The new catastrophe dream.
I had another catastrophe dream. The one I had this morning was different that the others.
In the previous dreams, people are scrambling around getting ready for the impending catastrophe. I am with them, helping the preparations and then the catastrophe hits in the blink of an eye. This morning there was no ‘prep time.’ In fact, there may have only been the aftermath as I don’t quite remember the catastrophe or what it was. I just know it was apocalyptic in that the world after was completely different. The population had become nomads, moving from empty house to empty house trying to stake a claim in order to rebuild. This fell right in line with the previous dreams of this type that I’ve had.
In this dream, like the others, I was surrounded by people. In the earlier dreams though, I have never known any of them. They were nameless ‘extras’ who were populating the dream. They were around before the catastrophe. They were around after, but I didn’t know any of them and none of them looked familiar.
This morning I had my family. Mom, Dad and my brother. We were together, moving together from place to place, through the wreckage of a suburban city. In the dream people fought for old abandoned houses. I say ‘fought’ but it was more like, just rush to claim a space of your own. Once someone had claimed a space, it was theirs to keep and the others respected that. It all felt very temporary though. It felt as if at any moment you’d be scrambling to pack up your belongings and move on. I assume as a result of the ‘catastrophe’ though I don’t know exactly what that was.
My family had found a house. It was small, I think maybe one bedroom even. A living room, bathroom and kitchen all very close to each other. We were happy to have found this spot and we were actually unpacking the small things we’d been carrying with us and putting them in cupboards and drawers.
The thing about the ‘world’ that this dream took place in was that even though you had your own space, there were always people around. Walking past windows, doors, etc.. Almost like visible white noise. These were the nameless/faceless people as in my earlier dreams.
I had just finished putting away something when I turned and there you were, standing in the doorway. Our eyes met instantly and you gave me that look. The small mouthed, wrinkled brow, ‘If I didn’t like you so much I’d punch you, but I’m probably going to punch you anyway,’ look. I was so happy to see you standing there. Black hooded sweatshirt, blue jeans, hair down.
“Hi.”
“Hi.”
A small white animal ran past my legs, but I didn’t look down, I kept my eyes on you.
You relaxed the ‘look’ and I almost wished it right back, but a smile replaced it.
“Can I get some water?” you asked.
“Water?” I replied, “Yes. Yes, of course.”
I turned to the cabinet and opened it, several glasses stood in lines. I reached for one, a tall frosted glass. As my finger closed around it I felt you step up behind me.
“No.” you said softly. “The pretty blue one.”
I smiled, releasing the frosted glass and grasping the pretty blue one next to it.
Then I woke up.
I’m well aware it was just a dream. I’m well aware it was another catastrophe dream. I’m well aware it will never happen. But it was the nicest catastrophe dream I’ve had.
Wednesday Words – The Job Part 4
The Job – Part 4
By Grant Baciocco
Link To Part 1
Link To Part 2
Link To Part 3
Dr. Levitt returned to his position behind the desk, swiping his fingers along the touch screen. Stopping to make calculations on a pad with a pencil. Patrick watched as he worked. After a few minutes, the Doctor stood still watching the screens then nodded and reached forward and tapped the screen. Patrick craned his neck in the chair to look behind him as he heard a large machine start up in the room behind him. He turned back and saw Dr. Levitt staring intently at the monitors and once the machine in the next room hit its peak momentum, he nodded and then came around the desk and crossed to Patrick.
“Okay. We’re all set. It’ll just take a quick tap on the screen over there and then a ten second countdown and we will be on our way.” He smiled and adjusted his glasses, “Or, you’ll be on your way.”
Patrick forced a smile.
“Still want to go through with this?” Dr. Levitt asked.
“Yes.” Patrick said without hesitation. “Just nervous.”
“Well, you shouldn’t be. There’s really no harm that can come to you. If my calculations are correct.”
Patrick smiled again, “I hope they are.”
“We are simply beaming the information in your brain back two years. That’s all.”
“I just hope I’m not driving a car or anything like that when the information hits me. You could wind up with a corpse here if I veer off the highway.”
Dr. Levitt chuckled. “No. I don’t believe that would happen. I think it will hit you like a case of very strong Deja Vu. Once your past brain receives all the information, it will be smart enough to process it. I believe as soon as the machine here fires, your life here is going to be different and, if your past brain makes the right decisions, I think it’ll be different in a good way.”
“Let’s hope you are right.” Patrick said. He hunkered down a bit more in his chair, then had a thought, “Dr. Levitt, can I see that envelope for a second?”
Dr. Levitt nodded and took the envelope with the $3000 cashiers check out of his lab coat pocket. He handed it to Patrick.
