Chapter 6 - The Physics of the Crash
The impact did not sound like metal.
It sounded like a bone snapping under the weight of a sledgehammer.
The back wheels of the chair slammed into the base of the marble pedestal.
The heavy stone did not shift a single millimeter.
The kinetic energy had nowhere to go but up.
The rear of the wheelchair violently pitched into the air.
The front casters lifted off the marble floor.
Clara’s center of gravity shifted entirely.
Her hands were torn away from her stomach.
Her arms flailed backward, grasping at empty air.
The chair tipped perfectly backward.
For a fraction of a second, Clara was suspended upside down in the warm amber light.
The beige lace dress billowed around her knees.
Then, gravity reclaimed its hold.
Her head whipped backward.
The back of her skull bypassed the leather headrest entirely.
She hit the floor.
The sound of her skull connecting with the Italian marble was a wet, heavy thwack that echoed all the way up the fifty-foot corridor.
The metal wheelchair flipped entirely over, crashing down onto its side.
A wheel spun frantically in the air.
Tick-tick-tick-tick.
The bronze bust wobbled on the pedestal.
May you like
It did not fall.
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