New Scientist(Short Story)

New Scientist

 "Get out!"

They threw me out. Their eyes flickered in a strange light.

"You're not welcome here anymore."

They were looking at me as if I were a complete stranger. No...that isn't the right description. They were looking at me as if I were trash. A being of the lowest level. Somebody who didn't deserve to breathe the same air as them.

My brother pushed me hard on the steps at our home's entrance and I fell on the ground. My father threw my most recent invention at me. He threw it with all of his might and it broke down to pieces. Their final act was slamming the door as hard as they could and turning off all the light to leave me in the darkness of the night.

It was over. My life with my family was over. They gave me an ultimatum, but I didn't want to comply. I didn't want to live my life obeying their strict rules. They gave me a simple choice. I had to abandon all of my research, leave all of my inventions at a scrap yard and become their puppet. Even people who barely knew me could tell that pursuing science was my life call, but they treated it like something abnormal.

I took a few useful parts of the broken machine with me and left the premises. I didn't look back as I was leaving. There was no point. The decision has been made.

I lived in a town where inventing things was an everyday occurrence. Almost everybody researched something. The industrial revolution was at its peak without showing any sign of decline. Incredible new breakthroughs became an everyday occurrence. It was the best and the worst time for a scientist. Research became easier because machine parts and tools could be bought at every corner. Even high quality, rare parts could be bought for the right price without ever leaving the street you lived in. The downside was that the competition was extreme. You could research something for months, get closer to solving the mystery every day, only to find out that somebody already beat you to it a few days ago.

Only my family was dissatisfied with pursuing science as a career. They cared about two things only. Money and power. Making more money and gathering political power was always on their minds. Everything else was secondary. Needless to say that we didn't get along well. As a scientist, I could make enough money to secure my living. It wouldn't be a life of luxury and I was satisfied by it, but my family couldn't bear the thought of having a son completely uninvolved in their evil power schemes.

I don't even look alike with the other members of my family. They were quite tall, and my height was average. I wasn't considered small, but I wasn't tall either. My hair was blue with a silver shine. Their hair was black as the night. My eyes were of a very light silver shade and theirs were a clear blue. I was the family's black sheep, the youngest and most disappointing son.

The only one who could probably understand me was my late grandfather. He died a long time ago, while I was a very young child. As I grew older everybody said that I looked exactly like my grandfather when he was young. I didn't remember much about him, but I remember playing with the machines he created. He gave a lot of automaton toys for me and my brother. I used to dismantle all of them to see their inner parts and figure out how they worked. Sometimes I created completely different machines from the parts.

As I wandered through the dark town I started to remember my grandfather a lot. He created a lot of useful inventions. Every day was a workday for him. He never stopped working but his inventions barely brought profit. He was a naive person. It was easy to trick him and a lot of his inventions got stolen. They were sold under someone else's name.

My father hated the foolishly honest personality of my grandfather and the machines he created. He often told us that living in poverty was the worst thing that could happen to a person and pursuing science as his father would only bring ruin to a person. I wasn't as gullible as my grandfather but that didn't change my father's opinion. During the years my father became greedier and greedier. There was nobody to stop his crazed pursuit of money and power. My mother listened to every word father said and my brother shared the same greedy personality.