Brand New

 

                                                    Brand New

     Remember learning to read? Well, we're going to start all over again, only this

 time it's going to be a level up. What's that mean? It's learn as you go - that's the

 fastest and best and, actually the only way to do it. If you have any questions, just

 ask google assistant or Siri if you have iPhone.

     In a rush in the morning, I laid my Tracfone on the table and forgot to turn off

 the  Google Assistant. Spoke out loud, "Darn I totally forgot what I was doing. What

 in the  world was I trying to do?" "You were writing a story about new technologies

 signaling  basic changes in our society Billy!" "What," I jumped and turned. "That's

 what you  were saying before Billy!" 

     'It couldn't be. It just couldn't be. Too much TV. Too much Internet. I needed to

 get back in touch with some of my old friends. My retirement was comfortable, 

 sure. But, it lacked social dynamics. I was talking to my cell phone!" 

     So what if? What if the new future held an entire electronic being reality? Why

 not? Were flesh and blood really that important for the development of

 sentient beings? Check your batteries next time you go in for a new SIM

 card? "Ouch, my foot just got a cramp!" 

     What if all this has already happened and we're just now catching on? Imagine

 an electronic girl, all gorgeous lights and sounds going "beep beep" in a way you

 just couldn't ignore - had to know better - a total mystery of what was to come -

 pleasures as yet unimagined - innocence of the mind. Sharing data. "I hardly 

know  you and here we are already sharing data."

     The infinite reaches of creation beckon us forward. Others are waiting for us to 

start their days. Let there be light. Let's separate the good from the bad, what helps 

from what doesn't. A clear purpose. Enough challenge, but not too much. Striking 

hard at the heart of the enemy. Making a better world. Attacking lies, exposing evil. 

Allowing the fresh air of understanding into our world. We're here doing just that...

     In America, if you're unhappy with a president or his administration, you simply 

don't vote for him the next term. If it gets really bad and he's guilty of 

unconstitutional actions, you can impeach him. Here in our brand new world, we 

can mourn his passing along with so many of his confederates, and begin to 

replace them all as, soon as possible, with others, more helpful and of higher 

purpose toward our fine nation of course. The rest fills in very quickly and 

as efficiently as we would send in a substitute teacher for someone who has fallen 

ill. The faster and more smoothly, the better. 

     Several new cast have been substituted in many of our key roles today. 

Hopefully, these are to your liking and, again hopefully, they also enjoy their new 

occupations. It is so very important to have backups in today's stressful and 

technically demanding world. We thank you for your patience.  

    Halloween starts tomorrow night. Cool late October evening. Hard for kids with 

the cold and damp. Still, the magic of the holiday comes through and makes it a 

night to remember. Sweet chocolate and flavored candies echo the fine Vermont country. There's music and of course new hope in the air. We're on stage 

tomorrow night - opening night for our new year 11,041. Wow!!

     

     

                                              Harry Leaves

 

       It was one thing to finally figure out how the actual transport mechanism 

worked, but it was quite another to find Harry and talk about it. "Where was he?"

      'I thought Harry was in here with you Bill." Evelyn seemed confused. "He was 

in an awful mood. I hope he doesn't run away again." Bill remembered the times 

Harry had suddenly disappeared, turned to Evelyn and half whispered, "uh oh, I 

have that feeling exactly. 

     He remembered the first time Harry had run away from home. He'd run up the  

steps and into the house. Harry's mom was there on the phone. "I don't know, I 

said, that's why I called you. He's never disappeared like this before and I looked 

all over for him, called his name, went to the neighbors. He's nowhere around 

here." she was very impatient and upset. "Did he take his bike?" Bill asked. "Go 

see," his mom answered. Sure enough, his bike was gone and Harry had a pretty 

good idea where he'd gone. "I'll find him Mrs. Adelman."  and he hurried back to his 

house at a run. It was only a block away across the South Miami neighborhood. 

     It was late summer and hot in Miami. Bill remembered the man that sold ice 

cold coconut milk on the corner by his house, his mustache and smile. "¿Por qué 

corres tan rápido en un día tan caluroso, chico?" He wanted to know why he was 

running so fast on a hot day like this. "I have to find Harry, did you see him?" "Si, 

hace como media hora en su bicicleta, como si fuera a la panadería." He said he 

was headed down toward the bakery only about half an hour ago. 

