It’s time for Weird Fiction Monday, when I post stories that I’ve written — both new and old — for the entertainment (hopefully) of my readers! As always, I note that I haven’t done extensive editing of the tales here, so don’t be surprised to find the writing a little rough.
I was hoping to finish a new story to post here this week, but my stories — like my science blog posts — always take much longer to write than I anticipate. So instead, I present a story that I wrote sometime around 1996. I’m not quite sure what to make of it…
The Invitation
When the van finally pulled up in front of the school at five minutes past six, Dustin Pendleton had just moved outside anxiously to wait for its arrival. The side of the vehicle read ‘Simms Heating’, and a large dirty looking man, probably a union worker, stepped slowly out of it. He glanced back and forth disinterestedly across the length of the elementary school building for a moment while he adjusted his tool belt, and then he focused on Dustin.
Dustin moved towards him eagerly, extended an arm forward in greeting.
“You’re the one who called about the heating problem?” the dirty man asked, glancing at Dustin’s extended hand but not shaking it. His name tag read ‘Porter’, but Pendleton disregarded it at first.
“Yes, I’m Mr. Pendleton, principal of Coleridge Elementary. I’m terribly sorry to bother you on a Saturday. Are you Simms?”
The man shook his head, stepping past Pendleton and looking at the building again. “I’m Porter. Simms owns the company; I just do the work.”
“Well, maybe we should get to it then,” Pendleton piped up, feeling too impatient. “Let’s take care of this before it gets dark outside.”
Porter walked towards the main doors, and Pendleton scurried ahead to unlock them.
“So what’s the problem?” Porter asked, stepping inside.
“Well, it’s a problem with our heating ducts apparently. Its seems like we’re having some heat flow problems, not enough heat getting to certain rooms, and the like. Maybe you can find out what the problem is.”
“In a building this old, usually the original heating systems aren’t designed too well,” Porter commented, glancing at the walls as the pair walked down the hall. Coleridge Elementary certainly was an old building; it had been built in the early twenties, a product of post war prosperity. Now, however, the aged stone walls and worn tiled floors made the corridors look bleak and unfriendly.
“Our duct work is fairly new,” Pendleton corrected quickly. “In the 1970s the city installed new tubing, just before money started to get tight. They just suspended the new ducts from the ceiling, since there’s ample room, as you can see.”
He pointed up to one of the aluminum tunnels as they passed under it, a rectangular tube cutting across the corridor between classrooms. Porter nodded, but didn’t say anything; he looked somewhat bored, actually. The duo marched down the halls in silence for another minute, and then they had arrived at an unmarked door.
“The furnace is in here,” Pendleton waved towards the portal. “I don’t know if you want to look at that, because most of the rooms get heat just fine…”
“Can you show me which rooms are having trouble?” Porter interrupted, adjusting his belt. That was the question Pendleton had been waiting for, and he blurted out, almost too eagerly, “Of course! Let me show you!”
Continue reading →
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and mass 
are equivalent and interchangeable, with a constant of proportionality equal to the square of the speed of light, 
. This means that energy can be converted into mass, and vice versa: this simple equation is an essential ingredient in nuclear physics, and both nuclear power and nuclear weapons (which convert mass into energy) were developed from its implications.
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Skulls in the Stars 