Timmy’s Time Thwarter
Timmy’s experiments were always getting him in trouble. The first time was a trial to determine the distance and speed that an object would travel when thrown from a moving car. He was six years old; the family decided not to replace the cat. Subsequent trials ranged from combining liquids that he had found in the garage–neighbors still talk about that explosion–to building a rocket and launching it from the backyard. The rocket launch would have been uneventful except for the extraordinary coincidence of a plane flying directly in its path. The pilot claimed that it came so close he could actually read the writing on the side, ‘Timmy 233.’
His parents were relieved that Timmy seemed to be outgrowing his ‘scientist faze,’ as nothing major had happened in the last few years. Oh, there had been the occasional incident, which they thought was typical for a young boy. I mean, what child hasn’t dug a large hole in the backyard and attempted to bury himself, to have the experience of living underground, or convinced his classmates to hold hands and form a chain while he held the frayed end of an electrical wire?
What Timmy’s parents didn’t know was that the project he was working on today would make his past experiments seem like child’s play. Timmy had stumbled upon an astonishing discovery that, if it proved to be successful, would allow him to place objects into a void where they would be exempt from the effects of time. He reasoned that time was a dimension that existed outside of the other dimensions, and therefore could be avoided, by generating a void inside of it.
His first trial, sending an apple into the time void, wasn’t completely successful. The apple rotted immediately, but it had given him the necessary information to proceed. After hours of calculations, he started his next trial by placing his new wristwatch on the launching pad and turning on the beam, which he had named ‘Timmy’s Time Thwarter.’ If the trial was successful, he would retrieve his watch and see that it had stopped while ‘outside of time’ and then restarted. After adjusting the dials and setting the timer for five minutes, he flipped the switch and the watch disappeared. Timmy watched the clock on the wall, and after exactly five minutes passed, the watch reappeared. Five minutes had passed and the watch showed the incorrect time, and it was still working! Timmy was elated! He immediately began preparing for his next trial–to place himself into the void!
“Timmy, time for supper!” his mother called from the house.
“I’ll be there in five minutes,” he responded, while adjusting the dials on his machine. Standing on the pad, he reached over and flipped the switch…and nothing happened!
“Timmy,” his mother called again, “not five minutes, now!”
Disappointed, Timmy went into the house, deep in thought. What could be wrong? The size of the object shouldn’t make a difference, and the fact that it was a boy instead of a watch shouldn’t matter either.
Sitting down at the table with his mother and father, Timmy was surprised when she said to his father, “If he isn’t in here in thirty seconds, I’m going out there, and drag him in by his ear!”
“Just give him five more minutes,” his father replied, “he’ll be here.”
Do you think Timmy will “be there in 5 minutes?”
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