THE SKELETON IN EDISON'S CLOSET
Max Headroom: 20 Minutes Into the Future -A Skeleton in Edison's Closet- Part 1 Addison Carter's name was very similar to that of his twin. The similarity ended there. Not one of Edison's co-workers knew about the reporter's brother and with good reason. Addison had been arrested in his early twenties for inappropriate behavior involving a couple of school-age children. Disgusted by this and not wanting to lose his chances at getting hired at Network 23 because he looked like a convicted pervert, Edison had gotten all records of his kinship with Addison purged from his personal file while still in journalism school. Addison had lost track of his brother for the longest time. He's been in jail until their twenty-seventh birthday, getting out after just six years because of good behavior. Even he thought that was pretty dumb. It wasn't as though there were any kids in the cells. Even an addict, he thought, will go without their fix if it's not readily available. It had taken him a little while to track down Edison. In the end, he'd discovered him by a fluke as he was going through the channels to find out what was on TV. Now, a few days later, Addison was on the lounge level at Network 23 trying to pick a snack to eat before seeing his brother. The door opened and he turned to see who was there. It was a boy of about sixteen. "Edison?" There was something in the boy's tone that suggested that he was in love with Edison, but that he had not yet admitted it. Addison knew he should speak. That he should reveal the truth, that he wasn't Edison. But the sickness that had landed him in jail all those years ago got the better of him. Without a word, he pinned Bryce to the wall alongside the vending machine. Addison could feel his prey's heart racing, his body trembling. These were not the reactions of fear, for this young man did not know of the danger he was in. They were the responses of someone in love who believes that their love is at last being returned. Touching his throat to indicate he had laryngitis, Addison covered Bryce's mouth with his own, and prayed silently that no one would want a snack for the next several minutes while he deftly stole Bryce's virginity as expertly as a snake on the hunt. After Addison was gone, Bryce fixed his clothes and headed back to his studio, all thoughts of a snack completely wiped from his mind. He could not believe it. He had often wondered what it might be like to be kissed by Edison. But he had never dreamed that the ace reporter would ever take time out of his usually busy schedule to ravish him so thoroughly. It had been Bryce's idea of what dying and going to Heaven must feel like. There had been pain, but Bryce's joy at realizing that Edison must love him to be touching him in so intimate a manner overrode that discomfort and it had passed quickly. That evening at the semi-annual Network 23 awards ceremony, Edison took the stage to accept another Vidi, this one for the story he'd done on Security Systems. "While I'm up here, I guess this is as good a time as any for the announcement I have been waiting to make," he said. Bryce noticed that Edison wasn't wearing the outfit he'd had on earlier, but figured he'd changed for the ceremony. He wondered what Edison was going to say. Perhaps a confession of love for him. At least his laryngitis appeared to have healed up, though that was probably why he hadn't spoken to Bryce all day. Edison cleared his throat. "I wish to announce that Vanna Smith has agreed to marry me." "WHAT?!" If a pin had dropped in Katmandu, everyone in the room would've heard it land. Seemingly unaware of the stares he was getting, Bryce continued in a fury. "You jerk! How can you marry her after I just gave you my virginity less than four hours ago?!" "You did WHAT?" several of the controllers including Theora and Angie Barri exclaimed along with his fellow reporter Janie Crane and Vanna Smith herself. "Bryce, you little liar!" Edison shouted back, jumping down from the stage and grabbing Bryce by the collar. "How dare you embarrass me this way! I never laid a hand on hand on you!" "You're the liar, Mr. Carter," Bryce said, coldly, as he pulled free and stormed out of the room. Cheviot walked over to Edison. "If you asked him to do that in order to increase the awards show's ratings, it was in extremely poor taste." he said. Theora waited for Cheviot to leave, then pulled Edison into a corner. "Bryce didn't lie, Edison. I had Max play back Bryce's accusation and run it through the voice print analyzer. The color was so blue you could paint pictures of the sky with it." "Theora, I promise you, I never touched him. Other than holding him to keep him warm at Security Systems when we were locked in that thermal testing chamber, I never laid a finger on him. I sure as hell never had sex with him!" "Then who the hell did? Because whoever he was he looked enough like you to fool a young man who must have been in love with you for some time for him to react the way he did tonight." Theora returned to the table, leaving Edison standing there.
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