Story Burst 3
This week’s flash story:
Bug
“You first.”
“I notice things.”
“In infrared?”
“People blink and I know what they really want to see. Your turn.”
“I hear things.”
“What, mosquitoes?”
“Things people say to themselves, or were about to say but changed their minds.”
“You’re like a bug. In someone’s mind.”
I stared.
She listened.
Answer Key: Episode 3
The second discovery involved no new experiments, just a close analysis of the data from the original. Halit Adem knew he was the better scientist, always being sidelined while Amser sloppily did whatever she wanted. And he was sure this time was no different. Three readings had been taken of Rat A: brain chemistry before the administration of quantum slurry, the unscheduled one immediately after it reappeared, and a final post-mortem analysis. It was the second reading that caught Hal’s attention: Rat A suddenly had doubled in age. Postmortem analysis put Rat A and Rat B back to the same age. Hal realized that the interviewers had asked the wrong question: not where did Rat A go, but rather when.