Gerdie dropped it on the floor There was a POP and a CRACKLE And then the screen went black No she cried scooping it back up ignoring the burns to her hands She punched the buttons but there was no life left in it She tossed it aside and buried her face in her pillow Tears streamed out of her eyes soaking her cheeks and lips She needed the answer to her equation It would change everything And then she heard the Inimation 410A hum to life once more She sat up wiped her eyes and looked down at the calculator lying on the floor On the screen was flashing a number 17 17 17 Gerdie couldn’t believe what she was seeing The math problem she had labored over for more than a year and a half was solved The dark ocean had calmed and the numbers had found dry land in the form of the beautiful number 17 Gerdie raced to her closet and threw open the door Inside was a tube of blue-and-gray drafting paper She unrolled it on her desk and smoothed it out to reveal the plans for a bizarre looking machine It had buttons and knobs and two glass tubes rising out of the top She studied it like it was a masterpiece hanging in an art museum Then she glanced down at the mysterious letter still crumpled in her hand Attached to the paper with the equation was another letter this one on stationery from a place called the Arlington Hospital for the Criminally Insane It was signed Happy birthday from your pal Heathcliff Gerdie smiled
Thank you Heathcliff This is the best birthday present ever THREE DAYS LATER Gerdie tightened the final screws on her creation She stepped back to admire her beautiful invention Two glass tubes rose from the top like bunny ears straps hung down like limp arms and its faceplate had a dozen different dials and parts from old video game consoles In truth it was an ungainly misfit but then again so was its creator No matter The government would pay her a fortune for the machine once they saw what it could do She tapped the power button and heard the motors turning A fuzzy map formed on one of the tiny monitors and after peering at it for a long moment she punched some coordinates into the keyboard on its side It weighed a ton but she hefted the device onto her back and reached over to push the record button on a mounted video camera A good scientist always documented her successes and her failures
Well this is the maiden voyage of my machine I still don’t have a name for it but I’ll worry about that if it works If all
goes according to plan I will vanish from my bedroom and reappear half a block away in the church parking lot she said If not I don’t know I’ve never built a teleportation device before using my allowance as the budget I know it’s probably dangerous to test this in the house but I just can’t resist She awkwardly turned to look at the movie star photos she had taped to her bedroom walls If this thing works I’m going to use every penny to make myself look like you hair makeup dental work everything I’ll be an all-new me and Gruesome Gerdie will be a thing of the past She flipped the activation switch Above her head she could hear the glass cathode tubes warming She gazed upward just in time to see a powerful charge passing back and forth between them creating a tiny lightning storm of crackling energy The electricity formed into a spinning ball of perfect light that grew and grew Its surface was clear and white but when Gerdie ran her hand through it she left streaks where her fingers had glided like smearing icing on a birthday cake The circle grew bigger than her whole body and then it floated down from above until it was directly in front of her face There was an odd tearing sound like someone was ripping a huge piece of paper in two and with shocking force Gerdie was dragged into the energy circle A split second later she was freezing and blind She rubbed her eyes into focus To her surprise she was not in her bedroom or in the church parking lot Instead she was alone in a frozen wasteland that stretched as far as the horizon Ice covered everything and snow was coming down in blankets each tiny crystal like a razor cutting at her exposed skin
