Daniel Perez pushed his display board a little to the right, leaving plenty of room on the table for his examples. This year he had started work on his science project early. Okay, so his dad had helped a bit, mostly with narrowing down his topic, but also with a bank roll. They'd worked on it every weekend when his mom dropped him off to visit. He spent more time with his dad now that his parents were divorced than he ever had while they were married. He glanced back to make sure the poster was hanging straight on the wall behind him.
"The Placebo Effect: Self Delusion in Practice" it read in glitter-encrusted letters. Underneath he'd pasted pictures of famous medical studies and reports of mass hysteria. He'd had to cut whole sections from his paper to get it down to length, taking out the digression into cryptids and toning down the section on religion, it still rambled over the various ways people deluded themselves into believing things. Scattered across his section of the long tables filling the gym were products with claims too good to be true; miracle diet pills, aura focusing crystals, sleep-teaching CDs and copper bracelets with magnets embedded in them among sillier things like x-ray specs. All prime examples of people wanting to believe the impossible.
"Not too late I hope?"
"Dad!"
Daniel slipped through the gap between his table and the next. Bobby Ramnis glared as his model rockets rocked from the table being nudged. Daniel gave his dad a quick hug before waving at the table.
"Doesn't it look great?" Daniel beamed up at his father.
"It sure does kiddo, and I have the perfect centerpiece!" He held out a box about the size of a paperback book, but several inches thick. "Remember that website you showed me, about the chronovac?"
"Dad, that was a hoax website. Like slenderman." Daniel took the box, it was surprisingly light.
"Yup, I made some calls, talked to a few of our overseas suppliers. One of them said he could get me the real thing." He smiled broadly.
"No way, someone faked up a remote control that can change people just by pointing at them and pressing a button?" Daniel asked incredulous.
"Either that," Eddie Perez said, shrugging at his son, "or maybe it really is the real thing?"
"Now who's buying into the hype?" Daniel asked, rolling his eyes.
"Go on, open it, I've been itching to take a look since it arrived."
Daniel carefully slit the packing tape open with the tip of the 'Ancient Mayan Sacrificial Knife" which, while molded plastic, at least had a decent enough edge to do the job. A shaped foam insert cradled what looked like a cross between a remote control and a phaser handle. The front had dark plastic covering some kind of IR emitter and other less recognizable shapes. The top had a series of lights, several small buttons, and a large central button. The battery pack was shipped separately and a silver micro USB cord plugged into the base of the thing. The pamphlet included had a number of what his Dad called 'Zinger' claims in bright colors on the outside, while inside were poorly translated English instructions, and some rather explicit before and after photos.
"Whups! Better let me hold onto that kiddo." Eddie said, tearing cover off the pamphlet and making sure there was nothing offensive remaining as he slipped the instructions into his coat pocket. He handed back the cover. "Here, set this with it so people know what they're looking at.
"Dad, did anyone see?" Daniel asked quietly as he stared around at the crowd blushing.
"I'm sorry Daniel, I should have expected something like that and checked it out, but I wanted to see you open it."
"S'okay, I just--"
"All Students Prepare Your Displays" Rang through the intercom.
"It's time!" Daniel hurried back behind his table, making sure he didn't mess up Bobby's rockets. He cleared a place and set up the pamphlet cover with it's overblown claims, then inserted the battery pack into the chronovac. It beeped and the lights flickered through a boot sequence. A bright blue LED glowed beside what looked like a 'greater than' symbol eating some waves.
"Dad, lend me your phone!" Daniel hissed urgently. The website had said you could plug the chronovac into a smartphone and it would act as a display for programming the emitter. Daniel snatched the phone and hurriedly connected it, the screen went dark, then a menu of languages scrolled onto into view. Daniel fussed with it, setting English, and tabbing through a few screens of options before typing furiously.
"Ms Ellsworth, pleasant to see you."
"Mr Perez, glad you could make it."
"Please call me Eddie, I'll be sorry when Danny graduates and I don't get to speak with you any more."
"Mr Perez, this is a science fair, not a cocktail hour. I've spoken with your ex-wife, but did you have any particular questions about your son's education?"
Daniel glanced up and froze, he hadn't seen his teacher approach, and Dad had managed to piss her off again. In his hands the blue light on the emitter changed yellow, then briefly blinked green before turning blue again. 'Subject data acquired' scrolled across the bottom of the phone. Daniel pointed the thing at his father, only to see the same response.
After a moment his dad shrugged wordlessly and shook his head. Ms Ellsworth turned to look at him.
"Daniel, are you ready for the judges?" She asked. She leaned towards him, her eyes on the equipment he was holding. Daniels eyes were drawn involuntarily to the neck of her blouse, primly buttoned as always, but sometimes when she leaned over...
"You know we don't allow students to carry phones in school, even at special events." She said sternly as he dragged his gaze to look here in the eye.
"I know, I just needed it to calibrate the chronovac!" Daniel stammered as he handed her the cover torn from the pamphlet. She raised an eyebrow as she read the claims printed on it, opening it and fingering the torn binding.
"Something your agency cooked up, Mr Perez?" She asked, glancing over her shoulder.
"Ha, no, we deal in credible science, for the incredible you need to go further afield. We found it while Danny was..."
Daniel finished calibrating the emitter and locked in the change he'd selected while his dad spun out the story of getting the chronovac. Daniel unplugged the phone and handed it back to his father.
