Published August 15, 2021
Chapter Three
Travel and Travesty
Sometimes A society's God becomes more clear when you look at its demons. If a society hates poverty, it worships wealth, if a society hates lies, it worships truth. Every compass needle points South as well as North
-Paul Meyers, The Worshipers Dilemia
Really the main thing time travel saved me from was beginning a career of just lying.
Most of the books I had written were explorations of topics I found interesting, rarely were they about one 'thing' like the French Revolution or cell division, but were about an idea that connected to a lot of different topics, and normally I weaved in a lot of my own thoughts and commentary among the interviews, statistics, stories, and facts. But eventually, the good ideas began to run dry, or more honestly sales did, and I wanted that feeling of getting reviewed by big critics and seeing my book in the front window of the bookstore again, so I started to work on a new type of book.
My dad always told me that there are two types of stories, ones that are true, and ones that are helpful, and then he made it very clear that Bible was both.
The story I had been working on was neither true, nor helpful, and definitely not the Bible, to say the least.
It was in memoir style, written with interviews, experiences, facts, and my own thoughts.
My agent loved the outline, and after reading the 50 pages I had written as a test she said it would probably sell better than anything I’d ever written.
Problem was, it was all a big fat lie. I twisted stories from my own life, interviews, and statistics, to tell a story that people wanted to hear, but a story that did not help people or enlighten them.
That’s why I quit it, but I couldn’t bear the thought of my morale dad reading a book that was just a straight-up lie.
Well, it’s hard for him to read a book, having been dead for 8 years, but that’s beside the point.
I stepped out of the apartment, turned around, and locked the door behind me. I looked up and down the street, it was a summer evening in Charlotte, North Carolina, a tropical storm had brought warm humid rain. The street lamps lit the normally busy street, it was peaceful now only one car sat in the road, the Uber who was going to be bringing me to the airport. My apartment was in a large red brick building that used to be a cotton mill and was now used for various stores and other apartments.
I looked around a bittersweet love for the area. As a child, I had lived in a tiny town nearer Tennessee, but moved to Charlotte as an adult. I liked my little apartment and my historic street.
My mother's words from deep in my memory floated up. “Your father would have liked it here.”
The Uber driver honked and brought me back to the now where I was slowly getting soaked. I ran over to the car and opened the back door, shoving a suitcase in, I slid into the passenger's seat.
I muttered a sorry and we were off. Charlotte airport, memories of better days and book tours, Grumpy early morning customs, Lines, more lines, a vending machine, Red Bull, and business class.
Flying out to Paris would have just been worth it to experience business class.
On the plane, I popped out some old notes on naked singularities so I didn’t look like a complete idiot when they interviewed me. Now, you may be wondering what these singularities are and why they are so scandalously unclothed. A singularity is a point in space that is infinitely small and infinitely dense, in nature this normally occurs when a star collapses, gravity pulling in the entire star into an infinitely small space. Now, this singularity is like a reality glitch, and could maybe do crazy weird stuff, but sadly or maybe luckily, this singularity is covered up by an event horizon. The event horizon is when pace time is bent so terribly making gravity so strong that if you get close enough to the singularity you can't get out. Like falling down a pit with walls covered in olive oil. No matter how much energy you put into trying to get away, at some point you are trapped. Even light can’t escape. This is what a black hole is, the black part comes from the fact light can’t escape, and the hole part is from the gravity well. Now, the riskay nacked singularities are singularities created with subatomic particles being smashed together, making their gravity not large enough to instantly create an event horizon, allowing you to directly look at them.
But we don’t understand quantum gravity very well, and smashing particles together is difficult, and everyone is kinda scared to try.
I put down my notes and sighed. But they had, the crazy sons of a guns had tried it. And it had made time travel work. I began scrolling around my notes, trying to find the math that would let that make sense.
I was brought out of my frustrated stupor of thought as wine rained down upon me.
