“Stop!” She said as she was about to hand me the keys to the time machine.
“What?” I whined.
“I want you to know what you’re doing first. Have you gone through all the checks? Have you taken your chrono-suppressors? Are you wearing anything asynchronous? Did you fill up your torch?”
“Come on, mom, of course I’ve done all the checks. I’m not dumb. I don’t want a ticket. You know I did real well in class. We’re just going up time a few centuries for a walk. It’s no big deal.”
“Don’t you give me any lip, boy.” She said and pulled the keys back from my outstretched tentacle and my poor four fingers grasped at the air.
“I’m sorry, Mum. I didn’t mean to mouth off.” I said, truly terrified that I wouldn’t be able to take my first drive in the family time machine.
“This is a very powerful machine and I want you to respect it, okay?”
“Okay. Yes, for sure.”
She gave me that piercing look, searching my face for any of that attitude I’d been trying so hard to iron out, but that keep coming back and rearing its ugly head. I did my best impression of innocence. But she didn’t make a move to give the keys to me.
I whined, “Mom, I’m coming on. I can feel the suppressors working, we gotta go.”
She sighed, rolled her eyes, and handed me the keys. The jingled so sweetly. I smiled broadly, but not too broadly. I opened the passenger side door for her and bowed. I could feel her glare through the back of my head. I closed the door, carefully, and got into the driver’s seat.
I checked the mirrors, the chronometers, the fuel gauge, synched up my panopticon, and turned around to give my mom two enthusiastic tentacles up. She nodded back and smiled a little. She must have gone through the same thing with her parent.
I really could feel the suppressors working. They keep your internal chrono field from freaking out when you hit the button, but they also make you really relaxed as they disengage all your sense of time. Your body is fooled into thinking it’s tired and has gotten plenty of sleep at the same time. A little messy, but time travel was impossible without it, your body just acted like an anchor and you couldn’t go anywhere.
I dialed in the 3500’s, a good practice century. I grabbed the handle bars and looked back over my shoulder at mom one last time just to get that nod of approval. She did and I turned back around. I gently pushed forward on the bar and we popped out of time.
“What?” I whined.
“I want you to know what you’re doing first. Have you gone through all the checks? Have you taken your chrono-suppressors? Are you wearing anything asynchronous? Did you fill up your torch?”
“Come on, mom, of course I’ve done all the checks. I’m not dumb. I don’t want a ticket. You know I did real well in class. We’re just going up time a few centuries for a walk. It’s no big deal.”
“Don’t you give me any lip, boy.” She said and pulled the keys back from my outstretched tentacle and my poor four fingers grasped at the air.
“I’m sorry, Mum. I didn’t mean to mouth off.” I said, truly terrified that I wouldn’t be able to take my first drive in the family time machine.
“This is a very powerful machine and I want you to respect it, okay?”
“Okay. Yes, for sure.”
She gave me that piercing look, searching my face for any of that attitude I’d been trying so hard to iron out, but that keep coming back and rearing its ugly head. I did my best impression of innocence. But she didn’t make a move to give the keys to me.
I whined, “Mom, I’m coming on. I can feel the suppressors working, we gotta go.”
She sighed, rolled her eyes, and handed me the keys. The jingled so sweetly. I smiled broadly, but not too broadly. I opened the passenger side door for her and bowed. I could feel her glare through the back of my head. I closed the door, carefully, and got into the driver’s seat.
I checked the mirrors, the chronometers, the fuel gauge, synched up my panopticon, and turned around to give my mom two enthusiastic tentacles up. She nodded back and smiled a little. She must have gone through the same thing with her parent.
I really could feel the suppressors working. They keep your internal chrono field from freaking out when you hit the button, but they also make you really relaxed as they disengage all your sense of time. Your body is fooled into thinking it’s tired and has gotten plenty of sleep at the same time. A little messy, but time travel was impossible without it, your body just acted like an anchor and you couldn’t go anywhere.
I dialed in the 3500’s, a good practice century. I grabbed the handle bars and looked back over my shoulder at mom one last time just to get that nod of approval. She did and I turned back around. I gently pushed forward on the bar and we popped out of time.
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