“Can I borrow that pencil?”
Dr. Levitt handed him the pencil. Patrick took a minute and scribbled down a name and address on the front. He handed the envelope and the pencil back to Dr. Levitt.
“If something happens to me, can you get that cashier’s check to the name on the front there?” Patrick asked.
Dr. Levitt read the front of the envelope, “Mary Harcourt?”
Patrick nodded.
“Relative of yours?”
“Girlfriend. Ex-girlfriend. Can you just see that she gets it?”
Dr. Levitt nodded with a smile and then put the envelope back in his pocket. “You ready?”
“I am ready.”
Dr. Levitt crossed back to the screens and double checked the information whizzing by on them. “We are good to go. Shall I initiate?”
“Initiate.”
Dr. Levitt nodded and tapped the screen. The lights in the room flickered as the machines prepped themselves.
Dr. Levitt looked back at Patrick, “Countdown begun, ten seconds.”
Patrick gripped the edges of the chair tightly. Contemplating bolting from the chair before the countdown hit one. He was seconds from doing so when he thought about her. Mary. How she said he never committed to anything. He was going to commit to this. Behind him, Dr. Levitt’s voice came into his consciousness counting down.
“5…4…3…2…1.”
There was a bright flash of light.
—
One more part to go.
Wednesday Words – The Job Part 3
The Job – Part 3
By Grant Baciocco
Link To Part 1
Link To Part 2
Patrick assumed Dr. Levitt had been joking, but the more he pressed him, the more he felt the old fool actually believed he could do it.
“For decades people have dreamed about time travel,” he pontificated, “but they were going about it all wrong. You see most people think that you get in some sort of contraptions and zap back in time and then there are two of you running around in that time period. But that’s not how it works.”
“It’s not?” said Patrick with a smirk.
“No!” Dr. Levitt shouted. “That form of time travel is impossible. We can never go back and warn president Lincoln about John Wilkes Booth. In order to time travel back that far we’d have to have someone who was alive when Lincoln was assassinated.”
“1865.”
“Right. You know anyone that old?”
“No.”
“No. So it’s impossible. But we can send people back in time to any point that they were alive.”
“I’m not following.”
Dr. Levitt sighed, “There’s only one of you. There can’t be two of you. So in order to time travel we have to send your present day mind back into your past mind.”
Patrick looked at him for a moment. “You send my brain back in time?”
Dr. Levitt nodded. “Well, yes and no. You see the mind is an amazing thing. I’m sure you’ve heard that humans only use a small percentage of their brain.”
“I thought that was an urban legend.”
“It is, but behind ever urban legend is a small grain of truth. We don’t use ALL the capacity our brain is capable of. That is the fact. What I’ve been able to do is invent a machine that boosts the power of the brian to near its full potential. Now, you’ve also heard tell of people who are capable of using ESP or mental telepathy.”
“Another urban myth with a grain of truth?”
“Yes. The brain is capable of sending out signals. I mean it does that locally to your central nervous system, but it can also do it as sort of a little wifi network. Sending messages out into the surrounding area.”
“I see.” Patrick said, though his voice did little to mask the doubt contained in it. “And how does all this relate to time travel?”
“My machine not only boosts brain power, it also magnifies the signal, much like you can magnify a wifi signal. It also focuses it through time, back to your brain in the past. Your ‘past’ brain picks up on the signals being sent from your ‘present day’ brain and it downloads the information.” Dr. Levitt suddenly clapped his hands together startling Patrick, “Bang! Time travel occurs.”
“And what happens to the rest of me?” Patrick asked.
“Nothing, you remain here. I told you it’s not like the movies. The kind of time travel I’m talking about is sending information back.” Dr. Levitt put a hand under his chin. “Folks often say, ‘If I knew then what I know now.’ Right?”
Patrick nodded.
“Well, now they can. You, your body, your brain, everything will stay here. But we will send the information contained in your brian now, to your brain two years ago.”
Patrick was slowly starting to grasp the idea. But then the Doctor’s words hit him, “Wait? Me?”
“Yes. I told you you were assisting me. I’m hoping you’ll be the first human I try this method on.”
Dr. Levitt saw a look of panic on Patrick’s face.
“Look, I’m telling you it’s perfectly safe. All you have to do is sit in this chair. The chair acts like an antenna and does all the work. You will feel nothing, there are no needles or electordes, you’re not going to have to take off your clothes or anything. All you’ll have to do is sit in the chair.”
“And then what?”
“And then I power the machine, focus the energy and hit the send switch.”
“And then…?”
“And then mere seconds later, we are done, the information in your brain will have been sent back two years.” Dr. Levitt paused.
