Writer's Note:
Please read the previous chapters and prologue of Invisible Threads
before reading this.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Jim Harriman debated
answering the ringing phone. It was Ed from the show expecting an
update on his mastery of a Richardson trick. There was no avoiding
it. He pressed 'answer'.
"Hello Ed."
"Hi Jim. How are
things going on the new trick?"
Harriman tried to
sound more upbeat than he felt, "I'm convinced that there is some
type of machine involved. The machine has to resonate with something
in the playing cards - probably the cellulose wood fibers."
"What would that
do?"
"Since he's a
physicist, I've been looking at a lot of science stuff. Maybe some
kind of teleportation."
There was a notable
edge in Ed's voice. "If Richardson has developed something that
teleports matter, he would be running around patenting offices and
swimming in pools of money, not on a television talent show."
"I know. I know.
I've been studying Richardson looking for some clue. He has almost
no digital footprint. His Facebook page hasn't been touched in
years. No Twitter. No Instagram. No TikTok. Nothing. He's mentioned
on the University of Illinois Physics Department web page. But it's
just a name and a picture.
"He's from Ohio
and there was an obituary of his father that mentioned him. His named
popped up on three message boards. All of them about physics.
Ed spoke slowly and
succinctly, "Jim, the Las Vegas shows are two weeks away and you
HAVE to have a comparable trick by then. You have to."
Harriman wanted to
ask 'or else what?' But he knew. Or else it was the end of his
dream. The end of everything he had worked for.
***
After working nearly
through the night on lines and flow charts with Cherie, Gary grabbed
a couple of hours of sleep before being awakened by his alarm. Cherie
was still asleep on the couch which gave him the opportunity to slip
away and head to the lab.
There were things
that Gary liked about Champaign, but the weather in February was not
one of them. As usual, it was overcast, cold, and windy as he donned
his backpack and carried his bicycle down the steps. A stop at the
gas station along the way got him a couple of boxes of frosted Pop
Tarts and some Diet Cokes. That would be lunch.
He arrived at the
lab to find Phang was sitting at his desk. Phang looked up casually,
"You bang your fake fiancyet?"
Gary ignored the
painfully inappropriate question by putting his backpack on his desk,
pulling out the Diet Cokes and putting them in the small
refrigerator. "What are you doing here on a Saturday?"
"I am dedicated to
my profession and the field of Physics."
"No. Really.
What's up?"
"You know when I
was grading homework on Thursday and Friday?"
"Yeah?"
"I was actually
playing Revengers
on line."
"I know. You
always turn your screen so I can't see it when you play."
"So, my TA session
is Tuesday and I have to be able to understand what the little
bastards don't understand so I can show them how to do it right.
The more important question is: why are you here when her hotness is
back at your apartment?"
"She's asleep
and I had some things I wanted to work through." Gary turned on his
computer. "I'm going to be doing my thing. If it weirds you out,
let me know."
"Your thing
looks to me like you staring blankly into space. If I was going to
get weirded out by that it would have happened long ago." Phang sat
up and looked directly at Gary, "Hey. You think you can get away
from the old ball and chain for a night? I need to get out. I've
been cooped up alone in my apartment so much that my right hand is
asking me to sign a pre-nup."
"Tonight's no
good. Tomorrow will probably work. She hasn't called her folks in
about a week and that usually takes a couple of hours. What movies
are playing?"
"It's mainly
Rom-Coms now that opened on Valentines's Day."
Gary grimaced,
"Romantic Comedy? Really?"
"A couple of them
look funny."
"I doubt it."
"That's because
you have no sense of humor."
That was true
enough. "Okay, you choose the movie but I get to choose the
restaurant."
Phang smiled,
"Wendy's it is."
Phang adjusted his
screen so that it faced away from Gary, which meant that his
well-intentioned efforts to get the papers graded before Tuesday
morning had just fallen prey to Revengers
yet again. Gary discretely looked away as Phang put on his headset.
Gary focused on his
trigger memory and watched as the threads filled the room. He
concentrated on one thread and immediately sensed an infinite amount
of matter spread out along it. He clearly sensed the desk as the
thread passed through it and the glass in the door, then the far wall
in the corridor, then the ceiling structure and the second floor,
more furniture, some soft fluffy stuff above the ceiling in the
second floor, then roofing, then air, then water vapor, then air,
thinner, thinner, thinner, then trace hydrogen, then something solid
briefly, then more trace hydrogen, then gas under extreme heat, then
more trace hydrogen, farther, farther, farther... and then he
stopped.
He was seeing
threads. But was he really seeing them? Or was what he was seeing the
contrail of something passing through an invisible medium? Then the
anomaly could exist in the same place as whatever was making the
contrails but left no trace and therefore was perceived only as a
lack of the threads. He wrote on the board threads
= contrails.
Earlier physicists,
Young and Fresnel, had assumed an invisible medium called ether and
had laid a solid mathematical groundwork attempting to define it as
unmoving in space. While this effort had proven fruitless, their math
had been the foundation on which Einstein built his Theory of
Relativity.
Gary removed his
perception from the extraverse back into normal space and started
typing key words into the Physics Department search engine. After
about an hour, he came upon the item that had been floating around in
his subconscious: Ether
Dragging.
