*****
On Sundays and holidays John always slept longer. He was not an early bird, but never wanted to spend the whole day in bed either. At 10:17 he decided to getup. For some reason he felt well, which was rare lately. With a briefly prepared breakfast and a glass of orange juice he approached the dining table. He saw the board, to his surprise, and remembered everything from last night. After placing the plate with breakfast on the table, he gently touched the board. It felt real. John frowned and shook his head, “Impossible.” He sat down and started to eat. “I wonder…” Remembering that some months ago he broke a glass identical to the one he had with juice next to him, which he persistently had tried to replace, John decided to experiment after finishing the orange… but why to wait? He carefully placed the glass with the remaining juice on the pink circle. “How was it…?” gently he placed his hand between two circles. Something like a fog had appeared above the light green circle, started to flicker and to get dense and an identical copy of the glass, together with the liquid, formed on it. John was staring at both glasses for the whole minute, passing from one to the other, before remembering to withdraw his hand.
Firstly he sipped with caution some juice from the copy, then from the original and at the end he could not distinguish them any more. Then he looked around the apartment. His eye caught some picture frames, reminding him how sorry he was for not having a whole series in the same style. He would have bought one to see how it fits and then would either forget where he found it, or they were sold. John picked the one he liked the most and duplicated it, and again, and again… stopping at ten items. Then he decided to try something more practical. Took the TV remote controller; for some time he wanted a new one since a few buttons were broken on his. The duplicate was a disappointment; he had forgotten that the copies were identical. ‘New’ remote had the same problems as the original.
After a number of attempts, more or less successful, John had decided to try to duplicate a flower growing in the pot by the window. He didn’t expect anything to happen. Could have tried with some of the bigger plants from the apartment, but they would not fit on the pink circle. To his surprise, duplicator started the procedure and something started to form on the green side. A pot filled with earth appeared, but without the flower. John nodded approvingly, “Smart!” He realised he got hungry in the meantime and opened the fridge. It was almost empty, disappointing him with a small peace of fresh meat and a handful of vegetables. Then he grinned and turned to the duplicator. Soon a rich meal was on the table, accompanied with a duplicate of exclusive scotch he kept sealed for the special occasion. It was real pity that duplicator could not restore things, making them new and functional, or food fresh again with reset expiry date. Despite the duplicator, he would not be able to manage without money.
John suddenly straightened up in the char, putting the fork down. Money is just another object for the duplicator. John emptied his pockets. Eighteen dollars and some change. He placed all together on the pink circle and started the duplicator. Then, like in casino, he moved the money from light green to pink circle, doubling it, and repeated the procedure. After few rounds there was a nice sum of money on the table. If he only had some bills of 50 or 100 dollars, it would go much faster. He made a decision to go tomorrow to the bank.
Next morning was nice and sunny. Casually dressed, John started from home. From the front door he returned and took the board with him. He might as well put some money in his bank account, just in case. The bank was not crowded. John waited for his turn and, with a smile, asked the teller to convert the money to 20, 50 and 100 dollar bills. The teller made a check through the counting machine, verified the sum of 280 dollars and returned 1*100, 2*50 and 4*20 bills to John. He thanked the clerk, went out of the bank and duplicated the money in the nearest empty side street to slightly more than a thousand dollars. Satisfied, John returned to the same bank and stood patiently in the queue. When he made it to the counter, John requested to make a payment of 1000 dollars to his account. The teller checked bills through the counting machine and the sum was OK. However, remembering John from some minutes ago, the teller automatically did a visual check as well. Same serial numbers on bills draw attention. While John calmly waited at the counter, the teller inconspicuously signalled the superior, who alerted the manager, who called the police. John did not get excited; he knew that bills were not counterfeited.
