CHAPTER THREE

As the three of you might remember, when I showed you my time machine last week, it was nearly finished. Unfortunately, the following day I realized that one of the metal pieces I needed to attach was too short, and so it had to be re-made. This delayed my experiment nearly a week, so it was not until this morning that I had the opportunity to test it. So, at ten o'clock this morning I finished with all of my preparations and set myself inside the machine.

I placed my hands over both the start and stop buttons. Like a man about to shoot himself with a gun, I sat there wondering what would happen once I took the next step. Feeling a moment of bravery, I pressed the start button and then immediately stopped the machine. During the few seconds the time machine was on, I had a dream-like feeling that I was falling. Looking at the laboratory, nothing seemed to have changed. But then I caught sight of the wall clock. It now read three-thirty! I had just traveled six-and-a-half hours into the future!

Feeling extremely excited, I grabbed hold of the start lever with both hands and pushed it forward as far as I could. Again, I had the feeling that I was falling. Then I saw my cleaning woman come into the laboratory at great speed. She did not seem to notice me there. She cleaned the entire room in just seconds and was gone again. The days were passing faster and faster—day, night, day, night—like someone was repeatedly switching the room lights on and off. But as the machine increased its speed the days started changing so fast that darkness and light, night and day, became one, turning the sky to a constant dark blue.

But then a fear came over me of how fast I was moving. It seemed that at any moment I could run into something and be destroyed. I became worried and thought about stopping the machine, but then this was quickly forgotten, for I saw my laboratory disappear before my eyes. I guessed that it must have been torn down. All around me tall buildings began to appear and disappear, growing larger and larger with each new construction.

I could tell by the changing of the seasons that I was traveling more than a year per minute. My mind was very unclear. I was becoming very tired and even a little mad. I felt that I might never stop the machine from running, for fear of what I might find. But then, seeing how beautiful the world looked, the strong desire returned to stop and explore. However, this was a dangerous matter, because if I stopped in the same place as another object in the future, I could cause a terrible explosion. I had thought about this before, while I was building the machine, but I eventually accepted this as just a risk of scientific exploration.

Immediately, I pulled back the stopping lever. The sudden stop threw me forward out of the machine. I landed several meters away and found myself out in the middle of a terrible rainstorm. It was good to no longer be moving. My head was becoming clearer every second.

Picking myself up off the ground, my clothes becoming wet and heavy from the rain, I took a good look around. I seemed to be in the middle of a beautiful little garden, full of purple and yellow flowers. Over the right wall of the garden I could see a huge statue. It looked like a bird with a man's head. Seeing this figure, my fear suddenly returned. Are there any people living now? If there are, what kind of people are they? Might they be cruel? Might they see me as something ancient and horrible? And for this, might they just kill me?

I turned back to my time machine and found that it had fallen over on its side. I ran over to it and with all my strength tried to push it upright. The machine was heavy, but my fear was so great that I could not be discouraged. While struggling with this, the rain suddenly stopped. And with one final cry, I managed to turn the machine back over, but not without getting cut on the chin.

Feeling tired, but encouraged by my success with the machine, I began to climb back inside in preparation for travel again. But before doing anything further, I took another good look around. Strange and wonderfully large buildings could be seen all around me. Even further in the distance was a dark forest. Now that the rain had stopped, a very peaceful feeling came over the place, and my fear began to calm.

Then, from one side of the garden walls, I could hear voices approaching. From the other side, where the statue stood, I could now see men running toward me. Suddenly, in the garden entrance appeared one of these men. He was short, maybe only a little more than one meter in height. He was wearing a long, purple gown with a belt tied at the center. On his feet he wore sandals. His hair was long and his face was smooth and, actually quite strangely beautiful, but his body was very thin and weak-looking; so much, so that it seemed any amount of harm could be done to him by even the gentlest bit of contact.

I decided to take a chance and approach him, but before I could, I found that he was already coming toward me.

(end of section)