The key to getting useful information for trading is timing. Quarterly reports came out around 35 days after the end of the quarter and during that time a lot of market speculation would take place. The second quarter of the year would be over next week and then companies would be preparing their reports. This reporting period was too early for the stock-picking competition, but it wasn’t too early for me to get in a trial run. Luckily, there were some publicly traded companies here in town and I planned on visiting five of them over the next two weeks. If there was any interesting information, I’d have just enough time before the reports came out to open a trading account and place some trades.

With this goal settled, I needed to prepare. I didn’t expect to simply stroll into the company’s headquarters and find an advance copy of the quarterly report sitting on the president’s desk. Although, I figured that there was actually a slight possibility of that happening, since the president did need to review the report before approving it for printing, but I didn’t know when they started working on it, how long it took, or if they even bothered with a paper copy.

My goal for my first try would be to get a glimpse of the president’s schedule for the next few weeks and see if there was a meeting with the quarterly numbers breakdown. Then, I’d just sit in on the meeting and listen until I couldn’t hold the field anymore. I also wanted to check out their security office and see a plan of the building and what cameras they had, in case I needed to stay longer than I could hold the field for. I could always just go their washrooms and hide out for awhile, but it never hurts to know what other options are available.

Preparing consisted mostly of more training and experimentation. Training to hold the field for longer and experimenting to see how and what I could bring with me. Holding the field for half an hour was about my limit right now. I’d need time to get into the building and find my way around. Then I’d need to find the president’s secretary and wait until she pulled up his or her schedule. I had no idea how long that would take, but I had to assume that it was at least an hour. I knew that if I kept at, I could eventually hold the field all day long, but I only had a week or two, so I set my goal for one hour. If I needed more time, I’d just have to take a break for a bit in the bathroom.

I would need to bring a notepad and a pen, as well a camera. Oh hell! Would a camera even work in the field? Can a camera take a picture of another reality? I can see the other reality, but I’m not part of it. I’d need to test that. I also needed to test out using a backpack. I’d tested holding a bag with me when I go into the field, but it was empty. Would the field just encompass the backpack, leaving behind everything in it or would does the field envelope the contents as well? Does each item get its own small field? So many questions, so little time. Let’s get started getting those answers.

Taking out my phone, I brought up the camera app and turned on the field. Checking to make sure that there was a field around the phone, I snapped a picture of my bed and then I took a quick video of my room. Back in reality, I opened up the picture and looked at it closely. My bed showed up, but the colors were muted, and the image was slightly blurred. It seems that the camera was capturing a bit of the field and the field acted like a filter over the lens. The blurriness was slightly more pronounced in the video, as the blurring effect was magnified by the shifting of the field while the video was being taken. None of this mattered at this point though, as the picture quality was more than enough for me to see and read anything that I took a picture or video of, as long as I didn't pan too quickly.

Next, I tested out the backpack. There wasn’t much to it, as all I had to do was grab my schoolbag, which I still hadn’t emptied from the end of school, and move it into R1. When the field came on, I focused on the it and saw that the bag was enveloped in my field. Holding the bag with one arm and unzipping it with the other, I took out one of my binders and examined the field around it. It seemed to be the same as the field surrounding the bag. I put the binder down on my desk and the field retracted as I let it go. One by one, I removed everything from the bag. I counted twenty individual objects, including a few loose pens and pencils, my pencil case, two quarters, a dime and a paperclip. Each item had a field around it before I let it settle on the desk. How many things could the field envelope? Could I extend the field over a car or a bus? How about a building? Did it take more strength to use the field on something bigger? Was it harder to use the field on more things at once? So many questions!

Before going to bed for the night, I tested out two other ways to use the field. Last night, I had practiced reabsorbing the field that surrounded a book that I held and watched it shift back into reality. Now I tried to do the opposite of that. While in R1, I wanted to see if I could have the field surround something that was in reality and bring it into R1. I took a few minutes to practice reabsorbing the field from a book that I was holding in R1 and after the fifth time that I dropped the book on my desk, I left the field on and reached to pick up the book. As my hand neared the book, I concentrated on the part of the field near my hand and instead of sucking it in to reabsorb it, I sent it out to surround the book.

Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

At first, nothing happened, but as my hand got about half an inch away, I felt the field flow out and encompass the book. Before I could grab it, the book fell through the desk and landed on the floor. I bent down and picked it up. Sweet! Now I wouldn’t have to blink back into reality to grab something that I forgot. Putting the book down, I turned to the bed and approached it. Let’s see how big an object I could take with me. I placed my hand just over the bed and extended the field. The field quickly enveloped the bedspread and it fell through the bed and onto the floor. Huh! I’d have to find a way to be more specific. I wonder what would happen if I didn’t pull the bedspread out from under the bed. How long would it stay in R1? If the field stopped working while the blanket was enmeshed with the feet of the bed, would the blanket have holes in it when it phased back into reality? I’d have to experiment later on, with something that didn’t keep me warm and cozy at night.

With the bedspread back in its proper place, I decided to try my desk instead. The bed was composed of too many separate pieces that were heavy. I didn’t want to have to haul the mattress back up onto the frame if I made another mistake. I cleared everything off the desk and placed my hand just above the it. Again, I sent out the field from my hand and started to surround the desk with my field. It was working, but as soon as the desk was in the field, the field shut down; not only from around the desk, but from around me. I guess I’d pushed too far for now. I’d need more practice. A wave or tiredness swept over me and I closed the lights and fell asleep as my head touched the pillow.

The next morning, my alarm woke me up for work. Despite being so tired the night before, I woke up quickly and felt great. I did my morning rituals in the bathroom and got dressed. I never wore anything nice to work at the university. There were simply too many opportunities to get your clothes singed and somehow, even when I was wearing all the necessary safety gear, I still managed to ruin a top every now and then. Simple jeans and a t-shirt for me. Easy to wash and easy to replace.

Passing by my backpack on the way to breakfast, I had an idea. What if I could practice all day and still do my job? I’d be able to get strong enough to hold the field for more than an hour much quicker that way. I filled the backpack with a change of clothes, a notebook, a pen and my old digital camera. I put the backpack on and shifted to R1. Then I tried to shift back to reality while leaving the backpack in R1. I wasn’t sure what to expect. Would the backpack fall to the ground or would it stay on my shoulders? After all, I always had the field around me, even when I turned it off, and I was hoping that the backpack would anchor itself to my field, even if it was in standby mode. I didn’t find out, because when I turned my field off, it turned off the field for the backpack. I wasn’t good enough yet to differentiate between the two fields and turn one off while leaving the other one on.

Leaving the backpack on, but the field off, I felt the field around by body and extended it to include the backpack. I focused on this extended field around the backpack, specifically where it connected to the field surrounding me, and I sent a push out for the backpack field to turn on. The weight of the backpack suddenly disappeared from my shoulders and I was worried that it had fallen to the ground. However, as I explored my field, I could tell that the backpack was still there. The places where the two fields joined felt different. It wasn’t a tugging sensation, more like a just a subtle change in thickness of the field. It didn’t feel weird though, so I left it like that for a bit while I checked my reflection in the closet mirror. I couldn’t tell that I was wearing a backpack at all. My t-shirt hung loosely around my shoulders and back and even billowed out a bit when I shook it. There was nothing pressing down on my t-shirt, yet the backpack was there in R1. I could even take off my shirt and put it back on without any effect on the backpack. It was there, but it wasn't. This was so cool.

If I could hold the field long enough, I’d never have to worry about anyone trying to rip off my backpack. They’d never even know that I had it on. I could go hiking without having to feel the weight of my gear or having the gear get wet in the rain. Travelling would be tons easier. I could take a large bottle of shampoo or water on a plane. Not that I travelled much by plane, but it was nice to know. Come to think of it, I’d be the world’s best smuggler. Customs agents couldn’t search a backpack that wasn’t quite in our reality.

With all these possibilities running through my brain, I practiced turning the backpack field on and off a few times, just to be sure that I could do it again easily, before joining dad for breakfast. I really hoped that the field wouldn’t cut out in front of anyone today. It might be a little awkward to explain.