Gone in a Flash!

     J-J is what his friends called him. His real name was Professor John Johnson, a scientist who explored the supernatural and believed in his ability to advance science 20 years ahead of time. He enjoyed life believing that each person's destiny was outlined at birth. John had delved into electro- mechanical devices such as his invisible wall barrier generator beam. The size of the barrier wall was determined by the magnitude of his electronic, non spectrum generator. He could make a small invisible and impenetrable wall barrier the size of a postage stamp or as large as a bank vault.

    Caddy Brown, one of his most trusted friends, frequently visited J-J's laboratory and helped in any physical manner because John was not an athlete. He was strong with the brain power. Using parts of his non-spectrum generator, John was trying to perfect a molecular de-simulator capable of changing the structure of human flesh from three dimension to an unknown invisible dimension (perhaps to be known as the 4th dimension) whereby invisibility would occur but flesh would still retain a three dimensional space. When he was trying to adjust the lens of his machine, he accidentally looked into the lens aperture as he adjusted the prism to exclude all colors of the spectrum. "Oops,"said John, "I have to be more careful." Luckily no invisibility occurred on his face, or did it? For a flash of a second he thought he could not see his face in his reflection in the window, but he looked again and everything was all right. Imagination can play tricks on the mind at the strangest times. Try as he could, the system proved unstable and invisibility would come and go on the dead animals used for experiments, or sometimes nothing would happen at all.

     John and Caddy were having a cup of tea one day as they sat in the lab discussing J-J's experiments. John appreciated Caddy's opinions of his work. Caddy was not a scientist, but a visionary of respect in the small town where he and John lived. As they were talking, John remarked to his friend that he was having very painful headaches and had gone to his doctor for a diagnosis. His doctor recommended an x-ray and brain scan, which was done while he was at the doctor's office. "Unfortunately," said John to his friend, "I have a large tumor in my brain that must come out as soon as possible, or I will be facing death soon. I decided to let my surgeon remove it tomorrow. Will you please drive me to the hospital in the morning"? Caddy agreed to do so.

     On the way to the hospital Caddy tried to reassure John that all will go well, and they will be able to work together as usual in the future. In fact, John was surprised when Caddy said, "I believe you stumbled on the secret for an anti-gravity machine. When you recover and begin your work again I will discuss with you the thoughts I have."

    The professor was checked in and taken to his hospital room for pre-surgery preparations. He was given a shot to make him sleepy and his head was shaved. Thirty minutes later he was taken to the operating room. Having been prepped, his head was clean of all hair. An IV was started, he was anesthetized with gas, and the operation began.

    The surgeon in charge started the operation and proceeded in a proper surgical manner. After removing the bone in his skull he finally exposed the tumor. He remarked, "This will be very easy to remove as it is lying near the surface and there are no obstructions." As he lifted the scalpel he told the scrub nurse to hold the tumor with a clamp and lift the tumor out as he cut through the anchor point. Everything was in order, but, just as he was about to finish the operation the nurse screamed and the doctor dropped his scalpel
as -----------the professor's head slowly became invisible.

© Don & Norma Duclon 2002-2006