By Milcho, Section Short Stories Posted on Tue Oct 19, 2004 at 07:41:49 AM PST
That's it!
Murphy, Williams J. - Known to few as a brilliant, perhaps slightly insane, scientist, for he had some crazy theories. Although unknown to the world, his name contributed to the expression `Murphy's laws', for, as his wife claims, he worked mainly on a theory of luck. Born in 1734, his date of death is unknown, as he vanished in 1756 without any clue, together, with all his work.
Fred Herton was sitting at his desk, carefully considering the formulas on the sheet of paper in front of him. Something is missing, he thought, or otherwise I've wasted my time. He was tired from working all day, so he spent only two hours trying to fix the formulas, and then he went to bed at eleven o'clock, as usual. He could hardly sleep because his brain was going over and over the formulas, trying to figure them out. Finally, after he took a pill, he managed to get some hours of sleep.
At eight sharp his alarm clock buzzed. He dragged himself up, and went in the bathroom to take a shower. After the shower he found himself scribbling equations on the foggy mirror. Unable to achieve anything, he went to work, taking the precious paper with him. He worked on an overcrowded floor, so no matter how much or little work he did, nobody noticed. Today, as every day for the past month or so, he started staring at the paper again.
"Give it up Fred" said his co-worker from the next cubicle as he past by. "Staring at the paper won't solve anything."
"We'll see." mumbled Fred without lifting his eyes from the paper.
"What is he working on?" asked another worker who happened to pass by.
"Some theory of the universal increment of total unhappiness, right Fred?"
"Yes," said Fred "better known as Murphy's laws"
"Ha" chuckled the second worker and walked away. Fred's friend from the next cubicle was still standing in front of Fred's cubicle, facing his back to Fred, as he was talking to some woman.
At an instant Fred's eyes started shining. That's it! he thought to himself. He jumped up, and shouted "That..."
Fred's friend from the next cubicle turned around.
"Molly," he asked the woman "did you hear something" Molly shook her head "Hey," said Fred's friend looking into the empty cubicle behind him "where did Fred go?"
" ...`s it!" Fred shouted at the mountain. Wait, he thought, I can't see any mountains from my cubicle! But, then again, this green field isn't my cubicle, is it?
"Hello" came a clear young male voice from behind him "I'm Williams Murphy. I see you solved the equation too. About time too, I was getting lonely here.".
Bookmark this story with del.icio.us
Digg this story
Furl this item
Have you Reddit?