The World of Arie

Chapter 3

     The scientist threw open his door as he pulled us in. He slammed the door shut, flipped a switch that turned on the lights, and then threw our hands at us. “Follow me.” He ordered as he walked toward a dirty brown staircase that led upstairs.

     I was shy. So like a good little girl, I started following him. Although, when I took a few steps toward the staircase Allen swiftly grabbed my right arm. He looked up at me. “Mariline, what are you doing? We can’t follow him!” He tried to whisper and yell at the same time. Not a very good combination.

     “What choice do we have?” I replied. It was hard for me to whisper, so it was a little more like a squeal. “He’ll do something to us if we don’t listen to him!”

     “What’s wrong?”

     The scientist’s sneer made Allen and I both turn our heads to look at him. Allen bared his teeth. “Why should we listen to you?” He asked.

     I put my hand on Allen’s shoulder. “Don’t make him angry!” My chest felt like a fire started on it by the fear I was going through now. I never talked to this scientist, or met him before. He could be a killer for all I knew.

     The scientist laughed. “I’m not trying to kill you!” He chuckled. “Why on Earth would I do that?” He looked at us with a smile on his face.

     Allen’s eyes met mine. “How can we trust you, scientist?” Allen asked, without taking his eyes off of me.

     The scientist reached into his pockets, and then he tore out his hand to have nothing in it. “See? I’m not carrying anything.” He raised his eyebrows.

     Allen glared at him, while pushing me behind him. “Doesn’t mean that there’s something upstairs.” He pointed out as he raised an eyebrow.

     “Kids..” The scientist murmured under his breath. “Just trust me.” He took a step to his left. “We are neighbors, aren’t we?” He walked away to his left. I heard a door open, and then slam shut.

     Allen turned around and looked at me.

     “It might have something to do with the time machine that we saw last night.” I smiled.

     “Yeah, you may be right… But why would he need us for that?” He looked away and put a finger on his chin, thoughtfully.

     I started running toward the staircase. I heard him yell for me to come back as I ran up the dusty, brown, wooden stairs. I turned around to look at him from the top of the stairs. “Let’s go check out that time machine!” I said.

     “You said it wouldn’t work.” He told me. “Why would you want to go see something that doesn’t work?”

     I looked down. “Well… I still want to check it out…” I didn’t wait for his reply as I ran to my left and ran out a white door to see the scientist looking at something that was shining blue. It was a gigantic Circle that was standing on a short but long trapezoid. It was all machinery.

     “Wanted to see the Time Machine?” The scientist’s voice made me jump as he didn’t take his eyes off of the Time Machine.

     I walked down the wooden stairs onto the grass.

     I took a few steps toward him. “How’d you know that I know about the time machine?” I asked.

     Is your head spinning over there because I said: ‘How’d you know that I know about the time machine?’ Hahaha… Okay okay no need to yell at me to stop mocking you…

     “Because I saw the window open.” He turned to look at me, his black goggles still on. What a nerd… I thought. Take off those goggles! “You didn’t think that I would let stalkers get away with stalking me did you?”

     I opened my mouth to object, but then I heard Allen behind me. “We weren’t trying to stalk you! We just wanted to see what was glowing blue!” He took the words right out of my mouth.

     “Is that why were here?” I asked. “Is that you brought us here, because we were watching you finish your Time Machine?”

     He walked toward me. “Well… That’s part of the reason.” He swiftly grabbed my shirt and pulled me toward the machine.

     “Hey!” Allen shouted. “Let her go!” He ran like a cheetah towards us. And I was surprised no one in the neighborhood was walking toward the house or was calling 911 because of how loud Allen shouted.

     The scientist grinned as he grabbed a small remote that was sitting on a small white table next to the machine. He had a tight grip on my shirt for only grabbing me with one hand as the other hand had the remote in it. The remote had a huge red square on it. He pressed the button with his thumb and inside the circle of the machine it lit up really bright. Inside of the circle it started sparkling blue.

     I felt Allen grab my left arm as the scientist started pulling me toward the machine. “Let her go!” Allen commanded through bared teeth.

     “Perfect.” The scientist murmured as he grabbed my shirt with both of his hands and threw me through the inside of the circle, Allen still hanging on to me. We landed on dirt and mud. Wow, I thought. For a nerdy scientist he’s strong.

     “You okay?” Allen laid a hand on my left shoulder.

     I looked up at him from my mud-soaked jeans. “I am for now.”

     “Yes, it works!” I heard the scientist shout, but he seemed far away.

     I looked behind Allen. I didn’t see the sparkling blue time machine though. Wer are we?

     “Um… Mariline….” Allen prodded me on the shoulder.

     “What?”

     “Look…Behind…You…” He stammered.

     As I looked behind me I couldn’t believe of what I was looking at.

     Uh huh, I told you that it would get interesting. I see you getting up with wide eyes. You want to know more? You want to know what their looking at? Haha, I thought you would never ask…