Giddeon (Silver Strand Series) (18 page)

I tried to build a time machine.

Well, not a regular time machine that would let you go back and forth to the future and the past.
 
But, a machine that would slow it down… slow it down so that I could have more precious moments with her.
 
See what kind of crazy things love will make you do?

Anyway, I guess it was a step up from my idea of a Mia mannequin.

In all of my excursions, I had never been able to access a reality where physical time-travel was possible… maybe it isn’t possible.
 
So, I figured I would do the next best thing and try to create a local effect…sort of a protected area, shielded somewhat from the normal rate of passage that moments display as they go about their task of building histories.

I had long suspected that, on an atomic level, the electrons buzzing around the nucleus of an atom create sort of a relativistic effect.
 
It never really made sense to me how fast chemical reactions occurred inside of a cell.
 
Millions of reactions per second, all dependent upon and influencing each other.
 
So many steps in any particular pathway.
 
Phosphorylation
and de-
phoshporylation
of molecules that then cause a cascading of other events.
 
It just seemed all too quick.

Like electric dominoes pushed by an unseen hand.

Einstein said nothing can go faster than the speed of light, and the closer an object gets to it, the more time would elapse to an outside observer.
 
I figured maybe this is what happens on a small scale, and that events that occur when atomic bonds are formed or broken… when molecules shift, transmute or synthesize…happen so quickly to us because they all have more time on their hands down there, if you will.

I believed that perhaps the electrons created an isolated type of well… sort of a time dilation area… and, that maybe, I could replicate the effect.

*****

So, I went about collecting fiber optic cable, lasers, centrifuges, electromagnetic motors and atomic clocks in order to construct a prototype.
 
I doubted it would work, but it gave me something to do.

*****

I built a small one, at first.
 
Layers and layers of fiber optic cable wrapped up and down around the periphery of a cylinder.
 
There was an axle in the middle, and the fiber entered and exited the shaft in a longitudinal fashion.
 
It all sat on a powerful electric motor, and a laser fed light into one end of the fiber that was embedded in the axle.
 
The contraption was big enough that I could suspend a small atomic clock into the hollow interior that was synchronized with another one on the outside.

At first, I kept having trouble with the fiber not holding up under the centrifugal force, so I had to borrow some advanced optical technology from a future reality.
 
The same with the motor… it couldn’t generate the force I needed to achieve the speeds I had calculated would be required… so I jumped ahead and got some help from Eden.

My goal was to accelerate the light by accelerating the fibers, and since light can’t be accelerated, to thereby alter the time inside the cylinder.
 
There were several holes in my theory, but, hey… I wasn’t one to let logic and reason stand in my way.

Never have been.

*****

It worked.
 

At least I think it did.
 
A little bit.
 
It could have been a glitch in my clocks, or maybe I was just seeing what I wanted to see, but, I was encouraged enough to build a full scale model.

*****

Boris always watched with great interest when I would bring the small centrifuge to the house and work on it.
 
I knew Mia was often inside of him, so periodically I would do the same… shrink myself down and look out through his eyes.
 
Sometimes I think I could almost see her waving at me.
 
I could definitely smell her better.
 
I would relax my eyes and try to get the 3-D poster thing to work, but it didn’t really help.
 
I tried other animals, too… a seagull, a dog, a minnow and a dolphin.
 
Had the best luck with the dolphin, by the way.
 
I guess it was the sonar that sometimes gave me a vague image of her swimming, in her bikini, there in the bay.
 
I’m pretty sure that once she skinny-dipped just to see if I would notice.

I did.

*****

Finally, I was ready for a full scale test.
 
I began a large version of my centrifuge.
 
I had it in an abandoned warehouse in an industrial park off of the 15 Interstate and Balboa.
 
There’s a Cajun restaurant called Bud’s near there that I’m fond of… so lunch was usually seafood bisque or a blackened catfish
po
-boy.
 

The project took a few days to complete.
 
When the machine was ready, I called out to my invisible Mia that I was about to fire it up.
 
I climbed inside and flipped some switches on a hand-held remote.

*****

The reams of fiber optic cable took on a royal blue glow as the machine began to spin.
 
After a minute or two, the centrifuge had reached about one-third of maximum speed.
 
The air was quite disturbed by the vortex, but I had accounted for that and had installed shafts in the ceiling and walls to help equalize and distribute the pressure.
 
After five minutes I was up to 75 percent of full speed.
 
A normal person wouldn’t have been able to stay stationary, there, and would most certainly have been sucked into the spinning walls to certain death… but, I’m not a normal person.
 
I’m an Inter-Dimensional Tourist.
 
Now that I think of it, it would have been smarter to put that thing on the moon where there is no atmosphere.

Maybe next time.

After 10 minutes, the device was almost red-lined.
 
I kept an eye on the atomic clock and couldn’t wait to see if there would be any change in the one outside.
 
Of course, I could have just teleported over there, but, for some reason I preferred to wait.
 
It felt kind of nice inside my invention.

At 12 minutes and 22 seconds into the experiment, the most wonderful thing happened.

I began to see Mia.

