Chapter 3

  Deke Kelton stood six feet tall with a medium build. He was getting just a little paunch around his middle that had developed in the months since he and Gillian married. At 29, he was the youngest PhD who had been assigned their own laboratory in the Milton Cohen Physics building.

  On his way home, Kelton's mind raced with possibilities. He didn’t recall getting into his 30-year-old Nova or the effort it usually took to get it started for the drive home. He was pulling into his driveway before he even realized he was home. He looked at his house. It was one of the hundreds of houses built in subdivisions that popped up around the University just after World War II. Many of the houses in the neighborhood were well-kept and tidy. Not Kelton’s. It needed paint and the lawn was about a week overdue for mowing. In the driveway the Nova’s shabby exterior paired perfectly with the house and yard. Its paint was scratched and faded. The driver's side window was marked with vertical scratches. The seat cover Kelton sat on was torn at the seams and the vinyl was cracked where it wasn’t torn. Sometimes pulling into the driveway was a reminder of his disappointments with himself. Every month they ran out of money before they ran out of month.

  Today he had other things on his mind.

  The door handle on the inside of the car broke months ago. He rolled down the window until it stopped rolling with about 2 inches of glass still protruding from the door. He reached his hand out of the window and lifted the latch. Today he was so excited to tell Gillian about his day that he didn’t even roll up the window before shutting the car door. It took some effort to close the door. The hinges groaned and the door slammed shut. The top of the window fell into the door with a thump. He hardly noticed.

  He ran into the house eager to tell Gillian about his day. They had been married just 11 months ago. They had met in a physics class where Deke was acting as a grad student assistant and Gillian was a third-year student. She was tall and slender. Her black hair and her features were Asian. Deke always thought she looked like an Indian Princess. He sometimes called her ‘Maharani’ or just ‘Rani.’ They were immediately attracted to each other. Deke had waited until the semester was over to ask her out. She happily accepted but was surprised at the invitation because she thought he wasn’t interested in her - he hadn’t even flirted with her in the classroom. They had waited for Gillian to finish her degree to get married, and already she was anxious to start a family.

  Gillian sat on the floor near their secondhand couch with her elbows on her knees and head in her hands, her eyes red with tears.

  Every other thought fled. “What’s wrong, Rani?”

  “Oh, Deke. I’ve just been thinking about my dad. I really miss him today. It’s been one month ago today that he died. “

  Deke knelt at her side and put his arms around her to comfort her. Her father’s suicide had been very hard on her. Her sobs increased with his arms around her. Not knowing what else to do, he held her more tightly and let her cry.

  After a few minutes, he tried to make her feel better. “Whatever was bothering him, he's out of pain now." Deke tried, “I think he would want you to be as happy as you can be.”

  Gillian cried even harder. Deke knew he wasn't good with emotions. Physicists want to solve problems, but this wasn't a problem he was equipped to address. Grasping at straws, he thought a cup of tea might be soothing for Gillian. He moved as though to get up. She held his arms tightly to keep him where he was. They sat on the floor by the couch quietly for the next few minutes.

  It’s time for a little distraction, Deke thought. “Something amazing happened in the lab today, Rani”

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “Hmm?” She lifted her eyes a little. Her beautiful face was tear-stained and splotchy.

  Encouraged, Deke pressed forward. “We had another very interesting accident in the lab today.”

  All Gillian heard was ‘accident.’ Her eyes cleared, and she looked him intently in the eye. “What accident?” she demanded.

  “Don't worry. No one was hurt!” Deke quickly reminded her of the solid walls that had formed when they engaged the box for the first time just yesterday. They tried to penetrate the box physically with blades and spikes, but no matter how much force they applied, they couldn't even put a scratch on it. They tried lasers and ultrasound. The red aiming dot from the laser wasn't even reflected. The box reflected no light of any kind or color.

  He told her about Chaz's hand and his watch. He told her about the experiment with the sparklers. “It's way too early to be thinking about this, but I just can't help it. Nothing happens inside the box when the field is engaged. No atomic activity, no electrical activity, heat is preserved, momentum is preserved, no mechanical activity. It's like time stops inside the box. And it takes almost no electricity to sustain the field.”

  Now the floodgates were open, Deke gushed, “The applications are mind-boggling. It could be used to replace refrigeration; it could even be used to hibernate to enable people to travel to the stars. Imagine crating and shipping extremely fragile items. It wouldn't matter how badly the box was handled, the goods inside would arrive completely intact, the way they went into the box. Organs for transplant could be kept viable for as long as the field can be sustained! And I'm sure we haven't even scratched the surface of the applications yet. This is world-changing stuff!

  Dekes' enthusiasm had distracted Gillian from the thoughts of her father.

  “Is Chaz ok?” she asked.

  “It's too early to know for sure, but his hand looked like it was fine. He was able to use it the rest of the day. We have got to do a lot more experimentation to know exactly what's happened, but I'm very optimistic he will be fine. What's more important, well maybe not more important, but more exciting right now is there are some incredible practical applications for this - if it's what I think it is. The team is always talking about how to monetize what we're doing. Last week, I thought that there was no commercial application. We were years, if not decades, away from being able to make any money with my work. Naturally, the university has the primary stake in my research, so it's not like we'll be the only ones making money. I wasn't expecting anything like this. This technology could be worth billions very soon. It's almost like we won the lottery!”

  “Let's not get ahead of ourselves,” said Gillian. “It's really exciting, but I don't want to get our hopes up about money. I'm pretty tender about the whole money thing right now.” Gillian was extremely sensitive about money issues. Her father had lost his business, drove home, parked his car in the garage, and finished a bottle of Scotch with the motor running. He was found dead the following day in his car. Was it accidental, or was it suicide? Either way, the effect on Gillian had been devastating. She had been very close to her father. For the last month, she had been alternating between tears of sorrow and raging anger.

  Deke put his arms around her and held her tightly.

  Without warning, Gillian pushed him away and looked him directly in the eye. “You need to promise me you will never get in that box.”

  “What?”

  “Promise me you will never get in that box. I can't be losing you, too.”

  “How did we get here?”

  “Promise me!”

  “What would I get in the box for?” evaded Deke. The idea of getting in the box to see what was going on in there had occurred to him on more than one occasion over the last two days. They were frustrated about not getting any data back out of the box. “You don't need to worry. The university has extremely strict rules about experimentation. I don't want to lose my position.”

  “You will lose more than your position if you get in that box,” said Gillian fiercely.

  Deke was relieved to realize she wasn't crying anymore. “What are we doing for dinner?” he said, changing the subject.

  “I am very hungry,” she said. “Do you feel like leftovers, leftover Chinese takeout, or shall we just eat popcorn in front of the TV tonight? We don't have much in the house, and we don't get paid until Friday.”

  “Leftovers it is! Let's go for the full smorgasbord experience!”

  They ate stir-fried noodles and popcorn in front of the TV. But Deke's mind was elsewhere. Midway through the movie stood up. “I'm really tired lately. I think I'll go to bed now. Goodnight, Nicolai,” she said as she bent over to kiss him goodnight. Her pet names for Deke were always the first names of world-changing scientists.

  Deke stayed on the couch, staring at the screen, but his mind was one million miles away.