THE FUTURE NOW
Everyone inside the time machine watched as swirls of rainbow colors shot outside the window.
“Look,” said Howie, pointing. “That looks like a plane, only a really strange one. It doesn’t have any wings.”
“It looks more like a car flying,” said Freddy.
“And there’s a gigantic ice-cream cone,” said Wally, his face pressed against the window and drool running down his chin.
“Wally,” said Theodore, “that looks more like a tornado than an ice-cream cone.”
“I love tornadoes,” replied Wally. “They’re yummy with sprinkles.”
“Over there,” said Howie. “It’s the earth and the sun thing again.”
“Only now it’s moving in the other direction, really fast,” said Freddy.
“Which means that we’re going into the future” stated Theodore.
“Look,” said Freddy, “there’s a little boy. And he’s FLYING. And over there it looks like a —”
This time the time travel machine came to a stop so fast everyone inside was pitched forward and slammed against the windshield.
“Where are we?” asked Howie as he peered out the window.
Freddy was looking out too. “What does the time dial say?”
Theodore examined it. “The year 2206.”
“Omigosh!” said Freddy. “We went two hundred years into the future. How did the dial get set to that year?”
Wally started wailing. “Oh, no, no, it can’t be, not two hundred years into the future.”
“What are you so worked up about?” asked Si.
“Yeah, I’m the complainer around here,” moaned Meese. “You’re cramping my style.”
Wally looked at them tearfully. “Don’t you get it? I’ve missed two hundred years’ worth of meals.”
“I’m sure they have a cornucopia of gastronomic delights in this century, Wally,” said Theodore.
“Yeah, but do they have FOOD?”
“That is food,” said Ziggy.
“Oh, okay, then,” said a relieved Wally. “All that travel made me really hungry. Let’s go get some corn-, corn-, corn and copies of gassy devil lights, like Theodore said.” He hit the lever for the hatch and it opened.
“Wait, Wally,” said Freddy, “we don’t know what’s out there.”
“Only way to find out is to go exploring,” said Si as he and Meese hopped out.
“I think we should go back home,” said Theodore.
“Come on, Freddy,” said Howie. “Remember? We can find out how we turned out.”
Freddy beamed. “Wow, that would be cool. Okay, come on.” They all climbed out of the machine. “Wait a minute,” said Freddy. He pulled a small device out of his pocket and pointed it at the time machine. He hit a button and the time machine disappeared.
“Cool, Freddy,” said Howie.
“It’s based on my Dad’s Invisibrella invention. I figured if we went traveling through time we wouldn’t want anyone messing with our machine while we’re out of it.”
They moved away from the time machine and drew close to a bunch of buildings that were made of very shiny chrome and were tall and skinny. As they peered around a corner, they all got a shock.
Hundreds of people whizzed along — three feet above the street. Some were dressed in tight-fitting white outfits with black boots, others in burly coats with sandals on their feet. One group wore brightly colored clothes with their hair fashioned in the shapes of ducks, ships, and bowls of spaghetti. Another group were dressed as chess pieces and chased each other along the streets doing loop-the-loops.
“Wow, crazy clothes and crazy folks,” said Si. “I love ’em.”
“They’re scaring me out of my brain,” moaned Meese.
“Well, that shouldn’t take long,” added Si.
“Those look like anti-gravity belts they’re wearing,” said Freddy, “only a lot more sophisticated than the ones we have.”
“Look at those vehicles,” said Theodore, pointing. Flying along next to the people were large rainbow-colored contraptions with lots of people sitting inside.
“They must be like our buses,” said Howie.
“Come on,” said Freddy. “It’s time we checked out the future.”
“But what if someone sees us?” said Theodore.
Freddy replied, “I never thought I’d say this, but from all the crazy things I’ve seen so far, we actually look pretty normal.”
They drew close to one of the rainbow buses, and it immediately stopped and lowered to the ground. The door opened and a robot driver addressed them. “Where would you like to go?”
Freddy looked around at the others. “Uh, I’m not sure.”
“The library!” cried Howie.
“Library?” said the robot. “That term is not in my destination databank.”
“You know, where they have books and things,” said Freddy.
“Books?” said the robot.
