Time Adventure

I could feel the wind rushing by my face as I sped backwards into time. It was June 12, 2011, but by now I was probably in the early 1980s. Why did I do this again? I thought, dodging a plane that was spiraling down towards what I guessed was Scotland.

It all started last month, when my teacher, Dr. Brainstorm, assigned us all to invent something new, something that no one had ever invented before. My friend Alice created a solar powered can opener, Davie created canine contact lenses, but I made the best invention of all – a time machine! Dr. Brainstorm said that my invention was so good, that all of the class just had to try it. He suggested that I take the class on a tour of what we had just learned in History class. I agreed, but first I had to explain the glitch in the system. I could go anywhere I wanted to go, but after an hour there I had to travel somewhere else or I would be transported back to the beginning of time and stuck there. The whole class agreed that the danger was part of the thrill, so I merely shrugged, turned to my time machine, and said: ‘First Stop: Pre-Historic Kenya.’

The class oohed and ahhed as the room turned first purple, then green. Then suddenly, the time machine sucked the whole class into it and burst through the History class ceiling. We soared into the sky, twisting and whirling. Everything was a blur. The class screamed as we broke through the clouds and flew dangerously close to an airplane that was about to crash. I could hear Alice’s high-pitched scream above all of the other voices and it made me laugh.

So, here I was, going through centuries as if they were seconds, and all I could think was – I miss 2011. After a couple of minutes, we finally began to slow down. We went back down through the clouds and landed on the savanna of Kenya. We climbed out carefully, looking around in great wonder. There were animals, animals everywhere. I stared in awe at the lions lying lethargically in the shade of a rock. This was better than a safari! But I made myself focus on the task at hand – after all, we only had an hour. ‘Come on, you guys, let’s go look for some early humans!’ I called across to the rest of the group.

We trekked across the savanna, staring in wonder at the great sights but also taking care not to bother any of the animals. Then, suddenly, I came to a stop. ‘Look over there!’ I hissed, pointing to the beginning of a forest. We could see the outline of an apelike creature. In fact, if it wasn’t holding what looked like a makeshift spear, I would have thought he was an ape. He was running towards us, holding the spear in his hand. As he came closer, I could see him in more detail. ‘Homo Habilis,’ I explained to the rest of the class. ‘Also known as the handyman – he’s the guy who made the first tools. Now back away slowly, and let’s hope that he doesn’t see us.’ He came closer, still running and with a fierce expression on his face. ‘Um, guys- I think we should move.’ I said, starting to get a bit panicky now. The class didn’t listen to me –they were gazing at Homo Habilis, transfixed. ‘Move!’ I shouted, and finally Dr. Brainstorm snapped out of it. ‘Come on you guys,’ he said, and started herding them away from the path of the ape-man. What is he chasing after? I wondered. Then, I saw it – an antelope running, graceful and quick. However, it was getting tired, and Homo Habilis was gaining on it. Finally he reached it, and quickly stabbed the antelope in the neck with the spear. With a sickening moan, the antelope crumpled, and the ape-man slung it over his shoulder and started walking directly towards us. ‘Time to go,’ I said, nervous. We rushed back to the time machine, looking over our shoulders to make sure he wasn’t following us. Finally we reached it, and I quickly said, ‘Next stop – the Fertile Crescent.’

We made the same journey, just shorter and into the future this time. ‘Maria, do you think you could teach us a bit about the Fertile Crescent once we get out of this machine?’ Dr. Brainstorm requested. ‘Yeah, sure,’ I said, mentally going over what we learned in class.

‘Okay, guys, listen up,’ I said as we clambered out of the time machine. Before we step out into the unknown,’ I said dramatically, ‘I’m just going to brief you on some of the main points of Mesopotamia and why I decided to take you guys here anyway. So what we are looking at right now is one of the world’s first civilizations. This magnificent view,’ I said, sweeping my arm, ‘is where we can find out why people organize themselves into larger communities.’

‘Now, guys, let’s take some notes!’ Dr. Brainstorm said cheerfully.

‘Alright,’ I said, sort of nervous.

‘This is what you should write down,’ I said, pointing at my notebook.

