The Dinner Party
The conversation was a little slow and Simon knew from experience that he would be blamed for not trying hard enough. He did his best to ignore the glare coming from his wife, Lizzy, as he racked his brain to come up with a topic of conversation.
"How's the car Ben?" He ventured, "Is it as economical as you'd hoped?"
"Yes." Replied Ben, but couldn't think of anything more to add.
"Yes," Chipped in Lucy, Bens partner, sounding as though she was about to expand on that considerably. They all turned to her expectantly. "It is ...economical." Then looked down at her plate, embarrassed to have got their hopes up.
Simon desperately thought of places that Lizzy and he had been since they last saw Lucy and Ben. It had only been four days ago however, so, nowhere. Had he done anything interesting at work this week? Hmm, no. Neither Ben nor he had much interest in sports, so there was no mileage there, and he couldn't even think of a hobby they had in common. Had he watched anything on television that might be worth mentioning? Wait, he had something. It wasn`t much, but here goes.
“Did anyone see that old film the other night, 'The Time Machine'?"
Lizzie’s shoulders visibly dropped at this pathetic attempt but Lucy took it and ran.
“No, but I've seen it before. I've always wondered if it might ever be possible to really time travel, and where would I go."
“It’s clearly not possible or we would be knee deep in time travellers." Ben responded,” And I would go to get next week’s lottery numbers and straight back to buy a ticket."
There were subdued laughs and agreement with this, then Lucy continued, “You say it's not possible but I have read that it may be that we simply can't go back before the invention of the first time machine. So, we simply haven't invented it yet."
Lizzy was intrigued by this, “Why not? I wanted to see a dinosaur, can't I do that?"
“Not if what I've read is anything to go by." Lucy answered. “‘Bit disappointing, can't go back and kill Hitler either!"
“Or meet Marilyn Monroe." Quipped Ben, and got an elbow in the ribs from Lucy for his trouble.
Lucy continued to explain, “Hmmm! I think they are saying that you will need a receiver and the first one won't exist until it is first invented."
“But," thought Simon,” Once you did have a time machine, you could cause a paradox such as going back and preventing your parents from ever meeting, so that you couldn't be born to go back and prevent them from meeting!"
“So time travel can't be possible then!" Offered Lizzy.
Ben was about to agree with this when he noticed a strange electric blue glow on everyone’s right side accompanied by a loud whirring sound. They all saw and heard it and all shot a glance in that direction. At the far end of the room a shimmering apparition was coming into view. Before their eyes, a machine of some description became solid and occupied the space between them and the television. A man sat in it and he pulled back a lever rather frantically. This caused the whirring to begin to subside. A large disk on the rear of the machine seemed to be the source of the sound and was slowing in time with the declining noise.
“Oh my word!" Exclaimed the man, “Oh my goodness, it works!" He busied himself with his machine and didn't seem aware of the four dinner guests staring his way. His clothes and hair style, especially his sideburns, were Victorian at the latest, and he was barely controlling his excitement.
After struggling to get a notepad from his pocket, he looked up mid note and saw the wide eyed quartet for the first time.
“Ah!" He started, and stepped from his machine, “My name is Wells." He finished with a polite little bow.
"I don't quite believe it." He continued excitedly, "It works! Oh, may I?" He picked up a wine glass glass from their table, and, taking a sip he nodded approvingly and replaced it. Then quickly glanced around the room and said, "My, this place has changed somewhat!" Then got back into his machine, set a few controls, pushed the lever forward again and whirred from existence.
For some moments the four just stared at where the machine had stood, then they looked at each other for several seconds more. They all shared the same open mouthed frown that wordlessly said, 'Did you see that too?'
Simon was the first to piece together a sentence, " Well, it errrm seems that time travel is possible."
"Yes." Responded Ben.
"Yes." Chipped in Lucy, and they all looked at her expectantly. "It ...errm ...seems that it is!"
And they all looked at their plates trying to think of something else to say.
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