The Red Thread

Welcome to The Spot Writers. The prompt for this month is to write a short story in which something red plays a central role.

This week’s contribution comes from Chiara De Giorgi. Chiara is an Italian author and currently lives in Berlin, Germany. She writes fiction, with a focus on children’s literature and science fiction.

 

The Red Thread

by Chiara De Giorgi

Created with Canva

Dr. Robinia Fox came home from yet another celebration held in her honor, kicked off her shoes, and gently massaged her tired feet. On special occasions, she liked to wear those old-fashioned high heels, considered very elegant a couple of centuries ago, but rather uncomfortable.

Then she looked at herself in the mirror. It was late at night—those events always dragged on until the early hours. Maybe it was just the lighting, who knows, but she thought she saw a few wrinkles around her eyes that she didn’t remember noticing before. She squinted, smiled at her reflection, made a silly face… yes, those fine lines were definitely there.

She let down her hair and shook her head. Her red, wavy hair fell around her face and down her back. She’d loved her hair ever since she was little and learned that, in the old days, red-haired women were thought to be witches, or even tied to the devil.

She smiled at the naivety of humankind. So many superstitions, so many false beliefs had been carried through the centuries. And so much harm they had caused, those old tales. Luckily, people nowadays built their lives on solid scientific knowledge. Magic and superstition belonged to the past now, fit only for stories and legends.

 

Later that night, lying in bed, Robinia couldn’t fall asleep.

Her career as a scientist had reached its peak. Her discovery had led to an invention hailed as the most important of the century, and people all over the world were now living happier, more fulfilling lives than ever before thanks to her.

And to think that, at the beginning, when she’d published her first study on the red thread, the scientific community had rejected it outright. They’d accused her of dabbling in childish superstitions, of confusing science with magic.

The memory made her chuckle: they’d thought she was a witch! Maybe the same had happened to one of her ancestors.

But after that, someone else had replicated her research, confirmed her calculations, repeatedly achieved the same results… until finally, Dr. Kim Larousse, a scientist on the other side of the world, had found a way to make the red thread visible.

The theory was simple, really, and scientists had been circling around it for almost two hundred years without ever getting to the heart of the matter. Two hundred years of experiments, of tiny breakthroughs, of great frustrations… and one unwavering certainty: quantum theory applied to everything, even to people, their thoughts, and their feelings. According to this theory, when two particles are connected, they remain linked no matter how far apart they are.

Robinia, a romantic soul since she was a girl, had focused on love. And one day, she had discovered the existence of the red thread. Well. She had called it that, and later Kim (now a close friend) had used the same image to give form to the bond Robinia had uncovered: the one that connected soulmates.

Now, people all over the world could see the red thread, follow it, meet their soulmate at the other end, and live happily ever after. Just like the old fairy tales promised.

Not everyone used it, of course. Many still preferred the old-fashioned way: meeting different people, experimenting, trusting their instincts… But the statistics were clear: the people who reported being the happiest were those who followed the red thread and found their soulmate.

 

Robinia sat up in bed.

She was one of those who had never used the red thread. Not because she preferred to rely on instinct—of all people! She was a scientist, and the one who had made the red thread her life’s work, no less! No, no… no instinct for her. Just… nothing, really.

She had chosen to focus on her work, on study, on building strong professional relationships in the scientific community. A soulmate was a dream, a longing for love. But it had never felt like the right moment to open that door. To find out who was on the other end of the thread.

She gently ran a hand over her face, thinking back to those fine lines she had seen in the mirror just a few hours earlier.

Maybe it’s time, she thought.

Today, she was a world-renowned scientist. She and Kim had even been nominated for the Nobel Prize, no less!

Hesitant and with a flutter of anticipation that gave her butterflies in her stomach, Robinia stood up and went into her study to look for the Red Link. It was the prototype Kim had given her when it was first launched on the market.

She found the little box under a pile of handwritten notes—another thing her colleagues used to tease her about. “With all the apps out there!” they’d say, surprised. “You’re like a blast from the past,” they joked.

“Alright,” she said aloud as she opened the box.

Inside were the augmented reality contact lenses that would show her the red thread. They would react to her DNA and search for her quantum match.

Just before putting them in, she hesitated one last time. Some people discovered they didn’t have a soulmate. Others found their thread leading to a colony of cats, or a pack of puppies.

Robinia shrugged. Whether she looked for her red thread or not wouldn’t change reality. But if she chose not to see it, the only thing she’d gain was ignorance of her destiny. And she was a scientist. She didn’t like ignorance.

“Let’s see what the future has in store,” she chuckled.

 

Even though she’d read several reports and testimonials, she was still surprised when the lights dimmed and the red thread appeared, shimmering like a thin laser beam. The space around her shifted.

She was still in her studio… and yet she wasn’t. The room seemed to have become transparent, allowing her to see beyond it, far away.

But there was something strange, something she didn’t remember reading about in any report.

Reality had taken on a… four-dimensional look. She had never seen anything in four dimensions, of course, but that was the only way she could describe it.

Curious and suspended in a state of wonder, Robinia began to follow the red thread. At one point, she realized why it all looked so surreal. Her soulmate was in the past!

Robinia had to stop for a moment; her head was spinning. She was certain she’d never read anything like this in all the research and follow-up studies she’d come across.

But suddenly, it all made sense: her nostalgia for old things like paper and high heels, her determination to find the quantum bond between soulmates… How else could she have found hers, if not through the red thread?

She thought for a moment about what she was leaving behind. Instinctively, she looked back, even though she could no longer see where she’d come from. What was there, back there? Her home, her career, her friendships… the Nobel Prize!

And ahead?

She looked at the red thread again. And smiled. Ahead was her soulmate, true love, an unknown world, an untold story. And what better thing for a scientist than to go out and discover something new and unexplored, like the past?

 

Finally, she ended up somewhere. The air around her was thick with smoke.

Robinia was in the past, the red thread winding through muddy, narrow alleys and climbing up stone walls, while in the distance a church bell tolled. She saw her reflection in a broken window: her red hair was tousled from her journey through time and space, her eyes wide with wonder and anticipation.

Instinctively, she knew where she was… and when. They would call her a witch.

She knew about the trials: women like herself, curious, brilliant, determined women… They were burned at the stake.

And yet, when she saw the thread stretch and vibrate toward a glimmer beyond the square, she did not hesitate. For once, reason would have to take a back seat.

 

The Spot Writers:

Val Muller: http://www.valmuller.com/blog/

Catherine A. MacKenzie: https://writingwicket.wordpress.com/wicker-chitter/

Phil Yeats: https://alankemisterauthor.wordpress.com/

Chiara De Giorgi: https://chiaradegiorgi.blogspot.com/