The Eclipse Warp
The Eclipse Warp
“Tell me you got them!”
Those were Colin Monroe's first words to his father that afternoon. The older man narrowed his green eyes as he stared down at his fourteen year old. He had barely walked through the door. To be clear, he remained one foot in the house and the other out.
“That's all you care about? There's no greeting, no welcome, just—”
“Welcome Father,” Colin said in a faux British accent. “I assume your day went well since you are alive at least. Please tell me you got the ISO 12312!”
His father grimaced, tossed the boy aside so he could walk in.
“You didn't get it?” The disbelief was prominent in his voice. Afterall, just that morning, exactly nine hours ago, his father had promised to get them the special edition of the ISO 12312.
“They cost twelve hundred dollars! That's ridiculous.”
“But I need it!” Colin groaned.
He had a date with Melissa Ford. The school's IT girl. She was perfect—blonde hair curled and wavy, pretty gray eyes and the softest hands Colin had ever held.
Well the only hands he had ever held.
It was understatement to say Colin Monroe considered himself a higher class of humans. Born with a pretty much average IQ, he had to work his way up the ladder of intelligence by reading complex scientific books at an early age of four. He had found the old textbooks in the attic, left by his grandfather who had been obsessed with the planets until the day he died.
And possibly beyond- considering the man had asked that his ashes be transported to Venus and spread in the air. A prospect that Colin at the age of six had boldly declared silly and preposterous.
“The atomic oxygen would get to those ashes before they could even settle!” He had announced it one time at dinner.
His mother took one look at him, her eyes grew misty and she left the table without a word. But Colin didn't care much. He had simply spoken the truth. And humans were such fragile creatures, they couldn't handle it. Pitiable, if he had anything to say about it.
“Look Colin,” his father began, settling on the sofa in the living room.
On the walls before him were several family portraits. He grinned at one of the pictures where he had been ruffling Colin's hair and the boy just stood there with an annoyed look on his face.
The same look he had on while he stood at the doorway.
“I'm glad—relieved more likely— that you're interested in girls at your age. With the way you started out, kid, I'd have thought you'd grow to be a geek who smells like mildew—”
“That's not something you should be saying to our son!” His mother yelled from the kitchen.
Colin watched his father roll his eyes and then continue his speech. “But Vanessa whatever isn't going to bail on you just because you didn't get some weird eclipse glasses!”
“Her name is Melissa!” Colin corrected sternly. “I promised her I would get them too so we could watch the eclipse together.”
“Just use the cheaper ones-”
“Melissa is worth more than cheap eclipse glasses!” Colin yelled.
He had vowed not to be subject to silly human emotions such as anger, but in his defense, he was a teenager. His self control was being manipulated by pubertal shenanigans.
“She's just a girl!” His father had the audacity to look appalled. “I'm sure you'll forget all about her in what, two years?”
Colin opened his mouth to retort but his mother's calm voice reached his ears first.
“The eclipse is in thirty minutes. Would it be logical to remain here?”
He pressed his lips in a thin line and nodded. “Very well, Mother. I will be on my way. But I will not forget this injustice!”
To his father, he fixed a glare before going upstairs to get the ‘cheap’ eclipse glasses and raced out of the home.
Melissa Ford was at their meeting spot. The park. Where hundreds of people gathered anyways, holding their ISO glasses, ready to see the heavenly wonders in 3D.
But Colin only had eyes for the girl who sat on a bench. Her blonde hair draped over her shoulder and Colin thought they looked like shimmering stars. A poor comparison. The hormones were definitely getting the best of him. She was tall. Taller than he was.
“Melissa,” he tipped his head at her.
“Hi Colin,” she replied, holding up her ISO 12312. “Got ‘em?”
Colin's lips pressed into a sad line and he shook his head. He expected her to yell. After all, he had failed on his promise and women yelled about that sort of thing, didn't they?
Melissa simply shrugged, muttering something under her breath.
He sat beside her, trying to keep himself from trembling. It was way too hot. He couldn't decide if that was because of the sun, or because he was nervous. It was his first date and his first eclipse. Two major events happening on the same day.
A loud shrill sound pierced his ears and he looked around trying to figure out the source.
“Did you hear that?” He asked Melissa.
“Hear what?”
“A loud ringing—”
“It's starting!” Melissa called excitedly, cutting him off.
Colin frowned. Did she really not hear it? He looked around. No one else seemed to hear it.
“Colin, what are you waiting for? Put on your glasses!” She said, nudging him in the shoulder.
“But the ringing!” He said, clutching his hands over his ears. “That sound!”
Melissa gave him a weird look. The look everyone else in school gave him. The look his parents gave him.
“I don't hear anything,” she said, looking around them.
He swallowed, tried to ignore the ringing sound and snapped on his solar views and watched the moon slowly take over the sun.
The sky darkened. The sound grew louder and irritating, messing with Colin's head. While everyone else cheered at their skies being taken over, Colin felt faint and crashed to the ground.
When his eyes opened, he was back at home, sprawled in his bed.
“Colin, honey it's time for breakfast!” his mother called downstairs.
Groggily, he made his way down the stairs and frowned when he got to the living room.
The portraits on the wall. Something was missing. He squinted and realized his father was no longer in the picture. Somehow they had been altered to look like it was just him and his mother.
“Where's Father?”
He asked his mother as she walked out of the kitchen with a tray of sandwiches.
She gave him a confused look. “Father? What are you talking about, honey? There's no father.”
He figured it was some sort of joke. Perhaps his father had offended his mother and she was pretending he didn't exist.
But that didn't explain the change in the pictures on the wall.
And it also didn't explain why one minute he was in the park, the next he was back home.
His mother turned on the TV as they ate. A man appeared on the screen. His moldy gray skin wrinkled when he smiled.
“Inter dimension transportation is successful. Natural Environment of the subject has been adapted.” He said in a deep unsettling voice.
“Hello Test subject 123.”