Mildred woke to someone knocking on the front door.
She bolted upright and grabbed the alarm clock off the nightstand, but no red numbers blinked back at her. What time was it? The sunlight shimmering in the room told her that she had overslept. She was supposed to be up before dawn! In a flash, she leapt up from bed and flicked the lightswitch. Nothing happened. The lights weren’t working either?
Mildred threw on a robe over her nightgown but in her hurry, she forgot her slippers. She had always taught manners and the importance of being up early to her children, and now look at her!
Mildred opened the door and paused. Part of her was relieved, the other confused. It wasn’t her 8:30 interview for Max, one of the younger boys in the orphanage. In fact… these people didn’t seem interested in adoption at all.
The woman stepped forward. “Are you without power too?” Only then did Mildred notice the obvious. The woman had wet hair, like she hadn’t been able to dry it. The man had stubble on one half of his face. Suddenly it made sense. “Oh!”
“We’re from the apartment across the road. The entire neighborhood seems to be down.”
“Let me take a look. I’m sure I can reset the breaker and everything will be fine,” Milldred smiled and shuffled past the two.
She shuddered in the chilly morning air as she walked around the building to where the breaker was. She was so focused on the situation that she didn’t even notice the strange object on the ground until her foot bumped into it. Mildred looked down and raised her eyebrows. It was a strange… helmet? She looked up when she heard a weak groan.
Mildred jumped back.
“Jesus Christ!”
Above her, a man was suspended upside down, tangled in power lines.
He wore black boots and a smoking red jumpsuit of some kind. He hung just low enough that had she not noticed his helmet, his fingers would have brushed the top of her head. High above him on the utility pole, a blown transformer zapped and sparked with electricity that had nowhere to go.
And suddenly, the power outage almost made sense.
Considering the missing power, the transformer, and this man that smelled of smoke and gunpowder, Mildred could almost knit together a story.
The man twitched and sucked in a sharp breath. Before her eyes, it looked as if he came back to life. He looked this way and that, before a large grin spread across his face. “What a landing!”
His voice carried the cheerful confidence of a man that had no regrets.
He locked eyes with Mildred. Despite herself, she startled slightly when he spoke. “Excuse me, Miss! Think you could lend me a hand?”
In her surprise, all Milldred could do was mutter out a question. “...are you an electrician?”
The man laughed heartily, making her jump again.
“Me? No. I’ve been tased with a cattleprod before though. I’ve jumped fire, alligators, and chainsaw juggling clowns, oh and helicopter blades, but I’ve never thought to add electricity into one of my stunts… I like it!”
“Stunts…? Hang on, hang on. Let me get you down,” Mildred seemed to gain her bearings a bit. She had to jump a couple times to reach one of the lines wrapped around the man.
“Careful, I think those are live-” He was cut off when his body jolted suddenly. “Those are definitely live.”
With a careful tug, the snare of wires came undone at last, allowing the man to fall and plop onto his back in the grass.
One stubborn wire hung onto his ankle, but he was able to reach down and undo it. Mildred meanwhile paced slightly, not at all sure how to handle such a situation. When she turned to pace again, he was suddenly on his feet. He took her hand and shook it vigorously “Thank you, Miss!”
“Uh- anytime…? Do you need me to call somebody?” Mildred asked, her voice shaking with the strength of the handshake.
He took a long look around, as if he were stepping onto an alien planet. “Nah, I’ll be alright.” Mildred turned to look up at the blown transformer. “How did you even get-”
Mildred cut herself off when she turned back to the man, only to find an empty space in which he had earlier stood. “Up… there…?”
Don’t be mistaken - Even at her old age, Grandma Lucille Krunklehorn was a great swimmer. But frigid waters could lock up even the best of swimmers.
Taking a calming breath, she swam parallel to the rushing current and made her way towards the wall of the canal. There had to be a ladder, a ramp, something she could use to climb out. Her fingers brushed a ridge in the canal’s wall. Desperate, she dug her fingernails in and clung to the wall with all her might.
She could feel her muscles beginning to lock up.
“Help-” Her call was cut off when her head dipped under the water.
“Help!” She tried again.
“Hello?”
