Dark World

window

PHOTO PROMPT © Roger Bultot

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Cameron Hall’s invention worked. The filter over his living room window let him see the world outside at a different time than the present. He had run the calculations repeatedly and they always came out the same. He was seeing the world as it would be one year from now.

Cam slapped his forehead with his palm. “The side effect.”

He wasn’t a spiritual man but the math seemed to disagree with him. It predicted not only a shift in time but a metaphysical one, too. He was seeing the soul of the world to come. It was very dark.

It’s Wednesday and time to participate in Rochelle Wisoff-Fields’ 26 July 2024 edition of Friday Fictioneers. The idea is to use the image above as a prompt for crafting a poem or story no more than 100 words long. My word count is exactly 100.

The shade in the photo does seem to show night while below the shade reveals daylight. That was the basic theme I seized. It reminds me of a short story written by Irish author Bob Shaw called Light of Other Days way back in 1966. Shaw created the concept of “slow glass.” Light entering a pane of slow glass passes through a lot more slowly than the speed of light, letting the viewer see days, months, even years in the past. My “filter” does the opposite exposing the future.

Given the political gymnastics that have been going on for the past couple of weeks and reflecting on them, I’ve come to feel that the soul of my country and the world is becoming increasingly dark. It’s not just a matter of who to vote for anymore because regardless, the outcome will be grim. Hope in a candidate is an illusion. Politicians lie for votes while working for the corporations that pay them. Your special politician doesn’t love you no matter what he or she says.

Setting that aside, to read other stories based on the prompt, visit inlinkz.

29 thoughts on “Dark World”

  3. A time-shifted window image is an interesting notion, albeit a very limited view. Technically, it is also shifted in spatial orientation, since it is tracking along with the spatial image of the light impinging on the other side of the window at the alternative time. Nonetheless, the field of any given window view is unlikely to include any high-probabability event of great significance. What then of the physical interface? If an explosion occurs on the future side of the interface, does it impinge on the past side physically or only photonicly? Is it thus only a coincidental warning that those on the prior side have an interval in which to escape, estimate the magnitude of the invent, and offer warning to others likewise? Could they induce a paradox anomaly with sufficient advance warning to prevent the explosion? One might wonder also if the window transfers imagery in both directions or only in one.

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    • All good questions. In Shaw’s stories, light only flowed in one direction. In this case, Cam’s constructed filter presents a unique perspective but one more metaphysical than literal events. I didn’t give much thought to what, if anything, would be seen from the other side.

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  6. Just like during Covid, one day at a time is about all I can focus on these days. Watching too much news is an exercise in dwelling in darkness. Interesting concept for a story. You come up with some creative time-travel-themed stories.

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