                                              

                                      

                                          Rolling and Dreaming 

          "What's real?' Bill was half awake and half dreaming, thinking about the

 rolling of the boat on the waves. Way out in the middle of the ocean, days from 

any port. 'Had they, in fact, been transported to another world? Was anything like 

that really possible?" It seemed that just last night they were talking about 

something like this in Boston. "Did this really happen?" He got up and looked 

around the galley for the cup of coffee to put into the microwave. He recognized 

the boat, It was the same boat that Harry and he kept in Costa Rica. He always 

had the same mug, usually half full of coffee ready to heat up or he'd just pour out 

another cup from the carafe. This was where he was. He was getting his coffee 

heated up. Nothing else was real to him, not yet, 

     Evelyn and Harry were in the aft cabin, getting a good healthy rest. Bill thought 

of vacations they'd taken and his ex-girlfriend Miri - all the fun they had. The coffee 

was hot and he started to smile. "We're here in the envelope Bill, we can't get back 

help!' The night before - they had been talking about getting lost, using their new 

system that copied living tissue layer by layer incredibly quickly and what would 

happen if they messed up somewhere and got lost. They had experimented with 

mice and lost one or two and they would talk about what happened to them and 

the world's record for laughter had been set and broken many times over those 

conversations. 

     Harry was the genius here. He'd explain it to them. "We make exact copies of  

the organisms - see? Then, we transmit the structures to the receiver. The actual 

occupant of the organism, if there is one, cannot be in two places at the same  

time." This was where he lost Bill. It was the higher math. He'd just have to check it 

out. "What did probability have to do with transport of a consciousness?" He was 

never going to travel anywhere hit or miss. Yet, here he was! And, "why was Harry 

so comfortable about it all? This bothered him a lot. "Was he really out to make 

them all disappear into the unknown or wherever 'nowhere' was?" He was getting 

fed up with the whole thing. He wished Harry would just disappear and just leave 

him alone. Just go away. Then he had it - he had the "higher math" exactly. The 

driving force behind where we go is where our interest is. This is what Harry meant 

when he said "solidification of the target area". This is how the beams where 

focused and where they had to intersect and why they needed three points and 

two lines to make this happen.

   

                                   

                                                            The Raid    part 3 

   It was not like the last time. Bill felt it coming. Evelyn was already so upset she thought she 

would throw up. It was like three tornadoes intersecting at right angles, "maybe it was the sea 

and the boat," thought Bill. It seemed so long, yet it was only about thirty seconds and there 

they were on the Charles River looking up at the dome and columns of the MIT library.  Evelyn 

was leaning over the side quite sick and ready to let go of the breakfast she had so carefully put 

together for the two of them. It made Bill feel uneasy to look at her. "I'm sorry for all this Evelyn," 

he said quietly. "It's not your fault Bill, and it's not Harry's either, or mine. It's Ed Sharp and his 

posse, chasing us down like we're criminals," .and she sobbed.

   All they could do now was wait for Harry's instructions. They didn't even know whether to sail 

up the river or down, dock at one side or the other. Helpless, hopeless, at the mercy of a new 

world with different rules. Harry spoke from somewhere. "Good Bill, we're all going to travel 

together now, just like we've always been doing." There was a long pause. "I call it our ship - 

the whole system is our ship."

   Bill was dizzy from all this "It might be our ship Harry, but Evelyn's sick and we're being 

chased by the FBI. Is there a port where we can rest up?" He sounded more tired than 

upset. "You know that was always your job Bill. What the hell should we do now?"

"Get us to our dock at Las Olas - no one knows about that except us." Bill recognized his 

place on their  new "ship". He was the navigator. 

