In the Matter of Nikola Tesla

by Anthony Flacco

  “See here! I didn’t say that.”

  “Listen! The clerk says that they all went around and around about it, and they eventually decided he is ‘too valuable’ to fire. But this is the thing—they came close to going the other way! Why? Not because he stayed out two weeks, but because they’re getting too many complaints about his behavior!”

  “I’ve seen it! People are getting spooky around him.”

  “He’s worse since he came back.”

  “Everybody notices now.”

  “Oh, you’ll notice too, when he suddenly clenches up all his muscles, head to toe.”

  The men chuckled at the image.

  “Or if you miss that, you will absolutely notice after he straightens back up and starts moving around like he’s got a bottle balanced on his head!”

  The men laughed heartily at that. They were pushing the boundary of acceptable behavior, right there on the job site, and it gave them a brave feeling. The brave feeling made them laugh even harder. It prolonged the moment and allowed them to enjoy the novelty of beer hall camaraderie in the middle of a work day.

  “If we could just get something else on him. If his behavior really got out of hand at some point.”

  “Or if he did something to embarrass the company.”

  “If that’s all it takes, we should just watch him close. Sooner or later he’ll do something strange enough to get him pushed out the door.”

  “What, now you’re saying we have to take turns keeping an eye on him?”

  They all laughed at that. The laughter drove away the guilty feelings over conspiring against another man, leaving them free to settle down to consider the idea of actually doing it.

  One checked his watch. “We have a lunch whistle in half an hour. Where does he usually go?”

  “Ever since he got back, he’s been going off on ‘health walks’ with some old friend of his.”

  “Anital Szigety. I met him. A real muscle fanatic. He likes to brag that he’s going to get Tesla in top physical condition after his illness.”

  “Then maybe we should kill Szigety.”

  They burst into laughter at that one, then became quiet… A moment later they realized what they were all thinking and exploded into laughter again.

  “All right, maybe we could start by just following them.”

  “Right! Once they’re away from here, Tesla is sure to feel freer. You know, free to, free to…

  “To what?”

  “I don’t know! Who knows? Anything we can use to add to the reasons to get rid of him.”

  “It doesn’t have to be a big thing. He’s on thin ice.”

  “I’ll follow him!” volunteered the one who really wanted the others to like him.

  “When?”

  “What do you mean ‘when?’ Today! As soon as he leaves with that Anital fellow.”

  “Anital Szigety. It might help to know his name in case you need to talk to them.”

  “What for? To ask if he minds being followed?” The one who really wanted to be liked turned to the others for an approving laugh, but they just looked back at him, waiting. He quietly continued, “I’ll, uh, just follow them, that’s all.”

  “Not too close!”

  “But follow!” added the one who liked to keep things going. “See how he behaves when it’s just him and his healthy friend.”

  “Be sure to let him start whatever happens, so that he’ll be the one who’s actually—”

  “Responsible! Right!”

  “You just write down what he does!”

  “But only if it’s something… you know.”

  “What?”

  “Something good.”

  “How do I know if it’s good?”

  “All right, anything then.”

  “Anything at all?”

  “Anything good.”

  By that point the four workers were grinning in the squinty-eyed satisfaction of outlaws with inside knowledge. They sealed their agreement using nothing more than a few silent nods.

  Moments later the unofficial lounge area was empty.

  * * *

  The two young men who strode through the tree line of the large urban park were both swinging heavy wooden clubs the size of bowling pins. Nikola pumped his long legs in rhythm to the fast-paced strides of the ridiculously fit Anital Szigety, but no matter how hard he pushed himself, he remained several feet behind him. In spite of the exertion, he insisted on gasping his way through a conversation because his brain was alive with heat and light. Talking helped him bleed off pressure.

  “In fact, you can compare the effort of learning to control it to the process of learning to play a musical instrument.” Nikola laughed. “At first it seems impossible, but with practice—”

  “Breathing. Deep breathing. I don’t see how you can be taking your deepest breaths when you talk so much.”

  “Take the repeaters, for instance—I invented them, it’s true, but Anital, I copied the design from a working model that was already in my head!” He laughed again and added a little skip to his step.

  Anital ignored that and continued, “It is impossible for me to earn the money you are paying me unless you start breathing harder than that. Swing the weights higher! Don’t you ever want to get your lungs back from all that pneumonia?”

  Nikola laughed louder. “Yes! Of course you are right! And I want my strength back, to be sure. I’m going to need it. There’s so much to do! Of course I can’t tell anyone at work. You wouldn’t believe how hard it is to keep it all pushed into the background, so people don’t take offense at—”

  “Wait a minute! Did you actually hire me just so you could tell me this story?”

  Nikola considered that for a moment. “I don’t think so, but then again it was killing me not to tell somebody!” He laughed with glee, then dropped his clubs on the grass and stretched his arms wide, pulling in deep breaths.