*****

Right there in front of me… like a beautiful painting come to life.

She had on all white, just like that first day at the golf course.
 
Her hair was tied back into one of those ponytails with the knot down low… I always thought that style was sexy… and she had one of the biggest grins on her face I had ever seen.
 
She told me later that she could see her reflection in my eyes, and that’s how she knew I could see her.

I reached out and I could even feel her, a bit.
 
My hands still went through hers, but, there was some resistance there.
 
We kissed with that blue light spinning all around us and the jet engine noise of the centrifuge drowning out any sound.
 
I could feel her lips almost solid against mine.
 
I told her I loved her, and she mouthed the words back to me.
 
Then, I turned the machine off, and watched her fade away.
 
I didn’t want to overheat anything on the first run-through.

Either the machine or my heart.

*****

I was overjoyed when I saw myself in the blue of
Giddeon’s
irises.
 
That was the last thing I expected.
 
The centrifuge was supposed to slow down time for when we were together… you know, when you and Greg shared a dream.
 
Making me visible wasn’t even on the drawing board.
 
We went back time and again to repeat the process, and each time I got a little more solid to him.

Giddeon thinks that there was some type of dimensional distortion going on around us in there that somehow facilitated our interfacing.
 
Finally, we didn’t need the machine anymore and he could see me without the theatrics.
 
I still wasn’t totally corporal to him, or him to me, but we could at least visualize each other and even sort of touch.
 
He got quite good at reading lips, because at the time, he couldn’t hear me unless he got inside of a cat.

One day, when you and Greg did share a dream, we cranked up the centrifuge to see if it would actually extend our time, together, but I couldn’t tell any difference.
 
It was a short 15 minutes according to both atomic clocks… maybe just a few nanoseconds of dissimilarity.
 
I never did have much faith in that apparatus affecting time, to tell you the truth, but I don’t have nearly the grasp of physics as my sweetheart.
 
Personally, I think that what happened inside of there was inevitable… that he would have eventually been able to see me on his own.
 
The machine just provided a convenient excuse.
 

Giddeon is one of those souls that need explanations… he doesn’t really believe in magic, even though he says he does.
 
I think the centrifuge simply gave him a pathway on which to walk to my side of the world.
 
As far as I’m concerned, it was a gigantic, spinning, glowing placebo that cured him of his syndrome.
 
His blindness.
 
His inability to see me like I saw him.
 
We both still have
paraesthesia
… we can’t totally feel each other… but, I believe that even that will one day be overcome, too.
 
Assuming the asteroid and your binder full of problems can be dealt with.

*****

Why did the contraption work in such a way?
 
What I think is that in the back of his mind Giddeon wanted me there with him when he set the machine to spinning, because, on a subconscious level, or maybe it would be a sub-subconscious level, he knew he would be able to see me when he did.
 
He dreamed about us in the centrifuge, and he rarely ever dreams.
 
He told me that, later, after we celebrated our new-found visibility by having dinner at
Peohe’s
.
 
Giddeon said that in the dream he could see me so clearly that it was remarkable.
 
We held hands and kissed with the blue lights all around us, just like it happened for real.
 
He even wrote a song about being able to see and touch me:

This is so strange,

When I’m over here.

Sometimes I rearrange,

All my dreams when you’re near.

This is so strange, just look at you.

A Van Gough in three dimensions,

I don’t know what to say, or what to do.

This is so strange,

This is so strange,

This is so strange…

Ah, girl… ain’t it true?

This is so strange,

In the sky above.

The stars they never change;

Tell me why does love?

This is so strange,

What are we doing here,

Still asking sophomore questions,

I’m pretty sure it’s a graduation year.

This is so strange,

This is so strange…

Ah, girl… come over here.

Come over here and hold my hand.

I think I finally understand,

All those songs the Beatles used to sing,

When they invaded my homeland.

Oh, yeah, baby.
 
Oh, yeah, girl.

I want to hold your hand…
 
I want to hold your hand.

Oh, yeah, baby.
 
Oh, yeah, girl.

I want to hold your hand…
 
I want to hold your hand.

And, when I touch you…

And, when I touch you…

And, when I touch you…

I understand.

Oh, yeah, baby. Oh, yeah, girl.
 

I want to hold your hand.
 
I want to hold your hand.

This is so strange,

But, it feels so right.

I thought you were out of my range,

But, you were only out of sight.

This is so strange, just look at you,

A Van Gough in three dimensions,

I don’t know what to say or what to do.

This is so strange,

This is so strange,

This is so strange…

Ah, girl… I think I love you.

So, come over here and hold my hand.

I think I finally understand,

All those songs the Beatles used to sing,

When they invaded my homeland.

Oh, yeah, baby.
 
Oh, yeah, girl.

I want to hold your hand…
 
I want to hold your hand.

Oh, yeah, baby.
 
Oh, yeah, girl.

I want to hold your hand…
 
I want to hold your hand

*****

I loved the song.
 
How could I not?
 
Plus, he tried to build a time machine just so he could be with me, longer.
 
Ahhhh
…

I think I’ll keep him : )

*****