FB3-53 "The Chemistry Experiment"

A Chapter by dw817

With that, Mr. Gershwyn went to one cabinet and using a finger-sized silver key extricated a small test-tube container. In the tube gleamed the familiar shiny green gelatin that came out from the Gym.

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F U T U R E B A R R I E R
( The 3rd Novel )
Secret Technology, Unrequited Love, Absolute Vengeance

© May 2018 Written by David Wicker
Please do not reprint without permission

CHAPTER 53 - "The Chemistry Experiment"
[ CHOOSE A DIFFERENT CHAPTER TO READ ]

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This chapter is Rated: TEEN

Everything else in the day seemed to go right until I was ready to walk home with Tyr when the Chemistry Teacher, Mr. Gershwyn, grabbed my arm and pulled me back in.

Tyr looked reproachfully at him but he waved his hand dismissively, "Tyr, you go on ahead. Dev and myself have some after school classwork to finish."

The teacher dragged me into his class and up to this point, I had been quiet, but could be no longer.

"What is this ? What are you doing ?" I asked him. "I'm not even in your class, Mr. Gershwyn."

"Well you are now, aren't you ? And you're going to stay here until you can explain to me a few things."

I shrugged, "Like what ?"

He explained, "Do you remember when we had that power outage some weeks ago ?"

"The one where almost everyone fell asleep because of a controlled electric charge ?"

"That's the one. Do you remember what was coming out of the floorboards in the gym ?"

I pondered for a moment remembering, "It was green ?"

He nodded, "Yes, it was. What did you think of that ?"

"Honestly, I don't know." I admitted. "Sewage ?"

"Well you warned me about it being corrosive. Do you remember that ?"

"I was just guessing." I said, protecting what little I did know of it.

He nodded again, "Perhaps you were. Well, it is, highly corrosive that is. But it won't go through glass so it can be contained."

With that he went to one cabinet and using a finger-sized silver key extricated a small test-tube container. In the tube gleamed the familiar shiny green gelatin, clearly the same one that had ruptured through the floor in the school's Gym when I had shouted out loud and knocked the power out earlier through SIM, uncontrolled, releasing a great deal of energy.

"Perhaps you'd like to tell me what this is now ?" the teacher demanded.

"I told you, I don't know."

He frowned, "I was hoping you would let this go easier for you."

Dev felt a pinprick of fear run down his back. Was Mr. Gershwyn going to hurt him ?

The teacher took the test tube and put a small portion on a microscope slide and flattened the green goo down with a secondary slide. Then carefully placed it under the powerful electron microscope he had on his office desk.

"Dev, you're pretty bright, aren't you ?"

"Fairly."

"More fair then you give yourself credit for, I imagine. But that's fine. Take a look at this."

I hesitated giving a good thought to running out the door and leaving him behind to his questions.

He could apparently read my thoughts because then he added, "That door is locked by the way. I'll let you out when I get a satisfactory answer from you."

That cold creepy feeling of fear shivered up my spine again. I realized I was going to have to play ball with him before he'd let me go.

"Okay, I'll cooperate." I said in defeat.

He smiled slightly, "Good boy. Now take a look and tell me what you see."

I did, and apparently he had an especially powerful microscope because at once I recognized miniature DNA strands. Being completely familiar with microscopes, I touched a few buttons to zoom in on them. He saw what I was doing and realized I was honing in on them.

"It's alive !" I said watching the green wiggling around it.

"The slime ? Maybe." he offered. "Now step back for a second, and look at this."

I did. He reached in his pocket and had a prepared microscope slide wrapped in pretty purple velvet. He took the velvet off and showed me the slide in the light, which appeared perfectly clear. Nonetheless he replaced the "slime" one with it.

"Now tell me what you see."

I peered in. There was DNA on this slide as well. I zoomed in to look at it carefully. Then I realized they were the same DNA strand as I had a near photographic memory for this sort of thing.

"The same." I commented to myself. I didn't like where this was going. While at first I thought he was going to teach me a little about science, it was then I felt like I was on trial in a court and what I was looking at was incriminating evidence - to send me to prison !