“Oh, sir, I am so sorry.” A flight attendant apologized. It seemed she had tripped over my long legs extended into the aisle and spilled wine on me.
I laughed and wiped the wine off my face and looked down at it on my shirt. “It’s all good, it’s my fault for not moving my legs. I should have been paying more attention.” But she continued to apologize, and I was given free extra food as my reward, so I really didn’t care much at the time.
***
As the next progressed, sleep began to overtake me. The sleep of an overnight flight is not real sleep though, not even in first class. The title "red-eye" flight is tells the whole story. So I awoke, still tired, the next morning, and blearily made my way out of the plane.
I had been outside the states once. My publisher's idea was to drum up interest in my book in Europe by visiting London and doing a mini book tour. So I stumbled through customs, tired and confused, and embarrassed that I knew no french.
I realized that the email hadn’t really specified what I needed to do once I got to France, in fact, I began to panic. They hadn't said anything about what would happen next. Was this some kind of prank? Had I been set up? I had no returning flight and not enough money to stay in France or purchase one back. Was I now stranded in a foreign country?
“Monsuire. Meyers?” A French accent-tinged voice asked, ending my tired panic spiral.
I looked around and focused my eyes on a thick man, with dark brown eyes and leather skin. I could not place his age, but he had the air of an old man who had given up caring what you thought and a young man who knew they couldn’t die. I have never in my life been as sure of myself as that man was in that moment.
He introduced himself as Avery Tilerda. Normally I would have privately wondered why a man would have had such a feminine name, but Avery seemed confident about it that I’d first question my own sanity before his name.
He led me to a car, helping me both to feel calm and insignificant in this new environment.
We started driving out of the Airport and I realized how tired I was, partly from the jet lag, and partly because traveling does that to you, so soon, the tiredness got the best of me, and Avery’s calm, firm driving put me to sleep.
***
I slipped from the as I felt the car had come to a halt. Warm light was streaming in through the car window, and I felt a bit sore from the way I had slept.
I sat up, the car was sitting in a gravel driveway. The afternoon sunlight was shining down on a well kept lawn, and the stone wall that encircled it. For a moment I was adjusting to the relative beauty of the trimmed trees and the flowers and the mossy stone wall just a couple inches taller than me, but then my eyes caught the house.
It was a large box structure, a brick foundation, and then blue walls and huge windows a Marne staircase up to the two doors that were wide open. I stared at the home for a moment, still slightly unsure why I was there.
Avery leaned back towards me, “I’m going to go get you checked in and bring your stuff up to your room,” he said in a matter-of-fact tone.
“What?” I had heard him but was still processing everything.
“This is where you’ll be staying. Chateau Susan was right off of the sight, so perfect for guests.” Though I still had many questions he said it like it was all the information that I’d ever need, so I didn’t question. He stepped out of the car and walked briskly up to the house leaving me alone.
I blinked hard and then stepped out of the car.
It was a warm day, but not nearly as warm or humid as the same day in the Carolinas. I could distantly hear the sound of construction work and cars, but the very modern sound seemed to be blocked by the historic environment.
The tall walls closed in a large yard, with neatly spaced trees giving the area more depth, and the entire yard, including the white rock of the gravel driveway, all seemed to point to the house. I looked at and then blearily tried to rub the sleep out of my eyes. I felt a contact dislodge itself and make a break for freedom, it rolled down my cheek and then into the gravel below.
I groaned and quickly dropped to my hands and knees, all my other contacts were intelligently buried deep in luggage. I got closer to the ground, not minding the gravel dust getting on my knees and hands. But then a voice from above and behind me cut directly to my heart and filled me with mortification.
“Are you perfectly all right?”
