The Tale of the Time Machine
Caitlyn Age 13
Our Savior’s Lutheran School
It all started one warm, windy day in April. My friend, Amy, and I were walking in circles in the large field behind our school at recess and feeling very bored. I sighed.
“This is so boring!” I groaned.
“Yeah, why can’t somebody start a game of volleyball or something?” Amy agreed.
I smile, “What is it with you and volleyball? It’s all you ever think about!” It was true.
Amy was definitely the athlete of the two of us. In reality, sometimes it was surprising that we were friends at all. We were completely, totally, 100 percent different. Like I said, Amy was the athlete. If a sport existed, Amy loved it. I hated them. Well, I didn’t really hate sports it was more like they just weren’t my thing. I was more of the bookworm. I was easily a straight A student, while Amy hated school. I was more logical and sensible, with less imagination. Amy’s was always flying away to something new. She never seemed to get her mind on one thing. We were complete opposites.
We, quite frankly, that was the day our lives changed forever. It was the day we found the time machine. No, I know you’ll think I’m crazy, and probably tell me it was all a dream. But let’s say, for the record, that I’m pretty sure I’m not crazy and that I’m also pretty sure that the stuff I’m about to describe actually happened.
We were still just walking around talking when Amy casually said, “Do you hear that?”
“Hear what?”I asked.
“That!” She insisted. I’m still not sure exactly what she heard. Then my crazy friend started running towards the woods.
“Amy, what are you doing?!” I yelled after her. Thinking she had just proved how crazy she was, and was just imagining something again. I ran after her continuing to yell her name. After a few minutes, I found Amy staring in awe at something on the ground.
“Amy, what is…?” My voice trailed off.
“Will you just look at that?” She said. Sure enough, a few feet from where we were standing, there sat the weirdest looking machine ever. It was round with all sorts of little contraptions in and on it. It sort of reminded me of one of the little space machines that Martians use in sci-fi movies.
“What is it?” I asked.
“That’s what I was going to ask you.” Amy said. Amy did what I was pretty sure was the dumbest thing I’d ever seen her do. She opened the machine.
“There are seats in here-and it’s a little roomier than I expected.” She said, and then she started playing with the buttons.
“Amy don’t!” I screamed but it was too late. I took one last look at the woods. The way things were going, I had a feeling I wouldn’t be seeing them anytime soon. Not if the machine was what I thought it was. But it couldn’t be that! It was impossible!
The machine started to spin in wild circles, and I grabbed onto it, trying to stop it. Then the next thing I knew, I had been tossed on the dry, hot, dirty ground. My head hurt, but I sat up almost instantly. We appeared to be in a desert of some kind. Yep, the machine was definitely what I thought it was.
“Are you okay?” Amy’s voice came from a few feet away. I looked up and saw her climbing out of the machine.
“Yeah,” I said. “But what did you do?”
“I have no idea…” she replied.
“Hey!” a distant voice came. “What are you two up to?” We spun around to see a cowboy riding a large, black horse.
“Uh…we don’t know.” I stammered. Hey, it was truth! The cowboy took one look at our machine and said.
“Name’s Texas Jim. Had some experience with one of these myself a few years back. (Here he pointed at the machine.)Know how to get you back, too.”
“Can you help us?” Amy asked hopefully.
“You bet your boots I can!” said the cowboy. “But, you two will just have to do me a little favor; go down to the water and get my horse Jeb, some water and come right back here. Then I’ll have you off in a jiffy.”
We didn’t really have any choice, so we agreed, took a bucket and followed Texas Jim’s directions down to the water. But when we got there, we had bad news: there were tough looking men, I think they were called cattle rustlers, and they seemed to be looking for something. Now, call me crazy, but I couldn’t help thinking that they didn’t exactly seem the friendly type. So we did the natural thing, we hid behind some brambles and watched the burly, scary looking me. One of them got pretty close. My heart pounded so loudly I was sure he would hear it. I shuffled to get comfortable, and a twig snapped beneath my foot.
“What’s that?!” said the man I thought was the head rustler. The next thing I knew, I was being gagged and dragged away. Amy’s yelling could be heard in the distant background. They took me to their camp, and I stayed there until nightfall with no sign of Amy or Texas Jim. Just as I was sure I would be stuck there forever, I heard a familiar voice. But it was who I thought it was, then why was he dumb enough to be sneaking around the rustler’s camp at night? I glanced nervously at the sleeping rustlers hoping they’d stay that way.
“I’m here to bust you out kid.” Said Texas Jim.
“What about Jed, your horse?” I asked.
“Ah, Jed’s fine…brought him back to my camp with me before I went and got you. Found the critter wandering around near the water.”
“Uh, who exactly were those men, anyway? They looked like cattle rustlers to me. “
“Yeah those were rustlers. Been causin’ trouble in these parts for years. You know, you’re right smart for a kid your age. You know that?”
I smiled because I didn’t have the energy to say anything else. In no time, he had me untied and we were heading back toward the water. Soon we reached Jim’s camp and Amy was there. She ran up excitedly to greet me.”
“I was so scared!”
“Yeah, me too.” I agreed. In the morning, Texas Jim did something with the time machine, and suddenly it was spinning again. Only this time, I was inside it with Amy. Before we knew it, we were exactly where we had been, in the school’s field.
“Wow! That was cool!” Amy said.
“Yeah!” I agreed. The bell rang, and it was time to go back to class. We quickly hid the time machine in the woods, and then ran back to class. Our adventures were over for now, but I was sure we had many coming up in the near future.
