Trapped!

The cards...

Characters: The time traveler visiting from 1888 and the mischievous children.

Setting: The diner shortly after 4:00 AM.

Problem: Trapped!

Resolution: A statue was built in their honor.

The story...

It was a little after four in the morning at the Southside Diner and the mischievous children were plotting their next move. All of them had sneaked out of their houses earlier that night. What else would you expect from a bunch of carefree fifteen year olds in the middle of summer. Boredom had set in and they were desperately trying to be adults.

Trying to look cool sipping the coffees they had ordered and not gag on the taste, they were trying to come up with what to do next. They had already spent the night ghost knocking on neighborhood doors, t.p.-ing other kids houses and getting kicked out of all the cool places because they were too young. They were also starting to get tired. Of course they wouldn’t admit to anyone. Including themselves.

So they drank nasty coffee and argued with each other, glad that they weren’t actually doing something, when...

BOOM!!!!!

There was a flash of light along with a thunderous sound and everybody hit the deck. The waitress immediately assumed that the mischievous kids had done something and rushed over to give them the what for and finally kick them out.

Sputtering up to the kids the waitress bumped into a man standing near the table.

"Excuse me sir" she said, "I have to get rid of these kids."

"Eh, what?" he said, looking bewildered.

The waitress turned to explain and actually looked at him. He was extremely bedraggled, covered in soot and standing in a shallow, burned depression in the carpet on the floor. She had not seen him before and knew he had not come in the front door because she had been sitting at the register for the last half an hour doing her nails. Panicking, she screamed in alarm and ran to get the cook.

"Cool!" said the kids in unison as they stared at the man and watched random sparks crackle off of him as the dust settled. "Who are you?"

"I am Artimus Sassafrass, the worlds premier physicist" he proclaimed proudly "and where might I be?"

"Uh, the Southside Diner" replied one of the kids.

"Why, yes, of course" he said indignantly "I mean, what year might I be in?"

"Uh, 2007?" said a different kid, still a little stunned that a man had just suddenly popped into diner right next to their table.

"2007" said the man. "Hmm... my temporal translocator’s time space continuum calibration seems to be off by a percentage or two." "I was expecting to advance exactly one hundred years into the future." "I seem to have overshot by a bit."

"This is New York City, is it not?" he asked.

"Uh, yep" said another kid.

"Not much in the vocabulary department are you boys?" said Artimus.

"How did you get here?" asked a boy who seemed to be finally recovering from the shock of a stranger appearing right beside them.

"Why I used my temporal translocator," Artimus huffed, "weren’t you paying attention?"

"Uh, what’s that?" a boy asked.

"Back to the uh’s again I see" sighed Artimus. "Well, it is a machine that alters the time space continuum allowing a person to change his location on the temporal plane." "I’m quite proud of it, with the exception of the slight error in timeline placement, I am very happy with its initial test!"

"Uh?" "What?" somebody said.

"I’ve built a bloody time machine you fools, don’t you understand anything!" "Children these days, what to they give you for education anyway?" Aritmus snorted.

"Uh, we’re on summer break" the boy replied.

"Oh, never mind!" Artrimus huffed, "I’ll be going now." And with that he began turning knobs and pushing buttons on what looked like a large calculator that the boys noticed he had been holding all along.

After a few moments of frantic knob turning and button pushing Artimus was obviously panicked. "Oh my, the external activator link to the temporal translocator appears to be nonfunctioning!" "I can not activate my return sequence." He said worriedly.

"Uh, what?"

"His remote control is broken and he can’t work the time machine you dolt!" said another boy, "He’s stuck here!"

"Precisely, if not inelegantly put" said Artimus. "I’m afraid I am trapped in this current temporal existence."

"You mean you can’t get back?" a boy asked.

"Not unless I can repair my external activator" said Artimus "It is built from components I handmade myself, I will have to spend years re-creating my lab so I can make new ones to replace the broken ones." "And I was due to be married next week..." he sobbed.

