Harry Jones, Electrical Wizard. (standard:science fiction, 2207 words)
Author: Oscar A Rat	Added: Jul 19 2020	Views/Reads: 1394/980	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
One day while surfing the Internet a young man finds jewel, so too speak. A way to become rich.

Harry Jones lived alone in a one-room apartment. He sat silently,
alternately staring out a single window at the wall of a neighboring 
building four feet in front of him, while idly surfing on his computer. 
A bachelor, Harry was 45 years old and almost totally nondescript at 
average height, average build, and even average intelligence. Like many 
normal people, Harry considered himself a genius. 

He'd read an article in the daily newspaper about witches and was
running a search on the word “Witchcraft.”  Faced with over 100,000,000 
returns, Harry read page one and then skipped to page 50,000. Most 
people never got anywhere near those last sites, being satisfied by the 
time they finished with page three or four. 

Clicking on a web page named “Wich Wich,” he navigated down about ten
levels, finally clicking on a link titled “Toy Lightning from your 
fingers”. Harry found it a spell to cause sparks to jump from a 
fingertip to the nearest grounded object. With nothing else to do, he 
read the spell out loud with fingers extended. 

To his shock, literally, small lightning bolts shot from all five
fingers into the wall of his room. One of them hit a table lamp that 
was lit and popped the bulb into shards. Pointing only one finger at a 
water pipe, Harry repeated the spell. That time, a larger bolt shot 
from his extended finger into the pipe. 

Harry quickly hit a key to save the spell to his hard drive. He could
have some fun with that spell, he thought. Putting on shoes and shirt, 
he left his room to find someone to use the spell on. 

When he reached the sidewalk, Harry noticed a stuckup girl that lived
across the street. She would turn up her nose at Harry -- when she 
noticed him at all. 

He looked at a printout of the spell, to memorize it, and softly
repeated the words while pointing at her rear end. A flash of light and 
a bolt of lightning sped between them. The snooty girl grabbed her butt 
and leaped a foot into the air. The power seemed to be stronger 
outside. 

That experiment didn't work out entirely to Harry's satisfaction. The
young lady landed on her feet and, hearing Harry laughing, stormed over 
to him, wearing an angry red face. She abruptly punched him directly in 
the nose. Harry was the one to land on his ass. 

Harry decided at that point to return to his room to learn to control
his new power. Maybe there was money in it? he thought. He fished in a 
drawer and pulled out a tablet and pen, then looked down at the table. 
Writing the spell at the top of one sheet, he tried different anagrams 
of the words -- even changing some of them in other ways. 

He then read each altered formula aloud while pointing out his window.
Harry eventually found out how to change the wording so as to increase 
or decrease the power. Being somewhat of a home electrician, he 
possessed a few rechargeable batteries and a multi-meter. He repeated 
the workable changes and found that he could also increase the voltage 
and amperage. By changing a certain word to plural, the battery would 
stay charged for an extended time. 

By three am Harry was very tired and retired to a secondhand army cot in
the corner of the room. First, he put an appropriately spelled set of 
batteries into an "AA" flashlight and turned it on, pointed away from 
his bed, of course. 

Seven hours later, he woke. While dressing, Harry noticed the flashlight
was still lit, as brightly as ever. Mind in a muddle, Harry went to 
work frying burgers at a fast food restaurant.  When he returned, the 
flashlight was still fully charged. Harry sat for a couple of hours, 
looking at the light. He knew there was money in that spell. Any other 
batteries would have died long before. 

While pondering the prospects, his gaze settled on an electric bill
sitting on the corner of the table. He then noticed the wall plug. 
Harry's eyes drifted to the ceiling, where a single light-fixture hung, 
complete with a naked bulb. Even with medium intelligence a person 
could put two and two together and, sometimes, get four. 


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