Sam tries, but his friend Charley is unconvinced. It was time for something else.
While I was at my lowest ebb Charley Tinsdale showed up. He was a welcome sight. He dropped into my office to chat just when I needed to talk to someone. I told him about my Cago episodes in the Wish Machine. Specifically, I confessed how I might have been the cause of thousands of people being tortured and murdered.
Charley was shocked. I saw it in his face. When he digested all I had said his retort was unexpected.
“Holy smoke, Sam, you say that you went to the future?”
His remark cleared my mind. I had to go back to square one for my friend. It was useless to try to convince him about the theocratic world and its evils. For the umpteenth time I tried to explain what my Wish Machine did.
“Charley, for once listen to me. Open up your mind. I didn’t do anything of the kind. I didn’t go to the future. The Wish Machine cannot take anyone to the future. I went to another universe; an alternate reality where our world is under the control of a theocracy.”
“Do you remember when I first tried to explain my theory to you? I said that in some alternate reality another Charley Tinsdale may have bred a chimpanzee who can speak and hold a conversation. You got upset. You told me I thought you designed animals for a side show. I didn’t think that. I was only using the first analogy that came to mind to explain that in some reality anything can happen.”
I took a breath and tried again.
“Yesterday I went to an alternate reality. It was a world like ours might become if we let the terrorists scare us.”
My colleague’s forehead wrinkled in confusion. What I was doing in my laboratory was as mysterious to him as his genetic recipes to make flying Chihuahuas and giant butterflies were to me.
Note to reader: As explained during the early part of the story, Charley is a professor at the University of Michigan. He is a biologist and he has won a Nobel prize for creating a Chihuahua puppy with wings.
“Sam, I admit I don’t understand what your contraption does,” Charley admitted. “I gather that you go to sleep for an hour. When you wake up you remember your dream. What was it about this so-called trip that bothered you so much, Sam?”
“It was no dream. It was real. I went to an alternate reality. Another world like ours. I was the cause of people being tortured and killed.”
I was being overly dramatic, I admit, but the experience left a deep impression on me. Charley saw I was sobered by the experience. He refused to understand. No matter what I said I could not make him understand.
“That happened to you in your machine? But it wasn’t real, Sam. So what? You’re awake now. The sky is blue and the sun is shining. Shake it off, my friend. All’s right with the world.”
I gave up trying to persuade him but I had an idea.
“Charley, I know you’re a betting man. I watch you buy lottery tickets at the fast food store on the corner. You do it all the time. I’ll make you a bet. If you go into the Wish Machine, when you come out if you don’t agree with me that you really went into your past, I’ll donate a thousand bucks to your biology budget out of my own pocket.”
He laughed … but I heard a trace of fear in his voice. I understood my friend at last. Charley was afraid to enter the Wish Machine.
“No thanks, Sam. I’m not going to be one of your guinea pigs. I prefer not to have any funny dreams, even if they seem real.”
I gave up.
“Whatever happens to you in your Wish Machine this last one didn’t do you any good. The experience knocked you for a loop. I don’t need that.”
When Charley was gone I felt better. My mind turned to the wonderful inventions of the theocratic world. It was time I applied my knowledge to give my world those inventions.
Next time: Sam remembers the wonderful inventions of the theocratic world.
Gene Paleno is an author and illustrator living in Witter Springs.
