Teleportation

"Can you keep a secret?" Asked the young man who had just landed, or rather fell from somewhere right on the bench next to Phoebe. It would be fine if he just fell, but it is certainly not okay for him to ask me such an ordinary and everyday question after such an incredibly unusual event. She thought, still staring silently at the young man who had just fallen from somewhere on the bench next to her. After a few more strange and surprisingly long moments, she widened her eyes when she realized that the red-haired weirdo sitting next to her was really expecting an answer to the question asked.

"Yeah." she said in a shaky voice. It was not even clear to her why she was not able to utter such a simple word without stuttering and pausing, although it does not happen every day that someone falls from the sky next to you out of nowhere. In her response, the guy raised his eyebrows cheerfully, and then looked over his shoulder at something she could not see. He looked back at her and again looked as if he had just noticed her, and when she was the one who at least did something that contradicted just about every law of physics that Phoebe knew about. He held out his hand to her, stroking and straightening a suit that looked like a lab coat made up of few old sheets. It seemed to have been expanded, lengthened, and patched at least a dozen times judging by the pile of seams and the different types of fabrics of which it was composed. Some of the stitches closest to the ends of the sleeves were made so clumsily that it was difficult for her to look at them and try to take the young man seriously. She took his pale bony hand, staring thoroughly at his face. He wasn’t much older than her, but because of his beard of about a few days and his eyelids he looked at first glance like he was much older than nineteen. He had black eyes like hers and freckles on almost every part of his face that she could see from his shoulder-length messy red hair. She could see that he was looking at her in a rather questioning way. Not letting go of her hand, he bent down and radiantly picked up a pen from the floor, which was probably dropped when he landed on the bench. With one hand he held hers while with the other hand he pressed the buttons on the pencil. He finally let go of Phoebe's hand out of a relentless grip and began to stare in all directions as if checking to see if there was anyone around them and if anyone could hear or see them. When he had finished superficially inspecting the environment, he looked back at her. "My name is Marco, and you?" "Phoebe, nice to meet you." "Well, Phoebe," he said, pausing for dramatic effect "I guess I owe you an explanation." "Yes, owe me one really good explanation." she replied with a slight smile. "Then it's good that you know how to keep secrets, because this one is quite incredible and, above all, confidential. I shouldn't tell anyone this, but since I almost fell on you, you deserve an explanation. "he recited contentedly, then continued," Should I start from the beginning? " "Yes, please." "Well, Phoebe, it all started ..." It all started on a foggy October 23rd, fifteen years ago, on Marco's seventh birthday. His mother, a skinny woman of a peaceful nature, finally raised money to take her only child to a magic show for his birthday. Not just any magic show, but a real magical spectacle that has finally come to their city. They were both excited, but they didn't know what a big impact only one show would have on little Marco. Like any magician's show, this one consisted of cutting a lady in half and a lot of other old tricks, known by everyone, but when the magician and his lovely assistants let the pigeons out of their hats. The lights changed for a second and the magician was on the opposite side of the stage, the lights came on again and the magician was on the other side of the small hall where they were. He was right next to the stunned Marco. Never in his life had he seen something so elusive, and so inexplicably appealing and unbelievable. The idea of ​​being able to be somewhere else in just a few moments filled him with a sense of excitement and happiness. Then he knew he had to find out how to do it again, how to make teleportation possible. Of course, every older spectator of the play could conclude that the secret was in the lighting and a few well-rehearsed and planned steps, but for Marco at that moment, it was real magic. Long after the show, he ran around their little house in the suburbs trying to repeat what he saw at the show. He begged a local street magician to teach him his craft and teach him to teleport. The old man didn't mind Marko joining him. When he finally taught the boy everything a young magician should know, Marko was not in the least satisfied. He kept saying that it was not the magic he had seen on October 23rd. It was a long time before he realized what the others who attended that evening were. He was disappointed, but did not give up. If true magical teleportation does not exist then there is certainly another way. One day when he was twelve, he was returning from school and noticed a poster at the bus station. It was written on it that the science fair would be held in a few days in the same room where he was a few years ago to watch a magic show. Then it realized that some other way of teleportation was certainly hidden in science. So in a few days he went to the fair. To his great misfortune, he learned there that so far no one had ever managed to teleport. Yet there he met Charlie and Timothy, an old scientist and his so-called apprentice. The old man looked, and acted like, the true definition of a mad scientist, while Timothy, who was only a few years older than Marco, constantly tried to turn the scientist's crazy ideas into something a little more feasible. Charlie claimed that it was completely possible to make a teleportation machine and thus opposed just about every other scientist at the fair. That's why Marco liked him on the first glance, then he asked him after fair had finished if he might need another apprentice. After some thought, exaggeration and Timohty's displeasure, Charlie appointed Mark as the deputy deputy chief scientist. When he returned home, he immediately asked his mother for a coat, the kind that scientists wear. As they did not have the money to buy one such coat, his mother sewed one of some sheets for him. His coat was big then, but at least his sleeves fit. In the future, those sleeves will be extended many times and fastened even more times because of Charlie's madness and Marco's will to be involved in that madness for no real reason. As the years passed, the coat was patched. At first, Marco's mother patched him with great love, but when he was eighteen, she died and he had to learn how to patch his sleeves and his lonely heart on his own. He was alone now. Although he was an adult the moment his mother was gone, Charlie insisted on continuing to take care of him and teach him something else in life. At least that's how he liked to say it. It all went like that until a few months ago, when Charlie retired, even though they were very close to finding the right teleportation machine. In the months that followed, Timothy was very rude with Mark, so much so that he often did not allow him to enter the laboratory and workshop, which was like his second home since the death of his mother. The door was constantly locked, and behind them Timothy, who was now the main inventor in the laboratory, was constantly doing something behind them. One day Marko pushed him and pushed him to be let in the workshop. When he finally ran out of hope, the door swung open. "What do you want?" Timothy asked him as if it wasn't entirely obvious what he wanted. "Let me in." "No." said the chief scientist, and he was about to slam the door in front of nose of his deputy when Marco pushed his foot between the door and the door frame, thus preventing Timothy from closing it. "Please," he begged, "I haven't seen the machine progress in a long time." "The answer is still no." After several rounds of Mark's begging and Timothy's refusal, the scientist relented. "Okay, you can come in, but only if you come in did you stand exactly where I tell you and do exactly what I tell you." He introduced him to a workshop that hasn't changed since he last saw it. "Stand here." Tim pointed to something that looked like a capsule attached to something that looked like a computer. He did as I was told although it was a little strange to him. "Now turn inward." He did as he was told again, but not as willingly as the first time. Timothy knocked something, and when he was done, he found himself behind Mark. One hand was on lever while the other was holding on to the door frame. "Ready?" Tim asked. "Ready for what?" "To become the first person to ever teleport." Before Marko even managed to rebel, his colleague pulled the lever and kicked him through the portal that had just opened in front of him. In just a few moments, he found himself a few meters above a bench where a girl was sitting. He started to fall and slammed his butt against the bench. The girl who was already there looked as if she had seen a dragon or at least some weirdo who had just fallen from the sky. He couldn't blame her, he was surprised too. Nothing came to his mind but to ask her: "Can you keep a secret?"