Science Fiction for Young Readers, grade 4 up
Story by Terry Gibson ©

     In the schoolyard at recess, Elsbeth 
told everybody that Willy had broken the 
nurse's scales.
     "I did not!" he squealed, "It was 
Tabitha."
     "Was not!"
     "Was too!" he yelled, and brought a 
lot of kids running to see the commotion.  
Even Greggy and Akim were there.  Willy 
shouted, "SHE WAS ON THEM WHEN THEY ACTED 
UP, so there!"
     Oh-oh, the loud word had sent Tabitha 
zooming into the air.  "Pipe down!" she 
called before it got out of control.  She 
was on her way back down when she levelled 
off at about chest high.  Dozens of kids 
saw her floating there, but were too
stunned to react.
     "WHAT KEEPS YOU UP THERE?" shouted 
Miss Blair, the teacher on duty.  Everyone 
watched Tab shoot up into the air.  Miss 
Blair feared she was hallucinating when she 
saw Tabitha flung higher and higher above 
her head.
     Alarmed, Tab screamed, "I'M TRYING TO 
GET DOWN!"  With that, she plummeted.  
"Up, up," she managed just before crashing, 
and settled softly onto the ground.  Tab 
had never seen so many open mouths in her 
life.  She grinned.  "Needs more work on 
control," she explained lamely.
     That ought to do it, Tabitha thought.  
How can they ignore something they all saw 
with their own eyes?
     Greg ran up, followed by Akim.  They 
squatted beside Tab where she rested on the
sand, still recovering from the excitement 
of the landing.  Tom-Tom and Rolph for once 
were speechless and totally confused.  
Except for a weak "Ho-lee," from Karl, the 
kids who were left near were mute.  All the 
others had backed off, scared by what they 
had seen.
     Miss Blair, whose yard duty had gone 
crazy, had been attracted by the noise and 
the crowd.  She hadn't believed her eyes as 
Tabitha hung in the sky.  She had also seen 
Tab fall from that height without injury; 
in fact, it couldn't possibly be true, but 
she could have sworn that Tabitha's speed 
had actually slowed down just before she 
landed! Tabitha should have broken some 
bones, but no, there she was, standing up, 
unhurt.
     Miss Blair hugged herself, and huddled 
with the kids who had backed off.  There 
was no way she could report this!  They'd 
think she was crazy.
     Tab looked around.  Nothing was 
happening.  No one was doing anything at all.  
They only stared at her, like at some weird 
specimen.
     "It didn't happen," one of them said, 
and turned his back.  Little by little they 
walked away, as if it would be dangerous to 
their health to stay near Tab.
     Except for the Three Pariahs, everyone  
was gone and it was safe to speak freely.  
"They don't believe it!" Tab said.
     "I believe," Akim said.  "I don't 
understand, but I do believe."
     "Don't you see?" Greggy asked.  "That's 
why Tab hung onto Mr. Player like that."
     "I didn't know how to control it yet."
     Akim said, "It makes sense in a weird 
kind of way."
     "So why didn't it work?"
     "Tabby Disease, Greggy," Tab guessed.  
"It's a way of getting at me."
     "I don't know.  I saw how they all 
walked away.  They just didn't want to get 
involved." Greg added, "They couldn't 
handle it."
     "Fear," Akim said. "It was fear."
     "Tom-Tom and Rolph would never agree," 
Greg said.  "They're not afraid of anything.  
I noticed they led away a lot of kids.  
Like it wasn't worth getting excited about."
     "It's TV."
     "TV?"
     Akim smiled.  "Sure!  They see people 
floating around on TV all the time."
     Tab felt better.  "I guess they are 
confusing TV with reality."
     Greg laughed.  "You mean this is 
reality?"
     Tabitha punched him.
     "That reminds me," Greg said.  
"The fight.  I have to pick a fight with 
somebody so I can be in the office by noon 
to help Mr. Player."
     "Maybe not," Akim said.  "Maybe this 
will be all the help he needs."
     "Not if nobody tells."  Tabitha wasn't 
smiling.  "I needed the rest of the kids to 
TELL what happened out here, and as you see, 
they've tuned out, as if it was some kind 
of bad dream.   After all that..."
     Greg smiled.  "You did say you were 
going to have funny things happen to people 
ALL DAY?"
     "So?"
     "So let's crack a few more people.  
Who'd you have after recess?"
     "Uh, Mr. Dooley."  Oh, it was a nasty 
smile that crossed Tabitha's face.  "And 
after that I have Ms. Tempest.  Let's talk 
about what I can do in science class.  It 
has to be really good!"
     "And during lunch?"
     Tab could picture the food fight, 
except she'd be the target.  "Um... 
Lunchroom-- I don't know..."
     "How about having yours off the 
fluorescent lights?"
     "With my luck, nobody would look up 
and see me."
     "Down," Greg said automatically, and 
Tab only twitched.  "But you could foul 
up--oops--" as Tab rose into the air, and 
shook her head as if to say, don't bother.  
"You could mess up-- oh-oh," when Tab rose 
higher.  "Anyhow, make a mess of someone's 
lunch duty."
     "No," she said from above them, "I'd 
rather be down" she sank, "where you are.  
Down," she said as she landed.  "It's 
nice to have power."
     Akim gave her a thumb-up sign.  
"I can hardly wait," he said.


