After a cosy meal, the protagonist retires to his host's workshop for an
after-dinner drink ... and becomes the unwitting subject of an
experiment.
I remembered a recent episode where Ralph had been demonstrating a hand-held cutting laser. It had gone through the apple sitting on my head, cut a slot in the wall and neatly pruned the neighbour's jacaranda tree down to a six-foot stump.
'What do you think?' he asked, gesturing vaguely towards the bench.
I stared at the clutter of computer hardware and network cables. 'Uh, yeah,' I said. 'What am I looking at?'
Ralph frowned. 'The computers. I've got them set up so they can transfer electronic mail back and forth.'
I stared at him, wondering how this inventive genius had managed to remain completely ignorant of the internet. 'I don't mean to spoil your fun, but that's been done.'
A 2000-word short story previously published in Potato Monkey issue #1.
Winner of the 2001 Aurealis Award for Horror
after-dinner drink ... and becomes the unwitting subject of an
experiment.
I remembered a recent episode where Ralph had been demonstrating a hand-held cutting laser. It had gone through the apple sitting on my head, cut a slot in the wall and neatly pruned the neighbour's jacaranda tree down to a six-foot stump.
'What do you think?' he asked, gesturing vaguely towards the bench.
I stared at the clutter of computer hardware and network cables. 'Uh, yeah,' I said. 'What am I looking at?'
Ralph frowned. 'The computers. I've got them set up so they can transfer electronic mail back and forth.'
I stared at him, wondering how this inventive genius had managed to remain completely ignorant of the internet. 'I don't mean to spoil your fun, but that's been done.'
A 2000-word short story previously published in Potato Monkey issue #1.
Winner of the 2001 Aurealis Award for Horror