He spent another hour making notations before turning aside from his
computer and again bringing the threads into focus.
This time, he saw
the exact moment that the anomaly appeared. For the first time, he
could see a clear outline. Strangely, it appeared to be the shape of
a bi-pedal primate. Like a very large man. He stopped himself. In
the "Psychology of the Scientific Method" class, he had been
taught to beware of anthropomorphizing shapes and objects.
He began writing
notes describing what he was seeing. The anomaly stretched up to the
ceiling that was about three meters high and had a trunk width of
about one meter. It was big.
Gary was able to
maintain focus on it. He could also see that the anomaly was moving
slightly, almost swaying. With each movement, entire threads blinked
out of existence only to reappear when he moved out of their way. If
the contrail effect in the ether was instantaneous, then each thread
was a continuous movement of some form of energy and, as soon as that
energy flow was stopped, the thread (contrail) disappeared. More
notes. He felt no fear.
One of the lower
cylindrical appendages began to move. It crossed in front of the
other one and then stopped on the other side of it. The other
appendage - it was unavoidable to start calling them legs now -
moved past the first and a step was taken. The next step seemed
deliberate and was toward... Phang.
The fear which had
been absent before returned as terror. "Phang!"
Phang heard the yell
through his earphones and took them off. "What the hell, dude?"
"Move! Get away
from it!"
"Get away from
what?"
"Move to your
right! Now!"
It was too late. The
next step brought the anomaly directly behind Phang. Even in his
terror, Gary's mind would not stop analyzing. He noted that the
anomaly's hands contained prehensile fingers and a thumb identical
to human. It placed one hand on either side of Phang's head.
Phang's head did... nothing.
Phang was confused.
What are you talking about? Move to my right?"
The anomaly stayed
in position holding one hand to each side of Phang's head. Gary's
heart pounded in his chest. He could feel the heat of his rising
blood pressure behind his face. He began to pant as his surging heart
demanded more and more air.
"Don't move!"
His voice came out as a croak.
"Dude, your face
is all red and you're freaking me out, here. What's wrong with
you? Should I call 911?"
As quickly as it
appeared, the anomaly was gone. The threads refilled where it had
been. Gary felt as if he had blinked or blacked out. Had he missed
something? Was the disappearance of the anomaly more than it being
suddenly gone? The fear abated but he could still feel the adrenaline
flooding his system and the pounding of his heart. He had a desire to
jump or yell or run, or do something. Instead, he sat and took deep
breaths.
"Well, should I?"
Phang looked concerned.
"Should you what?"
"Call 911. You
look kind of scary - all splotchy and sweaty."
Gary felt the cold
perspiration on his back soaking into his t-shirt. "No. I'm
okay." He glanced around the room and saw no sign of the anomaly.
Then he willed the threads away.
"You don't look
okay."
"Right now, I
don't feel okay but I will in a few minutes."
"What's the
deal?"
"The anomaly. It
moved."
"Okay."
"It moved toward
you."
Phang took that in.
"Well, that's eerie but nothing seems to have happened."
"Did you feel
anything?"
"No."
"Do you feel
anything now?"
"I feel a lot
better than you look."
Gary's heartbeat
was returning to normal although his shirt was still drenched in
sweat. The fear was gone and being replaced with curiosity. In the
past, he had always felt the fear as soon as the anomaly appeared.
This time, he felt nothing until it moved toward Phang. What was
different? The anomaly in and of itself was a non-thing. It did not
appear to have any substance or ability to impact objects.
Rationally, there was no reason for him to be concerned. Yet, he had
been terrified. Again.
Phang stood up and
looked at Gary's notes. "Dude, I haven't seen these old ether
equations since Morbley's History
of Modern Physics
class senior year. Very cool. That class would have been interesting
if Morbley weren't such a dickweed. His tests sucked."
"You got an 'A'.
Busted the curve."
"We both got 'A's.
Remember when the TA accused of us of cheating because she thought it
was impossible for anyone to score above a 60% on one of his tests
and we both got 62%?"
This was an odd
conversation to be having given what had just happened. Gary looked
at Phang's face and remembered back to the facial expression flash
cards that the doctors had used in his therapy sessions. Concern?
"You're calming me down."
"Somebody has to
and I'm the only one here. Now, at the risk of panicking you again,
didn't you mention that you were supposed to be meeting Cherie
tonight?"
Gary checked his
watch. It was 5:35.
"Oh crap! I have
to get out of here."
A frenzied bike ride
back to the apartment ended with him getting their five minutes early
- panting as he dragged his bicycle up the two flights of stairs
and through the door.
Cherie looked calmly
up from her notes. "My credit card is maxed out. Can you cover the
pizza?"
"Pizza?"
"It's being
delivered. Should be here any minute."
He puzzled over
that. "You didn't prepay?"
"They didn't
require it, and my card wouldn't have worked. So... no."
What would have
happened if I hadn't gotten back in time?"
"I wouldn't have
answered the door."
There was a knock
at the door. The pizza had arrived. Gary gave him a large tip based
on what almost happened to him.
|