Teltra 3.2

Jonas just turned 15. He lives with his father, who is a mechanic, his mother, who is a hairdresser, and his little sister, who is twelve in three months. His little sister’s name is Elisabeth, but Jonas just calls her Lisa.

They live in a red house at the end of Sidestreet. Though the name is pretty pointless, considering Sidestreet is in the middle of a small residential area, right by a small city. Maybe the street was originally planned to be on the side of something. Or maybe the name givers just had terrible imagination.

The Neighbour moved in to the house next door two years after Jonas and his family moved there. Jonas was 8 at that time.  The Neighbour’s name is really Eric, but Jonas and his sister just call him “the Neighbour”. He works in a hardware store, and is an inventor in his spare time. Jonas and Lisa often get to invent stuff with him, and if they have any ideas, they can try those too. 

They’re also guinea pigs. “Everything new must be tried” the Neighbour says, “and then it’s best that the kids get to try first,” he usually adds with a smile. Jonas rather thinks that the Neighbour doesn’t dare. Like getting someone else to walk first into a dark room and say “I’ll be right behind and protect you”. But it doesn’t really matter.  Jonas thinks it’s fun to try out the new inventions.

This story actually starts a day in the fall break. The second day, to be accurate. Jonas, Lisa and the Neighbour have just finished their latest invention. It is a teletransportation machine. Lisa got the idea for it after she had watched ‘Charlie and the Chocolate factory’ in English class at school.

They named the invention ‘Teltra’. Actually, it was Teltra version 3.2, because they had first tried with six-seven toasters, then a washing machine, and now they had finally managed to make something that looked relatively reasonable, out of an old freezer box. One of those with a lid. Teltra 3.2 was the second try with a freezer. The first try had been with a freezer cabinet, but it was so difficult to sit inside, so they switched. Again.

It’s time for testing. Lisa doesn’t really want to crawl into a freezer box, even though the freezer elements were taken out a long time ago. She lets her brother do it instead. He’s wearing The Neighbour’s anorak as ‘travel suit’, and swimming glasses. It makes it all the more exciting. 

“Are you ready?” the Neighbour asks. “Always,” Jonas answers.  “Wait!” Lisa says. “You forgot the travel sickness tablets!” She pulls a packet of fruit pastilles out of her pocket and gives them to her brother, who takes them and puts them in the anorak pocket. “Now I’m ready,” he says with a grin.

“3-2-1” the Neighbour counts down, and pushes down on the toaster that’s connected to the side of the freezer box. Jonas pulls down the lid, and closes his eyes. When he opens them again, he’s speechless. Where has he ended up?

He’s no longer in the freezer box. He looks around, and discovers that the freezer box is actually nowhere to be seen. But there’s a lot other there. Jonas looks down beside himself, and discovers he’s sitting on something that could’ve been grass. But it’s purple. He stands up and looks around one more time. Everything is pastel coloured. What could have been trees looks more like overgrown flowers or something Lisa could’ve drawn with her colouring pencils. Each one is twisted the same way, but they are all different colours. Pastel colours in different nuances. Purple, orange, blue, yellow, red, green. Light, nauseating colours. In all the wrong places. 

Jonas looks up, and discovers that things aren’t how they’re supposed to be there either. Where the sky should have been, it’s like a gigantic, blurry mirror. Or a giant TV screen that shows an unfocused video of the ground. Jonas can just barely see himself. Or at least what’s supposed to him. A small blurry spot in a dark blue anorak. Of course, he can’t see the anorak, but he knows that’s what it is, because it’s the only thing he can see with such a dark colour. After all, he’s standing in the middle of what could be the home of Care Bears or My Little Pony. Pastel colours and no sharp edges. Everything looks like it was made in plastic or foam rubber.