The Unusual Mind of Vincent Shadow Read Free Page A

ARTIFACTS DISCOVERED, NEW YORK—The recent sale of the historic Hotel New Yorker to Ramada Worldwide has unearthed an unusual treasure: Several dozen inventions
     from the great inventor and former hotel guest, Nikola Tesla, were discovered shortly after the purchase of the historic hotel.

    “It is standard procedure to conduct a complete and comprehensive audit of the books,” said Colleen Stanton, Executive Vice
     President of Global Acquisitions for Ramada Worldwide. “But the results of this audit were anything but normal.”
    Stanton’s audit revealed that a payment was made to the Manhattan Storage and Warehouse Company every year since 1943. Upon
     questioning the staff at the New Yorker, no one could account for the payments. Stanton’s investigations led to the discovery
     of a storage room full of Tesla’s notebooks and inventions previously believed to be missing.
    “Well, we were all obviously dumbfounded when we opened the door to the storage unit and found the technological remains of
     one of the greatest inventors of all time. Tesla meant so much to New York, and Ramada is very proud to play a part in his
     legacy,” Stanton added.
    In 1935, at the age of 79, Nikola Tesla found himself a resident at the Hotel New Yorker, where he stayed until he died in
     his sleep on January 7, 1943. The morning after his death, Tesla’s nephew arrived at his uncle’s room only to discover that
     the scientist’s body had been removed and his technical papers and prototypes were missing.
    It was later reported that representatives from the Office of Alien Property went to the Hotel New Yorker and seized all of
     Tesla’s belongings and transmitted them under seal to the Manhattan Storage and Warehouse Company. In all, two truckloads
     of papers, furniture, and artifacts were placed under seal.
    “The inventions represent an important part of America’s past and would make a great addition to any museum’s collection,”
     Stanton said. Ramada Hotels plans to auction off the Tesla artifacts next month.

    Vincent lay in his bed thinking about the Tesla inventions. He wondered which prototypes had been discovered and why the government
     would have seized them in the first place. He looked at the clock and realized his sisters would be home from school soon,
     and he still needed to clean up his big blue mess.

THE SECRET LAB
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    Vincent went downstairs and grabbed a bucket and a mop from the basement. He took several towels from the upstairs hall closet, paused for a moment, and then reached
     back in and grabbed Gwen’s hair dryer. With his cleaning supplies in hand, Vincent opened the hidden door in the back wall
     of his bedroom closet and crawled inside.
    The lab was surprisingly large, extending back over thirty feet, but even at four foot six, Vincent was unable to stand up
     straight in most of the lab. There were several tables in the middle of the lab that served as workbenches. All the table
     legs had been shortened, allowing Vincent to work on his knees.
    Hundreds of sketches covered the walls and ceiling. A stack of black Moleskine notebooks was piled just to the left of the
     door. Bricks and boards were carefully stacked along the length of the room, creating a long, makeshift bookshelf. The bottom
     row was mainly books on chemistry, electricity, gravity, Nikola Tesla, and Thomas Edison. The second shelf was lined with
     old mayonnaise and peanut butter jars containing past failed experiments. Hundreds of failed experiments with handwritten
     labels: “glow-in-the-dark colored bubbles,” “fuzzy paint,” “self-drawing ink,” “colored fog,” and “no-melt snow.”
    The third shelf held working prototypes. Some of his favorites included: Bounce ’N’ Bubblez, GyroSkatez, B.I.G. Ammo, BlabberBackwardz,
     RAINbow Rocketz, Soundbreroz, and one of his latest inventions called Mixablez. Mixablez were mixed-up stuffed animals. The
     prototype was part elephant and part giraffe.
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