“Oh, not again.” June sighed and sat down on the sidewalk, trying to think. She popped up in the wrong decade again. The stupid time machine had already landed her in the wrong time twice, and she had spent around three weeks trying to get out of there each time, suffering through a time that wasn’t hers.
When she first found the machine, her objective was only to go back a few months, to warn her dad of what would happen to him way too soon. He had died at 42, and June was sure he went before he was supposed to. He had so much more that he could have done for the world. She was using the time machine he to go back in time. June remembered how he talked about it, how much his little invention could do for the world. But she also remembered how worried he was about what the time machine could do to the world and how often he had told her that she shouldn’t mess with time unless the universe had made a colossal mistake. June was sure that her dad’s death was the biggest of errors, something that wasn’t supposed to happen at all.
When he had died, her dad had almost finished building it, fixing any little kinks or errors with the device. June’s dad was about to send his patent out and into the world when a drunk driver plowed right over him. Now she was the only one who knew about it and the only one who could fix what had happened, but the machine wasn’t quite working for her. June sighed again and finally looked up to see where she was. In a parking lot, apparently. She got up, dusted off her jeans, and walked out onto the street.
When June looked out at the streets and the people who walked down them, she was surprised to realize that it looked exactly like her time. She thought that the machine hadn’t worked since when she set the time, it went a little haywire and completely changed the numbers she entered into the mechanism as she was sucked in, but surprisingly, this looked exactly like the place she wanted.
It was in the middle of summer, with the sun beating down ferociously. The people were dressed in her time’s clothes, and the shops looked like the ones from her time. A Chick-fil-A over there, a Starbucks over here, and outside a familiar-looking bubble tea store, the specials were written on a little chalkboard with the date at the top corner, July 12th. It was the right day! June pulled her phone from her pocket and checked, she still had data, and the time and date had synced. 2:41, 7/12/2021. She had actually gotten to the correct day! Now she just had to figure out where she was.
June opened up the GPS tracker on her phone and let it load for a second before it beeped and a location popped on the screen. She was only 20 minutes by foot from her house! June was incredibly surprised that the time machine had finally worked and brought her right to the place. The last times, she had been states away, needing to hitchhike and ride buses and subways to return to her neighborhood. Her father hadn’t quite figured out by that point how to time travel from anywhere, so if she wanted to go back to her time, she needed to go back to her house. It hadn’t been easy, and while she did bring some money each time, she didn’t have much to bring on these trips, so she would sometimes have to stop her journey back home, find a job in food service, work a while, then get back on the road. That’s why it took so long.
However, this time, her home was close, and she knew that she could finally fulfill her mission of stopping her father’s death. June was ready.
When she first found the machine, her objective was only to go back a few months, to warn her dad of what would happen to him way too soon. He had died at 42, and June was sure he went before he was supposed to. He had so much more that he could have done for the world. She was using the time machine he to go back in time. June remembered how he talked about it, how much his little invention could do for the world. But she also remembered how worried he was about what the time machine could do to the world and how often he had told her that she shouldn’t mess with time unless the universe had made a colossal mistake. June was sure that her dad’s death was the biggest of errors, something that wasn’t supposed to happen at all.
When he had died, her dad had almost finished building it, fixing any little kinks or errors with the device. June’s dad was about to send his patent out and into the world when a drunk driver plowed right over him. Now she was the only one who knew about it and the only one who could fix what had happened, but the machine wasn’t quite working for her. June sighed again and finally looked up to see where she was. In a parking lot, apparently. She got up, dusted off her jeans, and walked out onto the street.
When June looked out at the streets and the people who walked down them, she was surprised to realize that it looked exactly like her time. She thought that the machine hadn’t worked since when she set the time, it went a little haywire and completely changed the numbers she entered into the mechanism as she was sucked in, but surprisingly, this looked exactly like the place she wanted.
It was in the middle of summer, with the sun beating down ferociously. The people were dressed in her time’s clothes, and the shops looked like the ones from her time. A Chick-fil-A over there, a Starbucks over here, and outside a familiar-looking bubble tea store, the specials were written on a little chalkboard with the date at the top corner, July 12th. It was the right day! June pulled her phone from her pocket and checked, she still had data, and the time and date had synced. 2:41, 7/12/2021. She had actually gotten to the correct day! Now she just had to figure out where she was.
June opened up the GPS tracker on her phone and let it load for a second before it beeped and a location popped on the screen. She was only 20 minutes by foot from her house! June was incredibly surprised that the time machine had finally worked and brought her right to the place. The last times, she had been states away, needing to hitchhike and ride buses and subways to return to her neighborhood. Her father hadn’t quite figured out by that point how to time travel from anywhere, so if she wanted to go back to her time, she needed to go back to her house. It hadn’t been easy, and while she did bring some money each time, she didn’t have much to bring on these trips, so she would sometimes have to stop her journey back home, find a job in food service, work a while, then get back on the road. That’s why it took so long.
However, this time, her home was close, and she knew that she could finally fulfill her mission of stopping her father’s death. June was ready.