"Thanks dad, I'm ready now Mrs Ellsworth."
"And which of these wondrous changes have you selected to demonstrate tonight, Daniel?" Ms Ellsworth asked, again with an arched eyebrow and pursed lips.
"A mental one; when I press this button you won't believe the chonovac works!" Daniel said with a wink to his dad, who started chuckling.
Ms Ellsworth blinked.
"See, it's a double-bind! If you thought maybe it might work, but then after I press this button you don't," Daniel pressed the central button on the emitter. "then you have to wonder if maybe it did work after all, and that's why you think it doesn't!"
The central button glowed red for a couple seconds, then the blue light went briefly yellow and green while his teacher stared at him.
"Daniel. Whatever claims are printed on this material, I was never in doubt that that device didn't work." She set the pamphlet back on the table. "I will be back with the judges. Remember, no phones!" She said, turning to include Eddie in her admonishment.
His dad watched as Ms Ellworth walked away through the growing crowd. Daniel bit his lip, then hesitantly pointed the emitter at his dad and pressed the button. The same sequence of lights and then back to steady blue.
"It's a shame that thing doesn't work, you could try a couple of the things in those pictures out on her!" Eddie said after he finally lost sight of her.
"Dad!" Daniel blushed again, glancing over at Bobby. "Go mingle or something, I need to focus on my project!"
"No problem Kiddo, have a good time!"
The rest of the afternoon passed swiftly, Daniel explaining to each passing adult and a number of classmates and kids from other schools about how easily people convince themselves of things that can't possibly be true. He capped his explanation with the double-bind demonstration of the chronovac, getting a number of laughs and wistful comments from his audience. Daniel made sure to always treat the device as if it were the real deal, keeping the curious younger kids from playing with the 'ray gun' and making a big deal of never pointing it at himself. He noticed that even when he wasn't holding the emitter, if someone walked in front of it the blue light changed color. he mentioned it to Alice Warrow, a girl he knew from the gifted students program.
"It probably just registers heat or reflected IR." She replied. Daniel had already caught her in his double-bind. "What are the sliders on the side for?"
Daniel noticed them for the first time. On the left side was a long skinny cone, and on the right a horizontal line and a half circle. He slid both to the far ends of their tracks and waved the emitter around. The blue light began flickering rapidly. Pulling the sliders back didn't change that, so he pushed them back out again.
"Maybe it has a loose wire?" Alice asked. "Or you need to press the button again?"
Daniel pushed the central button, which glowed a solid red without fading.
"Awe man, at least it made it through the judging before it broke." Daniel grumbled. He slipped the battery pack out and dropped it into the shipping case, surprised how warm it was.
"That's an awful lot of power to just light up a few LEDs, " Alice said. "Maybe we could take it apart in class and see what's in there?"
"Nah, I kinda like the mystery, even if it is a piece of junk." Daniel tucked the emitter in his pocket and they went to look at the other projects.
First prize went to another kid from the gifted program who had programmed an arduino to synchronize flashing lights based on whatever music you played into a microphone. Daniel waited, but had to pack everything away and haul it out to the curb before his mom showed up to drive him home.
"Hey Danno! How'd you do?" Lynn Peters asked, giving him a hug.
"Eh, I got an A, but someone else got the prize." Daniel pulled away from his mother and kicked at the box with his rolled up poster sticking out of the top. "Dad was by earlier."
"That's great! I'm sure he was very proud of you." She picked up his box and set it in the trunk of her car. "Did he talk to your teacher?" She asked.
"Yeah, at first she was mad at him, but later they were laughing about something by the drinking fountain." Daniel buckled himself into the passenger seat.
"Yup, sounds like your father alright." Lynn replied drily. "Did you have a good time though?"
"I guess so."
Later that evening Daniel got out the emitter and moved the sliders back into their original position before putting the battery pack back in. The blue light began flickering again, but the red light wasn't lit. After a time it steadied, and Daniel took it to show his mom.
"So this thing can make me thin and young again huh?"
"That's what it claims, anyway." Daniel took back the pamphlet cover.
"And if you press that button I won't believe it will work?" Lynn smiled at her son. "What if I want to believe in it?"
"Duh, mom, that's the point of the project, that people always find ways to delude themselves."
"Hmm, we wouldn't want me to have any delusions then." She nodded at him. Daniel pressed the button, which glowed red briefly. "You're right, I don't believe it any more. But I am curious what happens when you attach it to a phone." She held hers out.
Daniel plugged the emitter in. Again the phone screen went blank. 'Downloading Subject Data' blinked on the bottom of the screen as the menu options appeared. He clicked through the screens and showed his mother where he'd entered the line of text: 'You do not believe the chronovac can change people' and some of the other screens describing physical or mental changes.
"I'm not sure I want you messing around with this, kiddo." Lynn said. "Some of this isn't appropriate for a boy your age."
"Oh come on mom, it's not that bad. There's worse things on the internet."
"And I don't want you messing around on the internet either."
Daniel frowned, swiping back to the change he'd programmed. He backspaced then typed again, reading as he did.
"You don't object to me using the chronovac." He smiled at his mother and pressed the central button. Again the button glowed red, the blue light changed briefly yellow, then green and back to blue.
Lynn rolled her eyes and smiled at her son.
"Fine, I suppose not, but don't get in the habit of using that thing in place of talking with me, alright?"
"okay mom."
"Now go wash up for dinner."