The Business of Time Travel Tourism

Chapter 24: Back On Track

 July 1, 2014. Tuesday.

George sat on his favorite swinging chair on the porch in the backyard. Watching at the trees, the brightening sky, the dew reflecting the dim morning sunlight, he took a sip from a cup of coffee and kicked away from the ground making the chair swing in wider amplitude. He always hoped that such moments of peace would never go away that even when he was old, he would get a chance to sit on the same chair and enjoy the silence and the warm breeze of a summer morning.

The door opened up. Stretching and yawning Sandy stepped outside, her hair messed up, eyes drowsy. Making no noise, the ghostly figure passed in front of George and sat on the bench by the wall. She sat there for a while with her hands crossed, then walked to the house and returned back to the bench with a coffee cup in her hand.

The third person to come outside was John, he joined Sandy and now the three of them were sitting in silence. Then came Zoop. He glanced at the ancient people doing a ritual of looking at the ball of light rising from the horizon. The meaning of the ritual was beyond his current knowledge. He walked and joined John.

Sandy gave John her cup and after he drank from it; life returned to his eyes. He passed the cup to Zoop, who stared at its contents, sniffed it and took a sip.

"Blah!" He spit to the ground and sipped again. "Blah!" he spit for the second time. After repeating the process five times, Zoop drank the cup to the bottom and spit out the coffee grounds. "Why do you like it zo much? Taztes so bad," he said.

George glanced at him, his face expression sleepy, but eyes sparkling with life. "Do you feel it, Zoop? The energy it gives you?"

Zoop stared at his shaking hand, stood to his feet and all trembling walked towards the trees. Everyone's eyes followed him.

Sandy spoke to George, "Don't you think that because he's so small it might have been too much for him?" She noticed George's frozen stare stuck in the direction of the scientist and turned to Zoop herself. But the scientist had disappeared. A tiny gray blur could be seen circling the backyard. A weak gust of wind blew away from him to all sides as Zoop stopped in the center of the trees. Laughing, he picked up a stone from the ground and threw it at the fence. The stone pierced it like a bullet. He then did ten pushups in one second and stood to his feet. Before anyone could blink, Zoop was on his way to the porch, slowing down when making the last steps.

He asked, "Do you drink this before going to war?"

"No," George replied, "We drink this in the morning to wake up."

"Don't you feel dizzy?" asked Sandy.

"I feel zleepy a little now." He yawned as he came closer to George.

George closed his eyes and after a second of thought spoke to Zoop, "Rest a little. Be right back." He pushed away from the chair and returned to the house.

Zoop sat in George's place and tried to swing the chair, but his weight was not sufficient, so John helped him from behind to gain the momentum. Soon, the scientist was laughing loudly. "What a chair!" he shouted. "It will be the first thing I re-invent once I get back home!"

Inside the house, George filled the kettle with water and turned it on. There was a lot of noise inside Mother's room, so he decided to check out what was going on there. The two most annoying women he had ever met were having a conversation. He peeked through the corner. Sally's uniform was placed on the ironing board. Mother was ironing it, dressed in her work's clothes.

"Once I'm finished, your suit should be just fine," Mother said. "Don't you clean and iron your own clothes in the future?"

Sally replied, "Well, we have cleaning boxes. You throw your clothes into it and the next day they are mailed to your post box."