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Freddy, TheTime Traveler
 
(c) 2009 by Clete Goffard 
 
Episode One
An adventurous young man whom we shall name, Freddy, read "The Time Machine," byMr. H.G. Wells and became fascinated by the idea of traveling to the future or past. Thuswhen he saw an advertisement in the newspaper by "The Time Travel Argonauts AndSaturday Evening Cribbage Club," he immediately applied for membership. The other members found his eagerness on the subject worthy of comment among themselves.Imagine Freddy's state of mind, when out of the blue, a message reached him one brightmorning from Professor Thistlepatch, the club's technical expert, informing him of anextraordinary development. A time machine had been constructed! By unanimousagreement among club members, Freddy had been chosen to make the first trip. R.S.V.P.,of course.When Freddy arrived at the club, he was hustled aside to be briefed for his temporalexcursion, while the other members finished preparing the device for the journey.Calculations had indicated that the trip was to be ten years, exactly, into the future. Hewould find himself in the self-same place--the club laboratory--where he would be met by surviving club members, and, after pleasantries and the customary glass of champagne, be given a large envelope. He would then re-enter the machine and return tothe past, that is, this present. Freddy was presented with a good chronometer, a large basket of fruit should the trip take longer than expected, an aviator's helmet and goggles,a thick woolen scarf, and a pair of hobnailed hiking boots. And also a deck of playingcards to perchance while away the odd moment in the journey with a game of solitaire.One could anticipate, and it was best to be prepared.With his goggles, scarf, boots, and chronometer clutched firmly in hand, he seemed thevery image of a man destined for great adventure. "There he is!" exclaimed Professor Thistlepatch as Freddy strode into the laboratory, and the members, as a man, gave him athundering round of applause. The time traveler had but a brief moment to survey histime carriage--impressive with its' polished mahogany exterior and brass trimmings andfittings--before he was hustled within it where he found a comfortable overstuffed leather chair.Professor Thistlepatch buckled him in, advising him to cover the portholes lest he seesome frightful phenomenon in his journey which was " beyond the capability of thehuman mind to endure." The door was closed, Freddy closed the draperies and soon a tap,tap, tap sounded from the roof of the conveyance signifying that all was in readiness.The time argonaut took a deep breath, willed himself alert, and pulled back the large lever 
 
that sent him on his journey.Immediately there was an unnerving jolt, and then a series of jolts, bumps, and shakings.Somewhere, from deep within the womb of time itself, Freddy heard a mysterious soundwhich for some indescribable reason reminded him of a thunderous passage in Wagner.These events went on for several minutes, and Freddy was deciding between a lusciouslooking pear and a rosy peach from the fruit basket when he was startled by an insistantrapping on his door porthole. He drew back the drapery with some trepidation to see aspectre beckoning him. Yet, his mind, though agitated, noted that the visage seemedfamiliar.With a start, he realized the spectre was none other than Professor Thistlepatchwhose greying hair had suddenly become entirely white. Not entirely certain he hadreached his destination, Freddy cautiously opened the door of his machine.And there they were! The entire club was assembled in the familiar laboratory, shoutingcongratulations at him.For a moment his senses reeled at the thought that he had actuallytraveled into the future, as none before him. What a fantastic success this has been, hethought to himself, it was beyond his wildest anticipations.Some put a glass of champagne in his hand, and a toast to success was made.When thecelebration had begun to die down, and the time traveler was looking about thelaboratory, wondering why preparations for his return trip were not being made, Professor Thistlepatch gained his attention and asked innocently, "By the way, Freddy, what haveyou been doing with yourself for the last ten years?"Freddy was suddenly devastated, and he almost found himself at a loss for words. "Thelast ten years? Why my journey from the past took no more than five minutes. I'm surethe chronomenter shows that. I mean, it has to, Professor.""For us, said Thistlepatch, "Ten years have elapsed since we saw you last. We can showthis as clearly as it is humanly possible to demonstrate anything.There are ten years of daily newspapers,each with daily news of the world. And the events of the world and life all fall in anormal cause and effect sequence without discernable exceptions. There are celestial phenomena, the predictable movement of the planets about the sun. There is a sequenceof birth, procreation and death occuring in sequence during that entire time. One cannotsay that the ten years are a figment of our personal imagination. Contrast this with theassertion of a single traveler, and his pocket watch, that insist that only five minutes have passed. Perhaps you have been suspended in timelessness for that period and just nowreturned from it."This threw Freddy into a quandry. I am hopelessy confused," he began, "no onementioned anything about this before I left. I was to go to the future and that was that.There must be an answer to this dilemma. ""If there is," said Thistlepatch, "I'm certain I don't know what it is." Putting his arm onFreddy's shoulder he continued, "My boy, there is no reason to continue our deception.
 
You see, you have been the victim of an elaborate prank by the club members." With thishe pulled the white mop of hair off his head to appear as Freddy was accustomed toseeing him."There is no time machine," said the Professor, "but do not take our little drama amiss.We would hardly have spent the effort we did for someone we did not think worthy of it.We wished you to have, for one brief moment, the thrill of such a journey." But then headded, " If you had in fact traveled in time, then the objection I mentioned to you wouldhold.""Then I needn't be concerned about a return trip," said Freddy in a forced attempt atlevity."Traveling backward in time would be even more problematical," said Thistlepatch. "One might as well expect a dropped wine glass to reassemble itself.""We are not things, as we think of things, but events. The atoms of our bodies changefrom instant to instant. But can we think a thought, or feel a feeling in that instant? Of course not. We need many many such instants but from instant to instant we change.""A Philosophher and Seer once asked the question, "If the river is only water, and thewater changes from instant to instant, then what is the river?" Other have pondered thequestion, "How is it that change is possible? If we are one thing, and we change to become something else, then what is it in us that does not change, and hence can be saidto exist in time?"" But if one could travel in time one could live a thousand years," mused Freddy withregret."Not so," said Thistlepatch."Your body is a clock, with an alloted span of existence. Evena thousand years into the future, you would still live your four score and ten.""But in the future a means of livings longer might be discovered.""Perhaps," said Thistlepatch, "But perhaps it would require a procedure begun inchildhood to slow down the body's clock, in which case you would miss out on that aswell. My boy, " 'the bird has such a little way to fly', as the poet says,'and Lo! the bird ison the wing.' The bird has such a little way to fly,Freddy, " concluded Thistlepatch, "Better to live the life you have than to pine after what may only be a chimera."Freddy departed the club in a thoughtful mood. Perhaps he took Thistlepatch's advice toheart, or perhaps the evening's events had put him off the romance of time travel. If gossip is to be believed, he shortly took to drinking beer and hanging aboutestablishments catering to the 'wild' crowd. He was seen dancing at all hours of the nightwith young ladies whose name will never appear in the Social Registry. And, it wasrumored, he was seen at the horse tracks laying bets!
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