ELMO’S INVENTION, CHAPTER 2

                                                  ELMO’S INVENTION

                                              CHAPTER 2

                               THE BEGINNING OF THE TIME MACHINE

One day after visiting the supermarket, although in those days they weren’t very super, Mildred was pulling her two-wheeled shopping cart down the street and was amazed to see a pickup parked in her driveway.  It was three in the afternoon and four burly men stood behind the truck.  They looked relieved when they saw her approach.  In the bed of the truck was a huge piece of equipment.  Mildred recognized it immediately.  It was an iron lung.

Just recently, the newly developed polio vaccine began distribution on sugar cubes. Gradually iron lungs were no longer needed.  However, Mildred had lived with the fear of polio, knew people who had contracted the disease. Some still depended on the device for their lives to continue. “Where do you want this, lady?” asked the man obviously in charge.

“I don’t want it anywhere,” answered Mildred.  She had no idea why they had brought this to her home.  Then her mind had a flash, Elmo.

“Does an Elmo Baker live here?” the man asked. 

There it was.  Her husband had bought an iron lung.  Shaking her head, Mildred said, “I’m sure it belongs in the cellar.  I’ll show you the way.”

After many grunts and groans, the machine rested on its wheels in the cellar.

 “What could Elmo want with this thing?” pondered Mildred out loud.

Hearing Mildred one of the men said, “I don’t know nothing, lady.  We just deliver.”

The crew went back upstairs and climbed into their truck and left. And Elmo had some explaining to do when he came home from work.