Reilly - Regolith

REGOLITH

by

Brent Reilly

The paperback version is available atwww.BrentReilly.com.

REGOLITH: Asteroid impacts have buried thesurfaces of Mars, Mercury, and the Moon under meteorite ejectacalled regolith. Regolith comes from two Greek words that meanblanket and rock. Now, the biggest impact in 65 million yearsthreatens to do the same to Earth.

DEDICATION: The author dedicates this book tohis beautiful wife Liz and their two wonderful sons, Brian andLucas.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: The son of a magazineeditor, Brent Reilly has a master's degree in counseling and liveswith his family in the Caribbean island of San Andres, just southof the Caymans, where he builds oceanfront condos that can be seenat SanAndresCondo.com. His first book was How To Kick RepublicanButt! and his next novel is Raptors v. T-rex.

Copyright 2010 by the author, BrentReilly.

Published by Brent Reilly, Smashwordsedition.

This story is fiction. Any resemblance toactual people, places, or events is coincidental. All rights arereserved. Except for book reviews, no more than four paragraphs canbe reproduced without written permission from the author.

January 7th, 2012

So, dad, when is the next president gonnaget here?

Henry Jackson snapped awake like he suddenlysnorted smelling salts. Looking up from his black laptop, he sawhis precocious sixteen year old daughter Lisa posing casually atthe door of his new basement.

Jackson smelled trouble like a fart in theshower.

Lisa was like most teenagers, only more so.Ever since she got the bug to get into acting, singing, andmodeling, Lisa never simply stood when she could insteadtheatrically pose. Even her casual poses seemed overly thought-out.Since she sucked at acting and hated singing, Lisa hung her hopeson modeling.

Given her talent for fucking with people,Jackson thought his daughter should follow him into politics. As anympho for mind-fucks, Lisa took to politics like a pig to mud.

Whats my little girl doing up so early? heasked, knowing better than to give her simple question an honestanswer. Despite working all night, Lisas unexpected intrusionjolted him awake. He planted his big feet on the hard metal floorand sat up straight in his cheap plastic chair to face her, a bulllooking for red. After exhausting himself preparing for an asteroidstrike that could exterminate humanity, something warned him thatthis final day before the impact would be the longest.

Lisa did not get out of bed before noonwithout a damn good reason. So why was she up before sunrise? Fromlong experience, Jackson assumed Lisa was guilty, then looked forevidence beyond a reasonable doubt.

Things werent always this way, however.

His daughter used to be everything that heever wanted in a son. Until Lisa hit puberty late as usual shewas daddys little girl, and she made him love her more than heever wanted. She gave away affection like Santa gives away toys.Her hugs felt so good she could have charged for them. Whereas hisson made him feel like a failure as a father, Lisa made Jacksonfeel like the champion of daddies. She called him her hero sosincerely it unnerved him. They shot hoops, played poker, wentparachuting together hell, he even taught her how to fly hisprototype heloplane. She made him feel young, which kept him afloatwhen he unexpectedly became a grandfather six years ago. No oneunderstood him like his little girl. She could read him like a bookand quote chapter and verse. Jackson frequently joked that hisdaughter was the son he always wanted -- which really pissed offher older brother.

Then puberty struck viciously and shetransformed like the metamorph from the movie X-Men. When Lisa hitpuberty, puberty hit back. This delighted her Colombian mother, whounknowingly poured salt into his wound by helping Lisa get breastimplants while vacationing in South America. At 15 fricking yearsold. Lisa joked that two great things have come out of Colombia,and she had both of them.

Like far too many teenagers, Lisa thenstarted acting her age. Big tits made Lisa behave as if she hadmore hormones than neurons. Her wardrobe changed faster than aBroadway play. She and her cousins pillaged shoe stores likeVikings. Not since Bush and Cheney have so few spent so much sofast for so long for so little. A blind man couldnt mistake Lisafor a tomboy now. The more attention men fed her, the hungrier shebecame. She began paying men compliments as if she expected areceipt. Lisa quickly turned to modeling to feed her insatiableappetite for attention. Jackson watched helplessly as the son healways wanted turned, Kafka-like, into a wannabe reality star. Thefavorite son once anchored in his heart floated away with lifestide.

As Lisa later put it: I was a buoy, but Idrifted.

Jackson had no idea last year that his wifewas getting their 15 year old a boob job in Medellin. A dozen copswith tasers couldnt have stunned him more. His daughters big titscrippled him as if she had inflated them with kryptonite. No Marinesuffered a more humiliating defeat than Jackson watching his littletomboy vanquished before the onslaught of puberty. He hardlyrecognized his own daughter. She spent more time with thepretty-boy hotties wallpapered in her room than with her own damnfather. He flew from hero to has-been at warp speed. Jackson wentfrom feeling like the Worlds Greatest Dad to the Worlds ClosestATM. It was a bitter defeat for a guy unaccustomed to losing.

Girls keep getting older, younger.

Jackson knew he lost her for good when herboyfriend gave her a million dollar engagement ring two weeks agoon her 16th birthday. On Christmas, of all days. Hischerished Christmas girl turned into a lump of coal in hisstocking. He had even given her the high speed driving lessons atthe Bondurant Driving School in Phoenix that she had always wanted,yet this was how she repaid him. By getting fucking married.Jackson couldnt get over losing her so soon. The Grinch couldnthave planned a worse Christmas. The holidays couldnt have been agreater disaster if FEMA was put in charge of them.

His daughters eagerness to flee the nestgave birth to a Category 5 middle-age crisis as intense as it wasunexpected. As a 50 year old grandfather in excellent shape,Jackson overnight felt decades older.

Why did his personal life always go to shitexactly when his professional life started taking off?

Always a lousy loser, Jackson hadnt feltthis bummed out since his mom accidentally ran over his favoritedog. For a guy who could otherwise outlast the Energizer Bunny, helost energy like a leaky tire lost air. He now watched golf insteadof football. Like the Aerosmith song, his get-up-and-go justgot-up-and-went.

Jackson wanted to keep her for as long aspossible. Lisa was the only one in the family for whom politicaldiscussions were not a sleep aid. Now who was he gonna talk shopwith? No one but his enemies would appreciate what he did and,really, who gave a fuck what they thought? Now who was going tovalidate him? Certainly not the voters. Those fuckers could turn onyou faster than a teenager blindsided by puberty. Jackson fell intoa funk when his daughter turned into a girl. He lost more energythan the battery in his fathers ancient Ford F-150 pickup. Noteven Methuselah ever felt this old.

Although freezing cold, Lisa dressed for hermorning jog with skimpy white Lycra shorts, a blue tight-fittinghalf top that showed off her six-pack abs, and her long blonde hairin a ponytail. While she hated the cold, she loved to show off herhard abs, because they contrasted nicely with her now big boobs. Itseemed just yesterday that Lisa lost her braces and found herbreasts.

Ever since an ex-supermodel told her that sheshould see modeling as what she is, not just what she does, Lisaannoyingly stayed in modeling mode all day, every day. Which is whyshe posed when normal people simply stood.