1740

I must have been floating in that high-pressure darkness for at least 24 hours, with only my laptop to keep me from going insane. Then, at about 6 AM Eastern time (everything I write is eastern time, since I'm on the east coast, or at least I was), I began to see light all around me. Slowly, I became able to discern certain objects, mostly trees, some rocks, then a deer, but no buildings of any kind. I was still being pulled by that weight, but it was slowly lessening. The breeze-like feeling was weakening as well. The view stopped getting lighter, but there was still a haze around me, as if I wasn't quite in reality. I looked down and saw that I was about ten feet off the ground. My heart began to race as I realized exactly what that meant, and then the haze went away. I heard a scream that I can only describe as probably my own, and I fell the ten feet to a harsh, unforgiving ground. I rolled onto my back and saw the mad scientist staring at me, squinting his eyes at me, "where'd you come from?" he asked, then, he stared up at the height I had fallen from, "I'll bet that hurt," then he stared at the numbers on his watch, and then stared back at the sky, counting off on his fingers as if calculating some equation. He bent down and picked up my arm, and stared at the watch I was wearing for a couple of seconds. "It just doesn't add up." I didn't move in all this time, or say a thing, because the wind had been knocked out of me from the fall, and my eyes were still getting adjusted to the sudden amount of light. He took out a pocket-screwdriver and unscrewed the face of his watch. He messed around with some of the intricate gears and wires in it, and then screwed it back on. "I must have over-adjusted."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I landed approximately two feet too low," and he pointed to a round, crater-like hole in the ground. He opened my watch, which, by the way, displays the date, time, and year, and tweaked it.

"You mean you made a mistake?"

"Yes, well, it's not an exact science. Or, I suppose it is, but it isn't a science I've done a lot of studying on, exactly." He courteously helped me to my feet.

I looked down at my watch: June 18th, 1740.

"That's as far back as we can go, 1740." he said, then he paused, waiting for a compliment, I suppose. Then he realized that I wasn't supposed to be here, "I told you not to interfere with my plans!" he yelled, though not necessarily in an angry way.

I, however, filled with dread, realizing what the punishment was for disobeying that command.

But then his face brightened, "On the contrary, you could be quite useful, yes, quite useful, if only for my own personal entertainment, but also for science. I have a certain number of goals, a to-do list, so to speak, and I am afraid, alone, that I can not complete this list."

"Wait, what stops me right now from demanding that you take me to Ben? After all, I'm much stronger than you." I asked, indignant.

"Well, there's the fact that I'm holding a gun, the fact that you will probably not be able to make me take you to Ben, the fact that I could lie to you and tell you I was going toward Ben, when I was really just deserting you, and the fact that I have the power to send you anywhere in the time range without myself going, hence, dropping you from 100 feet in the air, or 10 miles under water, or even on the moon is well within my capacity."
"You can send me places?"
"I plan to. Other times, I'll just drag you to wherever I am, and you'll have to finish your task before I finish mine. Yes, yes, the more I think about it, the more I like this idea. And of course, if you fail even once, you will never see Ben ever again."
"OK, what do you want me to do first?"

"No, no, no," he chuckled, "I can't just send you off wildly when you're two hundred sixty-nine years in the past! You might mess something up! Why, why, a mere footstep in the wrong place could destroy life as we know it in the future! Think of it! That's why I'm way out here in the middle of the wilderness. I must test some of the basic theories of time-travel before I even dare come contact a human being. And I'll explain some of the rules to you. But first,we must go some distance away, this location is a bit too far from civilization. But I still need to rest for a few minutes, so why don't you write down what happened just now on that fantastic blog of yours. After all, you could be my documenter as well as my guinea pig!"

So I wrote this. I'm a little worried about what he might want me to do, or if I'll ever get back into our normal time again, but I'm mostly just anxious to start doing what he wants me to do so I can get Ben back. I can't believe how careless that evil scientist is with human life. Ben is a human being, and he doesn't seem to care. I am really beginning to dislike this man. But for now, I just have to get Ben back. That is my one and only concern.

Vanderdecken12