Theodore, who was studying everything very closely, said, “I think what my young friends mean is we would like to go to your place of knowledge and wisdom.”
“Ah, the Center of Enlightenment, at the corner of Celsius and Andromeda. Please take a seat.”
As they boarded, Freddy said sheepishly, “Uh, we don’t have any money.”
“Money?” said the robot.
“Yeah, you know, to pay for the ride.”
The robot hit a button and the doors shut. “The ride is free. Everything is free in Pookesville.”
They all stared at each other and then looked out the window as the bus shot off, causing them all to tumble into their seats.
“This is Pookesville?” said Howie.
“Look,” said Theodore as they flew past an intersection.
They stared out the window. Sure enough, sitting in the town square was the statue of Captain Peter Pookes, who had founded the town.
“Of course,” said Freddy. “When we went into the future we did so only chronologically, and stayed in the same place.”
Howie stared out the window at all the strange buildings and people. “Boy, things can change a lot in a couple hundred years.”
The bus dropped them off at the Center of Enlightenment, a huge building that looked like a model of Earth. As Wally was getting off the bus, he stopped next to the robot.
“Hey, buddy, you wouldn’t happen to have any food for a starving Fry, would you? I haven’t had a thing to eat in over two hundred years”
“Certainly,” replied the robot, and he handed Wally a pill the size of an aspirin.
Wally looked very disappointed. “You don’t have anything in super size, do you?”
The robot said, “Don’t eat it all at once. Goodbye.”
The bus took off, leaving Wally looking very depressed. He studied the pill, shrugged, and then popped it in his mouth. “At least it tastes good,” he said. Suddenly, his eyes grew huge and his belly shot straight out two feet. “WWWOOOWWWW!!!” he shouted, rubbing his enormous stomach. I feel like I just ate all the food in the world.” He added tearfully, “Me love the future.”
“Come on, Wally,” said Freddy, and they headed into the building.
Inside they quickly found that there were no books. All one had to do was sit in front of a small screen that was at each desk and say the name of a subject, and all the information about the subject would appear on the screen.
Howie sat down at one of the screens with a very determined look. “Okay, I want the winning numbers for all the Powerball lotteries for the years 2006 through 2050.” The numbers flashed on the screen and Howie started writing them down.
“Howie!” said Freddy sharply. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Creating my own personal gold mine,” answered Howie happily. “Do you have any idea how many cheese cubes I can buy with all the money I’m going to win?”
“But that’s cheating.”
“It’s only cheating if someone catches me.”
“Howie, you can’t do that.”
Howie looked at Freddy’s screen and said, “All the plans for all the greatest inventions for the last hundred years.” The screen started filling up with information.
“WOW!” said a wide-eyed Freddy. “This is so cool. Do you realize what I can do with this? I can go back to our time and build this stuff and help the whole world.”
Howie beamed. “And you’ll be the most famous inventor of all time. You’ll knock Edison right off the top spot.”
“Wow,” said Freddy again. “Freddy Funkhouser number one, Thomas Edison, a distant second.”
“Uh, Freddy?” said Theodore.
“Not now, Theodore, I need to print these plans out.”
“But, Freddy, haven’t you thought about what you and Howie are doing?”
“Of course,” said Howie. “We’re taking full advantage of our situation for purposes of pure greed.”
“And world fame,” added Freddy.
“I think someone else might have traveled down this same path of temptation,” said Theodore.
“Who’s that?” asked Freddy absently.
“Silas Finklebean.”
Both Freddy and Howie whipped around to look at him.
Theodore continued. “I think Silas Finklebean went into the future and did what you’re doing now. You remember what the librarian told you? That Silas was very lucky when it came to betting on things?”
“That’s right,” admitted Freddy. “That’s what she said.”
“So what,” said Howie. “She also said he made a lot of money.”
“And he also disappeared, Howie,” Theodore reminded him.
Howie paled. “Oh, boy, he did, didn’t he?”
“Silas Finklebean,” mumbled Freddy distractedly as he looked at his screen. Suddenly the screen changed and they were staring at a picture of Silas Finklebean with all the information from the computer’s database, including his current address in Pookesville.
“My gosh,” said Freddy after they’d finished reading. “Silas Finklebean is right here.” He jumped up. “Come on, guys!”