  “Good!” Anital injected. “Because I don’t know enough about any of this stuff to be able to tell if you are making sense or not. Mostly what I hear is that you are either too eccentric or too inspired or whatever you call it to be able to give me your best efforts. Is that it? Because it seems as if you want me to drive the remnants of the fever out of your lungs, but how am I supposed to do that while you chatter like a gossipy old woman?”

  “Chatter?” Nikola leaped into the air with delight. “That’s perfect! Chatter! You understand? Because the images come in a stream of chatter and they’re just as hard to stop as gossip!” He ended with a happy laugh.

  “Yes, good. Why are we stopped here?” Anital groused. “I suppose you want to take a nap now?”

  “You have not heard the extraordinary part, Anital! Even when I have no idea what sort of device I am dealing with, they can be dismantled to any degree! You hear me?”

  Nikola whispered the next part, the good part: “I don’t have to devise the machines before seeing how they work; I pick apart what is already there and allow it to teach me!”

  “Nikola, if we were still back in physics class I’m sure you could turn this into one of those bizarre presentations that you always managed to pull off against all odds, but—”

  “There are such things, aren’t there, Anital?” Nikola interrupted, suddenly serious. “You’ve heard of such things, at least? Visions one can learn from? I mean, there is not necessarily anything demonic about them. Wouldn’t you say?”

  Anital dropped his clubs with a deep sigh. “All right! I admit it. You have defeated me. If you want to avoid exercise so badly that you come up with merde like this…”

  He raised his hands high and cried out, “This scrawny man has beaten me!” Turning back to Nikola, he added, “Lucky for you I can tolerate abnormal people. It’s a gift. But you need to calm down, my friend. Slow down your brain and speed up your body.”

  He looked around the area and focused on a sandwich cart on the other side of the clearing, park
ed in the shade under a large tree. “Maybe we should at least have something to eat. You watch our clubs; I’ll see if he’s selling anything that won’t kill you on the spot.”

  “I could bring the clubs wi—”

  “That’s fine! The clubs are fine where they are. You stay with them.” Anital was already halfway between Nikola and the sandwich cart.

  In the opposite direction, a solitary male idly scuffed at the ground, stooping to pick up attractive leaves. The solitary male so desired for the other telephone company workers to admire him that he was putting extra care into his spy duties. However, when he followed Anital toward the sandwich cart and realized that Nikola was not going along, he stopped, suddenly trapped between them. He was in the middle of the clearing, uncomfortably close to his subject, so he began drifting back to his observation spot among the trees. But he saw that the maneuver was going to require him to turn his back for a few moments in order to avoid walking backward and drawing suspicion. He checked for possible problems, glancing around under hooded eyelids; nobody else was in the vicinity, except for the subject Nikola Tesla on the opposite edge of the clearing. The subject appeared to be doing some sort of stretching and deep breathing exercises.

  It was a good time for the spy to make his risky move. He turned away and casually began relocating himself, drifting like a man with nothing on his mind, studying the grass all the way back to his protected observation spot. No rush.

  If he had been watching Nikola at that instant, he would have seen his subject abruptly stop and stare in disbelief at an empty space in the air next to the nearest tree.

  “I must be wrong…” It was a young woman’s voice.

  Nikola turned in the direction of the sound. He gasped and his eyes flew open wide. He barely dared to breathe. He was planted there, rooted in the ground by the solid image of Karina standing next to the tree line. Hands on hips, she regarded him with a wry smile.

  She stared straight at him, dressed in filmy white and appearing more mature. The adult facial features had settled into themselves. She seemed complete. And she was even more beautiful than he remembered her.

  “Because it sounds to me,” Karina continued, “as if you are giving up. You’re not really going to do that, are you?”

  Fascination paralyzed him while warnings of demonic possession rang in the back of his mind. This time he had no fever to excuse such a sight. But before his fears could convince him to run, the first whiff of the familiar delight radiating from her began to blow across his nerve endings. The far sensation pulled hard at him and made him hungry for more, but at that moment Karina casually stepped behind the closest tree and disappeared from sight.

  Her absence broke the spell just enough to allow Nikola to spin away from her, but he was unable to run. His legs could do nothing more than stand, electrified. He could still speak, and he struggled to keep his voice down to a bare whisper. That was all the control he could muster. He had none left over to stop the words from spilling out. “She is not real. It! It is not real!” He took several deep breaths, keeping his eyes closed while he struggled to clear his thoughts.

  So he only heard her voice. “You force my hand, Nikola?” Her tone was gentle, teasing.

  He had to open his eyes at that. When he did, he found himself face to face with the image of Karina as a middle-aged woman. Her brow was lined by the years, and her hair was shot with gray. She was attired in a fashionable “day in the park” dress that would fit next to any contemporary lady who might stroll by.

  His knees trembled. He fought to keep his balance. “You are not real,” he said through clenched teeth.

  “You argue with illusions?”

  “…This is a haunting then. You died! I have no fever to explain you!”

  “Karina died.”

  “Whatever you are! You are not real.”

  In reply, Karina simply looked into his eyes with a mischievous smile. She took a long, deep breath and then lightly brushed her hand across his cheek.

