Anomaly by Peter Cawdron Page A

to follow the ball as it passed through the anomaly.
    Susan was excited. She was holding her balloon, jumping up and down, saying, “Do it, Uncle James. Do it.”
    Mason slapped the ball hard into his right hand, cocked his arm back, took a few steps and unleashed a Hail Mary pass, aiming for the spot Teller had pointed out.
    Deep inside, Finch wanted to see something spectacular as the ball passed into the anomaly, something like sparks or St Elmo's fire, but the ball sailed effortlessly through the air. Its arc changed, though, as it passed through the air space within the anomaly. Instead of following a curve toward the ground it held its height while curving to the left, falling toward the near vertical slab of concrete that once made up the busy intersection.
    Teller cheered, as did several of the scientists watching. It was silly, stupid really, he thought, but it brought out the sense of wonder in them all.
    “Kids,” said Cathy, winking at him and smiling.
    The ball passed out the far side of the air surrounding the anomaly and then dropped down toward the ground. The soldier had to run backwards to make the catch before yelling, “Touchdown.”
    They all laughed.
    Dr Anderson turned toward the NASA trailer, looking at the gaggle of scientists monitoring the anomaly and held his arms up in a gesture, posing the obvious question.
    “Nothing unusual here,” came the reply.
    “Throw it back,” yelled Mason across the pit. The soldier wound up, determined to do himself proud, and threw the ball back, but he didn't allow for the unusual dynamics of horizontal gravity within the anomaly. The ball arced to their left, falling sideways toward the concrete slab. It would have made it out the other side had it not struck the traffic light sticking out of the slab almost parallel with the Earth.
    Finch got a great shot of the ball bouncing sideways on the concrete slab as it rolled to within a few feet of the edge. It came to rest and sat there looking like it had been glued in place on a wall.
    “Oh, no,” Mason cried.
    “That was so much fun,” said Susan. “We should do that again.”
    “Sorry,” came the cry from the other side.
    Mason held his hand up in acknowledgment.
    Well, it would keep the journalists off their backs for a while, thought Teller, as they love a bit of unique footage, and the vision of that ball defying normal gravity was quite something to behold. Then a thought struck him.
    “Why don't we just go and get it?” he asked.
    “What? Go in there?” asked Dr Anderson. “Are you mad?”
    “No,” said Teller. “Think about it. This thing emits no radiation. It doesn't do anything other than turn over on itself. It should be perfectly safe.”
    “I can't let you do that,” said Mason. “It's too risky.”
    “And this from the man that just played football with what could very well turn out to be an alien space craft,” replied Teller. “Think about it. What's the risk? We know there were people inside the anomaly when it first appeared. Both Cathy and Finch were in there. No one was harmed by it, except for a fender bender and a bit of flying glass. What could go wrong?”
    Cathy confirmed his point, saying, “We stepped in and out of the anomaly several times without noticing anything at all when the slab was close to the ground.”
    “But that was when it was aligned with the Earth,” replied Mason. “This is different.”
    “How?” asked Anderson. “Because it appears more sensational when it's up on a steep angle?”
    “In principle, it is still the same,” said Teller. “Think of it like climbing over the next door neighbor's fence to get your ball back. It's nothing more than that.”
    “Only your neighbor is The Thing from Outer Space,” joked Bates.
    “Can I have your balloon?” asked Teller, turning to Susan.
    “Sure,” she replied, handing it to him with a smile.
    Teller turned to Anderson and Mason, saying, “I'll use this as a reference point for gravity