     The bell rang, and they were the last 
to enter.  "This is exciting, like making 
history.  I will be watching to see what 
you do," Akim said.
     "Be ready.  I may need your help."
     Akim held up his thumb as they parted 
at their lockers.


     On a unit math test, it seemed that 
Do-it-Again Dooley (Mr. Player's substitute 
teacher) was not pleased with the poor 
showing of the class.  Except for Akim and 
Tabitha, they all had bombed, as they had 
meant to do.  It had nothing to do with Tab; 
she had done very well.  There would be a
retest, after review lessons....  Tab 
pretended to listen as Mr. Dooley ranted at 
them.  She had put an expression of 
composure on her face, and let her mind 
wander.  Thinking how lucky she was to have
Akim for a friend, and how cute he was, she 
glanced at him, and found he had been 
looking straight at her.  Both smiled and 
felt better, for they shared their dislike 
of boredom.
     Oh, but he had a gorgeous smile!
     Leaving her eyes full on the teacher, 
Tab daydreamed, having left only her 
instant-replay memory on the alert if 
needed.  Funny how she had been afraid to 
tell Greggy her secret, and found it was 
all right.  She remembered how she had 
first tried to tell her mother....  
Oh well.  And telling Akim?  There her 
thoughts got caught in warm appreciation.  
He was something else!  What a neat guy 
he was!  She heard nothing that was said 
at all.  Suddenly she was the last one 
still sitting.
     People around her were standing, 
moving toward the door; the math period 
was over!  Oh phoo, she thought.  Missed 
out!  It would have been such fun to 
freak out Dooley.
     She'd do a better job on her next 
teacher.