I looked up and beheld a man with the sun behind him, making him merely a dark silhouette. I stood up as quickly as I could. He was young, just a little older than me, skinny, with round scholarly glasses, and a suit coat sling over one shoulder. His ears were pierced, but a relatively underscored piercing. He was clean-shaven and his face was made of sharp angles, sharp cheekbones, sharply cut hair, sharp eyes. His head was cocked slightly, questioningly, but politely. I looked in the car window and saw my reflection. I was covered in gravel dust, a wine stain was all down my shirt, my hair disheveled and clothes wrinkled from sleeping in them and I looked tired and dumb.
‘This is it’ I realized ‘I’ve lost it all. I never deserve to have it and they've found me out for the loser I am.’
“Hi,” I said and paused, he smiled condescendingly. “Oh yeah, sorry, dropped a contact,” I said dumbly.
He paused, and for a moment I thought he might fire me, even though I had no idea if he had the authority to do so. But he seemed like he could have told me anything and it would have been true. That face, and those eyes, seemed so polite and civil, but a civility which could be turned against you. One that could cast you out from polite society or not, permanently.
He looked me up and down, eyes swimming with disgust, disappointment, and like it was a nuisance to behold me.
Then, he chuckled, and it was all dispelled. I joined in. The situation was really absurd. It was amazing to feel his mercy flow over me. Really, why should he care what I looked like, he was above that.
The chuckle was the type that occurs between two intelligent cultured people when discussing a bad movie. It was a deliverance from the modification of before.
“It’s terrible when that happens. But that effort is pointless, I’m afraid the contacts will not coming back, my friend.” He said, scanning the gravel beneath me.
I nodded, “You're probably right. I should have realized that” I laughed nervously, "But, tired." I said dumbly.
“So you just came in?” The man asked. My brain began to catch up. The man was speaking perfect English with a stilted western American accent - and we were in France.
“Um, yes, and I admit I’m a bit confused,” I said matching his manner of speaking.
“Oh get used to it, that's how Athena operates, rushing everyone around before they can understand what’s going on.” I didn’t really understand what he was saying at that moment, but I didn’t want to admit it. I just chuckled and smiled.
Avery, a blur because of my missing contact come up from behind the man.“Mathew, this is doctor Robert Scizin. He’s an American journalist, sociologist, and quantum scientist. He previously had the job you’ll be taking.”
Robert smiled kindly and reached out for my hand. “Pleasure to meet you, Mathew.”
I shook it, I’d heard if Robert. The man was paraded as a genius, his books criticizing modern power structures and the future of mankind were seen as revelatory.
“It’s great to meet you too doctor Scizin.” I resisted every urge to be rude but my curiosity got the better of me, "Previously had my job?"
“Yes, I used to hold the position of Seer,” he winked, “but I’m giving up the job to do some humanitarian work. It’s an amazing job though, but not my type of thing.”
I laughed, “Seer?”
“Closer to the truth than you’d think,” Avery said.
Robert smiled, “you’ll catch up soon, but I must be going, I have a plane to catch. Good meeting you Mathew, and I think we’ll have a video Conference later for me to tell you about the job.”
I nodded, "I'll look forward to it."
"Sounds great, and if you see anything interesting or confusing during the job, I'm just a phone call away." He handed me a business card.
"Confusing?" I asked as he turned.
"You'll know what I mean when you see it." He said, turning back and winking, he stepped out of the gate, leaving me holding his business card in awe.
It is strange to think that the next time I saw that man we were on opposing sides of the greatest forgotten war in human history.
Points:
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IP address:
Canary word: Present
Possible AI signals:
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138,428 Literary Works • 672,118 Reviews
Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening/Night(whichever one it is in your part of the world),
Hi! I'm baaack for another chapter.
First Impression: OKayy...this little journey here was done pretty well I think, I don't believe I managed to spot anything wrong, even while being fairly nitpicky...so uhh..yeah great job...also umm...I'm still seeing naked being written as nacked in a few places, I'm starting suspect your keyboard has some form of hidden defect now. The a and the c and k are just too far apart from each other for that to be an accident...
look at me analyzing how spelling errors happen..xDAnyway let's get right to it,
Ooooh...we've so far had some fairly humorous chapter titles but this is...this is a bit more suspicious....
