FOR THE COAST GUARD -SPECULATIVE FICTION

Untitled Part 1

"Why you might ask, am I willing to put my life on the line? Why would I risk death?" Francisco paused for effect. "The Coastguard deserves your support," he yelled out. "And that is why I am performing this heroin journey, to raise money for our wonderful servicemen and women of the coastguard." A slight breeze blew across the small gathering while pigeons searched for a morsel of discarded food. The heat from the sun penetrated Francisco's skin.

Francisco pointed to the massive canvas, concealing his "boat of science", as he stood in the middle of the town square and hollered to the people walking by, most on their way home from a long day at work. The majority ignored him and his thick brown canvas. The smell of Chinese food from the Asian buffet rallied Francisco's stomach, but he ignored it. He had a mission to fulfill.

Francisco's wife blocked people passing, shaking a money bowl in their faces. Her long mixture of dreadlocks and ratted hair clung to her face and neck. She wiped the sweat from her brow as she continued to annoy the people with her screechy call.

"Support the Coastguard," the hippie woman sang out of tune. A few people tossed monies in the tin bowl to get rid of the crazy lady while the more annoyed commuters pushed her to the side. Pansy didn't let the hostile ones deter her from her purpose. -a commitment to serving a brilliant husband, and he was brilliant. No one could invent things as he could. The obnoxious odor of fried sweet and sour reached Pansy, and she grimaced. Unlike Francisco, the smell of processed food didn't tempt her. -only pure and organic for that love-child.

Pansy disregarded that most of Francisco's inventions flopped, but look at Edison. How many times did he fail before he invented the lightbulb? Edison stood as the inspiration for Francisco and Pansy's move to Fort Myers, Florida, so that they could be close to the Edison Museum, the grounds where Edison's inspiration flowed.

"I believe in energies," Pansy had told Francisco in their tiny New York Flat. "So many inventions came from the Edison Estate. There is powerful energy there. All you have to do is invent in a location within ten miles of his estate, and I promise those energies will flow through you."

Pansy sat at the card table as she stroked paint onto a box. She often carried discarded treasures off the streets of New York and reinvented them. She swirled the brush in a cup of water and dried the bristles on her shirt.

Francisco looked at her with skepticism. He had never met such a free-flowing, superstitious being before. A woman's screaming on the street below penetrated their thin walls while a siren zoomed by. Perhaps, Fort Myers wouldn't have the noise of New York.

"You are not a failure, babes." Pansy abandoned her art project, stood next to Francisco, and ran her fingers through Francisco's disheveled hair. When had Francisco bathed last? His obsession with science sometimes caused him to forget his hygiene. Pansy didn't mind since she preferred the natural man to one smelling of chemical soaps and cologne. "None of your experiments have worked out because of this bad New York Energy. It drains you of your ability to create." She lit a bundle of twigs as she inhaled its smoke, then returned to rubbing Francisco's hair, her bracelets rattling.

Francisco fanned the obnoxious smoke out of his face. "I don't believe in your energy hocus-pocus."

"You don't have to, but it's truth. Listen, you have failed at everything you have done."

Francisco tightened his eyes at her blatant observation. He hadn't failed. He just had yet to succeed. His world-changing project was there. He could feel it.

"That is the truth. But you are a genius, and it isn't your fault. It is the bad energy here. So, you have to either accept the bad energy or accept that you suck as a scientist."