George and the Marvelous Time Machine

Author Bio: Parker loves being outside playing basketball and being around his dog. He also enjoys playing occasionally video games.

Blurb: George rarely sees his family and needs to find a way to fix it.

George has just recently got new hours for his job and has found out he has no time to be around his family, and this is because he is always on business trips and working late. He works in a time laboratory in Burlington, Vermont, and has been working on coming out with a new device. The device is able to speed, slow, and pause time. Resulting with him being able to be with his family.

He woke up and went out to get his coffee started. His wife is leaning against the counter-top staring at him.

“Will you be at Sarah's karate ceremony tonight?” questioned Kate his wife.

“I have work,” answered George.

“You need to find the line between work and family,” commented Kate.

“I will,” replied George.

He continued to his room where he pulled his khakis on, and slid his pullover flannel coat on since it’s the middle of winter. Then he drove to work which is where his day starts with entering his four story lab building and greeting the front desk women named Abby. Sniffing in the Island Breeze coffee, always brewing in the lobby. Then continuing onward to board the elevator, and hitting his every day level three with his fingerprint embedded within the plastic button. He then exits and turns the corner to enter his glass paned office slot which he ducks to enter so he doesn't hit his head and the doorway. He sits down at his desk and pulls out a granola bar which he engulfs in the matter of seconds. His office looks out over the center of the lab which has all of the new and recent inventions.

His invention is right outside his office and it’s closed in walls for his eyes only. It’s going to be a time machine but he’s the only one who knows it. He’s making it so that he can pause time and be with his family more. This is because his day starts with him getting up at 4:00 and working 5:00-10:00. He never gets to see his kids, so he is making this machine just for him and his family’s benefit.

Later that day, George realizes, I just need one more hydro flask air diffuser and my masterpiece will be finished.

Once he adds the piece and turns the machine on, and it’s running great. George enters the machine and presses go. The machine starts shaking and bouncing. Everyone around the building comes running over and they see the machine shaking and bouncing and then it disappears. They walk over to where it was and there's no evidence of anything recently being present there.

“Where’s George,” comments Abby.

James replies,“He’s not in his office.”

“Where did his project he’s been working on recently go,” Josh adds.

“He must’ve been in it,” claimed Dave.

****

As George exits the steaming machine he realizes he’s at his house and his alarm clock is repetitively buzzing and it reads 4:00 am, 9/4/25 and that's when he realizes. He traveled back in time to this morning. He hits snooze so his wife doesn’t wake up to the beeping alarm. As he turns around and finds that the time machine is not behind him where he had recently stepped out of it. He thought it was going to bring him to the future but he must have forgot to change it from am-pm. It was set for this afternoon but now he will have to redo the day exactly the same way and refinish the machine, otherwise he may never finish the machine.

After breakfast again he doesn’t eat much since he just ate at work, and once he gets to work he says hi to Abby and does his routine. As he exits the elevator, he remembers, I have to put the hydro flask air diffuser in the time machine, to finish it.

Once he adds the piece and enters the machine, he closes the door and enters 4:00 PM, 9/5/25. He checks twice to make sure the pause setting was on and the date and time were right. He goes on to press enter. The machine starts shaking and steaming and a scared chill runs down his spine as the machine comes to a stop.

He opens the steaming door and exits the machine to see he’s at work. His Spongebob clock in his office says 4:01 and its not moving. He sees Abby in his office but she’s perfectly still and he realizes the machine must’ve worked.

He decided to go home to see his family. He was not expecting what he saw behind the door. George saw his family paused in the hallway as they were getting ready to head out the door. He knew what he had to do.

He jumped in his car and drove straight back to his office and hopped in the machine. He pressed play button and pressed go, the machine repeated the shaking and steaming and then settled down. He exits the machine and walks over to the elevator and enters to hit the unusual level four. He thinks in his head what he has to do, go to the bosses level. He exits to see the whole top level all open with the sun glaring through a million different windows blinding his eyes. Once his eyes adjust he walks over to the desk where his boss is peering over the top of his laptop at him.

He approaches his boss and mumbles out two words. I’m Quitting. He turned around and walked back towards the elevator in relief. He enters and hits ground level for the last time with a sense of pride among him. He exits the elevator and says bye to Abby and he exits the building and feels light as air because of the weight that was just taken off his back. He glides into his car and zooms home.

When he arrives at home he enters his house to see his wife and kids playing in the livingroom and his kids come screaming at him with excitement. His wife walks over and gives him a kiss and George tells them the whole story of why he quit his job.

Abby informed George,“The kids just got home from school and we were about to leave and go swimming at the lake.”

“Can I come,” sarcastically asked George.

“Yes!”, screamed the kids in unison.

They continued out the door toward the car in joy. They arrived at the lake and were playing in the water together and splashing around. That's when it hit George. He knew he made the right decision to quit his job and be with his family, because family comes before work.