A man appeared at the railing overlooking the canal. He was a jogger on a late night run and had heard her voice. Before Lucille could call again, he caught sight of her.
“Oh shit! Okay, hang on!”
With that he was gone again, and Lucille could only focus on staying afloat. Precious seconds passed. A numbing pain throbbed in her limbs.
Just as she was losing hope, the jogger appeared again, this time with a long tree branch.
“Grab on!”
Grandma Lucille hesitated to let go of the ridge, afraid of being carried off by the current, but she knew it was her only way out. First one hand, then the other.
The cold stung her hands as she gripped the tree branch. The man pulled hard. The water held onto her, but the kind stranger did not give up. Finally, he was able to reach her.
With a grunt, he pulled the old lady over the railing and onto the safety of the sidewalk.
“Thank you,” Lucille huffed, trying to catch her breath. “Thank you…” She rubbed her arms and shivered. Her hands and feet had gone completely numb.
The man pulled off his backpack and dug around for something. He pulled out a flip phone. “Let me call you some help. That water’s frigid.
Lucille did not argue.
______
Cornelius woke to the discomfort of sticks and rocks digging into his back.
He slowly opened his eyes. Trees. He saw trees. Behind them was a blanket of stars in the night sky. The last thing he remembered was…
The garage.
The time machine.
Wilbur.
Where’s Wilbur?
Cornelius was on his feet in an instant. Immediately he was hit with a wave of dizziness so strong he nearly toppled over into the grass. Where even was he?
Suddenly, he caught sight of the crooked headlights of the time machine from where it had landed wrongside up in the thicket.
“Wilbur!” Cornelius panicked. He rushed over, wading his way through the bushes and towards the time machine. He tried to look inside but it was too dark. He activated his watch and looked again. Even in the limited light of Cornelius’s wrist watch, the time machine’s tomato red was bright and crisp. He still couldn’t see inside.
The inventor tried to force open the dome piece, but it wouldn’t budge. Growing frantic, Cornelius produced a screwdriver from the pocket of his lab coat and jammed it into the joint connecting the dome to the rest of the time machine. It popped right open.
He hoped he’d never have to use that trick, but he included it just in case anything ever happened.
The moment he had the dome piece open enough to fit inside, he forced his way in, looking around rapidly. “Wilbur? Buddy?”
It was empty.
A splash of color caught Cornelius’s eye. He leaned in for a closer look. Nestled beneath one of the seats was the video game he had given Wilbur earlier. He picked it up and looked it over.
“Easily the best game of 2010!” It boasted.
He tucked it into the pocket of his lab coat, thoughtfully. Reaching up, he set his flashlight light to high beams and turned to continue his search.
“Wilbur! Wilbur…!”
Cornelius continued to call into the night.
______
Notes:
Guys I am so sorry, irl stuff got so busy and I've been all over the place. Thank you all for being patient, it means a lot.
This chapter's not named after any songs or lyrics. I was initially planning to name every chapter after a song or lyric, but I don't want to force any song choices. When I pick a song, I want it to match the vibe of the chapter.
Oh and I've been working on that Spotify playlist... It's not up yet, but when it is, I'll be sure to leave a link for you all!
Please consider commenting! I absolutely love getting comments and they push me to write more!
When the Robinsons are attacking the time machine, there's a moment, and I'm talking a fraction of a second, where we can see Laszlo's eyes. I slowed it down to see it better.
I just thought it was a cool detail and wanted to share.
“Tonight residents of the northeast United States should be on the lookout for a meteor shower passing closely by around 30,000 miles an hour, NASA says…” The radio droned on as a young Franny danced around the picnic blanket, Frankie bouncing on her head.
“This is so exciting!” She sang.
“Franny, come get some pizza,” her brother, Arthur smiled. Being a pizza delivery guy came with its perks. Free pies, for example.
Arthur had recently graduated from military school and had been contemplating what to do next. He was a straight A student, which left his horizons broad. Part of him wanted to join the Air Force, while another part wanted to pursue work with NASA. And then there was that slice of him that just enjoyed the simplicity of delivering pizzas. He told himself he’d help his brother and sister through school while he decided.
