Kids Short Story – Eliza and the Machine : The prequel
Photo credit: mconnors from morguefile.com
Sweating profusely, Eliza Gerland woke in a panic. It was the third night in a row she had dreamt the same exact dream. It always began with a couple stepping out of a large chrome box into a land of the past. However, the couple’s faces were never clearly visible. As they stepped out onto the dirt ground, there was an explosion coming from the chrome box behind them. There were a few brief seconds of bloodcurdling screams before Eliza woke up. The dream was never truly completed, Eliza always seemed to wake up after the screaming. She couldn’t understand why she kept having these nightmares, it made no sense. Trying to erase the dream from her mind, she dove out of bed to get dressed. It was her last day of high school and she was beyond ready for summer.
“Breakfast is ready and on the table, sweetie.” Eliza’s sweet Aunt Stephanie called from the kitchen.
“Last day finally!” Eliza exclaimed as she sat down to eat.
“It’s hard to believe you’re graduating high school already. It seems just like yesterday that you came to live with us. Your parents would be so proud.”
Glancing up at her aunt, Eliza gave a quick subtle smile without saying a word. She looked down at her plate and continued to eat her breakfast. Thinking about her parents this close to graduation made her sad. Although she never truly knew them that well, she felt as close to them as ever and missed them terribly.
As soon as Eliza had finished getting ready for school, she ran downstairs to jump in her car. She was ready for her last day! As usual, she swung by Carrie Henkins’ house to pick her up. Little did they know this was going to be a day that changed their lives.
School was as normal as it always was, same boring classes and same monotone teachers. Nothing out of the ordinary happened at school that day, nothing at all. When the bell rang, students were running out to their cars heading towards the lake for their first summer hangout. As Eliza and Carrie got into Eliza’s car, Eliza’s phone rang.
“Hey Aunt Steph! Carrie and I are about to leave for the lake! I’ll see you at dinner tonight!”
“Sweetie, I’m sorry but I really need your help with something. I am stuck at work and need something out of the attic. Would you mind bringing it to my office? Then you are free to go to the lake with your friends! Carrie may come with you if you would like!”
Eliza loved her aunt, but one thing she hated was when Aunt Stephanie would make her do things like this, especially when she already had plans.
“Yes, ma’am. We are on our way to the house now.”
“Sorry, Carrie. It will only take a few minutes.”
As soon as they got to Aunt Steph and Uncle Jim’s house, they darted inside and went straight to the attic. They wanted to get this done as fast as possible so they could enjoy the sunny day at the lake.
“She needs a brown file folder labeled ‘Contacts and Addresses’. It should be here somewhere.”
They searched the attic for what seemed like days, before they came across a blue cardboard file box. Thinking the file may be in there, Carrie opened it up. There were tons of blueprints. All blueprints. Then, at the bottom of the box there was a note written to Stephanie from Eliza’s mother.
“Ummm Liz…” Carrie said softly. “I found a letter from your mom.”
Eliza glanced over at the note Carrie was holding and at the box she was sitting by. Quickly, Eliza ran over to Carrie and snatched the note from her hands.
Dear Steph,
Tom and I have decided to try out the machine. We are going to go back in time. However, we aren’t quite positive on which time period yet. We will see you when we get back! Hope all is well with you and Jim! Take care!
Your loving sister,
Carla
Attached to the note was a long list of time periods that Tom and Carla planned on traveling to. They appeared to be in the order of which they were going to visit. “A time machine?!?! My parents built a time machine! Let me see those blueprints!” Eliza’s mind was racing. Could her parents really have built the world’s first time machine? How did no one know about this? Had Aunt Steph known this the whole time? Why did no one tell her? And then, a question came to her that made her sick to her stomach. Was she lied to about her parents’ death? Did they actually die in a “car accident”? Or were they still out there somewhere, stuck somewhere in the past or the future?
Utter silence. All one could hear in that attic at that moment was the wind blowing from the outside, banging against the old wooden walls. Carrie couldn’t find the words to say to Eliza, as she sat there in complete shock. Hours passed as they sat there staring at that note and those blueprints. They had completely forgotten about the lake, about summer, about the file her aunt needed, about everything. That moment right then was about to change Eliza’s life forever.
By six thirty Carrie had to leave to get home for dinner. Eliza dropped her off and drove back home to wait on Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Jim to get home from work. She had some things to ask them regarding that box.
As soon as her aunt and uncle walked in the door, she ran to them bombarding them with questions.
“What is that blue file box upstairs? What are those blueprints for? What is the story behind that note from my mom? Did you two lie to me about my parents’ death? Tell me everything!” Eliza was hysterical. Sobbing, she handed Aunt Stephanie the letter she had found in the attic.
