Chereads / A Time To Remember / Chapter 3 - The Machine

Chapter 3 - The Machine

Alex snapped out of his thoughts after he heard a loud bang from the basement. He made his way to the door leading to the basement. While slowly creaking open the door, he grabbed his dark metal baseball bat. He silently put one foot in front of the other. On the tips of his toes until he felt the cold cement floor touching his bare feet. When he reached the bottom of the stairs Alex sees a weird unknown shape. Alex turns on the light and sees it is a small, metal two seater, in faded blue letters had the words "Time Machine" on the face of it. It looked like a toddler could fit in it.

A frown formed on his face thinking it was one of Lucas's old toys, but right when Alex was about to turn off the lights and leave he takes a closer look at it. Somehow ending up in the machine he starts to pretend he is going to Germany in November 1900s, when World War II broke out, him and Lucas used to love playing pretend, But all of a sudden a green flash of light blinded Alex and big gusts of winds started to blow out of nowhere and the machine started to spin faster and faster, until everything went dark.

Alex's eyes slowly opening, waking up with a painful sensation in the back of his head, not knowing what had just happened. Alex unsteadily gets up feeling dizzy, he feels a sheering pain in the back of his head and touches it to feel a gooey warm substance, taking a look at his fingers covered in red. "...blood" he whispered to himself, almost fainting again he holds himself up and looks at his surroundings. There are mainly trees and a small village of people. Alex looks around some more, but the toy he was just sitting in is nowhere in signt. "Are you okay? that's quite the gash you have on your head.'' a voice asks, he sees a slender shadow next to him.

Alex looks behind him to see a young girl looks around 15 years old, sparkling brown eyes, dark black hair tied up in a braid, wearing a bonnet, and a white old fashioned dress with brown buttons stopping at her black long skirt leading down to her ankles, dangling over her shiny black shoes, with a wide greeting smile spread across her face. "Um. I think so", Alex replied unsure as to what is happening, staring at her with a confused look on his face. "I'm Judy. And you are?" she said in an eager voice. "I'm... A-alex " he said still in confusion "Oh, I like that name" she said in a giddy voice. Alex looks down to see himself not wearing his blue shirt and sweatpants, but a dirty old fashioned white shirt with suspenders, but no shoes. "Where am I?" Alex said  "This is Heidelberg" stated Judy looking at Alex who still had a confused glazed over look on his face." You know. Germany." she said expecting Alex to understand. ''Wait. What.. year is it?" Alex said hesitantly, hoping for an answer that would calm him down before he went into total shock. "Wow, you must've hit your head harder than I thought.", she said giggling under her breath. "It's 1940." She replied

"To late," he thought to himself with nothing but a blank look spread across his face. "Um are you ok?" Judy asked with concern in her voice. "This is a joke right?. Okay, where are the hidden cameras." Alex demanded with hope in his desperate eyes. "What are "hidden cameras"?" Judy asked puzzled. "Oh, Ha I get it. Thats a funny joke" Alex said, But right when Alex was about to confront her, He saw all of these old cars driving by.

These cars were something that Alex saw in a text book once in social studies class. One was a Dodge, not the kind you would see everyday driving by outside of someone's house, but a classic jet black, with a white top, and white rims, honking with that old fashioned horn that someone would probably find in there phone ringtones.

When that car had passed Alex's point of view he saw a few white bricked houses, with long  wooden brown roofs, making a triangular shaped tops, some having mostly chimneys, and a few windows here and there. Instead of black paved cement roads he saw dirt trails, and finally what really made Alex believe this was a setup was when he saw beyond the noisy village, was nothing, but fields and forests, where his house and parent's cars should've been.

"How could anyone have hidden a whole neighborhood from him? and how could so many people be in on it?" he thought, losing his suspicion as he slowly turned back at Judy. "This can't be a dream." Alex thought disappointingly. "And I have a gash in the back of my head to prove it. Ok don't freak out Alex." He thinks to himself while taking a deep breath. "Ok so I'm guessing that the toy I was in.. was an actual time machine". Alex takes another deep breath thinking how crazy he sounds to himself right now. "All I have to do is find another one. Right?" he said unsure if he can even find another time machine, considering he's in a time where microwaves weren't even invented yet.

"Hey Alex, I want you to meet my friends. Come on!" shouting while she was running and looking back at Alex, not noticing the people in front of her, then a low "Oof" was the only thing that came out of Judy's mouth before her small body had quickly hit the ground hard enough for Alex to hear a loud THUD. Alex looked down to see Judy's bonnet laying on the ground in front of his bare feet. With one quick motion Alex's eyes shoot up to see who it is "Judy! Are you okay?" Another voice asked with concern. "Yeah. I'm fine" Judy says pushing herself up and dusting herself off like it was nothing.

Judy looks up at them with a reassuring smile " Really, I'm fine." She darts her sight to Alex "Um, Alex could you?" She says referring to the bonnet in front of him. Alex quickly reaches out to pick it up, and hands it to Judy. Before she could thank him, a young boy's voice interrupts sarcastically " Judy, care to introduce us?" "Oh, yes. Of course. This is Alex, I just found him passed out in front of the old oak tree, looked like he got hit in the back of the head with a rock or something. Alex, these are my friends, the rude one over there is Noah, and the twins, Hannah and Faye". "Hello,'' Alex said as saw them he noticed that the twins looked exactly the same, both with light crystal blue eyes, Light brown hair, wearing baby blue dresses, with white aprons.

Something caught Alex's eyes though, both had dark velvet blue ribbons outlined with gold tied into their hair. "these were our mother's, it's our family arlum she gave it to us passed done by her mother." Faye said with pride in her voice, then Faye's smile disappeared and turned into a frown. " When.. she died from a very bad fever." then at that moment Hannah grabbed her hand in sympathy, with a reassuring smile , letting her know that their mother is in a better place.