May 19, 2013

• The Scientist and the Spouse

  After the broken machine, there was...spouse?

  The scientist was never sure how it happened. There was no discrete event that could be pointed to, no signpost or signifier. One day the scientist rolled out of bed after a sleepless night, and realized that her search was over. There were no red flags and lots of green ones, and finally he saw the checkered flag in the distance, much closer than he expected, beckoning him onward. And so the scientist made it proper in the eyes of God and the law and ma and pa, and the search was over. Not another scientist, not another crazy lover, not another machine, but someone that combined elements of all three in a satisfying blend.

  After the spouse, there was...change.

  Lots and lots of change, hard-won knowledge. The scientist used to appreciate the story of one-eyed Odin as a scientific analogy, now he saw it as a retelling of romance. When two become one, one loses perspective, loses the vision in one eye. But the other eye sees more than ever before, and the scientist appreciated his sharper vision. He had always struggled with prioritizing, but having a spouse gave him the ability to sort and decide in more rapid fashion. She learned much from this one man, and she kept notes as she learned, and suddenly mankind seemed an open book before her, and she gasped and wondered why men had ever seemed so opaque when they were but glass houses, easily marred with a single word that ever hurt them.

  After the change there were...no experiments.

  The scientist couldn't people-watch anymore. Because to know one so deeply is to know others better, and he now understood better how people worked who were not scientists. And he, scientist, was Einstein in the late 30's and Rappaccini in the garden, owner of powerful knowledge and considering its applications. And she, scientist, was Pandora with a box of power and Satan sinuously wrapped 'round the tree, now possessing something that was wanted, and able to extract a high price for it. But the scientist gave up their powers when they put on the one ring, or rather, committed those powers to the other wearer of the ring. So the ring stayed on, and so the lab gathered dust except for spousal studies. The days passed on, and the book of love lost another scientist and was the better for it.

  The End.

  • 2:47 pm
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