“Why two years?”
“That’s about as far as my, home brewed, machine will allow for. If this works and I get a grant, the machine can be made to go back further distances.” Dr. Levitt smiled. “Just imagine the choices you’d make differently if you had known two years ago what you know now.”
Patrick thought for a moment. The big choice he would have made was how things went with her. He was silent for a second, lost in thought, and then looked up at Dr. Levitt, “I’ll do it.”
Dr. Levitt insisted on the paperwork being filled out. For as safe as he swore it was, there was still a waiver to be filled out. A requirement of his lawyer he had said.
Patrick filled it out carefully. He got to the part where it said who to contact in case of an emergency. His first instinct was to put her name and number. That is who he’d wanted to be there with. Forever. Who he would want to come to his bedside in an emergency. But that was over now. She could care less about him now, so he figured if something did go wrong, he wouldn’t want to bug her. SO he wrote down his mother and her phone number.
Minutes later, Patrick was sitting in the chair in the middle of the room. Dr. Levvitt busied himself at the computer monitors.
“So, uh, Dr. Levitt?”
“Yes?”
“This, lab assistant job. It is a job right?”
“Of course.”
“So, like, I’ll be paid for this?”
This brought Dr. Levitt out of his preparations. He stood, looked over at Patrick and adjusted the glasses on his face. He was silent for a second and then clasped his hands as he strode over towards the chair.
“Yes, you will receive compensation for this.” He pulled an envelope out his lab coat pocket. “In this envelope is a cashier’s check for $3000. I will hand it to you as soon as we’re done here today. As soon as we confirm that the device works and works properly.”
Patrick nodded.
“Unless….”
Patrick glanced sideways at Dr. Levitt. “Unless what?”
“Well, you are being afforded a chance no one else has ever been allowed. You are going back in time two years. You are, basically, going to be able to live the past two years over again, in an instant.”
Patrick nodded. “So?”
“So, just remember that. You will be able to right any wrongs you may have made. You’ll be able to choose differently in any situation, knowing how they played out based on where you are now. You’ll get a second chance at everything. Now, I’m not sending you back to your pre college or high school days, so you can’t make different decisions there, but two years…two years is a length of time where significant changes could be made. You will, by default, be a different person seconds after the experiment happens. How much is that worth? How much would you pay to go back to some point over the past two years and make a different choice in and major decision?”
Patrick was silent as he pondered this.
“Patrick, after I push the button and we send the information in your brain back to you two years ago, you may take this $3000 cashier’s check and walk out that door. But I’d like you to consider the value of what I’m giving you today and if, after the experiment of course, you feel that you got $3000 or $3000000 worth of value from this experiment, well then I’d like you to consider leaving this check with me, so I can continue to develop this device. Bring that value to other people who may need it.”
Patrick was silent for a moment longer, then nodded. “Let’s do it.”
Wednesday Words – The Job Part 2
The Job – Part 2
By Grant Baciocco
Link To Part 1
As Patrick drove to the address he had been given, he thought about the current state of his life. It was not what he had pictured it would be at all, not at the age of 39 at any rate. It’s not that he was a slacker, or some loser who lacked any sort of skills, it was just that no one wanted to pay him that much for the skills he did have. He had to scramble working several freelance jobs that paid $25 here, $100 here, $300 here, just to make ends meet. He was looking for something more stable in the hopes that he’d balance out his life that had been in a weird turmoil since earlier in the year.
It was earlier in the year that Mary had left him. He wasn’t over it, yet. She’d left him for many reasons. And she had been everything he had ever wanted. She was beautiful, she made him laugh, really laugh. She was incredibly talented. He was in awe of her, seemingly effortless talent. She was everything, but he had been incredibly stupid. He had been foolish, unable to commit wholly to her, stranded in the ideals of youth instead of looking to build a life, like a grown up, with her. Keeping her and making her the happiest woman he possibly could. When she left he had snapped to his senses but it was too late. She was gone. He decided then and there to turn his life around.
One of their arguments at the end was his work situation or lack thereof. She had a regular, nine to five, job and she couldn’t see him as ever being holding down a steady job that actually paid adult, grown up, wages and after months of trying to get him to do otherwise she had left. Since that day he had done his best to work hard and try to prove to her that he could but it just hadn’t panned out. And now, here he was, driving to some strange address, in the hopes of snagging some job that might provide him with something stable.
His phone told him he had the address correct and he parked his car. He locked it and crossed the street to the large unassuming white building with hand painted numbers that read: 4115. He took a moment to straighten his tie and then pushed the button to the right of the door. Somewhere deep inside the building he heard a buzzer accompany his push and he heard it cut off when he lifted his finger.
