(Page 1 of 2) The Quantum Shroud by Steve Jones -B5SUMMARY: For the hunger flash fiction contest
Her breasts heaved and her stomach lurched--or was it the other way around? Jill always had trouble with physical reactions–they never matched.
"What is that thing? Jill asked, ignoring her body, it seemed to be off in it's own little world again.
"A probability spectrograph," the scientist, Mickiel, told her, motioning to his machine which looked kind of like an old movie camera that had been swallowed by a transformer. "It'll take a picture of the unrealities that may surround you."
"Excuse me?"
The detailed explanation was more confusing than her physical reaction to him. Jill didn't know if she loved him, or was totally revolted.
The scientists called it ‘Disassociative Physical Reaction Syndrome', the newest name for a rare occurrence which was different every time it happened to someone. Her body reacted, but not to what she did or the world around her. Hunger was the worst thing. Jill would feel hungry after eating a whole sheet pizza alone, with a large salad and three liters of soda pop. The next day she had lost three pounds. On the other hand, she would go days, or weeks at a time without feeling hungry, without eating on one occasion, with no ill effects.
To say the scientists were baffled and perplexed would be to completely minimize the meanings of the words ‘baffled' and ‘perplexed'. That's how she'd become a prisoner of the Institute, and now they were letting crazy little nerds do experiments on her.
Mickiel's picture was, in it's own way, even more baffling and perplexing. Jill recognized herself, sitting in the chair in black and white. But there was another image of her, or someone who looked just like her, standing up. The other Jill was rendered in blue tones, her disheveled hair pulled back, she was wearing a tattered old dress–ill fitting. Her face looked older, more worn, and her left eye was clouded over, non-functioning.
Three months ago Jill had woken up with excruciating and unexplained pain in her left eye. The pain had lasted two days, then just as suddenly disappeared.
Mickiel had been intrigued. The other scientists had talked about him being insane after he left. He hadn't talked to Jill on his way out–just as well, her toes felt like she was getting frostbite.
A week later Mickiel came back, obviously excited.
"A movie this time," he told her, licking his lips over the fame this experiment would bring him. "I've used your picture to focus my machine and we should be able to get something very clear. And if my theory is right I might be able to pick up sound too."
They filmed for an hour and a half while Jill was obliged, for some reason, to sit as still as she could. Finally the nurse stopped Mickiel for her regular rest stop. They weren't sure whether Jill's body would tell her she needed to go, and the nurses didn't want to pay the consequences. She had been feeling uncomfortable, her face kept hurting.
After the scientist left they didn't want to show the movie to her, but their argument ended when Jill used the word, "Lawyer." They set up a room with a television and left her alone with it.
The first hour showed only the other version of her in the dark sitting on a ratty cot.
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