Bill Roberts was one of our neighbors, and a very eccentric one at that. He was some kind of nut
professor who used to work at NASA or some place like that, but got kicked
out after his nervous breakdown. The very thought made me smile. Bill was a
strange old guy, but really friendly. And for some strange reason, he
seemed to take a liking to our family, though why I haven't got a clue.
That alone proves that he's nuts as far as I'm concerned. The fact that he
liked to built strange inventions in his garage only added to that.and he just asked my dad to bring the family around to his place on saturday to test something out
and on saturday morning after getting ready we were all in bill's living room all dressed and ready
"Hello Ted." Bill greeted Dad with a grin, "Mary" he nodded at Mom. "And
how are you kids doing?"
"Hi Bill." Katie said cheerfully, running over and giving him a hug. "Can
I have some ice cream?" Bill chuckled at that, promising that she could in
just a little while.
When he looked at me, I shrugged back. "I'm all right."
Judy just snorted when he looked at her, showing her obvious displeasure
at being there. That didn't seem to dampen Bill's mood though it certainly
improved mine. As long as Judy was unhappy, I figured that I had good
reason to be happy.
"So," Dad asked, "what's this all about?"
Mom nodded. "You told Ted that you wanted to show us something new." She
smiled, "Though you didn't need to do that for us to come visit." She
handed a plate to Bill, saying "I thought that you might like some cookies."
Bill unwrapped the cookie plate and let out a sigh of pleasure. "Dear
Mary, they look absolutely delicious. I'm sure that I shall thoroughly enjoy
them. Thank you very much." Then after covering the cookies back up and
setting them down on the table, he muttered "Now where was I?"
"Were you going to get me some ice cream?" Katie asked with a hopeful
grin.
"Oh, of course" Bill chuckled, "That's what I was going to do." Then
several seconds after Bill disappeared into his kitchen, he was back with
several ice cream bars in hand. Katie took hers immediately, as did I.
Judy however turned hers down, even sticking her nose in the air slightly as
if she were too good to eat ice cream. Bill just shrugged, "All the more
for me." And started eating it himself.
After we'd gone through the door that led to the garage, I stopped and
stared around. The large double car garage had long ago been remade into
Bill's private workshop. Benches lined the walls, filled with half complete
experiments and things that I had no idea about. All that I'd seen before.
What was new was the large racks which leaned up against one wall, looking
like some sort of computers. And of course the five funny looking chairs
with cables and helmets attached to them. It looked like a very confusing
mess to me.
"What is this?" Judy asked from next to me. Even she was looking at all
the new equipment curiously.
"This," Bill stated proudly, "Is my latest invention. It is a thought
projector."
"Um... sounds interesting." Dad commented cautiously, "But what exactly
does it do?"
Bill rushed over to one computer console that seemed to be some sort of
control and gently laid a hand on it. "This is a... no..." he muttered to
himself, "It's for..." Then taking a deep breath, Bill looked thoughtful
and continued more slowly, "My thought projector transmits thoughts and
memories." He grinned proudly now that he'd gotten it out. However it still
didn't make any sense to the rest of us.
Oddly enough, it was Judy who said what I was thinking. "And what does
that mean... in English?" Dad gave Judy a warning glare, which she didn't seem
to notice.
Moving away from what control console, Bill went to the chairs, one of
which was sitting apart and facing the other four. "This can take a
person's thoughts and memories, or at least a small part, and transmit them
to other people to hear." He grinned proudly. "Sort of like radio or
television."
"Aaah" we all exclaimed at once. Now it made sense. "So" I said, "This is
some sort of new TV?"
"Well" Bill sighed, "It might be used sort of like that. The idea was to
create a virtual reality device though my research ended up going in a
slightly different direction than I'd originally intended." Bill adjusted
his glasses again, then continued "But now it can be used more as a learning
aid. At least I hope so."
"That does sound interesting." Mom said, walking over and looking at one
of the chairs. Dad and Judy quickly joined her.
Judy asked "And why exactly are there five chairs?" She gave Bill a
suspicious look.
Bill sighed. "I'm afraid that's why I asked you all over. I needed to test
the thought projector, and I needed some people that I can trust." He
looked at us all, looking almost like he was begging, "I implore you. I
require your assistance to prove the feasibility and consistency of
transmission. And I needed all of you for that."
Dad gasped. "You want us to be guinea pigs?"
Bill looked shocked at the accusation. "Oh no... well... sort of. It's
perfectly safe, I assure you. I just need to prove that it works."
I looked at it and grinned. "Sure" I said, "This looks kind of cool." Then
I quickly sat down in the closest chair. The one that was facing the other
four. "So what do we need to do?"
Dad was about to say something, but then looked over and saw that Katie
had already climbed into one chair. Shaking his head slightly, he said "All
right. I trust you that you know what you're doing." Then as he sat down
in one of the chairs, he looked at Judy. "Are you going to try it?"
Judy looked thoughtful for a moment. It was obvious that she was torn
between trying something that could make her famous, and her dislike of
actually doing something with the rest of the family. As a slightly greedy
look formed on her face, I knew that she'd made up her mind to join us as
well.
"So" I asked calmly, "What do we have to do?"
"Well" Bill said thoughtfully, "You're in the projection chair so it will
be you that does the transmitting."
Without answering my question, Bill then ran from one chair to another,
lowering the funny helmets onto our heads, and making me feel like I was
sitting in an electric chair. I had to admit though, that the sight of Judy
in a similar situation brought a smile to my face and made the whole thing
worth it.
When Bill was finished adjusting all of our chairs, he turned to me. "Now
Jason, you have the most important task. You will have to focus on an image
or memory, and the device will transmit that image or memory to your family.
They will see it just as you do."
"All right." I agreed nervously. For some reason, this didn't seem like
such a good idea anymore. I was really getting uncomfortable with the
situation, but there was no way I was going to back out now. I'd look like
a chicken, and there was no way that I was going to give Judy that kind of
ammo to use against me.
"This should just take a few moments." Bill told us all. "When I tell you,
start concentrating on a memory." Then he gave me a wink, and in a knowing
voice he added, "Just make sure that it's one you don't mind sharing." Bill
gave me a reassuring smile, then turned to the others. "All you have to do
is close your eyes and relax. You should receive whatever Jason sends you.
When this is over, I want to verify that you all got the same memory and
that it wasn't corrupted or changed by your own minds. That's very
important."
"Just get on with it already." Judy snapped impatiently, looking as if she
didn't believe that it would work.
"All right then." Bill told us, "I'm turning it on now."
With that, I felt a faint tingle through my head. Remembering what I
needed to do, I carefully thought about the day last summer when we were all
having a picnic on the beach. I kept my eyes closed, focusing on the image,
while the strange tingling grew stronger and stronger. Somewhere I heard
Katie gasp, but I didn't open my eyes to look at her. Suddenly the tingling
grew even stronger, making my head fill like it was on fire.
Somewhere I heard Bill scream "Dear Lord, the powers been turned to
maximum" I didn't... couldn't pay him much attention. The pain in my skull
was increasing more and more with each passing second. With a great effort I
managed to force my eyes open, only to see flashes of light and sparks
flying around some of the computer racks. Bill's voice was yelling, "We're
getting a power surge" I noticed the panic in his voice, but I was in too
much pain to care.
The pain filling me seed to spread beyond just my skull. Memories started
flashing through my mind as I screamed out in agony. For a brief second I
thought that I could see my entire life flashing before my eyes, then it was
almost as if my very being were being yanked out and stretched to the
breaking point. Then finally the pain stopped, but it had already pushed me
too far and I slipped into the comforting void of unconsciousness.
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