An FWA Story by Harry Wright and Jack Harrison
-----
One man is walking slowly along a city path, his shadow is cast on every building as he passes every street light. It is the early morning and the road is quiet, as the man walks past an empty car park a sudden wind picks up, litter begins to circle the centre of the car park. A strange blue glow gradually builds up, fading in from nowhere. The man who has passed the car park continues on his way unaware of the strange happenings. Inside the blue glow a metal frame appears shaking violently, the shaking slows and the glow fades away. The frame is the covered in wires and circuit boards, in the centre a young man is sitting in a small chair. Slowly the man stands, he disorientated and stumbles as he climbs through the mass of multicoloured wires. The man is wearing a navy fleece and brown jeans, he has short black hair and blue eyes. The man starts walking around the area, familiarising himself with his surroundings. He was quickly found a clock and discovered that the time was four am, the next task was to find the date at which he had arrived. The man spotted a young woman walking down the street towards him and ran towards her. The woman clearly scared backed away from him.
“Hello, I'm not going to harm you” the man said, trying to reassure her “my name is James.”
“H-hello” stuttered the woman, “what is it that you want.”
“I need to know the date” James replied quickly.
“It's the third of July” stated the woman.
“What year?” asked James.
As soon as the woman stated that the year, James ran off into the distance and she let out a sigh of relief. James quickly made his way to the car park where he had arrived, as he now knew that his invention had worked. He was in the past. As he ran through the city streets the sun began to rise, and a few raindrops started falling. When he arrived at his destination James was devastated to find sparks flying from his time machine and smoke rising from the centre of one of the circuit boards.
Later that day shops around the city began to open and after spending the morning so far on a park bench James started exploring the city. In his time people travel mainly by walking or public transport, so James was surprised to find so many individual cars on the roads, he spent a long time wondering how to make his way across the torrent of vehicles before seeing someone using a crossing and following their example. After crossing the road James made his way into an electronics store, as he browsed the shelves for the components he required to repair his invention he was stopped by a shop assistant.
“Can I help you?” inquired the assistant.
As he detailed his requirements to the shop assistant, from the confused expression on his face James knew returning to his own time would be more difficult than anticipated.
James sighed. He had no idea what to do, so headed out of the shop, leaving the stunned shop assistant standing there.
He felt sad. He was trapped in the past. 2009 was such a weird time. They still had cars with wheels! This was crazy. His time machine was broken and he had no way of getting home.
And then the woman he’d seen earlier appeared. She starred at him.
“Are you ok?” She asked.
James looked up. “No.” He said.
“Why? What is up?”
James shrugged.
The girl moved closer. “I’m sorry. You don’t even know my name. I’m Kelly.”
“Wow, that’s an old fashioned name.” James said.
Kelly frowned. “Not as old as James!”
James laughed. “That’s not my real name anyway. It’s Jameshin”
Kelly laughed. “That’s a weird name.”
James laughed. “Maybe for your time zone.”
“What do you mean by that?”
James shook his head. “Doesn’t matter. You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
“Oh gosh.” Kelly sighed. “My mate Shareen is like that. I’ll see her and she will say something’s wrong and I’ll be like ‘What’s up?’ and she goes ‘You don’t want to know.’ And then I think...why bother telling me?”
James was laughing. “Are you what they call a ‘Chav’?”
“Nah! Of course not. I’m posh.” Kelly laughed. “Now. Are you gunna tell me what you were going on about?”
James sighed. “I’m from the future.”
Kelly hadn’t believed it, and James was not surprised. But Kelly had continued to listen.
He took her back to the carpark and they saw time machine.
“Oh my God!” Kelly beamed. “Are you’re a Time lord?”
James laughed. “No. I’m not. I’m human. And I was testing this time machine they’ve just invented in my time.”
“When is your time?” Kelly asked carefully.
“I’m from the 32nd century.”
“Wow!” Kelly screamed. “That’s soooo cool.”
James nodded. “It is, I suppose. But to come back here is pretty amazing.”
“I’d love to see the future!” Kelly said, ignoring James. “Do you still have New Look?”
“Yes,” James said, “But it’s called Old Look now.”
“Do you still have EastEnder’s?”
James shook his head. “No, that finished well before my time. The Square went into melt down after Ian Beale bought a washing machine.”
“Oh no!” Kelly said. “That’s hilarious. Did Katie and Peter get back together?”
“Yes.” James said. “They are. I went to their wedding.”
“What? Surely they’d be dead by your time?”
“They should be. But they’re alive.”
“What!” Kelly said, narrowing her eyes. “That’s impossible.”
And then James noticed her bag. It had Winnie the Pooh on it.
“Walt Disney is still alive too.”
Then Kelly’s mouth dropped open.
“It works?” She asked. “Freezing people works?”
“Yep.” James said. “Cryogenically Frozen. Walt Disney, Katie and Peter, Ant. Dec melted though.”
“I can’t believe it works.” Kelly said. “My uncle is the professor in charge of it!”
“No way!” James said. And then it came to him. “Do you think he can get me frozen?”
“It costs a lot.” Kelly said, “But if you have the money, I don’t see why not.”
“Ah.” James said, and shot her a wide grin.
Professor Dickson was sitting at his desk, listening to the news on the radio. It had just reported that a bank had been broken into and that all the money had been stolen. He sighed, and continued on with his work. He had just authorised Frau Jones to be frozen so that the world could still put up with her eye in the future.
His niece knocked on the door.
“Uncle!” Kelly cried as she ran in.
“Kelly?” He said, and he saw James follow her in.
They told them him all about James coming from the future. He didn’t believe them, but he agreed to freeze James.
Dickson crossed Cilla off the list, and put James in her place.
He opened the chamber. It was icy cold. James looked at Kelly.
“Thanks.” He said.
“You’re welcome.” Kelly smiled. “I’ll shut the door.”
And as Kelly shut the door, she tripped. And fell in. She turned to get back out, but the door locked shut. She banged on it, but her uncle was no where. She turned to look at James...
...and James looked back at her. The door was opened. “Welcome to the Year 3,109!” Said a voice.
Kelly stepped out. James followed. He was home!
“Take me back!!” Kelly shouted. “I want to go home!”
“You can’t.” James said, sadly.
Kelly cried.
Katie Price was standing over by the door. She ran over.
“Don’t worry. Pete is releasing Mysterious Girl again, so you won’t feel home sick.”
And that was enough for both Kelly and James. James grabbed Kelly’s hand and the pair ran out of the building.
They left the hospital and dashed down a street.
James dragged Kelly to a shop named called Time Machines R Us. They raced inside and bought the first time machine.
Finally, Kelly stepped out back into 21st century London, with James by her side.
“I think the past is better.” Kelly laughed. And James agreed.
They walked down the street together, holding hands.
0 comments:
Post a Comment