"The Leval-Shelay Devices", Part 3

(The third installment of the story. Part 1, Part 2.)


Devin pressed the features icon and what popped up was a typepad and a blank list. He wasn’t sure what to do, so he typed “camera” on the first line and selected what he had written. Devin realized that he had turned the device into a camera. He was intrigued, so he typed “X-ray” into the second box and selected it. Amazingly, the device started taking detailed photos of the bones in his hands.


Later, while still testing the capabilities of the device (they were literally infinite), his sister Julienne walked into the room and demanded to know what was going on. He angrily told her that she’d find out by looking in her mail pile. She found her device and was immediately as captivated by it as Devin. Devin realized that for the moment, Julienne’s love of the device was overriding her hatred of him. For an instant, Devin had a glimmer of hope that maybe everything would work out in the end.

Devin and Julienne stayed up late to show their parents the devices. As expected, Julien and Thelma Rayburn were exhausted and angry that their kids weren’t in bed. What the kids didn’t expect was their parents’ reaction: snatching up all four devices and locking them away in the safe in their room.

A stunned Devin asked his father why he had done that, and Julien’s answer was surprising, yet somehow not. “Devin, I’m sorry, but something just doesn’t seem right. Your mother and I have a bad feeling about those devices. Now you and Julienne need to get to bed. It’s late.”

And just like that, Devin’s faint hopes of a normal life were extinguished. Things were back to the way they were before. Devin’s sister still blamed everything (including this) on him. Devin’s paranoid parents were still ruining his life. And Devin was still miserable.

(part 4 tomorrow)