“Yeah, or else Amp’s gonna eat it all,” Lewis joked. A 16-year-old Gaston grinned at his nickname and tucked his iPod in his pocket. It was a fitting name, really. He was a storm of a kid, always rocking out to music, or performing skateboard tricks, or hyping people up. He was once suspended from school for leading the biggest prank war the school had ever seen. More specifically, for releasing cicadas over the ceiling tiles of the classrooms. He wore an old army helmet with netting and an ace card tucked into it.
Fireflies blinked as they lazily swam through the night air. It was normally too cold for them this time of year still, but the little bugs didn’t seem to mind. Frankie tried to snatch one from the air, but ended up completely missing and tumbling clumsily into the grass. Franny giggled and scooped him up. She loved that silly little frog.
Between bites of pizza, Lewis worked on setting up a telescope he had brought with him. The benefit to living in a run-down observatory was the fact that there were quite a few tools and treasures left behind. The telescope was one of many. Lately Lewis had made it his goal to increase the strength enough to be able to see Pluto. Maybe if he got enough data, he could argue to NASA that Pluto didn’t deserve its recent “dwarf planet” status.
Lewis glanced through the telescope just in time to catch a streak across the sky. He gasped, catching the attention of the others.
“Guys, look!”
They all looked up as another streak passed by, followed by another, and another! Streak after streak of beautiful comets lit up the night sky. Arthur put his arms around his brother and sister, pulling them close. The night was perfect.
Until it wasn’t.
Lewis lowered the telescope and blinked, confused. No, he must not have been seeing that right. He looked again. One of the meteors seemed to falter, not moving the way all the others were. When Lewis squinted… it didn’t look like a meteor at all.
“Do you see that? That one looks off,” he turned to the other three.
Amp picked up his binoculars, glancing where the young inventor pointed. They weren’t nearly as strong as the telescope, but the thing had already gotten considerably bigger. It didn’t take much to see the problem.
It was headed straight for them.
The sky glowed a bright red and gold as it entered the earth’s atmosphere.
BOOM!
All four of them jumped.
“That was a sonic boom!” Lewis yelled to nobody in particular.
Amp lowered his binoculars, uncharacteristic concern written on his face.
“That’s not…”
“Get down!” Arthur took charge and pushed Amp and Franny’s heads down in bracing position.
Lewis, who was far too captivated to even hear what Arthur had said, watched with wide eyes. It was a strange saucer shape. That looked like… No, it couldn’t be.
Despite his own commands, Arthur did not duck when the thing passed right over them, spinning slowly. He had never seen anything like it in his life.
Down it fell into the woods behind them with a deafening crash, shaking the ground with it.
For a long moment, nobody moved.
And then, all at once…
“Holy crap!”“Was that a UFO?!”
“Let’s go see it!”
“Okay, okay-!” Arthur stood up, putting up his hands to calm everybody down. “Okay. We do not know what that thing was, we are not going to go see it, and we are going home.”
“What, why?! It’s a SPACESHIP!” Franny loudly protested, unknowingly shaking the poor frog around in her hands.
“No, we don’t know what it is, and as long as I’m in charge, I’m not letting anyone get abducted.”
Amp smirked and adjusted his army helmet.
“Okay, but… Who voted you in charge?”
“Yeah!” Franny prompted.
“Whoever-votes-me-in-charge-raise-your-hand!”
Franny and Amp’s hands both went up. Lewis slowly raised his hand.
Arthur groaned and rolled his eyes. “No. Pack up, we’re going back home.”
“You don’t look like you can stop me…” Amp sang as he slowly pretended to walk towards the woods.
Arthur reached out and grabbed Amp’s ear tightly, causing a grunt of pain from the other. “No. We’re going home.”
“Okay, okay! Geez.”
Even as they cleaned up, Arthur found himself wanting to get closer as well.
______
That night, Lewis tossed and turned in his sleep. His dreams were strange and yet familiar.
He dreamed of frogs, robots, bubbles, and ticking clocks.
______
Notes:
Every chapter will have a song. Just keep in mind that except for chapter 4's song choice, the songs are based off of vibes, not lyrics. So don't take any lyrics too seriously.
Man on the Moon - R.E.M.
Please consider commenting! I absolutely love getting comments and they push me to write more!
