They looked out the window of the Greyhound bus together, side by side, cheek to cheek.
The heat and humidity of the Brownsville morning and the air conditioning on the bus caused the windows to fog.
Hilcias pulled his sleeve over his hand and used it as a kind of windshield wiper, moving it back and forth until he and Taki could see clearly the Gulf of Mexico along the coastal road.
“Wow,” clicked Hilcias softly, “Maybe 52 Blue is there.”
“Maybe,” whispered Taki. “I sure hope so.”
People began to stir and stretch and reach for their bags above and around them, but Hilcias and Taki stayed as still and quiet as the leaves on the trees that lined the street beside the bus station.
There are five foundational forces in the universe.
They hold everything together.
They bring order if all is well.
They cause chaos if all is not.
Four of them can be explained by physics.
They are the gravitational force, the electromagnetic force, the weak force and the strong force.
The gravitational force keeps planets in orbit around their suns and our feet firmly planted on the earth.
The electromagnetic force brings us electricity, information, and connection. It underlies the mighty power of lightning and the gentle touch of the human hand.
The weak force brings us nuclear power and makes stars shine.
The strong force holds protons and neutrons inside of atoms.
The fifth foundational force can’t be explained by physics, though.
It can only be explained by being human.
It is love.
Taki and Hilcias stepped off of the bus into the early morning sunlight.
“We should go to the water,” said Taki.
She looked at the horizon between the Gulf of Mexico and the Brownsville sky.
Hilcias looked at the horizon, too.
He clicked an okay.
They reached out for each other’s hands.
They walked together down the road toward the gulf.
This created that fifth foundational force, which is the strongest force of all, for it keeps hearts in orbit around each other and gives the possibility of finding a lost and lonely whale in the vast, vast reaches of the deep, blue sea.
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As a bonus, they dye your eatin’ fingers blue, not unlike the hand of Ed Harris’s Bud Brigman in The Abyss.
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