Inspirational points of thought bounced
around in his head. Yet no story, no great tale appeared to him out
of the ether. This was going to take some work. This was going to take a
level of focus that he had not yet shown to the rest of the world. A swimmer
passed by, each arm cycling one over the other. The
afternoon sun kept the fledgling authors face warm and
comfortable.
In front of him sat some people each
relaxing in their own way. Take for instance the three girls. Only a few feet
from the gentle crashing waves, staring at their phones. The couple not quite
sure if it was warm enough to submerge themselves in the winter water.
Their steps slow and cautious. The red headed child splashing around in the
water. Hopeful gulls wandering from one group to the next in the hopes of
a scrap of food.
It was, by all accounts a peaceful
afternoon.
How could there be a story here, what was
it that made this place interesting? Was it that, was it the quest for
nothingness that made this place interesting.
If life had taught him anything in his 34
years nothing was ever as it seemed.
The girls, their Instagram accounts,
peppered with smiling selfies hid unwholesome truths. Pregnancy scares,
financial distress and family feuds. The couple now out of the water and
staring at the sand, the goose bumps on their skins signaling defeat. Each
hoping the other would find a way to overcome the argument they had that
morning. The child ... well the child had problems on a whole different scale,
by you get the point right. Nothing was ever as it seemed.
People watching an age old sport had
been packed up, curated and marketed for free online. The surface was all
that people could see now. Sure there was happiness behind the
scenes too, it wasn't all doom and gloom. There wasn't any cracked and
maleveont evil hiding behind it all. It was just that to see the world you had
to dig, just that little bit deeper and nothing was ever quite as it
seemed.
He wondered if any of the other people out
here had his secret. His worrying secret.
For the last few months he had gone
to bed alone. His wife's side of the bed cold and empty. In the morning
when she got home from the observatory he would share breakfast with
her. Yet Ameliea hadn't been home for a few days now. Over the last
few weeks she had looked more and more alarmed. Then three days ago she
had announced that she was to fly down to Canberra. A big conference was to
happen and she was on the panel of guest speakers.
He had asked her what it was about.
Apparently Some quasar or something had begun interfearing with some
communications satelights. Canberra wanted to know if there was a way to stop
it. Strange thing to be loosing sleep over.
He wondered if it has something to do with
the meteor shower last night. He was sure that last night he watched
a few of them change direction. Internet reports suggested that others had seen
it too. For a meteor shower, this seemed unlikely. The news suggested that
people mistook what they saw for a satilight. Huirtling in the opposite
direction no less. He might have believed this had he not discovered the hidden
object in his wifes backpack.
A few weeks ago he had broken routine,
usually after sharing breakfast he would head out down to the beach. But on
this occasion he had come back to fetch his jumper from the drawers. Sprawled
out on the bed in front of him was his wifes bag , the sound of the shower
informing him of where she was. He might not have noticed it had he not have
been looking for the jumper. But his search in the wardrobe had failed and out
of frustration had begun shuffling the loose items on the bed. As he lifted the
back pack a small dark ellipsoid fell out. When he picked it up it gave him a
shock. His unexpected yelp prompted the shower to stop in the other room.
"Honey is that you?" Called
Amelia from the en-suite.
"Yeah Babe, just me - looking for my
jumper, I think its going to be cold down there this morning" He
replied.
"Have you tried the dresser, I think
I saw it last night before I headed out to the observatory."
Hastily shoving the item back in the bag
he checked the dresser. Sure enough, she was right.
"Ah yep, you were right, have a great
day honey !"
By the time he had left the room he had heard
the shower restart. His wife often had all sorts of gadgets that related to
her work. For instance his study had long ago transformed into a server room.
His wife had been working on a way to merge together data streams from
different radio telescopes. In effect making one huge telescope from each of
the smaller ones.
Ordinarily he wasn't usually nosy,
but recently his writers block had been crippling. On that day he had moved his
mouse to minimize the blank document in front of him and had gone looking on the
internet. Entering the search terms Black object shock space, yielded
nothing of merit. A few articles about black holes and failed launches. He
tried again, this time he smirked as he repeated the last words and then
entered Alien at the end.
The second image that showed up was
exactly the object he had found in his wife's bag that morning. Clicking on the
link he read how a similar object was found on the body of a hiker in
Lamington national park. It had made the news because the object was the
only thing on the person. That AND for some reason the police officer who
was moving the body received third degree burns.
-----
Errata
They said that his generation knew
everything, when made them desire less. How could you want more, with a click
of a button any question had an answer ready to go.
No comments:
Post a Comment