Uncle Jim and Aunt Stephanie looked at each other. They were definitely not expecting this.
“Sweetie, we didn’t know the right time to tell you…” Aunt Stephanie started.
“Tell me what? Tell me now!” Eliza screamed, cutting her off.
“Your parents loved to build things. They always had. They had been working on building a time machine for years, since before you were even born. When you were only two years old, they finally completed it…”
Eliza was speechless. Her whole life had been a lie. How could her aunt and uncle do this to her?
“Your mother wrote me that note the day that they decided to try it out. That was the last I heard from her,” Aunt Steph whispered softly.
“So you both lied to me? My parents are not dead! They are still out there right now, stuck in some random time period?!” Eliza screamed hysterically.
“ We kept the machine around for months, waiting on their return. Nothing happened. No one came back. Eventually, we had the machine moved to a storage unit a few miles down the road. A few years later, we had it destroyed,” Jim explained.
“Destroyed!!! You had their machine destroyed?! We can still find them with that machine! What were you thinking?” Eliza was so upset she could barely speak. Tears streamed down her face as she was yelling at her defenseless aunt. “She was YOUR sister, Aunt Stephanie! How could you destroy her only way to get back to us?”
“It had been five years since they had left, Liz. It was time to get rid of it so that no one could find it and try to use it. It wasn’t safe.”
Eliza had had enough. Sobbing, she stormed upstairs to her bedroom and slapped the door. She laid down to sleep but her mind was racing like crazy. After hours of laying there motionless, she tiptoed to the sound proof attic on the third floor. She wanted to go through the box again because she had an outrageous, ridiculous, wonderful idea.
Digging into the box, she lugged out pages of blueprints and laid them out in front of her. She was going to figure out how to rebuild this time machine, if it was the last thing she did.
Her uncle had a tool space in the attic, where he kept all of his tools and scrap metal. This is where she started to build the machine. Following the blueprints, she began to build the floor of the contraption. The floor was the easiest blueprint to follow because of the simplicity of the instructions. However, after she had finished that, it got much harder.
Every night, after her aunt and uncle went to bed, she would start on the time machine again, following each blueprint and building it from top to bottom. This was how she spent her summer, all one hundred and four days. She was determined to finish that machine and go out to find her parents. By July she had finished most of the machine, except the engine. She had to figure out which wires connected to each other and what each button operated. The problem was that those instructions weren’t in the box. She had to figure it out for herself.
Observing each wire very carefully, Eliza decided to try to connect the red wires with the yellow wires and the blue wires with the green. Shaking, she reached out to press the button that looked like the power switch. Closing her eyes, she waited on something to happen, anything. However, nothing did. Frustrated and confused she unconnected the wires to switch them around. For the second time, she reached out with her trembling hand to push the power button. To her delight, she heard the engine begin to turn on and the machine lights lit up. Jumping for joy and dancing around the room, she grabbed a pen and paper from her uncle’s old desk. Swiftly, she jotted down a note to Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Jim, informing them of what she was about to do.
Dear Uncle Jim and Aunt Steph,
You both know that I love you very much. You may not know this, but over the past few months I have been working vigorously on rebuilding my parents’ time machine by following their blueprints. Uncle Jim, you may need to restock your tool room. Anyway, I am going to try to find my parents. I am not sure how long this will take or when I will be back. However, I just want you both to know I will return to you and I love you both with all my heart. I just need to know if my mother and father are out there somewhere. I will see you one day soon.
Your loving niece,
Eliza
After signing the note, she turned around to turn off the machine. Eliza tiptoed downstairs to put the note on the refrigerator in the kitchen. As she walked back up the stairs, she snatched her jacket from the stair rail, thinking she may need it as she time traveled. Once she reached the third floor, she examined the list of time periods her parents has written down. Where should she start? After thirty minutes of contemplating which time period she should visit first, she slipped her jacket on and slowly stepped into the astounding time machine that her parents had designed. She had done it, she had rebuilt their work of art, their incredible contraption. She may finally see her parents for the first time in sixteen years. This could change her life.
Standing in that cold, bright, chrome box, she trembled in fear and excitement. Shaking, she pressed the power button. Within seconds, she heard the engine roar and felt a cold rush of air. The next thing she knew, she was spinning around so quickly that she couldn’t see anything. Seconds later, the machine had stopped spinning. Zipping up her jacket as she was covered in goose bumps she could tell that wherever she had landed was cold. Nervous and anxious, she gently pushed open the door. Her journey of finding her parents started now.
__END__
