Dialogue: A Short Story Read online

telescope, or planned any of this? Who's to say that his fight for custody of his little son was premeditated at all? Who's to say that he initiated divorce at all? Everyone knows the other filed for divorce based on some information she heard. No one is to know that our inventor invented the actual gossip and passed it onto someone who could be relied upon for her lack of discretion.

  I see you're paying more attention to my idle speculation now. Is any of this familiar to you, my darling? Your eyes are no longer wandering, they're alert and waiting for my story to complete, are they not? Where's that smile you had not five minutes ago when you were completely at ease. You look all tensed up now. Would you prefer me to stop? I'll take your wary silence as consent to continue.

  Maybe his telescope helped in other, small ways, as well. After all, things were certainly bright for the other when she initiated her divorce; our inventor was arrested, charged and jailed on trumped up assault charges. He had no house to live in, and a borrowed car to drive. He had no prospect of seeing his son, nor any prospect of recovering from the crippling debt incurred in defending himself from the trumped up charges.

  The other had his house, his son, his car. Her lithe and attractive physique ensured that she had many male suitors to choose from, and so she was constantly entertained by other men. Her profession ensured that her legal fees were all paid for. Her delight in tormenting our inventor was merely an added bonus to her new life.

  But of course, our inventor could bear it all. Remember that he had his telescope that let him see how it would all turn out in the end. Observers may have praised his unusually accurate foresight, but they were not to know that he had a time-telescope, that let him know almost certainly what to do to make things turn out his way. So his tenure of sorrow for the three years was to him, only a temporary difficulty.

  After all, throughout those three years, he got his house back, he got his son bonding with him, he got his debts paid off, his name cleared of all criminal charges, a new car to drive, a charming young accountant who wants to be his wife and many new sources of income as well. Perhaps the observers around him put it down to “positive thinking”, or hard work, or even ingenuity. However we know it was because his telescope had already showed him the futures that could be his, if he took certain actions.

  All he had to do was take an action and observe the result in the telescope that sees the future. If the result was undesired, he could try again, and again, until he got the result he wanted. Then all he has to do is ensure that he takes that action when tomorrow actually comes, and he gets the result he wants for real, in the real world.

  For example, this time-telescope would let our inventor determine the optimal time to dial a number, complain about getting a wrong number when connected, and thus distract the person answering the phone at a crucial time; crucial enough that they simply forget the address they were looking up, instead using the one they already have.

  Or perhaps another distraction which results in clinical samples getting mixed up. Or a distraction which results in blood tests getting mixed up, or completed with the incorrect name. Distraction is such a simple thing, with such a powerful effect, is it not?

  And the other, I hear you ask? Well, it's three years later, and she has no house, no car and no job. The suitors are still there, but they're now of the type that leave the money on the dresser when they leave. The savings have long since exhausted, the courts have already warned her to mend her ways and her influence in the law has severely diminished, with her now having to foot her own legal bills. The only thing the other now needs is to forever lose custody of the child, which she feels will never happen.

  Ah ... I see you smile again, a bitter smile but a smile nonetheless. For we all know that the courts never take an infant away from Mommy without a very good reason, right? Perhaps the inventor and the other in my story find themselves in a position similar to us? Perhaps they are now waiting in a small cafe outside a courthouse for a court to finish breaking for lunch and continue with their case? Perhaps the other has finished her tea, our inventor has finished his coffee and, now, finally he heads off back into the courthouse to deliver his last piece of evidence in the custody battle.

  Our inventor persevered for a reason. You see, although he realised even before placing the pebble that started the landslide that the courts were unlikely to award him custody of his son, they were equally unlikely to award custody to a mother with no house, no car, no job and a blood test that displayed HIV, heroin and cocaine in her veins. This is possibly the last thing that our inventor holds in his hands - this simple piece of paper, this blood test, will ensure that he finally gets his son, that he finally gets custody. Custody never goes to a drug-addicted parent.

  You see, during his marriage, it dawned on him that the other was not going to be faithful for much longer, if she ever was, that is. Initiating a divorce would result, as his machine showed him, in losing his son with no possibility of her spiraling into the gutter. Letting her do it, the telescope showed, would result in her downward spiral. Letting her file for divorce then, now lets him walk into court and proclaim that the other has no house, no job, no car and no prospects as well as a worrying drug habit and, unsurprisingly, he will get custody as a result.

  I see disbelief on your face. I sense disbelief coming off you in waves. How I wish that I had that godlike ability to see into the future, and try out different futures to see which one I liked the best. But I don't have that, and neither do you. When you initiated divorce after hearing a rumour, neither of us knew for sure how it would turn out. Even now, a mere hour from the end, neither of us are still sure how it will turn out.

  But enough talk. Your ears must be tired now, darling, and I see that the panel of judges has returned to court, and so must we as well. I wish you luck, at any rate, although I do hope that I get custody. I see your lawyer beckoning you, so it's time to go now. I need to find my own lawyer in these halls somewhere - it is not inconceivable that he stepped out for a quiet puff, in which case I would request him to step back in again as I need to talk to him before the custody hearing continues.

  You see, my dear, I have a piece of paper to show him when we go in again. It's a small thing, this paper that the court will soon see, that was sent to me accidentally when some mishap occurred at the laboratory that tested your blood.

  I hope you enjoyed reading my stories as much as I enjoyed writing them. For more stories and novellas please visit https://lelanthran.com/deranged/?page_id=165. To help others find my eBooks easily please consider going to the following sites and rating the books that you have read:

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  Warm Regards

  Lelanthran K. Manickum