City of Walls: Prologue pt 2

2027

My mother had an office at the house. When I was younger I would get into so much trouble in there. On one particular day, when my half day preschool was closed for some reason, my mother decided to watch me instead of sending for a sitter. I was just five at the time, apparently I almost made her change her mind. Then it hit on her, I was just brimming with energy.

See, my Mom had been working on ways to increase the amount of electricity that was transferable from a human body into an electric device. Conventional wisdom, at the time, held that the power harnessed needed to be stored until an acceptable amount could be had. However, too much energy was consumed while transferring it from body to storage to device. She tried cutting out the middle step in an attempt to alleviate the problem. Progress was made, but not enough.

Later that afternoon, as she made a PB&J sandwich for my snack, she asked, "Tara, would you like to help Mommy with her work?"

"Yeah, can I make robots! Ones that can move like a ballerina and then change into a rocket flyer that goes into space?"

"Not this time, sweetie." She smiled, and tussled my hair. "But I do need to remember do that with you sometime. This time, all we are going to do is test some new furniture."

"Like Daddy's Stretch Tests?"

"Daddy calls them Stress Tests, and yes, that's what we'll do!"

Over the next few days my playroom was remodeled. Walls, floor, and most furniture items were covered in a conductive surface which fed energy directly to the lights of my room. It was the same materials used in the older method of harnessing energy for storage; and it was delicate, while I was not always.

"Tara, I need you to promise me that you'll be very careful. No taking your shoes off, you'll need to keep your legs covered with pants or tights, to keep you from getting scratched. I need you to stay in the playroom while Mommy works. Oh, and only take naps on your bed, not the reading mat, OK?"

"But why Momma?"

"Remember sweetie, we need to test all these things. It just for a few days, then I'll change everything back. When we're done, we'll make that robot you wanted."

"Yay!"

So for the next five days I played in my room, tights on under whatever else I wanted to wear, and shoes on my feet. I still remember the cool, bumpy feel of my coloring table, just begging for me to lay my face down on it. It also had parts on it that stuck out, putting snags in many of my clothes. In that time the results my mother received where meager. The energy output was higher than previous attempts with such technology, but not as much as she was hoping for.

Down the hallway from my bedroom was my mother's office. On the last day of the trial run she contacted a colleague to compare notes.

"So Dr. Gulf. what do you think?"

"It seems you've hit a wall Dr. Harris. You maximized the transfer rate of energy, little is lost there. Yet so little is to be had from the human body it seems. Perhaps an older subj- an adult, someone whose body is full grown? Either way, what you've found here is indeed revolutionary for your field. Publish your work; given time and another set of eyes, the breakthrough you've been looking for may be had."

"Thank you Dr. Gulf. I appreciate your insight. I..."

"Madame, the monitor behind you!"

At that exact moment a loud pop was heard through the open door of the office.

"My daughter! Plea..."

"Go, Go! I'll await however long" Dr. Gulf replied to the empty space before my mothers vidcam.

Down the hall, my mother burst into my room in a full panic. The lights were out and the switch was useless. The hallway light illuminated the floor just beyond the door, where some stuffed animals lay alone on the floor. She had run into the room and pulled back the curtains.

Apparently she also called my name the whole time. When she got down on hands and knees, to look under my bed, sparks flew from the light socket. She found me asleep under my bed.

It was always recounted at dinner parties. One I remember most was a New Year's Eve party with Dr. Gulf. The Gulfs where good friends of my parents, and came over often.

2033

" I remember it clearly." Dr. Cecil had said over spaghetti, his favorite meal. "I was so certain that Vivian would be crushed. To have it confirmed that her work was only going to amount to a half step of advancement. She was so sure that her work would be ground breaking. She took it so well. Then, then the monitor behind her, just went berserk! Mind you, my view point was through a computer monitor, but even I could tell that something drastic was happening."

"Later," my mom chimed in "after I set Tara to sleep on the chaise lounge, I went over the data. There was over an 70 percent increase of the of the output. But while Cecil was trying to point out an astounding turn of events. I feared something had happened to Tara."

"You just had to use incandescent light bulbs!"My dad's grin stretched wide across his face. He enjoyed picking on my mom about how determined she'd been to use the "antiquated energy hogs".

"Even before that afternoon, Tara was able to power those 'energy hogs' as you love to call them."

"Then a power surge caused the light bulbs to burst!" I added quickly.

"And what supplied so much energy?" Dr. Cecil questioned, pointing his fork at me.

"I fell asleep on the floor, giving mom's new conductive material direct access to my skin."

"And why did direct contact with skin bring about this change, eh?" He prodded further.

"`Cause when I was just playing around, my kinetic energy was absorbed. It wasn't a lot, but enough for the lights. When my skin touched the nano coated stuff, my body heat and natural electricity over powered the stuff."

"Simple as that. Nowadays we are dependent on ourselves for most of our energy needs."

"Cecil, let the child be. She is not defending her dissertation paper." Helena, Dr. Gulf's wife, chuckled as she chided him.

From there the conversation drifted to other topics, and I stuff myself with as much desert as my parents would let me. Family, friends, good food, it was a good night; one of the last for me.

Four months later, in Tucson AZ, my parents died from a roadside pipe bomb.