"What do these components do?" a boy asked.

"They change the physical properties of an energy source known as electricity and regulate the manner in which it flows through various circuits in order to achieve different outcomes." "I’m sure it is hopeless, I’ll never get back to 1888 anytime soon" Artimus sniffed.

"I’m not sure exactly what you just said, but I may know of a way to help" piped up the last boy. "My dad is an engineer and buys stuff at Radio Shack for things he works on in his workshop." "Maybe they have something you can use."

"What is this Radio Shack?" "And where can I find one?" Artimus asked.

"There’s one about three blocks down" the boy replied.

Artimus shouted "Let’s go!"

And off they went. The waitress glad to see them go, but not looking forward to trying to clean the singed carpet and soot Artimus left behind. The cook had been trying to report the incident to the police when they left and hung up in frustration after being on hold for five minutes. "Sure, I forget my turn-signal one time and..." "Bam!" " A cop is right there to give me a fifty dollar ticket, but try to call them when you need them and you get put on hold listening to ‘The Girl From Impanema’ for five minutes!" "Sheesh!" He muttered under his breath as he wiped his brow and went back to the kitchen.

When Artimus and the mischievous kids made it to the Radio Shack it was closed. It was about four thirty in the morning after all, what did they expect.

Wondering what to do until the store opened at nine the group began to mill around like lost sheep. "Maybe we could go to my house and see if my dad has anything you need while we are waiting for the store to open." Said the boy who had started this trip. "At least it’s something to do."

So off they went to the boys house, promising along the way to be very quiet and not wake up his parents. No one wanted to get in trouble.

Artimus was amazed at the components and equipment the boy’s father had. He pranced around gleefully, marveling at the various wonders and trying to figure out how they worked and what they did.

After an hour or so, when the boys initial excitement had faded to shear boredom, Artimus declared his remote control repaired. He had found many ways to improve his external activator using the new components and was excited to get back and improve the temporal translocator itself. He was sure he could fix the time line error he had encountered and reduce the machines power requirements as well. The excitement was contagious and gave the tired boys a new surge of energy.

Deciding that he needed to exactly reverse the process to maximize his chances of getting back at the right time, they headed back to the Southside Diner.

They rushed in past the waitress (who was putting another coat on her nails) and back to the booth where it had all started. Artimus quickly readied his external activator and thanked the mischievous kids for their help. After a few quickly mumbled good-byes from the boys, Artimus was off with a huge bang and a flash of light.

As the crackling sparks died away and the dust settled the waitress and the cook ran up yelling "What have you boys done here?" "I’m calling the police!" Screamed the cook.

By fluke of fate there happened to be a cop when you needed one. An officer on the night shift had decided to stop at the diner on his way home to bed and had seen the whole thing through the window as he was walking up. He ran up to the scene and asked "What is going on here?" "What have you boys done?" "Hey, didn’t I see you kids earlier near a house that had been toilet papered."

After many attempts at explanation the officer called all the boys parents and asked them to pick up their kids at the diner. Set by set the parents showed up and hauled their forlorn children home after promising to pay equal shares of the damage done to the diner. Nobody was happy.

Until about two weeks later. Arimus Sassafrass was on the evening news. He had materialized in the Pentagon and caused quite a furor. It turns out that by examining the futuristic (to him) components he had taken when he fixed his external activator he was able to significantly improve his temporal translocator. Artimus had been secretly making trips back and forth in time buying more components from Radio Shack and using them in his machine. Now he wanted to ensure that it would not be used inappropriately and decided to give it to the government.

One of the advantages of being from 1888 was that Artimus was still naïve enough to believe that the government was likely to do the right thing. He would later be greatly disappointed. In the mean time he gave credit to the boys for helping him out and they became heroes overnight.

A few weeks later still, a statue of Artimus and the boys was erected outside the diner to commemorate the spot where not only was history made, but history was forever changed.

Many times. By many people. Often badly. But that’s another story.