Flight of Fancy
Chapter 5

The next day, when he had a few moments to himself, he went down to the cellar to check if the instruction manual was still there, or if it had been used as tinder. The manual seemed to interest him way more than it should have. He shuffled nervously through the papers and, thinking it was gone, began searching more frantically.

Calm down.

He took a deep breath. Once he regained his composure, he managed to locate it in the middle of the pile, staring straight at him.

Of course it was still there. Nobody came down to the cellar and nobody had any interested in the old, crusty and dusty instruction manual.

Get a grip! It’s just a silly book.

He opened the first pages and soon the sense of anticipation and expectation faded. It appeared to be a lot of drivel about assembling some sort of device.

Crystals?! Sheet metal?! A bunch of other nonsense and mostly rubbish you could acquire at your local junkyard. The first time he went through it, he didn’t see all of this.

Hmm, he thought, maybe this is a load of bullshit.

Still, there was a part of him that was toying with the idea of trying to do this. even though it might have been someone’s idea of a practical joke.

Yes, he would do it. It couldn’t hurt. He didn’t have a job, only the occasional farm work occupied his time. This project could give some sort of clarity and time to think about the future. He always did some of his best thinking in those kinds of situations. Either that or in the shower, or, of course, on the toilet.

There was still the matter of when he would do the project. For some reasons, keeping it a secret from everyone else seemed important. Probably because they would replace him crazy, think it was a big waste of time and resources, or a hundred other reasons. It would have to be done in stealth. He didn’t think it would be a problem to do this, the only obstacle being his wife. They shared everything- their thoughts, ideas, lunch, occasionally saliva and other bodily fluids. There really were no secrets between them, especially as they spent pretty much all of their time together. In a way, he loved that, the feeling that they were one another’s everything and enjoyed their own company above anything else. He would have to think of a way to leave her side for a few hours every day. Surely, she could do without him for a little while.

He put the manual behind the elastic of his sweatpants and put his T-shirt over as well, so as to hide the stack of old papers. He didn’t want anyone to see it, so he went upstairs to their apartment as quietly as possible.

Luckily, his wife was just in the middle of doing exercises in the living room, so he could sneak into his workroom undisturbed and put the instruction manual somewhere safe. The best choice appeared to be one of the drawers of his desk. The book was laid underneath a bunch of other papers that had been piled there for no apparent reason. She had been telling him to clean that desk out for ages, but for now it would still have to serve the purpose of concealing his latest replace.

Perhaps it’s all a waste of time anyway.

Chances were good that nothing would come of this anyway and it would just be one more disappointment in a life riddled with them.

I love my optimism!

There was a feeling in the back of his mind, though. He felt that he would really discover something with this. Either it would come in the form of self-realisation or the project would be worthwhile in some practical way as well. In any instance, there was no harm in trying. He only had time to lose, nothing else. At least that’s what he thought.