Science Fiction Microstory Contest discussion
Thanks to everyone for another great month of stories
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Congratulations, Jot! Neat little recursive hero's journey, that one.
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Good work, Jot. An excellent story and this version is super!
Town Line Road
©2021 by Jot Russell
If you asked, I’d say guilt was my motivator. You see, I built it because I got a man killed once. I was just a careless six-year-old kid, weaving my green, wolverine bike across the streets, daring cars to hit me. Two had screeched to a halt as I shot across from side roads. I remember stopping there for a giggle, pausing to watch other cars zoom past on Town Line Road before kicking the pedals to life in a path toward destiny.
It took me a few seconds to reach full speed. As I approached the main road, a truck came up fast over the hill, and I realized there was nothing I could do to stop before it hit me. Something in that young brain of mine understood in that instance the consequence of my actions, and I was suddenly overwhelmed with fear. When the body lets go of the soul, time suddenly becomes a meaningless thing. Tumbling in the air, suspended in a state of weightlessness, everything that I had ever done in my short life was relived in a single moment. Six years in the span of a second, until the second passed, and time itself suddenly returned to me.
Oh, how I wish that when I stood up to cry, it was for him. But the fear of self-preservation took hold of that remaining part of my soul. My thoughts at that moment completely disregarded the single glance that I had made at the ruins of my bike next to the broken form of the man who had jumped out from behind a tree on the sidewalk and pushed me back from my bike. Now, he’s all I can see.
Even the man behind the wheel, full of his own guilt, had later tried to take his own life. Was I guilty of murder, or even the attempt the driver had made on his own life? Somewhere, there was an outcome I had to find which could prevent this type of thing from happening, again. Without being able to turn back time, prevention was the only path.
As I came of age, I told myself to make the life the man saved worth something. But my degree at RIT and research work at Google Labs failed to quench the guilt I still felt. One thing I can say is that I didn’t let it slow me down. Drawing from the accumulated regret, I pushed forward knowing the answer was there; somehow suspended in time and just waiting to be discovered. Fifty years after that faithful day, I realized, I could build it.
A hundred years before, the simple word “energize” introduced most to the notion of a transporter. But deep within the energy that all matter is created from was the real solution. How could it have been so simple?
Once completed and mass-produced, no one would need a car, truck or van. A revolutionary solution to so many of society’s problems. A clean, quiet and safe world from the likes of tin mechanized bullets that traveled on land and air. The tests were far from perfect, but each failure only extended my understanding of the science and increased my resolve to make my dream a reality. And then it was!
Through quantum’s uncertainty between time and space lay a dimensionless shortcut that I would be the first to utilize. My only question was to where? The notion was answered as soon as it was asked.
Being the anniversary of the event that led me to this day, I decided to return home.
**
The street was more familiar than I had expected. Somehow it seemed unchanged from the many years that transpired since I last stood here crying. The corner house had the same broken fence. Even the sound of cars that passed behind triggered a recognition of their age. Suddenly, I realized that I didn’t just travel through space, but time itself. I turned to see a truck speeding closer. No, not a truck; the truck!
Without thinking, I jumped from behind the tree and thrust my weight into the approaching cyclist. I pushed my hands into his chest, dislodging the boy from his green bike. Although safe from the impending truck, his momentum carried me back upright and over towards the edge of the road. With the faintest extra motion, I understood my fate in an instant. Within that instant, I again relived every second of my life, until it was gone.