· This is the Middle East

· This is where the growth and behavior of plants and animals became easier, humans learned how to control it

· Farming was fully established, they soon had extra food called surplus

· This was where the hunter-gatherers stopped being nomadic and settled down

‘Oh guys, look!’ I said, abandoning my pretense of teaching the class. ‘This is perfect timing! We’re able to see them using the wheel for the first time! That’s what Sumerians are most famous for – for inventing the wheel.’ ‘Coooool,’ Davie said, looking at a man moving a wheelbarrow full of grains. ‘Those grains are probably going to be stored as surplus,’ I said. ‘And look at that man over there!’ He was sitting on a huge stool with pictographs depicted on it and was being carried. He had people on each side of him with big fans to keep him cool and the flies off.

‘Guys, this place has basically all of the characteristics of a civilization,’ I said, getting back on topic. ‘They have specific jobs, like the man who’s wheeling the wheelbarrow, they have social classes, like the man on the stool who is all high and mighty, they trade their surplus, they have clear leadership, they have a writing system like the pictographs on the stool, and they definitely have a stable food supply.’

While we were looking around, I could see the two rivers Tigris and Euphrates on either side of me. I suppose those were what helped with the compulsory irrigation system, which helped the surplus of food and helped to prevent famine. I checked my watch and gasped – we had 2 minutes left before we would be transported to the beginning of time!

‘Gather around,’ Dr. Brainstorm called to our class. ‘We’re ready for the next location.’

‘Next stop is Ancient Egypt.’ I hurried to say.

Once we arrived, I could finally breathe again. It looked exactly like I expected. I looked around, and on my left, I could see the Nile. It was their main source of water, in fact, their main source of everything. It was flooding season, which meant that the Nile was bringing rich silt onto its banks. This fertilized the soil and made it easier to farm. I could see many boats travelling down the river, most likely to transport goods to trade. I turned away from the Nile, eager to see the other sites that looked so real and so new. I observed that there were many temples, for many different gods. This was because the Ancient Egyptians were polytheistic.

Suddenly, Dr. Brainstorm became adventurous. ‘Come on, class! Let’s go explore a pyramid!’ He ushered us into the closest pyramid, past the immobile guards. There isn’t much I can say to describe it – all I can say is that while the afterlife is a big thing in Ancient Egypt, dried up dead bodies are not very pretty.

‘All right, time to go!’ I called. We only had 5 minutes left. ‘Dr. Brainstorm, we can only go to one more stop – should it be India or China?’ I asked. ‘Oh, let’s make it Ancient India, shall we,’ he said airily.

‘Alright then: Next stop, Ancient India!’ I said loudly in the general direction of the time machine. Again we all felt the familiar suction feeling, and then we were whirling through time and through space.

We landed in the middle of a big city that I assumed was New Delhi. It was very busy, but that wasn’t the interesting part. The interesting part was that I had a view of nearly everything. There was a gigantic mountain range behind me that I could see by twisting my head, then when I looked over to my sides I could almost see the tips of the East and West Ghats.

‘Guys, let’s walk along the river!’ Dr. Brainstorm said happily. He just loves this stuff, I thought. We hiked over through the streets and alleyways of New Delhi for half an hour until we finally reached what must have been the Ganges River. ‘Oh no, it’s monsoon season!’ Dr. Brainstorm said excitedly as a huge cloud began to hover above our path. In only a matter of 2 minutes, the cloud had burst and it was raining like I had never seen it before. ‘June to September is monsoon season, then,’ Dr. Brainstorm reminded us. ‘We have to go,’ I reminded him. ‘After all, we only have half an hour and it’ll take us at least 25 minutes to reach our time machine again.’ We hurried back to our time machine, taking in the lush landscape and breathing in the never-polluted air of the ancient countries. I was sort of sad, because I knew that if I went to India in the present, it wouldn’t be nearly as nice as it was then. Oh well, I thought, and sadly walked back with the rest of the group. ‘Last stop – Home,’ I said, my voice wobbly. We were sucked into the time machine yet again, and the last thing I saw was a round Buddha’s belly painted on the building across from the time machine. ‘Goodbye’ I whispered.