Running through Vintage Seasons Teaser

Running through Vintage Seasons

“Humppfft-”

A light sigh broke the silent air, accompanied by the ticking sound of the clock that stood beside the fireplace, where couples of photo frames were hung neatly on it. The clock twelve, deep and slow, a boy dragging his feet towards a board written with numbers. Raising his arm, he took a chalk, following the numbers in spiral shape before stopping on the circles drawn around the number ‘1’, a light smile forming a thin line on his thick lips.

The clock again, as the boy walks up the stairs into another room, a room filled with all kinds of machinery and tools, a typical inventor’s world. A puppy followed behind, slipping through the gap as the boy closed the door and sat down before the working table. Half more hour to go.And he picked up a little hammer, the other hand holding a magnified glass while concentrating on the last piece of wheel.

Half more hour to go. 30 more minutes left for him to finish off his grandfather’s wish-when he was five, his grandfather ingrained the concept of parallel universe, an alternate reality that exist with the time that people are currently living, but no one knows what lies in that universe, whether it’s their future, present, or their past that is running parallelism. His grandfather was a great mechanic, inventing many little gadgets aiming to take a glimpse into the parallel world. As the boy grew up, he learnt about laws of physics, how the world works and of course, how to basic operation of mechanical objects. The day when his grandfather died, he was inherited with the workshop, as most of all, the spirit to explore the parallel universe.

Putting down the glasses, the boy looked down at his puppy, watching it bouncing up from its place and follows its master to the way to the other side. The boy carried the dog, stepping into the brown booth with many more identical wheels before him and shuts the door, placing the last wheel into its place.

“Hope this would do…”

He muttered lastly before pulling the wooden handle, and there, the booth started spinning, faster and faster, until what could be seen were the dim lights flashing across his eyes, fluttering faster and faster, a low humming sound besides his ears as it gradually turned into screeching sound - he feels dizzy, the momentum of the time machine flinging him back against the wall, the puppy howling in his chest. He didn’t know whether he can stand till the last, his grandfather never told this would happened when the time machine operates, and all those laws and books he’s known for all these years couldn’t even help a bit. The dog was curling into his arms, and when the boy thought it was another failed trail, suddenly, there was a white flash-like explosion-

And everything went silent.