  Nikola’s vision exploded into a flood of oncoming lights. He fell to his knees, crying out. A few moments later, the blinding lights began to resolve into individual sources that were everywhere and in all directions. At first the lights appeared to be glowing halos of energy. After a few seconds his vision cleared enough that he realized the “halos” only radiated from living things.

  The grass was a carpet of glowing energy. A small shrub exuded a crackling aura of energy. The nearest tree was a towering blaze of radiant energy, humming with power.

  Nikola remained on his knees and buried his face in his hands to cut off the overwhelming imagery. The sheer volume of information flooding into his mind felt as if it would tear him to pieces. While he fought to steady his thoughts, more than all the other questions flooding through him, there was one thing he needed to know most.

  “Where have you been? My god, so many years. Where were you? Why have you not come to me?”

  “Why would you not let me near you?” Her voice was close, as if she whispered in his ear.

  “Nonsense!” he hissed. “Why did you turn away from me?”

  Her reply was soft, but her tone was rock hard. “Your fear closed me off. Your fear kept me from you. Is this what you fear? Look!”

  He opened his eyes but Karina was nowhere to be seen. His field of vision was filled by a giant, blazing mass of energy that surrounded the nearest tree. The huge mass duplicated itself, as if Nikola suddenly had double vision. A moment later the duplicate energy mass moved upward, leaving the original behind. The duplicate stopped and hovered overhead, then began revolving at such a high speed that the motion generated a deep whine.

  Before Nikola could react, the spinning mass of energy stopped cold. There was a moment of dead silence, then—just as abruptly—the huge halo reversed direction and immediately resumed spinning in the other direction at full power.

  Once Nikola was struck by the meaning of what he was seeing, he lost all sense of inhibition. Proof! Notions of social propriety or the dignity of his professional position suddenly meant nothing. Proof! He had no sense of arching his back and hurling an exultant scream into an open sky, “Proof!” Nor was he aware of throwing his arms open and bellowing, “Prooooof! Prooooof!”

  It was proof that Karina came from somewhere outside of his imagination because the scientific value of what he was seeing was far greater than anything he could conceive on his own. However she might be described, her visitations brought him more than mere delusion–and the proof of that was spinning in the air over his head.

  He was staring up at the link between matter and energy. The connecting link. A provable way of joining the visible world with the invisible powers driving it. The missing piece to his failed insights on alternating current had just fallen into place with a metallic clang.

  This supposed “problem” of alternating current—that it continually shifted from positive to negative charge—was actually its greatest strength, because when the charges between two magnets are rapidly shifted back and forth, the magnetic field between them will spin around to keep up with the shifting charge. This spinning magnetic field will invisibly grab onto any solid object that contains the element iron. If that object is the end of a metal axle, then that axle will be turned by the rotating magnetic field around it, and it can be used to power every kind of machine and operate at any speed the metal can withstand.

  A magnetic field can whirl thousands of times a second without friction—just like that giant mass of energy is doing, whirling away up there in the sky.

  The power of the revelation took control of him until he became a lanky meat puppet dancing on strings of pure joy.

  Nikola could not tell if he screamed the words or if some inner voice screamed inside him. A magnetic field invisibly engages the physical world in the same sense that the mind moves the body!

  On his knees there in the grass, for the first time, the ever-present ache from the burn
ing coals in his belly finally vanished. He leaned back and howled with laughter over the wasted years spent fearing that his inspirations were only some useless form of torment.

  He had no awareness at all of a man watching him from the edge of the clearing, slack-jawed with amazement. He was barely even aware of Anital Szigety when he ran to Nikola’s side, spilling two perfectly good mutton sandwiches over the grass in his efforts to pull Nikola to his feet. And neither of the pair caught a glimpse of the telephone company spy hurrying back to the office, moving like a man with big news.

  Chapter Seven

  The Next Day

  The Telephone Company Office

  Budapest

  The voices came at him with speedy urgency. “Mr. Tesla, you do not seem to realize that the City Manager’s office is trying to bestow an honor upon you.”

  “We thought you would be thrilled.”

  “You should be, you know.”

  “Anyone else would be.”

  “Surely you can see that.”

  “My god, I would be,” the telephone company spy interjected. He now spoke with the confidence of a man who knows that his words are heeded. All five representatives of the City Manager’s office nodded in vigorous agreement.

  “Gentlemen,” Nikola kept his voice quiet, careful to weigh his words. “I am certainly, ah, flattered by this, but I—”

  “’But‘? Before you say ‘but’, mister, you should know that the City Manager is personally sticking his neck out for you!”

  “Like a long tree branch.”

  “Just hanging out there waiting for your response.”

  “Out there where any damned bird on the planet can land and shit all over his head. Perhaps that means nothing to you?”

  “But you see, gentlemen, my mother lives alone now, and Paris is so far away. I don’t think she will want to move.”

  “Mm. Yes, correct, actually.”

  “She’s quite firm about it, you can be sure.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “We contacted her yesterday.”