Aliens of every shape, size, and color were gathered around. They were shouting, heckling, placing bets on the fighters, many with drinks in hand. In the chaos, one waiter - a scrawny alien with blue skin and three fingers on each hand - dropped an entire tray of drinks. Cheers erupted among a few.
On a nearby stage, a clique of aliens were playing a loud rock song from Earth. A drummer with enough tentacles to hit every drum at once hit a musical number with another alien playing the electric guitar. In front, the lead singer, with wings too small to logically lift him off the ground, took a deep breath and sang into the mic.
“So, so, so, so listen up ‘cause you can’t say nothin’!”
“You’ll shut me down with the push of a button!”
“But yo, I’m out and I’m gone!”
One alien sat on the end of the stage and held up a camera to take a photo of himself, but the singer gave him a swift kick and sent him flying. Laughs and jeers followed. It seemed typical of the nightlife at the bar.
The star of the bar was the ring, where two fighters were facing off.
Nearby sat tables where aliens were placing bets. “Fifty on the human!” Barked a bulldog-faced alien, a lit cigar in his mouth. “Come on, Robinson! Kick his ass!”
In the ring, Art dodged a mean upper right hook from his opponent, who had two sets of arms. The alien already had a broken antenna from earlier in the night, but based on his expression, it was only mildly painful.
BAM!
A powerful blow knocked Art back a few steps. Stars danced across his vision. He closed his eyes and steadied himself. His arms moved up just in time to stop a barrage of swings from the other fighter.
With a deep breath, Art lunged forward and swung hard.
WHAM!
The opponent was hit square in the face!
The alien went flying backwards, crashing into one of the betting tables and sending money and chips in every direction. The entire bar erupted, most with cheers, some with groans of disappointment. Onlookers gathered around the opponent, while a crafty few scooped up whatever money they could. The referee approached, wrapping a tentacle around Art’s wrist and lifting it high.
“The Pizza Man from Earth delivers again!”
Art suddenly caught sight of the time.
“Shoot, I have to head home!” He quickly headed to his corner and gathered his things. A friendly bargoer clapped Art on the shoulder. “Hey man, come celebrate with us!”
“I wish I could, but it’s movie night! Gotta see the family!” Art said, throwing his bag over his shoulder.
The space man made his way through the crowd and out of the bar, to his spaceship and a concourse through the galaxy towards home.
______
Wilbur groggily opened his eyes.
He must’ve fallen asleep at some point.
Looking down, he realized he was still in his day clothes, shoes and all. He vaguely remembered his mother’s voice, a kiss to his cheek and a blanket lovingly tucked around him. The blanket over him confirmed it was no dream. How long was he asleep? Outside his window, the world was dark.
It was the perfect time to carry out his plan. Tucking his new video game into his pocket, Wilbur Robinson headed to the time lab.
Sneaking past his family was easy, seeing as it was movie night. The whole family was gathered in the living room watching Disney’s Fantasia. It was nearing the end, the Ave Maria segment. Laszlo started to get up, but Tallulah put a hand on his shoulder and gave a reassuring look. He seemed to pause, but got up anyway. Wilbur hid around a corner as Laszlo left the room. Wilbur couldn’t help but notice his cousin lift his goggles to wipe at his eyes.
Wilbur crept around to where the garage door was.
It wasn’t closed.
Wilbur froze.
Things were hazy for a moment. Suddenly, the sound of Tiny yawning snapped him out of it, and he slipped into the garage. He made sure to close the door this time. He hadn’t planned on getting caught, but just in case, he moved a rolling tool cabinet in front of the door.
In the darkness of the garage, Wilbur stood.
The time machine sat in the back of the garage, mostly untouched since the entire fiasco took place a month prior.
With swift feet, Wilbur hurried across the room and climbed up the wing. He reached to open the hatch but paused. He moved his hand from the glass. A hand print… not his. Larger. Two. Three. Wilbur turned and stared blankly at dozens of hand prints covering the entirety of the time machine’s window. He felt like a hole had opened in his chest. He glanced at the rim where scratches were left in the glass, like someone trying to pry the time machine open.
What happened…?
After a few minutes, Wilbur managed to pry his eyes away from the hand prints and opened the hatch.
