EARTH

Bill thought too highly of himself but didn’t realize it yet. Others saw him as a know-it-all, and yet he saw himself as brilliant as the brightest star in the sky. You see, he was a secret scientist and was in the middle of a very important project. At least that’s what he thought, important, secretive, but he was about to find out differently very soon. In fact, tonight.

As he descended the wobbly steps to his dark basement hideaway, Bill thought about how he’d come to this crucial point in his project. He reflected on how very near to the finish line he was. All the prep work he’d done in the past few years was ready to come to fruition soon; he could feel it in his brittle and failing bones. He hoped that he had time to finish this project, he prayed to whatever god would listen that he could outsmart the grim reaper and live long enough to meet a Quarkle.

About a year ago, he had hired an oil painting artist to do the exquisite artwork of his son’s garage which had to match exactly the Quarkle portal painting that he’d seen in his visions.

“Those visions had better be right,” he muttered under his laboring breath as he continued to trudge painfully down the steps. “I’ve spent all my life savings and my health has declined because of this project and if I’ve missed one detail, I’m screwed.”

In addition to preparing the Quarkle portal painting, he had bought parts to build escape-proof containers, painstakingly tested those containers, and studied science on the internet until he could hardly hold any more information. So much done, just another few days or few weeks to wait. Oh, the agony of waiting!

As his old knees slowly took one step at a time into the darkness, Bill thought further about his research and especially about the smallest particles known. He had been fascinated by the fact that these particles were minuscule, naked to the human eye, but powerful with energy and light. He found out that these elements were even smaller than protons and neutrons. Amazing! Unbelievable! Astounding! Bill was continually flabbergasted at the fact that there could be something that small in existence. Why, just the other day he was reading about these fascinating miniature particles and found out something interesting in his research:

A quark is a type of elementary particle and a fundamental constituent of matter. Quarks combine to form composite particles called hadrons, the most stable of which are protons and neutrons, the components of atomic nuclei. Wikipedia

“Wow,” Bill reflected as he arrived at the bottom of the stairs. “That was quite the statement. ALL matter composed of quarks!? If this was truly the case, Quarkles are crucial to everything.”

And this is the theory that Bill had been counting on. He was ready. He was excited. He was anticipating great things. Maybe tonight. He was going to catch himself a Quarkle!

This is THE END OF the chapter but not the story.