I Should Have Believed Him

“This,” John proclaimed proudly, “is the most important object in my collection, the country, and the whole world.”
“That’s great, John.”
I could barely refrain from rolling my eyes. John was a decent guy but he had a tendency to be overenthusiastic about things.
“You don’t sound convinced. Let me tell you, without this we would all be dead.”
Did I say overenthusiastic? Sorry, that was a bit of an understatement. I reached over to touch it but he grabbed my hand.
“Careful, now! Didn’t you just hear me? That’s very powerful. You don’t know the severity of what you almost did. Why, we could have been vaporised, or hit with a meteorite, or-”
“I’m sorry. Calm down, I won’t damage it,” I said, touching his shoulder gently. “Let’s have a drink.”

He led me into his parlour, offered me a seat then went to the kitchen to prepare the drinks. I reflected on our conversation, and despite my lack of curiosity at the time, I was now rapidly becoming intrigued. What if, as he said, it really did have some significance? When I could no longer refrain from it, I sneaked back to look at it.

Enthralled by it, I stood closer to examine it more carefully. It fascinated me, and I couldn’t stop myself from reaching over and picking it up. Nothing happened.
“John certainly misunderstood that one,” I laughed. I was interrupted by a loud crash, and the floor beneath me trembled so violently that I could barely stand. The lights went out and the walls collapsed. The wreckage exploded into flame. BOOM BOOM BOOM