BOOM, everything went dark! No one could see anything! When the lights came back on, Adam, Josh, and Sarah were wondering what had happened? Everything looked the same, but yet so different. They all glanced around, and Adam noticed his phone. The year was showing 2215! That was 200 years in the future!
Adam was a brown haired, blue eyed teenager who loved engineering. He was the brains of the group. Sarah had long blonde hair, with sky blue eyes. She was Adam’s trusty partner. She understood construction, mechanics, and how to make Adam’s ideas work. Josh had curly brown hair and hazel eyes. He was good natured, a bit impulsive, and he was the go-fer who helped set up and prepare. Their project was an invention they had named Techno-Bot that would enable them to travel in time.
Adam, Josh, and Sarah always worked on the Techno-Bot in Adam’s garage, looking out of the window to the view of Chapman Lake. They thought it was the perfect place to work. It was so beautiful and peaceful. There were always people fishing, swimming, skiing, and making memories out on the lake.
On September 11, 2015, Adam and Sarah had just installed a new button that wasn’t quite ready. Josh just got back from Menards with the pieces they had sent him to get when he saw the new button. Without even asking, Josh impulsively pressed the button as Adam and Sarah yelled at the same time, “STOP!!!” That was when, BOOM, everything went dark as if it were night!
Luckily it was only a few moments before they could see again.
“Why did you press the button? It could only time travel to the future. We can’t time travel back. It wasn’t ready!” Adam said in distress.
“Sorry, it looked so fun to press. I didn’t know it would completely change where we were!” Josh exclaimed.
“Where are we?” Sarah asked.
“We went 200 years into the future.” Adam replied.
“How do you know that?” Sarah questioned.
Adam responded, “I looked at my phone. It showed September 11, 2215.”
They looked out the window and saw the lake. It was repugnant! There were no more boats or skiers. The lake was thick, brown, and smelly with dead animals, rubbish, and debris all over the area. No one lived around the lake anymore. Josh, Adam, and Sarah were horrified and filled with anguish.
“We need to get back, to warn the residents living by Chapman Lake, about the danger of pollution” Adam said still in shock.
"Yes, you three need to get back, because this place is depressing!" an old man said.
He had appeared out of nowhere which startled them, and they all jumped. He looked about mid 70's with droopy eyes, grey hair, and shaggy clothes. The old man looked like he had been here awhile.
"Who are you?" Josh asked.
"I am Timmy. You probably think I am crazy, but I have been here ever since I was about thirty. It has been very frustrating for me trying to figure out my invention to turn back the effects of pollution. I can't seem to find the exact piece needed to complete my machine. I was so hopeful when I saw you three appear. Maybe you could be the ones to solve the problem! Maybe you will be able to stop the pollution before it gets impossible to correct."
"Maybe we can. We have an invention too. It is called the Techno-Bot. Josh pressed this button," Adam stated while pointing at the red button, "You see it wasn't quite ready. We were still trying to figure out how to time travel back."
“How do we do make it back to 2015?” questioned Sarah.
“Maybe we need to look around and see if we could find something to finish the button,” Adam decided, "After all, technology would have advanced in 200 years."
They looked around the garage and were amazed at what they saw. The gadgets were so much higher tech. They were confident something would be useful.
“I found a box that was labeled reverse gadgets!” Josh said astonished. “Maybe one of the reverse gadgets in there would work on the Techno-Bot.”
“Way to go Josh!” Adam said passionately. “Now, which object will work?”
“Maybe this thingamajig will make the button work!” Josh proclaimed as he got something out of the box.
Adam had an idea of where it might go, and Sarah got the pieces put together. They pushed the button… Nothing happened.
"You kids can do it!" Timmy said eagerly, "Never give up!"
“Maybe we didn’t press it hard enough,” Sarah said anxiously. “Let’s try again.”
They all pressed the button really hard. There was no change.
“This is probably not the right gadget,” Sarah said sadly.
“Let’s try another one,” Adam said with optimism.
They all searched for something else to try. Josh found a thingamabob.
“Let’s hope this works,” Josh said nervously.
Adam, Josh, and Sarah pushed the button. They closed their eyes and believed that it would work, but all was still status quo.
“What are we going to do?” Josh said in desperation. “We are going to be stuck here, and we are never going to get back and warn the population of Chapman Lake before the lake is ruined!”
"Don't panic. This time will be it!" Timmy said confidently.
They looked one more time and found the enabler. Maybe that was all that was needed to make the thingamabob work. They attached the enabler to the Techno-Bot. Before they pressed the button they looked at Timmy, and he gave them the biggest grin.
"Wish us luck! Hopefully you will never see the lake so polluted" the kids said with great gusto.
They held their breath and pushed the button one last time… BOOM, everything went dark! They opened their eyes and saw the marvelous lake out the garage window.
All of them were yelling at the same time, “We did it! We made it! We got back!”
They were all jumping up and down and giving high fives! The three friends were so happy to be back to their own time. Then it occurred to them that they had a new job to do. They would make a plan to stop the pollution on Chapman Lake before it was too late! They never wanted it to be like what they had seen in the future.