Rewired (Fiction)

He stopped at the side of the road, took a sip of water and continued his path knowing that the chase was far from over. Equipped with a small backpack, a sharp knife made of titanium that would withstand all weather conditions and a pack of lighters, Jackson lost count of the days, weeks and months he has been on the run.

It must have been close to five years since the military squad crushed Michael’s birthday party at the foster home down the lake. Only a handful of kids managed to escape that morning. A couple of days later ever single one of them got caught except Jackson.

He was different. After the car accident which led to the death of Jackson’s parents and sibling, the boy stopped talking. Doctors and psychologists tried to connect with him on a deeper level while being at the foster home but none of them succeeded. Jackson shut everyone out and was living in his own world.

Another day at school without anomalies. Jackson opened his backpack, pulled out the physics book and started working on the new assignment. Most children and teachers had left the building, only those who attended evening or special classes were on site. Jackson loved afternoons at school as it provided him with that safe haven he desperately needed and the physics lab was the perfect environment for him to recharge while taking part in all kinds of experiments.

He looked up and saw three classmates wiring what looked like a small machine to a computer monitor. A firework of different colors appeared on the screen. Jackson could see the boys laughing and being extremely proud of their accomplishment. While celebrating each other the monitor suddenly turned blue and what looked like an orange cloud appeared on the top left of the screen. The boys stopped giggling and stared at the screen wondering what had happened.

Out of the three wires that were linked to the monitor two have melted during the experiment while the third one remained intact. The current outcome was not part of the experiment.

How could one single wire transmit this type of frequency to a monitor? What was responsible for the screen turning blue with this orange pattern?

After pausing for a couple of minutes, the boys decided to video record the result and share it with their physics teacher in class the next morning. They were so immersed in this experience that they forgot about Jackson sitting a few rows back in the room. Upon leaving one of them took the lab keys out and locked the door.

Jackson couldn’t take his eyes off the screen. He was staring at the orange pattern that looked like a cloud from where he was sitting. Now that his classmates were gone, he got up and approached the table where the machine and the monitor were placed.

Intuitively he grabbed the monitor from behind with his right hand while pressing two fingers against the orange cloud that appeared at the top left of the screen. Suddenly the entire color pattern changed. The screen turned into orange and the cloud into blue. Jackson couldn’t explain the change so he looked at the wire that was linking the machine to the monitor. Nothing unusual there either.

He decided to replicate the process but the color scheme remained unchanged. No matter how many times he tried to apply the same gestures and moves, the screen kept its current color pattern.

Jackson’s next logical move was to unhook the wire from the back of the monitor to see what happens. He detached the wire and to his utmost surprise, the screen continued to show the same color structure. A couple of minutes went by before he decided to reattach the wire to the screen and closely monitor any changes. No flickering, no rewiring of patterns, no nothing.

Puzzled about the outcome Jackson went to the back of the room where he left his notebook and backpack and started packing up his stuff when an idea struck him. He returned to the experiment, grabbed the monitor with his right hand and pressed the blue cloud with two fingers just as he did the very first time with the orange one. Suddenly, the colors switched back to their original position. The screen was back to blue again and the cloud was orange.

If a simple observer can have such a huge impact on a small lab experiment how can one draw the boundaries between illusion and reality in life?

💎💎💎 Krisz Rokk 💎💎💎

Creative art: AI-generated images by Daniela S. via Midjourney

Originally published on the Hive blockchain at @KriszRokk