He nearly jumped out of his skin when alarms blared, red lights illuminating the empty garage in intervals.
______
Art entered into the earth’s atmosphere.
He was late. Much later than he’d meant to be. He’d gone as fast as he could, but you could only cross the universe so fast. Plus, boxing went later than expected.
The spaceman slowed the speed of the ship to a light cruise as he approached the endless fields of home. He’d been so busy with deliveries lately. It felt good to be back on Earth.
______
Hidden behind one of his many paintings, Laszlo’s room was a cacophony of color.
His room was decorated with anything colorful he could find. From paintings to books, paint swatches to flowers (both real and fake), to bottle caps, to colorful glass bottles and even candy wrappers.
The artist sat crosslegged on his bed, staring into space. Movie night always inspired him to create something new, but tonight was different. He couldn’t stop thinking of the slow and somber, yet hopeful music, the candles in the forest, the trees so perfectly balanced to look like stained glass, the-
“You’re doing that thing again.”
His shoulders jumped and he spun around to see Tallulah standing in the doorway, painting opened to the side. “What thing?”
“The thing where you stare off into space,” she said as she ducked under the doorway and stepped in, making sure not to knock over a vase of sunflowers with her hat.
In all fairness, he did have a habit of staring into space, lost in his own thoughts. Usually they were about how the sun glinted off of bubbles or what that instrument was in his favorite song, or how the sky was such a lovely shade of blue today. His family joked that he had a distant stare.
Laszlo hopped up and moved to sift through a stack of canvases leaning against the wall. He picked up a half finished piece, turning it this way and that, as if trying to reclaim whatever vision he had in mind for it.
“It’s nothing,” he then moved to the shelf covered in jars of paints with a variety of colors. He picked a couple deep blues, whites, and golds, and opened up the satchel-piece of his paint gun to fill. He glanced back at the jars and looked around, frowning. “Have you seen the cobalt? I swear it was right-”
Both of them jumped when an alarm sounded suddenly.
The jar of paint slipped from Laszlo’s hands and shattered on the ground.
______
Wilbur’s hands shook as he tried to punch in the code to start the time machine. Alarms continued to pierce his ears as he tried to focus.
[DENIED]
Denied. Of course he’s denied. It only made sense that his dad would change the code. Why the hell wouldn’t he change the code to the time machine?
Wilbur tried a different code. His parents’ wedding date.
[DENIED]
Wilbur swore. His hand glitched as he tried to type in another code. It felt like he had grabbed an electric cord.
Someone tried to open the garage door, but it hit the rolling tool cabinet. They tried it again. “Wilbur?” It was his mother’s voice. “Wilbur, what’s going on?”
Shit. Shit. His hand flickered. Wilbur typed in another code. His dad’s birthday.
[DENIED]
His mom’s birthday.
[DENIED]
Sweat began to bead on Wilbur’s forehead. The glitching extended to his arm. He cried out in pain and tried another code. Something! Anything!
[DENIED]
“Wilbur, open the door!” It was his father’s voice that called out to him this time. He didn’t sound angry. No, he sounded terrified. His dad was the smartest, coolest person in the entire world. He was the Father of the Future. He never got scared. Not even when the first prototype of the time machine exploded.
So why now? Wilbur had never heard his father’s voice take on such a tone his entire life. Before he could dwell on it further, his father began to ram the door even harder, causing the rolling tool cabinet to begin to move.
Suddenly when he tried to type in another code, the glitching in his hand caused the electric lock to break open. Wilbur gasped and jumped in, punching in the correct time to travel.
“Wilbur!”
The door burst open just as Wilbur’s glitching spread to his entire body, the time machine and beyond, enveloping Wilbur in a searing hot pain.
He screamed.
And then the world went white.
______
Notes:
Every chapter will have a song. Just keep in mind that except for chapter 4's song choice, the songs are based off of vibes, not lyrics. So don't take any lyrics too seriously.
Sabotage - Beastie Boys
Please consider commenting! I absolutely love getting comments and they push me to write more!
Spike: I'd like to thank the lady of the house for her generous gift of two dollars, which she handed to me outside this morning. Not necessary, but much appreciated.
