Future Times

I was in my parents’ solar powered car waiting for my mom to finish her groceries. It’s 2068. I wanted to return home and play some soccer. Finally after 30 minutes my mom came. “Why did it take you so long”? I said. My mom said “ The robot cashier was too fast for me.” After we got home I played soccer with my sister. I was weary. “I still had to  finish my homework.” I reminded myself.

Instead I snuck outside and heard a beeping noise. I heard it underground. I got a shovel and dug and dug. Then I hit something! I dug around it and pulled it out. It was a box. I decided not to tell my parents. I opened the box and found a old ipad 2 that no one sells anymore and a weird looking prism shaped gadget. I saw that there was a charger for the old ipad 2. I went in my house the put the ipad in the charger. With the new accelerated charging the ipad was fully charged in 5 seconds. The beeping suddenly stopped. The ipad had no lock so I swiped and saw that there was a video and saw a teenager. I clicked play on the video.

The video was so unexpected. It was my grandfather. He had built a time machine and the prism shaped gadget was the time machine. He also said that it was 2018 when he made that video. So I decided to go to 2018 and take a  sojourn and find out more about this time machine and see what it feels like to time travel. So I saw that there were numbers and an on button. I clicked the on button and typed in 2018. I chose the day and the month the video said. It said December 13 2018. Then I saw that there was a time travel button. So I clicked on it. There was a woosh and a spin and I fell on wooden floor. I saw my grandfather as a teenager. He was testing chemicals and suddenly an  explosion  happened. I said in a loud voice “hi”. My grandfather got flabbergasted and screamed “Who are you and how did you get in”? I told him the story of how I got his time traveling machine. Then he happily said “so you are my grandson?” He hugged me. Then I said “So can you tell me more about your time machine please grandpa, if I can call you that?” My grandpa said “ My boy you can call me anything. So you want to learn about my time machine”? Grandpa continued, “Ok but we have to do this in the basement in my lab where I have all my paraphernalia.”

Along the way to the basement grandpa told me “the number one rule of time travel is don’t mess with time. If you for example go back in time and save Abraham Lincoln’s life you could change history which is really bad”. I understood what grandpa was saying. When we reached the basement I saw all equipment that looked so brand new. But in my time grandpa’s equipment would only cost a dollar. Then grandpa said “May I see the time machine”. I gave him it.I asked grandpa a question. “Why did you put this underground”? He answered “I put this underground because I want to be famous and want to be known in the future as the first person in 2018 to build a time machine”. I nodded. Then a dog came downstairs. I screamed  “I’m afraid of dogs!” My grandpa assured me “ he won’t bite. Grandpa held my hand and gently rubbed it on the dog's body. The dog seemed to like it.  I stroked his fur.  “You are just like my brother. Very intelligent I wish you could meet him but sadly since you are already meeting me I don’t know if you can meet him because if you meet him and me both, you might be messing with time which can change history. So you have to be really careful that you don’t change time. But if you want to time travel for fun you have to be more mature for you can go to some cool places to time travel”. said grandpa with a smile. He started showing me how to be a time traveler. As he started I stopped him. “Grandpa I already know how to use the time machine”. Grandpa looked surprised. “Wow you learned how to use a time traveler very fast”. I had a proud look on my face.Grandpa chuckled and it made me look stupid. But I also thought it was funny so I chuckled with him. I asked grandpa “ so do I show the whole world about the time traveler?” Grandpa said “ yes. I want to become famous. But I will make 2. One for you and one for the world.  I curiously asked “ Can we time travel in the future together and see what it’s like?” Grandpa agreed but cautioned me, “You need to be careful and can’t change any history.” Saying that he clicked the button and sent us to 2377 in Texas.

When we landed in Texas we were wearing cowboy clothes. I asked “ why did our clothes change?” Grandpa answered “ So if we travel to where our style of clothes is outdated the time machine provides us with style that does exist”. “That makes sense.” I mumbled to myself. We saw  2 men on horses both with a gun coming towards us. Then one man shot the other man on the horse. He fell and was blood all over his chest. But when the man shot the gun there were no bullets.. It shot a laser. Grandpa said “let's hide quick”!  We hid in a bush. We saw that the man said the worst grammar ever too the dead man “y’all can’t take my stuff.” Then he saw us in the bush and said in an alarming voice “ who’s there!” Then grandpa stood with his arms up and I stood with him. Grandpa said “please don’t hurt us”. Then the man dropped the gun and started laughing “hurt...hurt..hurt you and why in the world  would I do that”? He stopped laughing and  told us “ but you have to help us. We need all the helpers we can get before the war comes.” Then I asked “what war”? The man said “ I can’t tell you’all all them details but all I can tell y’all is there’s a war.” The man said “My name is Jack, Jack Goldstein. And we are going to our hideout. I killed that man because we live in a poor place and he stole some gold from the bank and we are the southside of Texas where we don’t have that much money but we are having a war with the northside of Texas.”

