Time Travel

Lannan was a genius scientist. He had been awarded with many awards for his inventions. Some of his inventions were an imagination box, an automatic tennis playing machine, a bottle flipper and a robot. Presently, he was working on a time machine. It was tricky to make as it had to be as fast as speed of light. He was working on it day and night. Finally, one day he succeded. The moment he finished, he fell down and was fast asleep due to exhaustion.

At that very moment, some children playing cricket outside the lab hit the ball so hard that it smashed the lab window. They were very scared that somebody might come out and beat them. But the professor was fast asleep. The children decided that the one who hit the ball shall fetch it. Tim went inside willingly as he was ever so curious and started looking around. He reached the room where the time machine was kept. The machine was as big as three elephants. It had large glass windows and was red in colour. The boy was very curious about what it was. He went inside it. It had many buttons and many numbers and some words displayed on a large panel. There were four seats and a ball with wires was kept on one of the seats. It also had a cloth which was white in colour. Many warning stickers were pasted. Out of curiosity, the boy punched some numbers, pressed a big yellow button and sat in one of the seats.

The panel now read 20,073 B.C., day 26 of the 11th month, 9:24 a.m., paleolithic age. Suddenly, a voice from the ceiling said, “Ready to travel. Sit back and relax.” The machine roared to life. It started rising. 10 feet...20 feet…40 feet. The boy was very confused but then he heard some shouting. “Oi, who is there? Where are you taking my time machine? You thief! You wait right there.” After saying this, Lannan hurriedly jumped in his flying car and started chasing his invention. “Stop right there!” Tim was very scared. The car was rising faster and faster. It was catching up with the machine. Suddenly in a flash of light, the boy and the machine were gone.

Tim after the initil shock, understood it was a time machine. The numbers on the panel kept changing. When he looked outside the machine, he saw scenes changing rapidly. He could see buildings, monuments, people, trees and plants. A few seconds later, the machine stopped whirring. The panel came to a stop and all he could see outside was a jungle. The voice in the ceiling said, “Destination reached. Machine deactivated for 24 hours.” Oops! That meant that he couldn’t get back home for a day. The boy picked up some clothes that the ball had generated. They were made of animal skin and some leaves and barks.

There also was a belt made of leather with some colourful buttons on it. He put on the clothes and tried the white cloth. He looked in the mirror but couldn’t see himself in it. The cloth was to make someone invisible! WOW! Tim pressed one button which read ‘DOOR’. The door opened and he stepped out. As soon as he was out, the machine was gone in a flash of green light into his belt.

Tim started walking with his invisible cloth on. After sometime, he started feeling very thirsty. He walked on and suddenly found a river in the distance. He drank some water and sat there. There, he saw a group of 15-20 people. They had the same clothes on as him each one had a spear with a big stone tied to it. They drank some water and collected some in a few pots. Then they went away. Tim decided to follow them. He put on his cloth and started walking behind them. They walked for a long time. Finally, they reached a cave and went inside. Tim boy entered the cave after a minute. Thank God for this cloth for making him invisible.

Tim found the cave very warm as it was lit by torches. He looked at the walls and saw that they were painted with charcoal colours and the drawings were of wild animals like deer, bison, aurochs, reindeer etc. They were very beautiful. While he was looking at them, he heard a loud noise. It was coming again and again. He went further inside and saw the men striking stones with other stones. They were chipping pieces. The boy understood they were making tools. He kept discoving the cave, it seemed like one of his History lessons. Tim soon found some nuts and fruits and some roasted meat. He ate some, drank some water from a pot, picked up a spear nd set off again.

After an hour of walking, he was very sleepy. Then, he saw a bunch of caves. He checked each one. They all seemed empty. Tim got some leaves and he made a bed of them inside the smallest of the caves and lay down for some rest.

Tim must have slept ‘cos when he woke up, it was late evening. He picked up his things and started walking towards the men’s cave again. He found that it looked the same as when he had left it. That meant the men had not come back. Tim drank some water and ate all the remaining food. He then just sat there, thinking about the difficulties people had in the earlier times. After waiting for sometime, he put on his cloth and was leaving the cave when suddenly, the men arrived. He saw them and started panicking. He started running towards the exit but suddenly he ran into one of the people. They started shouting and one of them threw an axe. It landed inches beside the him. He ran as fast as he could and ran very far away. Thank God for the invisiblity cloth again!

Puffing and panting he saw the river which he’d seen before. Tim drank some water and started walking in search of wood. It was alresady dark. This was a jungle so he was sure of finding some dry wood. He walked for sometime and sure enough, he found what he was looking for, two stones which he rubbed against each other to make fire and arranged some leaves for a bed. Tim then went to sleep, covering himself with the white cloth, just in case... Tim woke up to a sound in the morning which said, “1 hour till activation.” Yay! Only one hour left to get home, he thought. He realised he wasn’t wearing his cloth. It must have been blown away by the wind. He decoded to look for it as he had an hour when he heard some loud sounds coming from behind him.

He turned around to look and found the men from the cave. He couldn’t understand what they were saying but he could tell they were very angry. And they were closing on him with their spears pointed towards him. He ran as fast as his legs could take him. The men started following him, running behind him. Suddenly, a voice said, “Machine activated. Ready to fly.”

Tim immediately threw his belt in front of and it became the time machine again. He quickly went inside, closed the door but he didn’t know what to do. He hadthis time in the past by pressing buttons randomly. The men were now banging on the machine.

Tim was scared as hell and thought this was the end. But then, he saw a car hovering outside the machine. How could there be a car in this period? He couldn’t see who was in it. Suddenly, the machine was flying to the present again as the boy could see the numbers on the panels changing. After a minute, he was back in the professor’s lab. Tim finally saw the professor, in his flying car. So that meant the car he had seen earlier was the professor’s car.

While Tim thanked his stars for the rescue he also wondered, how had the professor travelled using it and how had had he known which year the time machine had travelled to? And how much time had passed since Tim had gone?

Tim asked these questions from Lannan. Lannan replied, “The is also a time machine. I have made it for emergencies. I have linked it to the bigger one so that if it gets lost, I can track and find it. I know you travelled by mistake, so I forgive you. And a day is about 10 minutes of the present. So only 10 minutes have passed since you went. Now, go back home and forget this even happened, ok? And, thank you too.” Tim was surprised, “why the thank you?” he asked

Lannan smiled and said, ”Well! both the time machines got tested successfully.”

Tim smiled too, nodded and started walking back home, thinking about this strange adventure.

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