The Observer Effect: Chapter 1

It was another rainy weekend, the sun was hidden behind an endless blanket of clouds. I can't really complain though because I always feel oddly calm when it's raining. You know that feeling of tranquility you get when you're under cover during a storm? I recently learnt there's a word for that feeling: chrysalism. Maybe it's just the sound of rain hitting the roof. Maybe it's the sensation of outsmarting mother nature, remaining dry and warm while the world outside must endure its wrath.

The corrugated iron roof of my shed amplifies the sound of the rain. The sound of the rain seems to drown out everything else, I could yell as loud as I want and no one would here me. Well to be fair I do live miles away from anyone else so they wouldn't hear me on a clear day either. I didn't always live alone though, I used to have a family, a wife and a little girl. She wasn't even a year old when he kidnapped her, and I never saw her again. There isn't a day which passes where I don't replay that moment in my head.

My wife Julia couldn't handle the loss of our daughter Lana and she killed herself a few months after Lana was taken. She electrocuted herself in the bathtub one day while I was at work. The investigators even thought that I murdered her and my daughter but they couldn't prove either accusation so I was released without any charges. I work full time as an electrician so they thought I electrocuted her but I was at work when it happened. That didn't matter though, everyone in the community still thought I was guilty.

That's the reason I moved out here to an isolated farm house on the north coast of Australia. I could not walk down the street without people staring at me. Maybe it was just in my mind but I had to get away. I couldn't live with the feeling of being judged by everyone around me, so I became a recluse and isolated myself from society. I live a completely off-the-grid lifestyle. There is a river running through my property so most of my energy is generated from hydroelectric turbine generators.

The water flows all year round so it's very reliable. The rest of my energy comes from wind and solar but it's not as reliable. The solar setup is actually very clever, I got the idea from the design of modern solar farms. Instead of using solar panels they actually use mirrors to reflect and focus the light into a single point, which will cause that point to become extremely hot and that heat energy can be used to power a steam turbine generator, therefore converting the heat into electrical energy.

I figured it would be slightly difficult to create a large dish shaped mirror so I took a different approach. I used large magnifying lenses to focus the light on a single point, which allowed for a great deal of fine tuning since I could easily adjust each lense separately until I had all the lenses focusing light on a single point. It was just like focusing the magnifying glass I had as a child. I didn't kill insects like a lot of kids, but I remember experimenting to see how different things would burn and melt.

Suddenly there is a loud explosion which can be heard over the sound of the rain and I snap out of my daydream. Damn it I blew another power supply unit, I'm going to need something with more juice. The smell of burnt out electrical components and hand rolled cigarettes fills the air in the shed. I am now working on a new project, something much more complicated than anything I have built before, something which will allow me to find my daughter and get revenge on the person who took her from me.

I've been keeping something from you, but I'm afraid to tell you because I know you'll think I'm crazy just like the police. The person who took my daughter was... me. Well me from an alternative time line that is. He looked exactly like me, so close in fact that my wife could not tell the difference. I was outside tinkering on something when I heard the sound of my daughters voice. I looked up and I saw her holding the hand of a person who looked just like me. Right next to them was some sort of craft.

I swear he looked me in the eye and said "I'm sorry" right before stepping into the craft with my daughter. The last thing I remember is a bright flash of light then I woke up a few minutes later and ran inside to my wife who didn't seem to be aware anything was wrong. I was furiously screaming and yelling, trying to tell her that some man had just taken our daughter, although I didn't tell her what I had seen. I don't think she quite understood what had happened at first, but it hit her when the police arrived.

From that moment on she was never the same, that glint in her eyes disappeared and she became very depressed. After I became a suspect the pressure and uncertainty overwhelmed her, causing her to end her own life. I owe it to Julia to get our daughter back, that is why I am so determined to build this machine which will allow me to travel into different time lines. I know I can do it because an alternative version of me already did it. He was probably an electrician too, so we have the same skill set.

I saw enough of his craft to have a general idea of how it functions and after a few months of experimentation I've almost finished replicating it. Before I call it a day and head inside I have one last idea I want to try. A super-capacitor pack might be able to supply the sudden surge of power my machine needs. Discharging in 3, 2, 1... I flick the switch and I'm blinded by a bright burst of light. As I regain my composure I notice the rain has stopped. Did I pass out? The sunlight blinds me as I open the door and step outside.

This is excellent work. It is descriptive and also allows the reader to feel what emotions are going on with the characters.
I would love to see more of this story.
Thank you.

a reply to: peppycat

Thank you! I put quite a bit of thought into this one so I'm glad you liked it.