Samantha sent the email and hobbled to her bed. She sat painfully and slowly on the edge of the bed and tried to lift her legs to swing them in front of her. The whole process took ten minutes, after which she reclined slowly and settled onto the headboard and pillows. She looked for the remote to watch the television and spotted it out of reach on the hotel end table. She reached with her right hand like Luke Skywalker and concentrated.
"May the Force be with you," she said. She curled and stretched her fingers at the remote. "The Force is weak with this one," she said and laughed. A sharp pain in her side stopped her immediately and she tried not to laugh which caused her to giggle more. "Stupid broken bones everywhere," she said and laughed again, alternating between laughing and sharp pains. She looked at the remote again about a foot away from her outstretch hand and grunted with effort. "The Force..." she said and stopped.
The remote smoothly vacuumed into her hand. She felt dizzy and light-headed. A hot flash crossed her chest and down her arms and legs. She stared at the remote in her hands. "Nothing," she muttered to no one.
She pointed the remote at the television and saw the in-hotel menu guide extolling the adult offerings available. She switched through ten channels until she found CNN. The president was on the screen, calm and smiling. She listened to him assure the world that the missing cruise ship and the crashed airplane were not related. There weren't any terrorists at work, he assured everyone. In fact, he assured the world that the terrorists were not attacking as a result of their hatred for Americans getting rid of Daylight Saving.
The sound cut out as the president's mouth moved. The crawling text along the bottom read "PRESIDENT LETS OUT LONG STRING OF OBSCENITIES RELATED TO AIRPLANE CRASH..." It had been several seconds of presidential mouth and arms moving erratically before the sound came back on. Several people standing behind the president looked up in the sky and started pointing. The president paused and looked upward, shading his eyes against the glare. There was a general confusion and noise of confusion.
The television shifted to another point of view as a camera was aimed upward unsteadily. The screen shook and zoomed quickly in on a shocking view that was difficult to comprehend. Samantha sat up quickly and the sudden pain in her arm, legs, and side made her scream out in pain. She fell back and hurt her arm, legs, and side again as she fell back. She screamed again. She forced herself to breathe and squinted at the television again through watery eyes.
The announcer was speaking incoherently about not understanding what was on the screen. Samantha's vision finally cleared enough that she could see what the whole world was slowly realising. The screen showed two partially lit moons in the sky, one slightly behind the other and slightly fuller than the one in front. The smaller one in front seemed to dance and waver, then solidify. The one in back did a similar dance then solidified again.
The president calmly spoke into the microphone and tried to yell to get everyone's attention.
Potus said, "Pay no attention to this David Copperfield bullshit. Even the terrorists can't do a magic trick like this."
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