Town of Homestead, Isle of Hawaii, 1949.
The cool menthol smoke and burning orange glow of the cigarette ember warm the cool and moist October night air. The black asphalt parking lot reflects like obsidian because of the pools of recent rain. Suddenly from around the block flashing yellow-white light beams turn around the town street corner. A black ominously rumbling sedan pulls down the street at about fifteen miles an hour. Our Agent takes one more deep puff and throws the cigarette out into a pool of water, the glowing embers evaporating to smoke. The black sedan rumbles its way into the fenced parking lot, and the crackly car radio plays the seasonal Halloween station, and catches the agents ear. It’s a Bing Crosby song. ong takes over his hearing for a moment.
“That same old tingle,
That I feel inside,
And then that elevator starts it’s ride, And down and down I go,
Round and Round I go,
I’m like a leaf, caught up in the tide...”
The Agent lets out the white smoke into the black sky. The rumbling car engine cuts a long with the radio leaving the parking lot dead quiet. An emerging faint but distinctly grumpy rumbling along with the jangle of keys comes from the driver's side. The Agent makes his way around the back to the trunk of the car, tossing his cigarette and carefully stepping on it with his combat boot. Out of the front door comes a stern nosed, thinning red haired man, with a belly, gray skin, narrow gaze, yet authoritative height and stature, dressed in a stiffly pressed white collared shirt and green tweed pants. “Is it working?” Our gruffly peppered looking Agent asks in his gravelly voice.
The Scientist just smiles. “You won’t believe it.” His accent is clearly German. This makes our Agent smile. They both turn their heads to look at the shining black trunk as the Scientist clicks it unlocked and slowly lifts it up. A rainbow colored glow of crystalline light shines all over their faces. As they gaze upon the contraption longer they begin smiling as if seeing their newborn child, and almost lose control of their bodies, as if the light is pulling them in. “Incredible...” The Scientist works hard to turn his head and give a wink to the smiling Agent who keeps his hypnotized gaze on the contraption.
“Let’s...let’s get this inside,” the Agent finally is able to stammer. THUD. The Scientist shuts the trunk...
The glowing hum of a single white light and the cranking of the power switch immediately change the scenery. We are in a basement, or shop, or garage. Perhaps all of them in one. Clearly some of the equipment isn’t just your dads tool boxes. Chemistry equipment is strewn out all over the place. Beakers and glass jars are bubbling, glowing, dripping, or spilled over and shoved out of the way. The Agent and the Scientist come down the stairs, struggling with the
contraption sealed in a heavy black duffle bag in their hands, attempting to carry it together down the dark unfinished stairs.
“Just get it on the main table. The wood- it’ll be fine there.” The Scientist struggles to talk and carry the jagged metal engine while going down the stairs.
“The weight?” struggles the Agent.
“It’ll be fine.” THUD. They both slam the cold dead and gray metallic engine on the cleared workshop table. “Okay, okay. Just, give me one second. Whew. My God. Get my breath you know.” .
“I’m going out for a smoke. You can get all this hooked up and ready right?” Asks the Agent while already beginning to walk back up stairs.
“Yes, yes, no problem....Take your time.” The Agent walks off, leaving the Scientist to still catch his breath for a moment. “Okay. You’ve got this.” He tells himself. He turns to the cluttered and chaotic lab equipment behind him and begins to hook everything up, clanging and running into everything. He’s in a rush clearly despite what he told the Agent. As he plugs in metal vents, wiring, and magnetic strange extended compartments the strange contraption comes alive with spurring and sputtering at first, then a smooth powering up starts. An inner fire begins to spark alive. “Perfect.” The Scientist plugs in one more wire and flips a power switch on the wall.
Right then the Agent comes back down the creaky stairs. The LED light cuts off hard. “Whoa, watching my step!” The Agent makes his way down the stairs. The contraption emits all the light they need: bright and vivid greens, reds, purples, blues, pinks, and every other color at random. The colors seem to emit from two openings on the shockingly intricate yet sturdy metal work of the device.
“We are ready if you are sir,”.
“You sure this thing won’t chop us up into Sushi?”
“If I don’t do it now I’ll start thinking about it.”
“Let’s do it.”
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