Deadly Portents

JODIE'S MACHINE

~1~

"Put simply, my machine lets you see yourself."

If there was one thing I knew about Jodie Halford after our years of growing up together, she possessed a different interpretation of simple than you or I.

My name is Brian Davinport. I graduated magna cum laude at Cornell Law. At 28, I'm the youngest partner of Westchester & Associates. A fit mind is my stock in trade. So when I say that compared to my friend Jodie, I have the relative intellect of a mushroom, I want you to fully grasp my meaning.

Jodie was gifted with a precise, analytical mind that perceived the world around us on a plane reserved for very few. She had a knack for breaking abstract concepts down into their simplest components, and the keen mechanical sense to construct devices geared towards implementing her vision into real-world applications. Had she not dropped out of high school to care for her father after the car crash that claimed her mother's life, her brilliance might have changed the world.

When she called me out of the blue to visit her family home in Hobs Mill, I wasn't sure what to expect. Given her inventive genius, I anticipated marvels. She didn't disappoint.

A stroll through her simple homestead became a journey across Wonderland. Though the hamlet nestled in a forested lot off a scarcely travelled back road gave every impression of normality, her contributions were anything but. Her inventions spanned all sizes and purpose, from a self-buttering toaster to a homebuilt solar thermal thermophotovoltaic power generator that she affectionately called "the oven." She treated her amazing creations as nothing more than projects meant to occupy her incredible mind, completely ignoring the fact that my head spun during her entire tour.

Then she took me out to the barn at the back end of their property. What she showed me there would impact my life forever.

I knew whatever she kept inside was her real reason for extending my invitation. As we approached the worn structure, she eyed me with a giddiness that I remembered fondly from our childhood together. I couldn't help but smile. Her mannerisms were even more endearing now than when we were kids.

She instructed me to close my eyes at the barn door. I obeyed her wishes with a smile. I could feel her breath on my face as she double-checked to ensure I wasn't peeking. Her key clicked in the lock, and then her hand slipped into mine as she led me inside.

We passed from the moist air of a Maritime spring turning to summer, into a dry, stifling heat. The interior reeked of smoke and singed rubber. Her hand moved to my back as she positioned me in the perfect place for her presentation. Her fingers were rough from years of hard work, yet her touch was as gentle as a butterfly's wings.

She ordered me to open my eyes. Before me towered her latest creation. The device, which was the only name Jodie had so far seen fit to grant it, was a large console of levers and dials, crowned by a metal support that held five massive mechanical rings, interlocked in such a way as to allow them to spin freely around each other in some preset pattern. The huge construct looked like something more appropriate for Doctor Frankenstein's lab than this humble workshop.

"Well? What do you think?" Jodie pressed eagerly.

"It's... big," I groped. "What is it?"

She scrutinized the strange machine, trying to put its purpose into words that I might understand. Jodie intrinsically knew how every bolt and gear she used in her designs affected its overall purpose. However, building something from the blueprints locked in her head and explaining its function to a layman like me were vastly different things. Her natural talent compensated for an unfortunate lack of formal education on the former, but there was just no easy way to circumvent the latter.