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October 23, 2005
Neovox article 1
Here's my first article for Neovox.
Neovox Article One
Mother Maker Destroyer
By Morgan Dunn
Allen just wanted his mother to leave him alone. She had been nagging him to clean up the toys in his room for a while now. “It’s my house and you do what I say when it comes to the cleaning,” she’d tell him.
He couldn’t stand it. Allen had to step out when she got like that, sometimes she’d actually get him to clean it and he didn’t like that one bit. The road waited for him, filled with sights and sounds that did not interfere with the way he thought the world should work, but rather relaxed him.
The boy walked down to the house of the Scientist. This man knew everything there was to know. Allen liked to hang around him for this reason; he felt smarter than his mother while watching the Scientist build his contraptions.
Plus his mother knew nothing about him; not even his real name. It was an escape.
On that day, he seemed particularly excited. “What are you so happy about?” Allen asked, slumping down on the couch in front of the Scientist’s machine.
“I’ve built the most ingenious invention known to man just last night!” the Scientist proclaimed. He turned to the boy after tweaking a few details of the machine on a screen. “This machine before you will control the weather. We’ll never need to worry about weather-related catastrophes ruining lives and homes again! I am a genius, of course you already knew that,” the Scientist said proudly.
“It shoots an invisible beam of ionization molecules into the sky. This changes the charges of the clouds. Also, the machine emits waves of subtle energy which effect temperature densities and increases or decreases wind speed…”
As the Scientist spoke Allen’s head was spinning, but still intrigued. “Can I see it work?” he asked, leaning forward to get a better look. Electric lights and computer screens flashed on and off all over the contraption, a round mass with a satellite-receiver-like apparatus at the top pointing towards the sky.
“Of course! You’re just in time to see the first test run,” said the Scientist. He ran to one of the screens and input some information. “Let’s see...rain.”
The thing shook, beeped, and hummed, and the appendage at the top spun around. A few seconds later, they both looked and outside. Sure enough, rain was falling, a light drizzle.
The Scientist clapped, applauding himself. “Yes! Now, something more extreme…” he said, turning some knobs.
The rain quickly turned to snow, with wind blowing it in all directions outside the barn they occupied. Allen was delighted; maybe they’d cancel school the next day. But the Scientist turned it off completely, making all of the movement, noise and bad weather disappear.
“The world must know; I have advertising to do,” the Scientist said. “Go run home. And, um, tell everyone.”
Allen walked home, disappointed that the Scientist didn’t want him around. His mother, of course, was waiting, yelling at him for not cleaning up his room. He shut himself in there, ignoring her, surrounded by piles of trash and old useless things he had collected, and went to sleep.
Allen didn’t much enjoy school the next day. He got detention for acting up and received an unreasonable amount of homework. That afternoon his mother wouldn’t even let him go out.
During night, lying in bed, the boy decided to carry out his plan. He snuck out of the house and made his way down the street, fed up with school and responsibilities plaguing his life.
He thought of his mother and her constant demands…if she can control so much of his life then why can’t he control a bit of the world as well? It only seemed fair. The nightly sounds seemed to drive him onward, not judging.
A black bird suddenly landed right in front of Allen. He stopped and stared at it, and it stared back. The eyes of the creature did not falter; they the boy could feel the black orbs trying to communicate something inside him. In the darkness, merely a silhouette in the moonlight with two lit up specks; the fluttering bird took off leaving behind a certain fear in the heart of the boy.
He quickly continued on.
The barn of the Scientist stood before Allen.
Inside the machine waited to manifest his intentions. He tried to remember what the Scientist had done to make snow. The boy moved some of the knobs and pushed some buttons, hoping the thing would work.
The air became colder as the appendage began to spin. Wind kicked up outside and a flurry began to fall. Allen was pleased with his small success but wanted to ensure school would be cancelled the next day. He put his hand on the knob and spun it to full power.
A frigid gust coming through the door caught Allen off guard. Suddenly snow was everywhere. The boy tried to turn the knob back but it was no use; the fiercest blizzard he ever encountered raged outside. Ice began covering the trees and the snow piled up quickly.
In an act of desperation Allen grabbed a piece of scrap metal and hit the machine. He swung several times attempting to deactivate it. Finally the thing’s lights dimmed, the spinning ceased, and the boy ran home as fast as he could.
Upon arriving home Allen suddenly felt a great deal of regret. Everything was covered in ice and snow, many trees had fallen across the street, houses had become partially destroyed. His little escapade had turned into a nightmare. At least smashing the machine had stopped the blizzard and made the air a bit warmer.
He stepped in the door to find his mother standing, arms crossed. “I was in quite a rage to see you’d run off, but a sudden relief to find you missing,” she said.
Allen peeked into his room and found the glass broken out and spread everywhere, he assumed from the ice and wind. He also noticed this glass and snow spread throughout the house wherever a window was near.
“Well, you can clean it all up. I don’t know how this squall started but I’m too old to fix it. Go ahead, you better start now.”
Posted by Morgan Dunn at October 23, 2005 4:48 PM
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