Invisible Threads--Chapter 14

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.