Anomaly Read Free Page B

the building fragments shifted effortlessly through the air. Spotlights lit up the motion of the slab over the course of the night.
    Despite some reports to the contrary, the concrete slab within the intersection never turned completely upside-down. At its peak, it tilted down on a wildly unexpected angle, moving in a smooth arc as it swung through the air over toward East 45 th Street. The anomaly was moving off-center as it turned over on itself.
    Watching its daily motion compressed into a minute, the arc reminded Teller of being at the circus as a child, watching a motorcycle warm up inside the wheel of death. The name had been so dramatic – no one ever died. But the steel cage, in the shape of a large ball some thirty feet in height, was impressive. As the motorcycle inside the cage got up to speed, it would start with small loops that didn't cross directly overhead. The bike would go faster and faster until it went upside-down over the inside of the cage as the crowd roared with excitement. To Teller, the anomaly seemed stuck in those warm up loops. It moved effortlessly through the air, twisting and turning upside down, but never making it entirely upside down before twisting back toward the ground.
    By midnight, the slab was over a hundred meters above the road, tilting down at the ground on an acute angle. The concrete intersection faced north, looking down along 1 st Avenue as it floated above the gaping, concave hole in the ground. The traffic lights and the tree on the levitating slab pointed down at the road below at a sharp angle.
    As dawn broke, the slab had twisted sideways over by East 45 th , slowly sliding down into the hole in the road as the sun rose in the sky. By noon, all the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle appeared to have moved back in place before they set off again on another circuit.
    The clip looped, repeating every minute, always showing the unnatural sight of the flags, the dismembered floors from several buildings and the intersection rotating freely through the air.
    “Do you know what it is, Mr Teller?” asked Susan.
    “Oh, I know what it is,” said Teller, raising his eyebrows slightly as he leaned forward toward his students.
    The class went silent as he continued.
    “I know exactly what it is.”
    He paused slightly, enjoying their rapt attention. For Teller, this is what teaching was all about, inspiring young minds.
    “It's interesting.”
    The kids looked perplexed.
    “It's fascinating.”
    “No,” cried one of the children from the back. “What is it really?”
    “It really is interesting,” repeated Teller smiling.
    A couple of the kids sighed, they were clearly hoping for more from their science teacher.
    “You see, science isn't about having answers,” Teller began. “It's about having questions. That is what makes the anomaly so fascinating. We don't know what it is. We don't know how it moves the pavement around or why those flags don't fall to the ground or how those sections of the buildings are suspended in mid-air, all rotating around some invisible, imaginary point in the middle of some giant imaginary orb. We have no idea how this could happen and that makes it exciting. Scientists love questions.”
    “I like answers,” said one of the Asian boys sitting next to him.
    Teller laughed. “We all like answers. But there are some things in life for which there are no answers, just lots of questions. So how can science help us with this question? What do you think the scientists are doing down there?”
    “Are they scanning it?” asked one of the pretty Indian girls.
    “Hmm,” thought Teller. “I'm sure they are scanning it with something. In the movies, they'd have a fancy scanner that could tell them all about the anomaly, but for real scientists, things aren't quite so simple.”
    “What else?” Teller asked, provoking some thought among the children. “What else do you think they're doing? What do you think we can learn about the anomaly?”
    Johnny