Fallout - Jennifer Harrrington Jones Prequel by P Mattson McDonald

FALLOUT, The Jennifer Harrington Jones Prequel – Chapter 19

Crossing over the Tenth St. Bridge in Olympia, Washington, Jennifer searched for Capitol Way. Midmorning sun was shining in the rain capitol. Finding it, she traveled north to Cascade Street, then Boulevard. Helen Westerbrook, her friend from Crabshell Alliance, the...

FALLOUT, The Jennifer Harrington Jones Prequel – Chapter 18

Jennifer last saw Peter in November, a month before she graduated. It was in Hornell, at the grocery store. He was in front of her in the aisle. Her feet frozen in place, her chest barely breathing, willing him to finish his shopping so she wouldn’t have to open up...

FALLOUT, The Jennifer Harrington Jones Prequel – Chapter 17

“We’re out of cobalt carbonate over here,” a nasal voiced, summer lab student whined. Jennifer rose from her desk, where she’d been checking in new shipments of oxides and minerals in Dr. Wally’s materials lab computer. Unlocking the supplies door, she fetched what...

FALLOUT – The Jennifer Harrington Jones Prequel, Chapter 16

They bicycled, vectoring through the soft air of an early summer afternoon. Alternately drafting one another, folding into a practiced rhythm. Deep, green, humidity smacked them in the face as they hit the depths of a road near the Canacadea State Forest. A...

FALLOUT, The Jennifer Harrington Jones Prequel – Chapter 15

The sun was shining into Sabine’s bedroom window, it’s gathering warmth woke Jennifer. A film of sweat had collected on her upper lip and unconsciously she wiped it off with her fingers. She turned over and saw Sabine sleeping next to her. Everything in the past ten...

FALLOUT, The Jennifer Harrington Jones Prequel – Chapter 14

Four finished sinks in lightly draped plastic sat on a wire rack so all would dry to equal hardness. Jennifer cleaned up her studio cubicle and pondered how she would decorate the insides…incised or relief, as she wiped her counter and washed her tools. The morning...

FALLOUT, The Jennifer Harrington Jones Prequel – Chapter 13

June brought the beginning of finals and critiques for the students of Alfred University and the associated New York State College of Ceramics. Studios were flying with clay scraps, glaze conundrums, and creative quandaries. Study groups coagulated. In the kiln room...

FALLOUT, The Jennifer Harrington Jones Prequel – Chapter 12

Walking up 14th Street, the 1930’s jazz was barely audible. Standing in front of the gray, octagonal house, its melody was distinctive, Django Rienhardt. Old flagstones led to the eight-sided, three storied, filigreed Victorian, built in the 1850’s, by an architect of...

FALLOUT, The Jennifer Harrington Jones Prequel – Chapter 11

“Well you dodged a bullet,” a smiling Peter spoke during a spur of the moment Monday evening date. Jennifer grinned at him from across the table, feeling twenty pounds lighter, some of it real and some imagined by her fear of discovery as the protest’s banner maker....

FALLOUT, The Jennifer Harrington Jones Prequel – Chapter 10

Peter had an enormous amount of energy. It was spring. Bike sales would only increase towards summer and he was busy with tune-ups. Now open on Saturdays, he had less time to be with Jennifer, but still managed to finish tiling his bathroom, with her help. It was...

FALLOUT,The Jennifer Harrington Jones Prequel – Chapter 9

Petra, Peter, and Jennifer sprawled on the couch. Taft and the others sat in straight backed maple chairs, and perched on tall stools around Peter’s butcher block island in the middle of his kitchen drinking beer. It was April and they’d just finished their first ride...

FALLOUT,The Jennifer Harrington Jones Prequel -Chapter 8

Chapter 8 Snow, falling silently all night, gathered in pillow drifts, and covered the blueberry bushes in front of Jennifer’s porch. For twelve hours, in the surrounding country, fall fled, and fell deep into winters sleep. As Jennifer woke from hers, she noticed the...

FALLOUT, The Jennifer Harrington Jones Prequel – Chapter 7

Chapter 7 A National Guardsman climbed the bleachers towards Jennifer, Roxy, and the people left in their quarter of the Stadium. “ Jennifer Harrington Jones and Roxy Rosenberg?” “We’re here,” shouted Roxy. “Yeah!” yelled Jennifer. “You have a friend in processing....

FALLOUT, The Jennifer Herrington Jones Prequel – Chapter 6

Chapter 6 Stan started hauling the security rope to the top. Stella was cutting out to the back with Ralphie before the soldiers or Sheriff’s posse knew about the unchained rear gate. They’d be our reconnaissance out in the world, when, and if, people were arrested....

FALLOUT, The Jennifer Harrington Jones Prequel – Chapter 5

Chapter 5 To facilitate evacuation of steam and fumes, the cooling tower curved concavely in the middle and swelled out at a gentle angle. As Jennifer approached the “waist”, she realized her backpack would hang backwards for the rest of the climb to the top. Her pack...

FALL OUT, The Jennifer Harrington Jones Prequel – Chapter 4

“So you can’t ride to Hornell with us this weekend?” asked an incredulous Peter and Petra at the same time. Jennifer had ridden regularly with the group for the last year, even through summer jobs. No one had missed. It felt like a travesty. Soon it would snow...

FALL OUT, The Jennifer Harrington Jones Prequel – Chapter 3

Jennifer writes a paper which riles the Art History Professor, challenging the knowledge he has.

FALLOUT, The Jennifer Harrington Jones Prequel – Chapter 2

A week later, halfway through ceramic materials lab, Jennifer had a thought. She walked up to the lab assistant Terrance, “Do we have any mildly radioactive chemical elements in the lab?”He smirked,” Why?”“Well I know uranium makes a great deep yellow at...

FALLOUT, The Jennifer Harrington Jones Prequel – Chapter 1

After months of quasi – dating, both Peter and Jennifer have questions.“And if this time together morphs into a relationship?”“You mean, if I get pregnant.”Peter’s warm brown eyes regarded Jennifer dispassionately.“Abortion probably…. though now, there’s the...