Story A Day - Day 6

 I was feeling a little under the weather for a could of days, so day 4 and 5 stories are not complete yet. I will catch up and add them later.

 

Interview with a Vampire

By J. Smith Kirkland

I was not yet a vampire the first time I sat down to interview Herbert. I had not yet gained notoriety for my reporting, and he had not yet gained notoriety for his inventions. It was good to catch up with him. After the general 'how have you been' and 'so good to see you' conversation, I started the interview asking where he was when he came up with his idea, and what inspired him.

"I was living in New Orleans --."

"Cajun accent,” I whispered to myself.

"I have an accent?" Herbert started to laugh.

"Sorry, I noticed it earlier. You have picked up a slight sharpness to the consonants. I tend to mimmic the people I am around a lot also. "

"It's all right," Herbert assured me. But let me continue."

"Please," I said.

“New Orleans. Not as many vampires there as you might think. Mostly werewolves and other skinwalkers. I was hanging out in the Quarter, listening to some cat playing jazz guitar, when I started talking to a guy that had moved there from Tennessee. He was complaining that the daylight just seemed to get harsher and harsher the older he got. He said sunglasses didn't seem to block out whatever it was that bothered him. Not even the UV blockers or those computer glasses for staring at computer screens. So I started to wonder, what wave length in sunlight is it that bothers skinwalkers.”

“So the whole idea came from wondering how to make sunglasses for a discontent werewolf?”

“I think he was just an alley cat, but i'm not judging. But yeah, that's when I started thinking about it.”

“How did you get from sunglasses to the day walker contacts?”

“Well, first I got with a physicist friend of mine. I'm a chemist you know.”

“Alchemist?”

“My degree is in Chemistry. But okay.”

“Sorry.”

“Anyway. Together we identified the wavelength. We called it the nightwalker wavelength. Then I had to learn about making lenses. And once I identified which chemical compound could be added to the glass to reflect the wave, we had our first product.”

“Daywalker glasses.”

“Right. But marketing quickly found that the target demographic. . ."

“Me.”

“You and the skinwalkers. The target demographic was most opposed to the idea of wearing glasses. The skinwalkers for practical reason; they kept losing them during a shift. The vampires for more aesthetic reasons.”

“We do like to look good.”

“Exactly. So after some time we found a way to get the compound into contacts without degradding the material the contacts are made of, and the rest is history.”

THE PROMPT

Write an interview with a character who invented something that changed the world…years after the change took place.