I jumped. I blacked out. When I awoke, head ringing and eyes spotted with colours, he turned round slowly.

"You ever heard of an Ox Bow Lake?"

"nuhuh" I said. Mind you, the gag would have rendered the same result as a Shakespeare soliloquy. 

"sahwiwochee" Hell, it was different. Maybe if you were a dentist, this conversation would be less one sided. I eyed the man who had broken in to the lab, wondering if he'd had orthodontist training. He knew his way round a physics lab alright, but fiddling with the quantum accelerator probably wasn't the best idea. That thing could trip the city's grid if mishandled. 

"You see," said his perfectly white teeth, "time is like a river, and if you change its course you can leave stuff behind. The bank collapses, and what was a bend is now stranded. Separate. Apart." 

I nodded. "Fchuh Nigioch. Geg Arah fruh tha swich!" It seems he wasn't a dentist. He was a fucking idiot after all.

"I'm here to see that that doesn't happen." He flicked the main breaker.

A spark cracked and the lights flared and blew.

I jumped. I blacked out. When I awoke, head ringing and eyes spotted with colours he turned round slowly.

"You ever heard of an Ox Bow Lake?"

Comments

Want to comment? Login or Join

Login Sign up
1
bespectakate over 12 years ago

You had me at the mention of Ox Bow Lakes (ah, geography lessons, how I hated thee.)

Seriously though, I like this, it's intriguing, looking foward to reading more.

1
Galen over 12 years ago

DrMikeReddy, your screenname would do honor to the villainest of supervillains. And this story is a testament to your at-heart-villainy. :D Excellent. Bravo. Etc, etc.

1
DoctorMikeReddy over 12 years ago

I always thought of myself as the writing equivalent of Gary Oldman, always the villain, ever since I was typecast as the evil merchant in the school nativity play one year. The vitriol of my one line drew gasps from the parental audience.

Galen over 12 years ago

Hah! I want to hear that story some time.

DoctorMikeReddy over 11 years ago

There is an audio version of this story, recorded for #AudioMo, at http://audioboo.fm/boos/1038076-audiomo-2nd-november-blind-faith-and-deja-vu-redux-2-six-minute-stories

DoctorMikeReddy (joined over 13 years ago)
Visit Website

I do all sorts of things. Mostly badly. Mostly better than others. I tell stories. Occasionally, I lie.

2 favorites

Story information

License

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0

genres

SF

tags

Paradox quantum

Contact


We like you. Say "Hi."