An Anthology, Of Sorts

2438

The sound of crackling electricity fizzed and eventually died out in another loud pop. Anslem Swallow stood in the center of all the smoke, wires and remains of failed experiments with his hands pressed firmly to the sides of his head, his face set in a hard wince. He cracked an eye open. He could barely see through the thick grey fumes that surrounded him. He blinked a few times to clear his eyes, hoping his machine was still salvageable. He almost didn't recognize the thing at first. It was a mass of steel and copper and frayed wires. Anslem let out a loud grunt and kicked at a piece of debris at his feet. So much for the world's first portable interactive 3D projection system. It had been a long day. Anslem decided to give up on this particular engagement in order to make himself a cup of coffee.

He made his way up from the basement that held his life's work, or more precisely, all of last week's planning reduced to a pile of junk.

"Anslem! Uh, I mean, um Mr. Swallow! Professor Swallow! Doctor Swallow? Inventor Swallow? Is 'Inventor' even a title--" started a voice suddenly from behind Anslem. Anslem jumped and whirled on a boy of about eighteen, maybe less. Anslem had never taken the time to ask.

"Dear lord, boy! You almost gave me a heart attack! I'm getting old and I can't take your sneaking up on me!"

"But, sir... you're only--"

"Shut up, Wesley!" Anslem said in a loud voice and gave a dismissive wave of his hand. He turned to continue on his quest for coffee.

"I-it's Willam, actually..." The boy said quietly. He was tugging nervously on a strand of his obnoxiously curly red hair. His bright blue eyes were fixed on the retreating figure of Anslem Swallow, full of both disappointment and admiration. "Not that it really matters. 'Do this, boy," Will grumbled, mocking Mr. Swallow's voice with surprising skill, "'Do that.' I do all the real work around here and he just sits in his basement making dumb machines!" Will didn't really mean much of this, though there was truth behind his words. Anslem Swallow, while in Will's mind, a brilliant eccentric genius, was very absent-minded. Will wasn't even sure he actually knew what his protege was doing in this house, and frankly, neither did Will. Will had been the brightest and most promising student in his whole engineering class. So, naturally, he would get a great mentor, or so Will had thought. Will always thought of Mr. Swallow as a brilliant man whole intellectual skill composed most of his brain, so all teachings of manner and etiquette just flew out to make room for his inventions. He was beginning to believe this more and more by the day.

Anslem regretted being so rude to the scrawny red-head boy, but sometimes he was just an inconvenience. Anslem wasn't even sure why he'd allowed the boy to come live with him in the first place. Wyatt -or was it Walton- was tall, lanky, had very high cheekbones, was quite pale, and was absolutely covered in pimples. He was of some intelligence, or at least, that's what Anslem had gathered from what the University's staff had told him. He's almost never talked to the boy himself, he seemed uninteresting, unlike Anslem. Anslem liked to think of himself as quite extraordinary, and was somewhat embarrassed to be reduced to a babysitter.

Anslem made his was over to the large, square kitchen. It had stone counters and a sink with metal fixtures. The floor was tiled and the walls were painted and decorated with a wallpaper border. Light was provided by wall lamps. The room was done in colors that reminded you of the ocean, and overall, almost looked extraterrestrial. Among the first things Anslem noticed walking in, were bags of groceries that had yet to be put away. Warren ought to get on to that, he thought. Watson? Weston?

After a few minutes, Anslem was sitting slouched on a dark blue sofa with a mug of steaming coffee in his calloused hand. In his other hand, he clutched today's paper. The headline read: SHOULD WE BE WORRIED ABOUT AN ALIEN INVASION? Anslem almost laughed. Aliens? Christ, he thought, I thought people had grown out of spreading such silly unprofessional rumors. And in the press no less! He read on. There have been many reports of tremors throughout London. Most believe them to be a result of some freak weather changes or a new level of Global Warming. Global Warming? Didn't they understand anything about geography? Anslem sighed and shook his head disdainfully. While, yes, most say Global Warming is the cause of these tremors, a few have blamed something entirely different. Three witnesses claim this to be the work of aliens orbiting Earth. Not more of this stuff. "It's already the 2000s, I thought we invalidated this preposterous theory of an alien invasion, it even sounds absurd to say aloud!"