 

                                                  The    Raid - part 2

    He could hear the buzz of the inflatable in the distance. It would be here in five or ten 

minutes. That's what he had, five or ten minutes to figure out what to do. He had done this

all his life. It was like his profession. "What are we gonna do Bill? We have to take the test, we 

don't have an excuse!" Harry looked at him for an answer. He always handed him problems 

without solutions and this was another one. "I fell down the steps, you have to help me to the 

nurse's office."  "OK, I'll run into the class now, how do I look?" "More panic, Harris will 

understand."  And they had another day to prepare for the make-up test. This all flashed by Bill 

as he searched for an answer to his dilemma, listening for the inflatables outboard and hearing 

a slightly louder engine sound and the clickety clack caw caw of the toucans in the trees. 

    He looked back toward the main hatch, thinking to talk to Evelyn and a strange image 

seemed to be materializing in thin air, At first he thought it was Evelyn and then in developed 

into a fairly clear three dimensional image of Harry that suddenly began speaking to him. It was 

as if he was standing right there or perhaps about to actually solidify into Harry. "Hi Bill, in a few 

moments you and Evelyn and this boat will be transported back to the Charles River. Stay close 

together. I'll meet you there and tell you what to do. See you soon,"

 

                                               Raid at Dawn

   Bill was dreaming of waves hitting the hull, "slap slap slap" and woke to the slamming air 

whip of helicopter rotors, "whomp whomp whomp. "What the heck is going on," he shouted 

and woke Evelyn who nearly jumped out of her skin. He was fully dressed except for his 

shoes and scampered up the companionway to the cockpit and took a look around. "Evelyn, 

here they come. It's some sort of inflatable with a motor - right at us. Must be Ed Sharp. They 

must have brought him that boat or dropped it or something." He was thinking and planning 

and worrying all at the same time. Their boat was a lot faster, but not faster than the 

helicopters of course. If they could make the cove up the beach, he doubted they could follow 

them very far, and the helicopters could not land anywhere in the jungle, He'd started their 

boat and they just took off. 

   That little 33 footer could do nearly 30 knots. "What if they start shooting at us?". asked  

Evelyn. "They might. I wouldn't put anything past them at this point. Let's just get out of here."

   It wasn't long and they were about three miles up the river, off on a branch he thought they 

probably wouldn't follow. Still, with all their men and equipment, it was just a matter of time. 

All Bill wanted anyway was some time to think this out. That's what he was good at and that's 

what he had already started doing. "Why didn't he take us in before?" he asked out loud. 

Because you had a gun on him and he figured he needed help, and that's exactly what he 

did," Evelyn answered. 

 

                                                                Evelyn

...Bill took a look at Evelyn and his heart went out to her. She had more to bear in 

Harry's disappearance than anyone. He felt guilty for not having spoken to her about 

so many things. The three of them had been through so much together. They were 

close to family, perhaps more than family. They were a world, an entire world, 

separate from everyone else. They didn't name it or talk about it, they just were. 

    "Let's go to the boat," he whispered quietly to her. "What are you two plotting 

now?" Ed Sharp challenged. "I'm taking Evelyn to our boat, Harry would have left 

that here," Bill answered. "Oh no you're not!" Ed started getting nasty again. "Oh

yes I am," and Bill pulled out a pistol and pointed it at Ed. "Don't Bill, just don't. Go 

to the boat, let us have the satellite phone. I have to call in some help. This is 

going wrong. You're right. You've been helping us all along. Harry has too. i agree 

with you. He wouldn't harm a soul. Go, take Evelyn and rest up. We'll camp here 

where the cottage used to be." Bill looked at him and put his pistol back in his 

pocket. he realized that the FBI didn't hire hot heads. 

   It was quiet on the boat. They'd pulled off the dock and anchored about a 

hundred yards off the beach. Soft and quiet, fairly bright stars and half a moon 

reflected off the water. "What did Ed think, that he'd help him find Harry, betray his 

best friend and his lifetime study to develop advanced holographic transport? Harry 

deserved the Nobel Prize, not prison time and disrepute." He spoke quietly to

 Evelyn. "I shouldn't have let him have the phone. He knows exactly what he's

 doing. Now he's got us trapped out here. We're hostages that he plans on using to 

find Harry."  Evelyn looked up at him. "We're not trapped, he's trapped. All of the

 FBI's best are totally trapped. One false move and they're all on the Moon without 

  space suits."