Zen Man's Sandbag

by George Wilhite

About the Author: George Wilhite's short stories appear in Rio Grande Review, ShadowKeep, American Western Magazine, Fedora III (an MWA anthology), INSIGHTS: An Anthology of Contemporary Short Stories, Kings River Review, and Hardluck Stories. His novel is The Texas Rodeo Murder.

Excerpt

“Sure, simple substance, all of the same matter, I can do pretty quickly,” Matt said, reaching for the glass of iced tea with his index finger.

The fingertip slowly passed through the side of the glass until almost his entire finger was inside. With one flick of the last knuckle, he sent an ice cube spinning. Then, slowly, almost as if it hurt, he withdrew his finger from the glass. Snake handed him a napkin to wipe his finger off with. Matt shook his head.

“Nope.”

He held his finger up. It was dry. Frank Kovar looked at it closely.

“How …?”

Matt shrugged.

“Same way I sync the neutrons and protons with that of the glass. I just don’t do it with the tea or the ice cubes. That would take longer. They’re made of different stuff. Then, when I bring my finger out, I just sync it so that the tea, water, or whatever doesn’t come through the glass with the molecules of my finger.”

The two gangsters were impressed.

“Or I could make sure that some molecules of air or glass went into the tea with me and then the tea molecules wouldn’t even touch my finger. I could …”

Kovar raised his expensively manicured hand from the top of the gleaming mahogany desk.

“Good enough, Mr. Morgan. We’ll leave the technical stuff up to you. Is it some kind of chemical or pill or what that lets you do that though.”

Matt smiled.

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