Since the personnel in the bank could not explain what was going on, because all bills seemed real and in the same time had serial numbers repeated, both John and the money ended up in the local police station. There he had to wait for the arrival of counterfeit experts from FBI. Few gathered reporters dispersed in search of ‘hot’ holiday topics. Minor counterfeiter was not news. On investigator’s persistent questions regarding the origin of money, John calmly replied that those were his savings. The inquires took very long and he got tired from so many questions, so later he admitted that the board he had could produce duplicates. “But those are not forgeries! There is no law that forbids the possession of more than one original.” he emphasized. That was unseen and experts were confused. How to confiscate copies when it was not possible to pinpoint originals? The situation played havoc in the station. At some point John performed a demonstration with the board, with the result of being declared as magician from observers. And a bad one. The comment was, “David Copperfield does it with whole planes!” The only fact John withheld was about the way he had obtained the board, correctly concluding that such story would send him directly to straitjacket. Official statement was that he had found the board forgotten in the bar and discovered how it works by accident.
A group of fancy guys arrived at early afternoon and everyone stood aside. It was NSA. They reviewed all documentation, examined the bills and observed John making duplicates on the board. When realising that duplicator responds only to John’s palm, they decided to confiscate it and sent for examination to the central laboratory… so secret that agents themselves didn’t know the location, but a special team arrived to transfer the board. There were some doubts whether John should be sent together with the duplicator; but the final conclusion was that such action can be done at any moment in the future, upon expert’s opinion. After all, it might be just an elaborated trick. Since nothing could be proven without the investigation, John was politely instructed not to leave town. He would be summoned in case more information was necessary and there is no place to hide from NSA, they warned him. John was already dead tired and had no strength left to protest. He just signed the paperwork required to let him go.
*****
It was evening when John was finally back on the street. He was hungry, thirsty and angry. In other words, he was outraged at injustice; the best thing he had in his entire life was taken away from him, something that could make him happy. While walking he noticed ATM and inserted the card to withdraw some money for taxi. Indifferently the screen informed him that the account was temporarily blocked. While staring at letters, John could feel a rage boiling inside him. “No wonder our world is at level -107 at civilisation scale!” he shouted, with difficulties holding back from hitting the machine. John took the card from ATM and headed for home, putting hands deep in outer pockets of his jacket. Suddenly he stopped, pulling out the left hand with surprise. A twenty dollar bill! It somehow hid in lining and remained unnoticed in all the commotion. John looked around. His favourite joint was about seven blocks to the south. While the street lights slowly turned on one by one at dusk, he decisively headed to that direction.
The joint was almost empty, the same as for the Christmas Eve, but the usual girl was serving at the bar. John greeted her while sitting and she replied with a smile. It was the first time he really looked at her as a person, noticing her cute dimples and intriguing glare in green eyes. After settling score with those barbarians from governmental institutions, he might ask the girl out… perhaps a breakfast at sunrise. With a broad smile John ordered four whiskeys. Intuition
was telling him that those nice beings in red quite frequently use the path at the back. This time he knew exactly what to say and what to ask for. John rose the glass to his reflection in the mirror behind the bar, “This is going to be interesting… Happy New Year!”
###
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bane Bond (pen name) is a Research Associate in the Agricultural University of Athens (AUA), Greece, and in the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), with scientific and research participation in many European projects, international conferences and papers from 1994 until today. The book Cloud Whale is his first attempt in the area of fiction.
His background includes over 20 years of experience in IT, especially GIS, CAD, computer control and measurement systems, programming and software development, 3D modelling, databases etc. He has successfully applied IT in many different areas, for example in the Development of Water Resource Management Systems and Tools, Urban Sewage System Modelling, Modelling of Processes, Public Participation, Expert Systems and various complex designs.
Before joining AUA and NTUA he was a Researcher at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Belgrade, Serbia, for five years and in tandem worked as a trainer and software developer for AutoCAD and Advanced programming in the Institute for Nuclear Sciences "Vinca" in Belgrade.
During his career he has also been a scientific consultant and a team member actively involved in numerous independent projects in Europe, including Russia, Africa and Latin America. He is a full member of the Technical Chamber of Greece (TEE), the Technical Chamber of Serbia and of the European Water Resources Association (EWRA).
Useful links and information about available books and the author can be found in the https://CloudWhaleAlpha.eu
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