"Want to know whose DNA you are looking at ?" He asked.

* * *

There could only be one logical answer. "Mine ?"

He nodded, "Yes, that secondary slide is a sample of your DNA from the last time we ran a blood-drive here. Now you tell me, how can YOUR DNA be mixed into that green goo that was bubbling up from the floor ? The sooner you give me a straight answer, the sooner you can leave."

I pulled away from the microscope to sit in a chair for a good thought. He sat on his desk to regard me, looking for any trace of deception.

I finally had an answer. "Mr. Gershwyn, I don't know, honestly. And let me explain that. I am not responsible for that explosion, the goo that popped out in the Gym, or any of that electrical charge. It was all a big surprise to me as it was to you."

And I was being completely truthful. SIM did all of that itself and in truth I had no idea what would've happened when I yelled when Lemonie had jammed my head in the girls' toilet bowl those weeks ago. All I know is I was scared, frightened, and finally angry. And that's when I yelled out loud causing SIM to react violently if not being protective of myself.

"This is all a complete mystery to you, is it ?"

I nodded. "Yes, I know I didn't have anything to do with what happened."

"Despite your DNA being part of the green acid solution ?"

"I can't explain that." I said shaking my head. "But what do we really know of science ? Sure theorems are tested every day, but do we REALLY know everything there is to know about DNA ?"

I continued, "It could be the green acidic goo is intelligent, alien, or something and as I was the first person to notice it and get close up to it, it could've 'borrowed' my DNA to form an identity as part of its evolutionary growth."

Mr. Gershwyn's eyes grew wide. "That's pretty high talk coming from someone just in High School !"

"That's my answer to what happened, that's all I can think of." I lied. "There's no other way it would have my DNA in it."

He scratched his chin thoughtfully. Finally he held a hand out and fingered me to come back over.

I got up out of the desk to approach. He then quickly took a Q-Tip of the green solution and touched it to my bare arm.

It sizzled angrily. My nerves burned in fire ! I shrieked in pain as the acid bubbled around me !

Mr. Gershwyn quickly reached in the desk for a spray and sprayed my arm, some type of base to neutralize acid I suspected. The pain subsided, and only a little bit of redness showed there ever was any of that acid on me at all.

"I apologize." he said abruptly. "I just wanted to check - to see - if somehow you were immune to the green acid as it already contains your DNA.' And if you were somehow immune to it, that would've told me something more about it than you were revealing."

I winced with more pain then I felt and shouted, "Well no ! It didn't alright ? That hurt like hell ! What if it burned right through me ?"

He shook his head, "I wouldn't have let that happen."

I persisted, "And if you were wrong ?"

He met my eyes with his steely gray ones and spoke down to me as a parent does to their child, "Then I would've taken full responsibility, alright, Dev ? You're safe with me, understand that. A teacher's oath is to the safety of their students."

I stepped away from him so he couldn't hurt me again. "Are we done here ?" I asked, raising my voice again.

He sighed. Looked to his table then to me. He shrugged, "Yeah, okay, Dev. We're done. I'm sorry to put you through what I did. But understand my position. This green acid has yours and your DNA alone as part of it. I had to be certain you didn't know anything about it or that you somehow held an immunity to it."

"Sure." I offered evenly.

He stepped past me and reaching in his other pocket, unlocked the door to his classroom.

"Go catch up with Tyr if you like. I shouldn't need you again. I'll try and figure this out myself, unless - unless you would like to help ? Surely you must be curious about this phenomenon as well, Dev ?"

"No !" I shouted in finality.

He was clearly disappointed but nodded nonetheless. "You must really hate me right now. Once again, I apologize, I didn't mean to hurt or frighten you. But I WILL figure it out - with or without you. Now go."

He opened the door and I burst out in a flurry of motion. Outside the school, I could see Tyr was walking leisurely home with Lilly, nearly a quarter of a mile ahead of me so I pushed my little legs as hard as I could and struggled to catch up to them.

END OF CHAPTER 53