What a difference a day makes

What a difference a day makes.

The future is never certain.

I lay in bed, it was early, I was listless, I went through the coming hours in my mind, trying to convince myself it was worth getting out of bed and getting active. I failed. Then my dog started barking and trying to charge through my locked and secure front door. He also failed; but he did get me out of bed to try and calm the racket down. I looked through the security panel to see what had cause dog to get so agitated, I was in time to see a drone lift and fly away. When I got the door open, I found a box on the step, a perfectly ordinary looking brown cardboard box. I had no trouble picking it up, it was light and a cube, only about six inches each side. On the top was a stuck-on label but this was not showing any name or address, or any other information. Even once I was back inside and turning it over, I could see no other labels or marking of any sort. Very mysterious, I started the coffee filter machine going and unwrapped my surprise package. Dog was at my feet looking up expectantly as if he could smell his favourite treat, The box contained a plastic bag, and this contained, what looked like chocolates, dark chocolates just loose in the bag no fancy display pack. I put these well out of reach of dog and searched for clues about who sent this and why. Nothing, no information at all. The bag contained twenty chocolates, when I opened up the bag and tipped out the contents, I could see that they were all exactly the same, Same size, shape, and weight.

I know we should not “look gift horses in the mouth” as the old saying goes but I was not about to just taste these unexpected offerings, nor was I going to let dog near them. I took one and used my sharpest knife to cut it in half, at least that is what I tried to do, but I could not, the outer layer was thin and soft, it looked and smelt like chocolate but under this coating was a hard shell of clear plastic, visible though this shell was some sort of construction that looked like number of phone Sim cards all rammed into each other, crumpled and jammed together. This electronic mess filled the clear plastic casing. I tried another one and it looked exactly the same. I noticed that the “chocolate” was starting to melt on the objects, not having any idea what this was all about I put the bag into my refrigerator, I kept the two I had scraped chocolate off and washed them in warm water, sat them side by side on my table. As I watched they started to vibrate and then suddenly they moved together and immediately become one thing. No matter how I tried, I could not separate them again. By now curiosity had swept away all caution and rational behaviour, I took two more from the fridge and washed off the chocolate, then I stood these close together but kept the original pair at the other end of the table. The two newly washed units repeated the vibration and jumping together Then both “couplings” rushed to meet in the centre of the table and the two pairs became one object. I say rushed but it was flying, they lifted a fraction about the table surface and then flew into contact. I got another pair from the bag, but this time left the chocolate on them and stood them side by side, nothing happened. Only when the coating was removed did they join together, which explains how I got a bag of twenty separate objects. I washed the remaining fourteen and stood them at intervals around my table. As soon as I placed the last one, they all started to vibrate and all joined together, the other three pairs were at different places in the room but in an instant, they flashed across the room and become one with all the others. I now had one single object not twenty chocolates. Dog looked as puzzled as I felt. I now had an amazing item but had no idea what to do with it, or why I had it.

I had no desire to contact the police or any other form of authority, let us say I did not want any official to know my present name or address, The police have a very unsympathetic view of how I earn my living and I kept them at a safe distance, that is I kept as far away from them as possible. The now unified, object was quietly humming away to itself, it did not radiate heat, just sat and hummed away. Even dog got bored with this and wanted his morning walk. I left Object, I had to call it something, on the table and took him out. It was about fifteen minutes later I came back, and Object had grown, it was now twice its original size, still humming. I cleared everything else from the table and watched, nothing happened. I got bored and went to the bathroom, only about five minutes but object had grown again. Sneaky; only grow when I am not watching. I set my unregistered cell phone to video, and left the room for ten minutes. When I came back object was twice the size it was when I left. I played back my video, and it was fantastic, Object started to slowly spin the instant I left the room, the spin became faster and faster until it was blur, the size increased but the spin was so fast I could not see how, then just before I returned, it stopped and was double its starting size. What the heck is this thing? Why does it do this? If it is going to double in size every time no one is looking, how big will it be after I had a night’s sleep? My mind followed its usual path and I was trying to see how I could make money out of this, before it grew so big it drove me out of my home. It was now about the size of my toaster but at this rate would be bigger than my freezer if I left it alone for long. I held my hands near it , seemed safe so I picked it up intendign to carry it to my shed outside. The moment I touched it I felt a weird sensation, it was like an acid trip but calmer and controlled. Everything became more vivid, sharper but somehow gentle. I looked down at Dog and he seemed to glow with vitality and life. I let go of Object and my senses returned to normal, no comedown, no sense of withdrawal. I could make a fortune letting others pay to touch Object but how to stop it growing and how to stop some other bigger gangster taking it away? I reached back to hold Object and asked these questions, my mind became clear, all became obvious. While in this state I carried Object to the freezer and gently placed it inside. The instant I left go all by questions and doubts returned, but a path was set. I waited an hour and opened the freezer Object was now sixty small separate pieces. I took out two and placed on the table, they took about ten minutes to warm up then they flew together. I tried holding these two but no euphoria, nothing, so I got two more out. This way I found the critical number as twenty. Once I had twenty united into one, it self-multiplied if unobserved. And this multiplication continued until frozen, then it broke down again into pieces. If I coated individual pieces as soon as I took them from the freezer, they did not unite they became inert. The ability to give this wonderful drug free trip came with its reaching twenty units welded into one. I found that letting it get bigger, then holding it with bare hands, gave even more clarity on mind but with an edge, a border, a limit which was physically visible as a warning. I tried to see future winning lottery numbers but too much distortion and randomness for this, I could see numbers but a swirling ever changing page of numbers.

Now I was left with some questions, mysteries, who sent this to me? How do I turn this into profit? Why was it a gift and not sold to me? I searched the box and packaging again but no clues. I took a single unit from the freezer and examined it with a magnifying glass, nothing. Not a single bit of information to help. I focused on the main event; how do I get rich from this gift? The first need was a way of stopping Object at the required size, twenty units. I tried wrapping a 20-unit Object in cling film plastic and it worked, no more spinning and increasing, the problem was that with the plastic wrapper on; no high, no trip. Take the wrapper off and hold in bare hands and great but it had to be wrapped up again as soon as I let go. So now I had a saleable product and the means of making more. I needed customers and a way to ensure they did not learn how easy it was to make duplicates for themselves. Charge a high price and say that if frozen Object will disintegrate and be useless, and if they leave it unwrapped when not in use, it will react with the air and explode. I figured by the time a customer realised this all BS I would be rich enough to retire. What I was selling was legal, but I had no intention to pay tax on anything, so I sold Object just as I sold my usual products, quietly, cash only no names, nothing written down. Even with marketing limited by these restrictions I made a fortune by working at producing 20 unit Objects all morning, sleeping all afternoon and selling all night.

All great; then the inevitable happened, a customer high on chemical stuff, used Object and crashed out leaving the 20 units to spin and expand for several hours. It seems from the media reports that Object filled his room, suffocated him and crushed all the furniture into dust. The cops were called, and they opened the door too wide, and Object started to flow out, as soon as they stopped looking at it, it spun and expanded so when the cops returned, the hall was full of Object, they called the Military. Who called their research base; and all was explained, Object was an experimental weapon, (in the military mind they could parachute Object into an enemy base and leave it to expand and expand till it destroyed that base.) What they wanted to do was find out how to stop the expansion once the target was crushed, and so a sample was supposed to get delivered by drone, from one laboratory to another, but it never arrived, lost in transit. What the hell, I was rich and off the radar, I left the country and found myself and dog, a nice, secluded mountain to live on.