn't write dry science -- far from it. He delved into time travel, paranormal paradoxes and metaphysical mysteries, the stuff she and her mom used to stay up late at night discussing. Now, he was coming to the U.S. on her mom’s birthday – definitely an omen.
Niki sat day dreaming in front of her typewriter, still flushed-faced and agitated over her run-in with Frank. She had to find a way to get to Gribbin and interview him. More than ever she wanted to be the one to introduce her brainiac to the public and prove to Frank, and the world, that she too could explain the inexplicable.
The Jupiter Effectwas Dr. Gribbin's latest theory that on March 10, 1982, a rare planetary configuration could trigger a series of geological events that might spawn massive tidal waves and a devastating earthquake in California. Gribbin never claimed the California coast could or would slip into the ocean, but his ominous link between the intense gravitational pull of the planetary alignment and increasing strain on the San Andreas Fault was enough to create controversy. With the dreaded event just weeks away, Californians were getting nervous.
Niki was getting nervous, too. Once word got out that Gribbin would be lecturing on the planetary alignment, TV reporters and doomsayers would hype his hypothesis to the extreme. Latter-day lunatics would go wild. It would become an end-time epidemic! Niki wasn't sure if the End was truly at hand, but felt her fate hinged on interviewing Gribbin and turning the cosmic collision into national headlines. Could she really pull it off?
The Jupiter Effect was just the kind of event that draws the public to a planetarium. But, astronomers at the L.A. observatory felt the young, English scholar was "a sleek and gaudy paperback talespinner" -- a direct quote from the Griffith Observer magazine. Unbeknownst to Niki, the Griffith gang was actually trying to suppress news of Gribbin's appearance there. And they, of course, had no idea that in Ottumwa, Iowa, a young reporter would foil their plans.
Suddenly a spark of genius. She could write a promotional piece and incorporate the apocalyptic angle! Her thoughts ran wild. Maybe she could get exclusive rights to the story and meet Gribbin when he landed. The Jupiter Effect was going to be headline news, and when it was, it would carry Niki Perceval's by-line. The end of the world was her ticket out of this god-forsaken rat hole.
Niki stopped typing and stared off into space. Maybe she should start with an analogy about the Persian stargazers and how throughout the centuries, eclipses and planetary configurations had always been harbingers of doom. More importantly, she needed to explain that even though planetary alignments are not that unusual, it's only once every 2000 years that the sun comes into alignment with a new constellation. And on March 10, 1982, the world would see both: a transition to the age of Aquarius, and a rare planetary configuration -- truly making this a Grand Alignment. She yanked the paper with the cornball phrases from her typewriter and started over.
"Those who search for signs will find them…"
*****
*****
Want more? Sorry, you'll have to wait until it's PUBLISHED! A Kindred Spirit is officially copyrighted and will be published in Spring of 2010!!
Finally, Phil is mine! (evil laughter)
Finally, Phil is mine! (evil laughter)
