Time

The Argument 

"Come on, where are the papers???" murmured a middle-aged men wearing an oversized-white coat. Sporting squarish glasses, the man, in his 30s, projects a scientific aura through his doctor-like coat in a rather weird-looking laboratory that is heavily stacked with gadgets. It is a busy environment with machineries interacting with each other, emanating echoes resembling those of the factory production lines piercing through the contrasting tranquillity of the spacious underground surrounding. The man, Professor James Culkin, is a highly regarded physicist specialising in the area of time and space. Being hailed as one of the brightest and most promising professor in the University of Illnois, James has initiated numerous astonishing breakthroughs in his areas of specialty, thereby taking the physicist field in a storm. 

Currently, he is working on his latest research, yet another potential creation that might make heads turn and may possibly earn him a candidacy in the prestigious Noble prize. The project under scrutiny revolves around a concept long fascinates mankind – the concept of time-travelling. In the heart of the spacious dungeon-lookalike laboratory laid a cubic machine that houses numerous complicated wiring and buttons that were clearly beyond understanding. As a matter of fact, the machine resembled the look of a portable metal washroom indeed, with the extensive addition of wires that occasionally churned out dangerous looking sparks. 

Frantically searching the mountain of paperwork like an excited treasure-seeker on the verge of finding a precious gem stone, James buries himself in the heaves of mess and the deafening noise of the machineries while holding an odd-looking L-shaped metal on his hand. “This is ridiculous!!!! The paper is just right here the moment before!!! I need it to recheck my formulas and to find out the exact location to input this piece. Ah, this is ridiculous!!” 

“James, is dinner time now. Jerry and Katie are waiting for you at the dinner table,” a loud and sweet voice emanated from the other end of the laboratory. It was Shereen, James’s lovely partner whom he has tied the knot with 5 years ago. Jerry and Katie, both 4 years old, are the adorable twins of the couple. “It’s been like 20 minutes since the last reminder, hon, you might want to put a hold to your work and enjoy the dinner first?” Shereen called out again. “Be there in a minute, honey, I’m very very close to getting the final part on any moment now,” replied James, still in his search for the vital piece of paper.

“You gave me the same reply 20 minutes ago and the kids are starving here already, come on, there’s always time for the machine later, it wouldn’t run away,” uttered coldly by an impatient Shereen. 

“Oh come on, I just needed like 5 more minutes?? I’m so close to getting it done,” begged James, deep down hoping the paper would just pop out in the next moment. “Or else you’ll just eat without me, I’ll join in shortly” 

“The kids wanted you together…” Shereen was interrupted before she managed to finish her sentence. There was a commotion going on in the dining table, the children started crying, perhaps due to being hungry, or that both the twins fought - James was uncertain what happened but the wailing sounds of the twin add on to his strenuous thoughts, rendering him harder to seek out the necessary documents. James sighed. With great unwillingness, he simply shoved the papers aside, and makes his way up the stairs up to the dining room. 

Upon entering the dining hall, James was greeted by the scene of two crying children with a plateful of mashed potato spilled all over the dining room floor, pieces of the plate’s debris scattered around and Shereen was busy calming the twins down despite the messy surrounding. Apparently, one of the twin accidentally pushed the plate down the dining table and the breaking of the plate as well of the accompanying sounds resulting from the falling of the utensils was enough to trigger a full-blown crying from the twins.

“Argh, just when I was fully occupied with my work, Jerry and Katie have to set this off,” James was clearly distraught by the missing paper and started to blame the children for obstructing his progress. 

“It was dinner time and if you did manage to control your time and make your way to the dining table earlier, perhaps all of this would not happen,” replied Shereen coldly while simultaneously patting the twins’ back gently to calm them down. “And, they are just children! Do you have to blame them for holding back your stupid research? You have been occupying yourself too extensively for the past two weeks! Three of us rarely see you these days! Snap out of it James!” 

“It was not a stupid research! I was doing it for the greater good of the mankind! If it was not for your yelling earlier, perhaps Jerry or Kat may not drop the plate!! You’re their mother, you should be watching over them while I focus on my almost-completed work!!!” yelled James, clearly losing his temper at the moment. “Are you not their father? For your information, I need to work daily and returned to clean up the house, cook dinner, wash the dishes, and get them to sleep!!! I did almost EVERYTHING while you tinkle with your hideous looking machine! Have you ever think of my work load???!” the escalating argument between the couple aided minimally to suppressing the twin’s wailing. On the contrary, as both James and Shereen raised their voice, the twins cried even louder. Soon, the dining hall was filled with anger and hatred encompassed with deafening crying by the twins. 

After a few more rounds of heated arguments, Shereen decided it was enough. “Fine, since you no longer bother to have dinner with us and take care of Kate and Jerry, we’ll just leave so you can continue to play around with your gadgets!!!!” “Alright, great, more peace for me!” replied James sarcastically. Upon uttering those words, Shereen threw down the napkins on the floor angrily, stormed up the stairs with the both sobbing Jerry and Katie, packed a bagful of clothing and prepared to exit to the porch. Amidst both the twins crying out for their father, a tearful Shereen, while holding tightly to both the twins’ hands, turn to James for the last time and murmured in great despair – “why?” before leaving the house totally heart-broken. 

While hearing his wife’s car gradually vanishing through the street, James, though looked unsettled by sudden dramatic incident that unfolded right in front of his eyes, was unwilling to make any attempts to rescue the ailing condition. At the moment, the importance of completing the machine seemed to have overwhelmed his emotions and care to his family. Starring at the spaghetti and potato prepared by his wife earlier prior to the argument, while concurrently feeling slightly regretful and confused on what should be his next move, James decisively turned back from the table and yet again immersed himself in his creation.

-To be continued-