KIDS → FAMILY FIRST SERIAL Issue 1005 · March 27, 2024

Fallout: Chapter 43

Some events in life you think, you hope, you’re convinced, will never happen, even though you know they will

Fallout: Chapter 43

 

 

September 1964

NO one came to her rescue.

Not that she needed rescuing. Marjorie was a strong swimmer, her muscles toned from years of lessons in the local YMCA. She’d hated that pool, with the strange sound of children’s shouting voices echoing off the steam-covered ceiling, the lifeguard’s shrill whistle, the choking smell of chlorine, and, of course, the weekly argument she had with Mother about attending. But here, surrounded and embraced by the blue waters of the park’s manmade lake, and with Earth’s unfriendly voices silenced for at least a short while, she again felt a surge of joy, a certainty that one day, one day soon, she would find the freedom she’d been yearning for all these years.

When she reached the shore and clambered out, dripping wet, she was laughing.

She found Danny calmly tying up the boat.

“Hey, why didn’t you dive in after me?” she shouted, shaking the water off her soaked T-shirt and pants like some overactive little puppy.

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