Matthew Palmer was a very brilliant thirty two year old man. He was about five foot eleven inches, with Brown/Blue eyes, and dirty red hair. He was of course a loner, seeing as how his job always occupied his time, and left no room for friends. But that was just how he liked it.He didn't like large groups of people anyway. He always figured that they would just wind up getting in his way as he tried to actually get somewhere in the thing which we call life, but of course that didn't make him a grouch. He considered himself a kind and gentile person, which he could in fact be on occasion. And it wasn't even that he was just one of those nerds who simply didn't like people. No, Matthew liked people just fine, it was just that he had no time for them. If anything he would simply be saving himself a whole bunch of trouble in the long run.
He had a great number of degrees under his leather belt, which he wore with pride as he walked around with it strapped around his waist. A sort of swag if you will. He was happy being a theoretical physicist, up until he was noticed be the higher ups. He had been trying to get noticed by them for quite some time. he knew he was being monitored and he knew it was only a matter of time before he was finally transferred out of horribly under funded lab he was currently working for and hopefully into a much nicer place. Maybe a place with a half way usable bathroom. The place he worked now was just a complete dump. It was a one story pile of trash, where sanitation was just a suggestion. And that was never good in any field of science since sanitation is highly necessary. You can ask any scientist of any field and they will tell you the same thing. Any scientist except for the ones Matthew worked with. He considered it a scientific downgrade, he really did. He always thought of it as a personal offence on him in particular, but that was ridiculous. Though nothing was ridiculous when you believed every little conspiracy theory that was out there. The labs in the building were by far every scientists worst nightmare when it came to that. And the building itself looked more like a trailer than any kind of scientific building worth it's title. It wasn't even in a nice area. The area that they were located in was... Unsafe to say the least. The common weekend activities around there was a local shooting. And the thing to do when you have free time is breaking and entering. Again that was nothing that was good news for them. It simply meant that they had lab equipment, and even chemicals or samples taken right from their crappy looking building. Then they would act like it was no big deal that they had to buy some new piece of we equipment. Even though they could afford to buy new equipment, they figure it would be a bad investment to buy a security system.
Matthew truly didn't like it there one bit. But of course he didn't have a choice. It was the only working facility within miles of where he lived, and it was the only one that was willing to publish his work. Every other place thought that they were too good to help him publish his research, no matter how good his research papers really were. So it was almost like it was the only research building that was willing to listen to what he had to say. That in itself was slightly depressing to Matthew, and almost acted as a dawning realization that he was actually not as good of a scientist that he thought he really was. But then one day he he found a note, in his lab. A note that at first would make it seem like he was getting attention from the higher up. But it would wind up being quite a mess. But none the less, a mess that will give him the recognition he had been looking for. It would make him seem like a hero.
He came in through the broken doors to the room which he called his lab. It was a sorry excuse for such a thing but every now and then it does the trick. It had the classic checkered patterned wall, with areas of the wall that already had pieces of tile falling off. It had a disturbingly pink carpet for a floor. Which was never a good idea because it would be to easy for things to catch fire. And then of course it has the lab table in the middle of the room. The table had cabinets with functional doors along the sides, but most of the have already started to fall off of their hinges.The table had a sink on one of the corners, but it only decided to work when it really wanted to. and then there was the microscope, which was the only decent thing in the whole building. But of course it was completely unused for just that reason. Everyone wanted to keep it looking nice and new, and anyone who did use it was extremely careful about it, Matthew did also have a computer in his office, but he could never use it. Computers never work for him, and it was all because of one thing.
For some reason Matthew had an extraordinary electromagnetic field. No matter how many times he tested himself he couldn't figure out why. Though this was something that he never told anyone. And it is also one of the main reasons why he became a theoretical physicist. He did it so that he could figure out the mysteries of the world. One of them being himself.
There was something new on that table when he stepped into the lab. The was a small red piece of note paper on the table. Neatly taped to one of the edges so that it could hang lazily off of the side. Matthew walked over and ripped it off of the table, tape and all. He brought it up to eye level so that he could read the message typed onto it. And he was very happy to see that the letter referenced one of the many papers he had written through out his career. He was even happier to see that it was on his research into the presence of non physical beings. A research paper that he was particularly proud of and one he considered to be one of his best studies that he had ever conducted. And one of the more difficult ones at that. The letter read:
Dear Mr. Palmer,
We have reviewed your research regarding the existence of non physical entities. We would like to formally invite you down to our facility so that you may consult with us on a particular matter. You will be well compensated for your troubles. We hope that you can Join us in this very important study, as we are sure that you will be a great help to us. It would be an honor to have you working along side our best, and we anticipate meeting you in person. Till then.
That's all it had to say which was a little bit disappointing. It was a very short letter, and it didn't even have the writers signature, which gave it a sort of eerie feel to it.. But when Matthew flipped the paper over to see if anything was written on the back, he found that something else was written there instead of a signature. It was a set of coordinates that had been scribbled onto the back of the small sheet of paper.. Matt walked over to his calender to make sure he was available for the next couple of days. He knew the answer before he even saw the lack of writing, which would indicate that he was a bust man. And everyone that knew him, knew that he was never busy if it came to science, especially if it came to a field that ha had a high interest in. So it was settled then. Matt decided that he was going to take this opportunity to possibly get a bit farther ahead in life. It was an opertunity that he would just not pass up.
YOU ARE READING
Unthinkable...
Short StoryWhat you don't know can't hurt you. But what if it's something that you can't help but rue.