THE TIME MACHINE RETOLD

The second dinner

It's been a week since our last dinner at the Time Travelers house. When going to fetch my mail I found he had invited us to come for dinner again. So that evening I returned to the house. I saw that this time that the editor of the local newspaper and a writer were invited to join us this time. I sat down with them at the table. This time the Time Traveler seemed a little late. The doctor pulls out a note and says. "Our friend says that we should start dinner without him if he's late." "Well, let's not let the food go to waste then." The mayor said. We started eating and the Time Travelers maid brought us refreshments for us to enjoy. After a bit the Editor asked us where was the Time Traveler, we explained he may be on an incredible journey through time. The editor of course didn't understand so we explained to him the events of last week. Just before we could finish explaining the story to the editor, our friend the Time Traveler entered the room. The doctor looked up at him in shock and ran to him saying. "Good lord what happened to you man?!" The Time Traveler looked like he had gone through a war. His jacket was ripped. His face was dirty and scratched. His hair was a mess. And he looked very tired and exhausted. He closed the door behind him and sat down at the table with us. "Maid." He said in a weak voice, while pointing to the pitcher of water. The Maid filled a cup of water and gave it to him. He drank it like he hadn't had water in days. He looked more refreshed now. He saw we were about to ask him questions. He held up his hand and said to us. "Wait. Let me wash and change my clothes. Then I'll tell you what happened."

We agreed and he went to wash up and change. After about half an hour he came back down and began to eat. The editor lean forward to him and asked. "I say, your friends tell me you've built a machine that can travel in time. Is this true? Please tell us about where you've been." The Time Traveler looked at the editor and replied. "Let me regain my strength. Then I will tell you about it." So we let him eat until he was full and satisfied. He looked to us and said. "Ok. I'll tell you where I've been now. But please do not interrupt me, or tell me that what I'm about to say is impossible. Because everything I'm about to say is completely true. Agreed?" We all agreed, and he rested back in his chair. Even the Maid sat down in a chair of her own to listen to this story. "This morning at 10 o'clock. I finished my Time Machine. So I sent invitations to you all to come to dinner tonight. After I sent the invitations. I decided to give my machine a test run, So I climbed into it, and rested my hand on the lever. In front of me is a panel, which has several dials. They show the, day, month, and year. I had no idea what was about to happen, but I took a deep breath and pushed the lever forward. Everything around me went out of focus a little. It seemed like everything was moving fast, but nothing was moving. I pulled the lever back to it's starting position. I felt a little dizzy and light headed. I wondered if anything changed. I looked around and everything seemed the same, except the time. The time had changed from 10 to 12! I had traveled in time! Now that I knew my machine worked, I pushed the lever forward again.

Everything went out of focus again. And the sun started to move faster. Day time turned to night time and night time turned to day time and so on. I saw my maid come in and exit in the blink of an eye. I saw seasons starting to fly by. The snow fell and then not long after it melted. I then started to see my workshop get old. Cobwebs started to grow. I even saw a spider spend about at least a week building a web, but for me it was not even a minute. The buildings outside my windows got taken down and had new ones built in their place. Then my workshop got taken down, actually my whole house got torn down! And I found myself in the backyard of some other house. I saw the kids from the house come out and play in what was only seconds. Buildings started to form around me, and it started to look like London, but with even more taller buildings. They looked to be made of glass. Then I started to see flying carriages, but they had no horses. They somehow managed to float in the air. I was shocked to see the advance of technology. I never thought or even dreamed of such inventions. Eventually the new house that was built over mine was taken down, and a big building was put in its place. The garden around me turned into a street, and multiple carriages zoomed down it day and night. In fact day and night we're starting to merge. The sky was becoming almost grey, and the sun and moon both became a ring of light around the planet. I must have been traveling centuries in seconds! And then the sky grew dark, and the city started to burn. It looked like a war had taken place.

The city then started to crumble. I saw nothing but rubble in its place, and a thick layer of smoke filled the air. For a minute, I thought humanity had destroyed itself in the future. That it had not learned to cooperate with each other, and they ended up going to war. But then the city rubble disappeared, and trees and wildlife started to take its place. I saw nature grow over the rubble, and flowers starting to bloom on the buildings that were left standing. Eventually everything started to stay still. The beautiful garden didn't change. No buildings got built, not even towns. The trees and the hills stayed untouched. I saw there was no change in the landscape, so I decided to slow my machine down. Unfortunately I was going at an extremely high velocity and when I tried to slow down, I pulled the lever back too fast and the machine started to shake violently. the machine stopped with a intense thud that launched me out of my seat. I landed on the grass pretty hard, and my nose started to bleed a little. Thankfully I had some tissues with me. I looked back at my machine which had the front of it buried in a small hump in the ground. I tried moving it free, but it was embedded too deep into the hump. I decided to leave it there and explore. After all, if I couldn't move it what could? I looked at my dials to see what date it was, and to my surprise it was the year eight hundred two thousand, seven hundred and one! I almost couldn't believe how far I had gone, and honestly I got a little sick about the feeling. But I calmed down and unscrewed the lever, so no one could activate the machine. I then went off to explore this strange world.