INTERVIEW

INTERVIEW
Lawrence Hartmann

       He arrived at the television studio early in the morning, as the planet was just moving New York into the bright sunshine.

      He was the top physicist at CERN, the huge atomic laboratory in Switzerland that for a decade had been trying to simulate the first moments of the big bang, the creation of the universe. His book was called “The Discovery of God,” and he was there to discuss it with a correspondent for one of the top news programs in the country.

      Much had been made in the press of the search for the so-called “God particle,” the elusive element behind the big bang … and everything. His book gave the scientific proof of the discovery of the God particle in Europe.

      “What is the so-called ‘God particle’?”

      This was the first question asked by his interviewer, a man with a striking resemblance to the kid who used to call him names and beat him up regularly when he was a kid.

      “Um … mm … yes … sorry,” he said, lost in terrible memories. “What was your question again?”

      “I was asking you, sir, if you could tell our viewers what the so-called ‘God particle’ is.”

      It was as if the wretched kid had grown up and become this man in front of him. Perhaps it was him. Perhaps he was sitting across from the one person he had despised all his life, the kid who ruined his childhood, the kid who had spray-painted FAGGOT LIVES HERE in tall red letters across the living-room picture windows of his family’s suburban home.

      “Are you from St. Louis?” he asked the interviewer.

      The two men looked at each other. The interviewer’s mind turned … and turned … until it recognized the man sitting across from him.

      “Yes,” he said.

      The scientist exploded out of his chair, his arms outstretched, prepared to choke the man to death.

©2012 This work is the property of the author.