Brief

Worlds intersect when a particle physicist is granted access to the full power of a military ship. What he doesn't account for is what comes next. The weight of his actions changes the world view of his Staten Island neighbors and opens up a the possibility for love to extend beyond the grave.

What We Liked

- The story has an interesting take on grief and loss with a twist of science fiction. There is an effort to expand the multi-reality theory to cover those that have died, and in this case bring them back across the folds into our reality. Grieving loved ones are given an unintended second chance to communicate with the dead, who seemed to have moved on to another realm yet to be explored.
- Film seems to be the more natural fit for this narrative. A simple three act structure would be punctuated by the two experiments that link the dead back to the living and provide the conflict necessary to propel the A plot. The denouement could prompt some sort of half resolution to either hint at a second film or posit to the audience that somewhere in the world there are other physicists working on bringing the dead back to our world, and that these two experiments are not the only hope of the protagonist seeing his dead wife again.
- Key points: Overcoming Grief, Science Fiction, New Love, Family Bonds, Hope.

Synopsis

Sami has just lost his wife. They were in their early twenties and had just moved in together in a quaint apartment in Staten Island, New York. Now Sami is strapped with just his brother and his graphic design job at a law firm.

Meanwhile a physicist and his friend/business associate are securing military resources to construct a large scale experiment focused on ""ghost particles.""

Over the course of two experiments, the physicist successfully creates a field that connects our reality to another--and allows for the living to come into contact with their deceased loved ones.

Unbeknownst to this fact, Sami runs into his deceased wife and breaks down with tears of joy. When the first experiment ends he is crushed. Already struggling to go on with his widower life, he is more conflicted than ever about shutting the door on his past relationship.

The second experiment brings an air of chaos into the equation. As the energy field is created, the physicist is sucked into another reality wherein which he has recently died. He speaks to his business partner and comes to the realization that his experiment was even more successful than he thought. When he returns, he notes the power of his creation and warns his business partner about moving forward with their research.

Sami meets Amber for the second time, but something is off. It turns out she is not the same Amber he was once married to, but instead a different Amber from a different (reality? it is unclear). The two part ways and the portal made by the second experiment is closed forever.

For a brief moment, we are given a glimpse into another reality where the second Amber (who just spoke with our protagonist) lives with her own version of Sami. The two are fighting, but make up after Amber tells him things that he had only told his deceased grandfather.

About The Author

At the age of 17, Ray won first place in the National Pen Women Competition for his fictional short story, Distinction, as well as winning second place in the New York Best of City - The Written Word. While attending college, Ray Melnik's course on existential literature opened a whole new world with the study of writers such as Sartre and Camus. He pursued a musical career as a singer and lyricist, after leaving college. In the early 1980s he was the lead singer for One Hand Clap and then Fine Malibus, with Steve Stevens, current guitarist and songwriter for Billy Idol. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Ray was engineer and co-owner of MANNIK Productions, a recording studio in the Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Staten Island, New York. In addition to lyrics, Ray, wrote a monthly column about pro audio for a music trade magazine, American Liverpool. Later moving into the field of technology as a network engineer and then architect, he wrote for the technology panel of a regional newspaper, Times Herald Record, and was the primary writer of articles based on home technology for the website New Technology Home. Ray currently works as a Senior Network Architect in Manhattan, New York. He currently resides in Silver Lake, Staten Island, in New York City.