Hmm, alright interesitng tangent...also wow...French Revolution and cell division, did not expect to ever run into a sentence with those two things next to each other.
Okay...so this looks to be a description of the book that he was working on when I suppose he now decided he's not going to meet the deadline and go through with...so...hmm, I suppose this perhaps a bit more information to get insight into what his life was like before the time travel stuff went down.
I genuinely don't know whether to laugh or feel sad at that particular line...I'm gonna stick with laughter for now...but I like how we can see perhaps even thinking of writing this book may have had him down in the dumps and feeling like he's betrayed the memory of his father somehow with his conscience troubling him about lying to people.
Ahh, lovely description there, its very easy to imagine this place quite clearly...you definitely have no problem establishing these various settings here...and this is going to be quite important when we get to actual prehistoric times in the story.
Love the quick picture of the airport, you really get the sense that he's going almost in a trance. I love how we've got a detailed description of the hometown area to show he's taking it all in one last time almost...and then we see how he barely notices the airport itself as he breezes through with his mind focused only on the destination. Its a lovely hidden detail there.
Ahhh..hmm...that seems fairly accurate from what I know of blackholes, and I love the little bits of humor you create from the name given to this specific type of singularity...I'm slightly disappointed we don't get to see what the effects of a black hole because the official scientific term for things being warped and destroyed by the extreme gravity of a singularity is Spaghettification and that's just begging to be used as a joke...but xD...I'll take the ones we get...and it probably can't be naturally integrated to this anyway.
Oh trust, humans have smashed things together to try and make things happen for a looong time..its how fire was probably discovered, and its why particle accelerators are a thing.
Heh...okay....random scene with spilled wine is random..its not exactly a bad scene, its quite a fun way to have his thoughts interrupted, but I'm also like "Why?", its kind of just wayy out the blue doesn't seem like it really contributes to the story...soo...that's a meh scene, especially cause it is right before a scene transition.
Hahahahah...I love how this man doesn't realize any of this until the very last minute....that seems very in character for him
I am now wondering how I didn't spot the vagueness of the email...oh dear...Ehh...probably a good decision on his part..you never know what folks that drive you to secret facilities are capable of doing.
Oooh, well looks like this is going to be the new place, I love how now we're back to seeing things in detail, it shows that this man is trying to take in this new environment quickly and get a feel for where he's going to spend a decent chunk of time in the coming days.
Did they stay there parked until he woke up, or did he woke up like immediately after they stopped, cause if its the former, that'd be a bit funny and also probably not realistic.
Some more fun descriptions aaand looks like an even more mishap there...poor guy can't go more than half a chapter without an embarrassing accident, except this time there are witnesses.
Ooof, to see this guy catch a reflection of himself in that puddle of water and just immediately feel like he's not worthy is a bit of a mood right there, but it does actually show quite a bit more beyond the humor...you can see his earlier state is making him insecure...and now I suppose the wine stain does have a purpose
Hmm, one of those very awkward moments broken by laugher where neither party quite seems to know what they're laughing about...always fun to run into scenes like that.
Well...hmm, this feels like one of those "Welcome to the secret society" moments there almost with his man declaring that...but hm, looks like Mathew her is being called into fill in a position that was once already filled...well that is interesting.
Welll...looks like things are going to remain fairly mysterious about all of that for some time to come here judging by how that particular meeting went...and that seems to be on track for the kind of project going on here.
This is the part where I get to say AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, because that last line...oh dear...talk about a cliffhanger...I mean on one hand, it is already a cliffhanger cause we're going into this mysterious job, but at least you have faith that we'll know the answer by the next chapter but that last line sounds like it'll only be explained towards at least the middle or the end of this story...xD
Aaaaand that's it for this one.
