“Ben’s Time Carriage”
“Where is he?”
Alexander turned
to the man sitting in a frail wooden chair.
“My dear James, how am I supposed to know? But, if you believe the word of the good
Doctor, then it should be difficult for him to be–”
A brilliant flash
of blue light filled the room, and both men raised their hands to their
eyes. When they lowered them a portly,
older gentleman stood before them in a metal cage. He opened a door, took a staggering step and
began to fall, but Alexander caught him.
“Benjamin, are you
all right?” James asked.
“Yes, yes,” the
man replied. He laughed. “Traveling through time leaves one … dizzy,
for a few moments.”
“So you have done
it then?” Alexander asked looking at the cage.
“Built a … time carriage.”
“Oh yes,” Benjamin
replied, “and the things I have seen.”
James sighed. “Were you able to do as we asked, or did you
spend your time impressing the women in every century?”
Benjamin
smiled. “If you do not make time for the
ladies, they will not make time for you.”
Looking in the
cage, Alexander asked, “Did you memorize everything? I expected you to return with countless
books.”
“My dear Sir,”
Benjamin replied, “do you think I would return empty handed?” Reaching into his
coat pocket, he pulled out what looked like a thin glass rod. He held it up and said, “Gentlemen, all of
the books in all of our libraries would fit on this, with plenty of room to
spare.”
“Surely not.”
Alexander held out his hand and Benjamin placed the object in it. Holding it up to his eye, he asked, “Did you
find some minuscule printing press?”
“No, no, it’s …”
Benjamin scratched his head. “It is
something that even I don’t fully understand.”
“How are we to
read these … books?” James asked squinting at the rod.
“With this.” From
another pocket Benjamin took out an object about the size of a small book made
of a strange material.
“What is that?”
Alexander asked.
“It is called,”
Benjamin answered, “a computer.” Setting this computer on a table, Benjamin
lifted the top and flipped it back with a click, so it was now twice the size
but half the thickness. He did this
three more times until he had a stiff object about the size of a
newspaper.
“Amazing,” James
said.
Benjamin held his
hand out to Alexander who returned the rod.
“First we turn this on,” he said, touching the upper right corner of the
computer. There were a few musical tones
that made the other two men jump. “I’m
sorry, I should have warned you. It
makes … odd noises at times.”
The surface of the
computer had been a dull, bluish-gray, but now it turned black before it was
replaced by an image in bronze of Benjamin himself. Benjamin laughed. “I couldn’t help myself. This is … an instant painting of a future
bust of me.”
Benjamin inserted
the rod in a slot along the side of the computer and told the two other men,
“Don’t worry. This is a very …” He
paused and mumbled, “What was the phrase?” to himself. “Oh yes,” he continued in his normal voice,
“this is a very ‘user friendly’ model.
I’ll be able to talk you through using it in only a few minutes.”
An hour later,
both men were finally able to use the computer to read the information on the
rod. Once he was sure they understood
how to use it, Benjamin told them, “Now, gentlemen, you have access to all the
important historical events for the next three centuries. With this you will be able to foresee all the
difficulties this new nation will face and write the perfect Constitution for
it. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have an
engagement I wish to attend.” He opened the door to the cage and stepped inside.
Alexander turned
from the computer and asked, “Where is … or should I say, when is this
engagement?”
“To answer both
questions, Philadelphia in 2006. They
are having a 300th birthday party for me.
Courtesy requires that I attend.” With that he closed the door of the
cage, and in a flash of red light, was gone.
***
I first wrote this
story in 2008 as part of my 30 Stories in 30 Days Challenge I used to do. I updated it for my 2012 collection Political Pies. But I was reminded of it
recently by all the talk of Originalism in regards to all the problems certain
groups aren’t allowing us to fix, and figured I should repost it so I can share
it easily.
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