The hideout was a very small village with poor people on the side of a house cuddling their children for warmth. So grandpa took us aside and asked me “I think it might be too dangerous for us”. I said “no. We have to do this. Look at the people on the side of the bar. We have to help those people.” Grandpa smiled and agreed. Jack wanted to take us to the northside of Texas. When we reached a barn Jack screamed “Sherla…. Sherla are you home!” There was no answer. Then Jack said “I guess my wife Sherla went to get food.”  Jack gave us both a horse and said “ both of you can fit one.” When we went to the Northside of Texas neither me nor grandpa knew how to drive a horse.  We kept going the wrong way and falling. So Jack finally said “ y'all can’t ride a horse.  I’ll send this horse back and y’all be riding with me.” So while we sat on the horse Jack got the horse back into the barn and got on the horse we were on and said “ giddy up!” and got the rope and slapped it on the horse. The horse shreaked and ran as fast as its long legs could go. When we reached the northside Texas we were astonished of what we saw. They had flying robots and stores that had robots taking care of merchandise. I asked “why doesn’t the southside of Texas look like that”? Jack didn’t answer immediately. He paused and then said “So back in 2300 the north side and the south side had equal amount of money and everyone had flying cars, robots. We even lived in harmony. But then the north side became greedy and got their army and shot substantial amount of people in the south side. Then the North side threw a nuclear explosive and we use our force field. But it wasn’t good enough most people died that day. Even my father Jones Goldstein died fighting for us.” I right away  changed the subject “So when is the war?” Jack answered “At midnight today and right now it’s-” and Jack checked his watch 11:49. Jack screamed in fear. We have to get ready. Then we went back to the barn, put the horse back and got the weapons. The south side had left and went to the field where they would start the war. The chiefs from both the sides came to the field. When they were about to start the war I came in  and said “ you guys used to live in harmony. It has to stop please! For the sake of your kids don’t start a war.” The people all at the same time said “ This kid is right. We got to stop! We need our kids to have a good life”. Grandpa looked at me with joy and smiled. Grandpa came to me and said “let's go home. Our work here is done.” While everyone was happy and cheering we were getting our time machine.

Suddenly the North side chief jumped with us back into the past at 2018. All of us landed next to grandpa's house.The North side chief said “I never liked your speech! You ruined everything! When you guys landed in the bush with that doodad I knew in a flash that that was a time machine. So I want it.” Then he pointed the gun at me and grandpa. I said to the chief “You would never shoot that gun”. The chief replied “yes I would” and the chief got the gun and shot it in mid air. A lazer came out of the gun and  I saw it go up in the sky and disappear. The chief looked at me and said “ now do you believe me?” Suddenly grandpa said “ You want the time machine? You can have it!” Grandpa threw the time machine at him.Since grandpa was young he had a fierce throw. It hit the chief in the chest. He fell backwards. That's when grandpa grabbed me and we touched the chief and we time traveled.

We fell on the ground. Grandpa was beside me and I saw the chief  on the ground holding his knee in pain. Then while the chief was nursing his injured knee grandpa told me what he did. Grandpa had set a time for us to all time travel in. Grandpa said that this is 2118. It looked like we were in my timeline. There were flying cars and solar powered cars But a lot more powerful. There were also robots like our timeline but more efficient. Then the chief got up and swung his fist at grandpa. Grandpa ducked and saw that the time machine was on the ground. Then the chief saw what grandpa was looking at and all of us leaped at the time machine. The chief got it. But grandpa pushed him and they both fell. This is the best chance for me to take it. So I snatched the time machine out of the chief’s hands and said “This is my grandpa’s. You can’t have it.” Then the chief said angrily “ I don’t care.” He took the time machine out of my hands and pushed me into the ground. Just then grandpa got out an object and said “this ends now!” Grandpa grabbed the time machine from the chief, threw it on the ground and then grabbed me and we suddenly vanished. There was a whoosh and a spin.

When we reappeared we were at grandpa’s house in 2018. Then grandpa said “what I did was bring us back to 2018 so you can go home. But this is my time machine destroyer. This was what I made just in case the time machine fell into the wrong hands.” Then I said in a sad voice “but I can still visit you anytime right?” Grandpa said in a heavy hearted voice “This can only time travel 2.” I said “ but...but….but I understand.” He gave me the time machine and said “once you get home this will be useless. You can keep it or you can throw it away.” I nodded.  When I was leaving grandpa said “before you go can you tell me what your name is and if I have any other grandchildren?” I smiled at him and said “My name is Peter and I have a younger sister named Alex and an older brother named George.” Grandpa nodded and said goodbye. Suddenly there was a whoosh and a spin and I was back home.  My mom was cooking. Everything was back to normal or so I thought.There was a knock on our door. As my mom opened the door I saw a familiar face.It was the chief. I was astonished and scared at the same time,  “ho..ho..how can this be possible!”