The Imagination Machine

Chapter 1

Part 1-Labania

The experiment had gone horribly wrong. Courtney couldn't tear her horrified gaze away from the black grunge that now covered every surface in her lab. The walls, the table, and the shelves were smothered in gunk. 

She hadn't predicted that adding the combination of chemicals that she did would cause the explosion. Frustration welled up inside Courtney. It wasn't too often that an experiment went wrong, and she always maintained the same level of annoyance when it happened.

"Mom and Dad are going to kill me," she groaned. It would take forever to clean up the mess.

"Boom! Pow! I gotcha now, Doctor Doom!"

Soon-to-be-seven year old Rudy Galloway smashed a small cat made of ceramic against a plastic action figure as he ran into the room. He stopped as soon as he saw the disarray. "Whoa, did a bomb go off in here or something?"

Courtney irritably took off her safety goggles, made from rubber bands and clear, plastic shells. "Rudy, how many times have I told you not to come in here when I'm working? It's dangerous!"

"What did you do?" Rudy gaped. "I'm telling Mom and Dad!"

"Don't! You'll get me grounded!" Courtney hissed at him, lowering her voice. "I'll clean it up, okay? And I'll do your homework for a week."

"It's summer!"

"Then I'll do it when school starts. And be careful with that cat. Dad gave it to Mom for her anniversary. If you break it, she'll kill you."

 Courtney resisted the urge to call him a name as he walked out of the room, rolling his eyes. Her parents had told her to be nice to her brother, since his birthday was coming up. Rudy's party, which was scheduled to be held at their apartment, was something he'd been looking forward to for weeks.

"The only thing he's interested in are the presents," Courtney griped, leaning against the marble counter. Her dad, sitting at the counter, glanced at his laptop, impatiently keying something in and frowning at what he saw on the screen.

"Speaking of which, have you gotten him a present yet?" her dad finally asked her.

"Well, no," Courtney said. "But I'm still running through ideas. I was thinking of experimenting and maybe finding something."

"No experiments. You know I don't like them. I swear to God, Courtney, you're gonna end up burning down the house someday."

Courtney suppressed a smile. Four years ago, when she was ten, she had accidentally started a fire when she was experimenting. That was when she was a kid. Careless.

"But dad-" Courtney began to protest but he had already turned back to her laptop and started to type.

"No experiments and that's final. Get him something like Hot Wheels, or Power Rangers. Okay, honey?"

Her dad wasn't a big fan of her experimenting, even though her mom encouraged it.

"Okay, mom." Courtney trudged upstairs, heading for the bathroom. 

Living in a cramped apartment didn't allow either of them a bathroom of their own, and Courtney frowned when she saw a wet towel spread across the floor tiles.

"Courtney! Can you play with me, please?" Rudy was inside their room when she walked in holding two action figures by the neck.

"No," she told him.

Rudy glared at her. "If you don't play with me I'm going to tell Mom and Dad that you experimented on Mrs. Andrews' kitten."

"But I didn't!" said Courtney.