3/26/15

The Hidden Object
By Joe Russo


Entry Twelve:
Dr. Henry Googan woke us up early, around thirteen forty-five. I had just gone to sleep, my feet aching after walking the desert the whole day. We complained, both Rudy and I, about how the doctor always awoke us whenever he found something of use.
“Helen. I found it. It was there, beneath the sand.”
“Are you sure?” I asked, slipping my white coat on. I was unsure about this find, he’s been wrong that past few times. Rudy and I were just about to give up, pack up and head back home. Or ask for a better, non-senile doctor.
He nodded, his glasses slipping down his nose. Outside, the wind blew around our feet, the sand getting into our shoes.
“Its over there, Helen. I dug it up right before you went in for bed.”
I followed his pointed finger to a hole, about six feet deep in the middle of the desert. A mound of sand stood next to it. I wondered how the doctor even got up from the hole; he was no taller than forty-eight inches.
“And you’re sure this is the real object?”
“I’m sure. I had the picture with me,” he said, taking a picture out of his coat pocket. I took the picture from him, the black rectangle staring at me.
I peered down the hole. “Get me the ladder, Doctor.”
He looked around, as if he was thinking about what a ladder looked like, and dashed off back to the trailer. I waited, staring at the bottom of the hole, at the black rectangle with a cracked top.
Dr. Googan came back, with Rudy in tow, and placed the ladder- a wooden one we found three days ago- down the hole. I climbed on top of it, unsure of how to use it.
“Take your time, Helen.”
“It’s a ladder, Doctor, not an animal.” I took the steps one at a time, finally reaching the ground and the black object. It was smaller in person and when I picked it up heavier. I turned it over in my hand and saw that the name of the rectangle was still visible but faded across the letter P. I touched the half-eaten logo, which I learned through Rudy, was called an apple.
“Dr.Googan. Rudy. We found it,” I said, as I pocketed the black object and climbed up from the hole.
I’m tired. I’ll finish report tomorrow. Till then.


16 March 4014
Entry Thirteen:
The black object rests on the counter and Rudy keeps touching it. “I’ve heard so much about this thing,” he would tell me.
“It has these things called… Oh, I forgot. It can take pictures though,” he said, turning it around, “That’s what this thing is here.” I looked at the little sliver circle.
“That takes pictures? Its so small.”
Rudy nodded. “The screen is cracked though.”
“The screen…?” I asked.
“This part right here,” he said, pointing to the cracked top. “You see? This is glass and it can break very easily.”
I nodded. Dr. Googan is asleep, has been for most of the day. He said this object was used to call people and send messages. He called it something, but I forgot. Must ask when he awakes. I hailed the Supreme last night, using the object, after Rudy told me that it was safe. The Supreme wants the sample sent immediately to him. He then asked us to find something else; something called a Mac Book found in a city called New York. I could only imagine what kind of book this could be. Until tomorrow's report.


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Joe Russo has been published on three other flash fiction sites. He is a current Creative Writing student and is in the process of writing his first feature length screenplay and stageplay.