     "Your attention please," Ms. 
Tempest announced.  "Monday is science fair 
day.  Most of you have had your evaluations, 
but I need scores for Sally, Willy, and 
Tabitha.  Who's first?"
     Sally's hand went up before Tab could 
locate all her research material.  Oh well, 
Tab thought.  It gives me a chance to figure 
out what to do.  All written work on Flight 
has to be A1, and she bent her head to check 
it all out.  Then a sly smile grew as she 
heard, "Tabitha?"
     "Yes Ms.Tempest," she said. "Coming up," 
she said softly and reached down to spread 
her work on the teacher's desk.  Floating 
a bit, she explained, "Here I show why all 
things on earth are attracted, uh, pulled--
toward the centre of the Earth."
     The teacher quickly scanned the 
material.  "This is about Gravity, not 
Flight.  I thought you changed your topic."
     They were speaking softly, but Tab 
emphasized the key word.  Innocently, she 
said, "Well, I had already looked it UP... 
(She rose farther off the floor, but didn't 
catch the teacher's attention.) I hated to 
lose out on the work I had already done,
because if there were no gravity, flight 
would be a lot easier."
     "True," her teacher said, smiling.
     "So I figured, if I understood gravity, 
it would help me with all the things needed 
to take such heavy objects up."  (She rose 
some more, but the teacher was reading, not 
watching.)  She smiled at Akim, who smiled 
back; Akim knew what she was up to all right.  
Soon everyone would see Tab clearly for her 
feet were at desktop height.
     As Ms. Tempest turned the page, Tab 
said, "Now, this is the history of flight, 
starting with Leonardo da Vinci who was a 
genius, but in spite of great plans, failed 
to go up, (rising again).  He left us 
drawings that later became helicopters."
She paused while the teacher looked over 
what she had written, planning her next use 
of the key word.
     She flipped another paper.  "Now, this 
one is historical too.  In the late 1700's, 
brothers--" She read it off, "the 
Montgolfiers--went UP" (She felt a strong 
uplift.  Soon she wouldn't be able to read 
her papers.) "...with a hot air balloon.  
I show why hot air rises..."
      There was a giggle at the words 'hot 
air rises' and a number of kids stared at 
her.  Tab noticed that several new ones 
had noticed it too.  A couple of them were 
nudging their neighbours with "So that's 
why she..." and giggles.  Ms. Tempest was 
totally unaware, which made it funnier.
     "Hot molecules move faster, and need 
more space, which is why the same volume 
of air weighs less than cool air," she said, 
"and rises.  When the air cooled, the 
balloon came DOWN again." (And so did 
Tabitha, who didn't want to get impossibly 
high.)
     Akim thought this rising and falling 
side-effect would be hilarious at the 
science fair.
     "And the next page, with a picture, 
is-" Tab paused until her teacher nodded 
she was ready, and while she could still  
see, "the 1783 hydrogen balloon that 
J. Charles used for going--" She glanced at 
Akim who could hardly contain his mirth. 
"UP, because hydrogen is lighter than air."
     Everyone who glanced in her direction 
could plainly see that Tabitha was riding 
high.  A snort of laughter and several 
titters made Ms. Tempest tap her pencil in 
warning message, but the giggles only grew.
     "I have a lot about the internal 
combustion engine," Tab hastened to add, 
"and an explanation and models to 
demonstrate Bernouilli's principle and the 
three forces that act upon a plane as it
rises-"
     Now Akim was ready, and most of the 
class followed his lead as Tab said, "UP 
into the air..." Because of the noise, she 
had said it more loudly, and she bobbed up 
high amid gasps of surprise.  Knowing she 
had overdone it, Tab hurriedly added, "I 
wrote down 'thrust, lift, and drag'."
     Very slowly, Ms. Tempest turned toward 
Tab, who had lowered herself somewhat.  The 
teacher found Tabitha's open sandals and 
painted toenails above eye level.  In her 
hands, tightly gripped, Tab held the corner 
of the teacher's tall bookcase, tilted, 
ready to drop its load of books.
     A hush fell as their teacher inspected
Tabitha's feet.  Looked at them, gazed at 
them, stared at them....  If Tab's toes 
could have blushed, this was the time.  
Ms. Tempest's eyes rose to Tab's knees, 
where her jeans bagged a bit, and her head 
tilted back as she viewed Tab's belt.
     No one knew what she would do.


     Although Ms. Tempest seemed calm, 
inside she was a mess of horrors.  
'THE OCCULT!  SHE'S DONE IT!' she thought.  
'I MUST CONTROL MYSELF, I MUST!' as a scream 
threatened to escape.  'NO ONE MUST KNOW' 
but her scalp prickled and her hands dripped 
as they shook.  Ms. Tempest could not have 
spoken even if her life had depended on it.

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