Remember getting assignments in school that would be a prompt from the teacher and then you had to write a story? I recently found one of those assignments from what is labeled E Period so must be junior or high school years. Here is part one, the mimeographed prompt.
Connie-a girl of 12 or 13
Vern-a boy inventor with a taste for adventure, perhaps 13 or 14
Capt. Billy Bang-a foxy old man who lives somewhere in the stream of time and makes a point of helping young people in trouble
Martha Hopkins-a beautiful woman with a problem
The machine looked simple enough. There were two chairs, some wires that looked like bedsprings, and a numbered dial attached to a box. The device rumbled and pulsed with an on-off-on-off glow.
"It looks sick to me," Connie said. "I think it's got indigestion."
Vern snorted, "Forget the looks. I'll admit it looks more like a jukebox than a scientific marvel, but my calculations say it will work."
"How?"
"I won't strain your brain with details. Right now all we have to do is sit down, set the dial to the year in time we want, and we're off. All set?"
"I guess so, but I hear a big inner voice yelling NO. Suppose we end up in the middle of a battle or something? Can we tell where we're going?"
"Unfortunately no. However, I can simply squeeze this buckle on my belt to bring us home again. Of course, the machine may take about 60 seconds to start to work."
"Swell! What happens meanwhile?"
"We won't know that until we get out on the stream of time and see. You twist the dial and I'll press the 'GO' button on my chair."
"I always thought I was nuts and this proves it." Connie reached for the dial and gave it a twist.
To be continued..
No comments:
Post a Comment