“Hello?” a voice crackled from the speaker above the door bell.
“Yeah, hi, I’m Patrick. I answered the ad?”
BZZZZZZZZZZZZZTT!
Patrick heard the tumblers of the door’s lock fall and he scrambled to grab the handle before it stopped. He opened the door and stepped inside. The door, heavier than it looked, closed with a thud behind him.
The doorway had opened into a long, plain white hallway. At the end of the hallway, about 50 feet or so from where Patrick stood was a door. A low electric hum pulsed from the far door. Patrick could see pure, white light spilling from the doorway. He started down the hallway, squinting as he got closer to the door because the light grew brighter. Finally reaching the door frame he stepped inside and, once his eyes adjusted to the brightness, he found himself in the middle of a pristine white laboratory.
The room was bare, but clearly a lab. The walls, floor, ceiling were stark white. In the center of the room stood a single chair. Very similar to a dentist’s chair but just as white as the rest of the room. Several feet from the chair was a simple table desk, also white, with several large computer monitors on it. Cables ran from the base of the chair to the desk and then one large cable ran from the chair across the room and into the wall. This large cable appeared to exit the room through a small hole, so Patrick could not tell where it was going. He assumed it was to the source of the hum, which was louder here. Suddenly, from behind the monitors popped a face. The face attached to a short, squat man who, once he’d seen Patrick, removed his glasses and came from around the desk.
“Patrick?” the man said. His voice was high pitched and squeaky.
Patrick nodded, “Yes.”
“Ah, so good of you to come so quickly. Shows a good sense of ambition. Someone who knows what he wants and is determined to get it.” The man said as he traversed the space between them, his hand outstretched.
Patrick gripped the hand, which was somewhat sweatier that Patrick preferred to shake. “Well,” Patrick mumbled, “I kind of need the job.”
The man pumped Patrick’s hand a few times, “Ah yes, these are tough times employment wise. Still of the applicants who have submitted, you were clearly someone who knew how to form a sentence and, pardon my terminology, seemed as if you weren’t bat-shit crazy.”
Patrick smiled weakly. Nonchalantly wiping his, now damp, palm on his jeans. Patrick was glad he didn’t seem crazy, but he wasn’t sure he could say the same about this guy. “Well, it is nice to meet you mister…?”
“How silly of me, Doctor. Doctor Levitt.” Dr. Levitt outstretched his hand again towards Patrick. Patrick reluctantly took it and shook again, trying not to grimace at touching the doctor’s sweaty palms once more.
Dr. Levitt released his grip and then, without saying a word more crossed back towards the computer monitors. Patrick assumed he should follow him. As he rounded the desk he could see that all three monitors were a rapid swirl of information, charts, numbers, and graphs. Patrick looked at them for a second and then had to look away. It was all too much for him. For anyone really. Who could understand all that information zipping from screen to screen. Apparently Dr. Levitt could.
After a few minutes of watching Dr. Levitt read the screens and scribble notes down into his journal, Patrick cleared his throat, “So, this job.”
Dr. Levitt snapped his head in Patrick’s direction. Almost as if he had forgotten that he was there. “The job? Oh yes, the job. Sorry, I was just figuring out a calculation here.” Dr. Levitt continued scribbling and then, putting the pencil in his lab coat pocket he smiled at Patrick. “I need an assistant for this experiment I’m working on. Someone who is willing to risk a little for the world of science.”
“Risk a little?” Patrick replied. “I thought this wasn’t a medical research job.”
“It’s not. No, not at all. This is far from medical research. I’m not going to probe you or make you take any experimental drugs or anything of the sort.” Dr. Levitt replied with a smile.
Patrick relaxed a little.
“I will want to take a listen to your heart and you will have to sign a waiver, but these are merely precautions you understand. Most jobs would have you fill out paperwork when you began, this job is no different.”
“Listen to my heart?” Patrick questioned.
“Mmmm yes.” Dr. Levitt replied. “Just have to make sure you have a strong heart. Do you enjoy roller coasters?”
“It’s been awhile since I’ve been on one, but yes.”
“Good. Good. Well this experiment creates the same amount of stress on a person that occurs when riding a roller coaster.”
“Same amount of stress? Wait, you said you weren’t experimenting on me.”
“And I’m not. You are merely assisting me, but in that assistance, there will be some stress on your physical body.”
Patrick looked at Dr. Levitt, square in the eye. “What is this experiment?”
Dr. Levitt smiled, he grinned like a kid on Christmas morning, then in a hushed tone said, “Why…time travel my dear boy. Time travel.”