ELMO’S INVENTION IX

ELMO’S TIME MACHINE

Not long after his last visit, he stopped by Brooker’s farm after work. 

“How you doing, Elmo?”  He shouted as he exited one of his coops. 

“Not bad,” Elmo responded.  “Not bad.”

Brooker said, “I guess you come for more chicks.  Got to tell you, son, this deal is saving me money on feed and such.  Hope we can keep it going for a long time.”

Elmo thought about all the effort he put into constructing his machine, and all the grief he endured to find its purpose, and it all came down to raising chickens.  He tried to mask his feelings and said, “It’s a pretty good deal, Brooker.  A pretty good deal.”

Elmo accepted six chicks and made his way home, his heart full of failure wondering what went wrong.  He arrived home, still in a funk, and Mildred met him at the door.  She was all smiles.  “Elmo, it looks like we’ll be getting a free chicken soon.”

Elmo gave his wife a wistful smile and went downstairs to his cellar lab.  He loaded the chicks into his machine, set the length of time of aging to one year and the duration for one minute, and then pushed the button that would start the process.  He stepped back, expecting the chamber to fill with mist and eventually see mature chickens, but nothing happened.

“Now what?” Elmo shouted in disbelief.

Not only had his time machine been reduced to raising chickens, now it wouldn’t work.  He removed the chicks and went to get his wiring diagrams.  Unscrewing a steel plate to gain access to the workings of the machine, he carefully began to probe searching for a fault.

After a short period of time he muttered, “Aha.”  He had found a disconnected wire and immediately knew that must be the problem.

Elmo referred to his wiring diagram, and then back to the wire.  He saw where the connection should be made, but to his surprise, that connection had never been completed.  The wire had been soldered to a place it should not have been.  His mind raced.  Could this be why the invention did not fulfill its purpose?  Elmo made the repair, reattached the panel and retrieved the chicks.

Elmo’s thoughts went wild as he placed the chicks in the chamber; reset the length of time to one year and the duration to one minute.

He pushed the start button.

The chamber filled with mist, and the quickly dissipated.  The chicks were gone.  A short time later they reappeared with no apparent change in age.

Elmo jumped for joy, shouting, “It works!  It works!”

He next shouted, “Mildred, come quick!” 

Mildred heard his initial exclamation.  After Elmo beckoned her, she started for the cellar with great apprehension.  Sometimes things went terribly wrong down there.  She flashed back to her mother’s tea cups, wondering where they were now and if they still existed.  She never knew what to expect at all when she was summoned down to Elmo’s lab.  But she love Elmo and wanted to give him all the support she could – within reason.

When entering the cellar, Mildred found Elmo peering into his iron lung device.  He turned and said to her, “Doll, it works, I think.  It finally, really works.”

It was the ‘I think, that bothered Mildred.

“Watch”, he said to Mildred and repeated the experiment.  Once again the chicks disappeared in a cloud and then reappeared in another white haze.

Milder muttered, “At least the chicks returned, unlike my tea cups.”

Elmo then related to his wife about the loose wire, his reference to the wiring diagram and his mistake in constructing his machine.

Mildred asked, “Is that the end of our free chickens”

The question caused Elmo to chuckle realizing his wife’s priorities, so much different from his own.

“I’m afraid so, my dear.  But this is more important than chickens.

“Your teacups were part of a different experiment.  The reason I called you down is to see if my experiment worked, to see if the chicks actually traveled in time.”

“Well, Elmo, how are you going to do that?”

After removing the chicks from the chamber, Elmo pushed a small stepstool in front of the iron lung.

Mildred said, “You’re not going to do what I think you’re going to do.”

“There is only one way, Doll, that I can think of to know if it really works.  A person must be transported into the future and return and report on the experience.’

“I need your help.  All the parameters are set.  All you need to do is push this button to initiate the process.’

Mildred knew there would be no living with Elmo if she didn’t help, and if she didn’t help he would just get someone else.  She mumbled, “All right, Elmo, but it’s the return part I’m worried about.”  She added, “Remember the tea cups.  What happens if you don’t come back?”

Before he closed the lid to the chamber, Elmo said, “That was a totally different type of experiment.  But remember that every experiment has an element of uncertainty.  That’s why they are called experiments.

“I have to know if my machine works, and I’m almost positive that it does.  I need to do this to confirm that it does.”

With that Elmo closed the lid and indicated to Mildred to push the button.  The chamber filled with a heavy white mist, and when it cleared Elmo was gone.  After five minutes it once again filled with the blanketing mist.  Once the chambered cleared, and much to Mildred’s delight, there laid Elmo with a huge grin on his face. He pushed open the lid and shouted, “It works!  It works!”  After all the hard work, disappointment and failure, his time machine finally worked.

“Mildred, I was talking to you fifteen minutes into the future down here in the cellar.”

“How can you know it was in the future, Elmo?”

“Well, for one thing, you don’t remember me talking to you since I entered the chamber.”

“You’re talking to me now, Elmo.”

“Well yes, but something happened while we were talking that will confirm my knowledge of the future.”  Elmo waited another few moments and said, “Your roast is burning.”

Seconds later the first odors of burning roast filtered down to the cellar.

“Elmo, why didn’t you tell me earlier?  I could have saved the roast.”

“And I would have changed the future.”

Mildred hurried up stairs in a huff.  Seconds later there came a crash from the kitchen.

He said quietly, “And you’re going to burn your fingers and drop the roast.  I forgot to mention that part.”

Elmo was anxious to share the fact that his time machine finally worked with someone in the scientific community.  He immediately thought of notifying the Tinkerers Club, but that idea did not last long.  The last time he consulted the club it ended in disaster when someone leaked the events of the meeting.  The only tinkerer he trusted was Kingsley Dasher, and that’s who he would contact.