One day the sun rose in the west and set in the East

Submitted into Contest #39 in response to: One day, the sun rose in the west and set in the east.... view prompt

3 comments

Fantasy

   

It was a grueling day at work everything that could go sideways did. Blueprints I needed for a meeting did not come I called the carrier said maybe their driver misplaced them or delivered to the wrong office. I spilled coffee on my new laptop. Luckily I had a friend in the IT dept help dry it out. When the clock hit 5 o’clock, and all I wanted to do was to go home and watch television, make myself a cup of coffee, put a TV dinner in the oven, and just chill. Of course, the bus I was on got a flat tire I had to wait till the next bus came twenty minutes later, of course, it was standing room only. Finally, I made it home, putting the key in the door I just laid on the sofa, coat and all. I had finished eating dinner dishes done and put away first I checked my personal e-mail and my school e-mail one of the emails reminded me there was an early morning staff meeting to meet the new department head.  After which, while surfing the net. I came across one of those websites that still have people that believe the world is flat and other far-out crazies as we didn’t land on the moon Elvis Presley is still alive, scientist are bearding distinct types of animal to clone them one day.  I think of these webs site cotton candy for the mind. People ready believe this stuff, really.  Several weeks later another strange article caught my eye only had a few lines all the way at the bottom it read “Inside source provides information on a machine to control the weather” I just laugh thinking to myself these people need to get a life. Several months later another small hidden article still in a fringe magazine read “Engineers make a prototype of a machine to control the weather”  Common sense told me that this would be on the front page of a national newspaper or television station. It would be the story of the century. I do remember the story about a strange airplane saw near area fifty-one turned out later to be true to be a secret stealth flyer.  What would be the effect if we could control the weather? Do we have a hubris toward nature? I searched and within the next two years more talk about a weather machine from small mainstream media outlets. Early in June, the public relations department of the government acknowledged engineers had indeed invented the machine to control the weather. It gave the agency to oversee this machine the name of the weather monitor department, which was part of Homeland security. The agency did finally admit after the media outlets sued using the Freedom of Information Act, they had to admit they had limited their use of the machine only twice to areas that needed water to relieve drought in the central part of the United States. The weather monitor department spokeswoman insisted that no unexpected disturbance occurred. This was another big step for mankind.  

I had been noticing slowly even though we were in daylight saving the usual bright sun would wake me up and it was not that strong lately. The world would soon find out the consequence of trying to be the master of the weather just an unexpected disturbance. It was a slow process, but suddenly one morning my alarm went off at six, but it was dark, I thought maybe the power went out but checked my cell and it was six a.m. I said, “Google read me the lead news story.” Google in plan tone “The leading story is the sun did not rise over the east coast instead the sun came up over California.” “What?” Just a minute Google doesn't the rule goes the sunrise in the east and set in the west? “Correct” “I yelled back, well what the hell happened?” Google in its monotone voice “has no response.”

I thought to myself calm down this may be the strangest dream I’ve ever had must have been the fresh bottle of brandy I bought on my way home yesterday.

I sat glued to the television nobody had a clue what was happening social media was going wild with crazy beliefs. My message board on my cell was full. This shifting of the rising sun continued for about three weeks until finally, the truth came out. The weather monitor Department which oversaw this machine admitted when the power of the machine had by accident increased too quickly to cover the entire United States it caused a massive gravity shift the engineers are working day and night on a solution to rebalance the gravity shift. I stood frozen in front of the TV. The engineers had to use the help of 

NASA the engineers came up with a possible solution It would require NASA to recalculate several of its satellites alone with help from several other countries satellites which took a lot of convincing along with a few nice incentives with a signal beam pointed toward the sun for the next twenty-four-hour the scientist and the engineers’ calculations predicted a gravity correction. The world held its collective breath. Bets were being taken in Los Vagas three to one. It would not work. As usual, no one was aware of this machine or its use.

I fell asleep on the couch in the sunroom of my home. I had to put my hand up to block the sun from hitting my face. I jumped up as the sun hit my face. I asked Google, “what time is it?” It is 6 am, daylight Saving Time replied Google.

   In the coming months, there were several investigations, but in the end, nobody knew anything about this machine or what went wrong. They passed laws to prevent any more attempts to tamper with the weather and that the machine was to be destroyed and they made the plans top secret to be stored at an undisclosed location. Several years later, again while researching for a class project, I stumbled on another fringe website, unnamed sources claiming they had not destroyed the weather machine which was being stored at area fifty-one. It made me wonder not again, please lord.            

 


May 01, 2020 02:28

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3 comments

Debbie Stelzle
17:53 May 17, 2020

Thank you to everyone who liked my story, good luck to all writers.

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Faryal Khan
23:38 May 07, 2020

Interesting premise, made me want to read more of what was going on in the surrounding world. Keep up the good work!

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Pranathi G
14:27 May 03, 2020

Nice story! Can you read my story and give me feedback? It's called "THE TIME HAS COME." It's for the same contest. Thank you!

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