Overall: Overall, I love where this heading towards here, this was basically the journey and the first impression of these people..but I have a feeling things are going to get a lot more interesting starting from the next chapter.
As always remember to take what you think was helpful and forget the rest.
Stay Safe
Harry
Thanks so much for the review! And yeah, the wine stane is a bit random, it was just to make him look even dumber when robert finds him, so I might cut it XD.
oh yeah, good ol' spaghettification, maybe I'll make a pasta joke at some point.
You're Welcome!!
Haha...I figured...ehh, I'm just being extra nitpicky with this one I think
Yay!!
Hi MaybeAndrew,
Mailice back with another review!
The first thing I notice right away is that this chapter here has a name and the others had none. I would recommend doing it the same way for everyone.
As a good transition from chapter 2 to 3, I like how in the first part you still show Matt's inner life and give some more information about how he thinks, how his relationships with his family are (also a great comparison from chapter 2 where he talks about mother and here about father).
The chapter name gives the whole chapter quite a queasy undertone. No matter where Matt is, I get the impression that he is uncomfortable himself and afraid of being caught at any moment that he has made a mistake or that he will be found out to have lied.
I liked how you managed to come out of those thoughts and force a change in writing form with the flight across the Atlantic, putting those thoughts second and moving on with the action and the dialogue taking over. But I also noticed that although the pacing is moving in a good direction, some of the descriptions are a bit off, where I think you could add some more about what some things look like.
Since the theme of your story is time travel, it would be good, for example, if you sometimes inserted a section where Matt describes what something looks like, so that the reader has something tangible in front of him. Here you could already insert that well, to make a kind of habit out of it.
Other points that caught my eye:
I don't know exactly what the rule is for this, but since the French Revolution was an important event, it must be written with capital letters.
This is a generally very heavy sentence to read, but it gives some more insight into what the narrator thinks of his father.
This is a strange sentence in itself, because the main part and the sub-part somehow do not fit directly together. I can see what you're trying to do, but I think if you paraphrase the second half a bit like "and my building like all the others in this street was made of these old red bricks" it makes a bit more sense.
I would keep one spelling with the word "singularity".
Just a small note here; if you want to emphasise the French accent, you can also replace the Mr. with Monsieur.
I would write out the number and if so, maybe rewrite it so that you might also get Matt's height by writing that she was only a few inches taller than him. Since exact figures in a story always seem a bit scientific and "too detailed".
Here is an “in” missing. Maybe you could also add an exclamation mark to show Matt´s confusion.
Have fun writing!
Mailice
Thank you for the review! I'll be sure to edit all of those things!
Heyyyy! Forever here for a review!!
I am really glad that I understood the science things. And yeah, I really like it how you incorporates real life science and then you go beyond science and make your story. That is what a science fiction is supposed to do, I guess. Er... I haven't really read many(I doubt even one). So, I can't really comment on the genres but the story is really going great.
Something which I want to say is don't spoil the suspense. You literally spoiled the suspense by mentioning it in the description box or whatever it's called that Matthew would meet a future enemy in this chapter whereas there is no hint of enemity in the chapter. So, best not to spoil suspense.
I suggest you give a glimpse of the interview or better a large portion of the interview. Like what questions he was asked, was he nervous? Who were there, etc. etc. I think giving those will make the text more versatile.
I wonder what the chapter has to do about the title. Who actually lied? Not Matthew, I guess. So, the man or maybe the men. Quite intriguing. You create a sense of mystery with the title. Now, I am quite eager to know what the lie is. I hope you didn't give that title for the lies of Matthew in his book. And hmm... The wine... There is something suspicious, very suspicious, in fact. Like, after the wine drenched his shirt, he felt dizzy and sleepy. That can be the action of the wine. Also, he woke up in the back seat.. Are these men real men? I doubt.
Tag me when u post the next chapter. Hope my review was of the slightest help, at least.
Keep Writing!
~Forever
Thank you so much for the review! I'll be sure to edit all of those things!