Saturday, May 1, 2010

Royal Commonwealth Society Essay Competition

I know my essay sucks. And somehow I got selected to represent the school. So yeah.

So for those who have been wanting to read it. Here it is.

The Mad Scientist

I still remember when I first married him. Nikolai Strovoski, my beloved husband. Back then he was a caring, kind and intelligent Christian man. He had always loved science ever since I knew him. He would tell me stories on how he spent hours in the corner poring over Einstein’s “Laws of Physics Edition III” and would bring it everywhere he went. He had dark brown hair which he always tried to keep in check but failed miserably. His smoky grey eyes had always given me the impression that it was the window into his soul of endless knowledge and thought. He had a masculine jaw line and his chin was free of any hint of stubble.

When I first met him, he was 29 and I was 27. It was love at first sight. After a year of dating he proposed to me. It was at the lookout point where we first met. The place had breathtaking scenery. It had a bird’s eye view of the neighborhood below and you could see the city spanning the horizon and skyscrapers that men had built trying to prove their supremacy over this land. It was a vacant plot of land with a lovely house that I would have loved to buy but was unfortunately out of my pay grade. But nothing was impossible for Nikolai. He never believed in limits and used to say the sky is not the limit but the standard. He got down on one knee and proposed to me revealing a black velvet box. Inside it resided this magnificent piece of craftsmanship. A silver ring encrusted with a diamond the size of a marble. On the inner circle was engraved eternal “I love us”. I remember not hesitating when I said yes.

We had a lovely but simple wedding. We were married at the house I had always loved. Nikolai had bought it and decided it to be our home for our new life. I remember walking under the metal arch entangled with vines of white roses. My family, friends, all my loved ones gathered together to see me on my special day but I couldn’t help but feel sad that none of Nikolai’s relatives were there. It was as if he was the last of his family. Nikolai rarely spoke of them and I barely knew anything about his past. He was mysterious yet ironically, that was his allure. Nonetheless I loved him for who he was and what he could be and not his past.

Two years passed and we lived happily together. But that one fateful day just had to happen. Nikolai came up with a theory that he could harness static energy from the air around us and turn it into an alternative source of electricity. The men of science of the world could not believe his preposterous theory. They called him mad and said he was out of his mind for thinking of such a thing. The science community shunned him, rendering him an outcast and no longer worthy of their presence.

Nikolai went into a rabid obsession trying to prove their speculation wrong. That wish had become his fuel. He attempted to build the machine. He would spend his entire days in his lab and would only leave to have his meals. He was on the edge of insanity but I guess I was the only person holding him back from plunging into the world of madness. This continued on for a whole year when one day he came into the house. He was still wearing the same shirt he was wearing 4 days ago. But he had a triumphant look on his face. I could tell that he succeeded in materializing his obsession. I was truly against his idea of building this machine but he would not hear of it. Nikolai might be caring but he is as stubborn as a mule. Once he sets his mind to something, he would never change his mind set. He said that I needed to see it and he led me to his lab. I had never been into his lab and I was actually kind of surprised that he wanted me to enter it with him.

We went to the back where a two storey building stood. It had a metal door that looked like it could withstand the explosion of a ton of C4. According to Nikolai the only ways in were either the roof of the lab is blown off with the help of a demolition team or he alone did a palm scan on the screen beside the door. As the door opened I felt as if I was in a sci-fi movie. Machines, wires and screens were all over the place. I could see motorized hands dripping liquids into test tubes. Test data being read out by a computerized voice. And in the middle of the room stood a machine that was so tall that it was reaching the roof of the laboratory.

“Honey, this is what I have been working on for the past year, and once I test it and I know it will work, I will prove them all wrong. All those people who said I was mad. They all will be wrong.”

Nikolai was so confident that his machine would work. I could feel an aura of confidence emitting from him. Yet deep down in my gut I felt that we should not mess with the laws of nature. Throughout history nothing but the destruction of the world has resulted from each of mankind’s inventions. Somehow I felt this machine would lead to the end.

“Nikolai, I love you very much and I know you’re a brilliant man. But we should not mess with the laws of nature. We should not change what God has created. If he wanted us to change it he would never created the problem in the first place. So please don’t do this.”
“But Sarah, I must do this. I must regain my pride that they have stripped away from me.”

I had to say it. I had to stop him. He already had his finger on a big red button and I could tell if he pressed it, it would start the test.

“Nikolai! If you love me, you will stop this madness!”
He paused for a moment and I actually believed he was going to walk away but he went ahead anyway. He pressed the button. I remember his last words to me before it all went wrong.

“I don’t love you. I love us.”
Things went horribly wrong. Sparks were flying all over the place. Next thing I could see was a white light. I could see my own body. I was dead.

That was 20 years ago. Nikolai was arrested for my murder and was sent to prison. He could never prove that he didn’t kill me. I am in heaven now and I am helpless. All I can do is watch him. Now as I watch my husband being released from prison on parole, I cannot help but feel sad for him. The years have been unkind to him. His hair is now graying and his eyes are devoid of emotion. Nobody was waiting to take him home. He was alone.

He took a cab back to what used to be our home. The tattered yellow police tape was still there blocking the path into his lab. He ignored it and continued on into his lab.

“Sarah. I will avenge you. You’re dead because of America and their so called high society. In those 20 years. I figured out what was wrong with the machine. It is not meant to help men but destroy them.”

Nikolai has gone mad and I could do nothing to stop him. I could only watch as he reprogrammed his machine of revenge. A computerized voice sent chills down my spine and I was filled with fear.

“Reprogramming successful.”

As Nikolai pressed the red button once again, I could instantly see the machine spinning into life. Dark clouds started spooling over the city. Dark clouds spewing bolts of lightning dealing destruction onto the innocent below. Nikolai smiled wryly at his success. As he watched the destruction of the world from his window, he took some rope and started preparing for the end. I could clearly hear what he was saying.

“From dust you are and to dust you will return. Even though I walk through the valley of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”

And as he knotted a hangman’s noose around his neck, I could see in his eyes that he had no regrets. I could no longer watch this madness.

Revenge is like a ghost. It consumes everyone until the last man standing has fallen.
My beloved Nikolai, proved them wrong. You built the machine but you lost your mind. Was it worthwhile after all?

(1501 words)

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