Wormhole

Prompt: write about someone who has or is given the ability to teleport or time-travel.

Wormhole

“Timothy Edward and Peter Michael,” our Mama yelled from the kitchen. We knew when she added our middle names we were both about to get a verbal tongue lashing or the ominous threat of “wait ‘til your father gets home.”

We were stunned when she said, “Boys, you need to go outside and breathe the fresh autumn air. The fall school term will soon start and you’ll be climbing the walls to get outside. Put your video controllers down and go get yourselves muddy and sweaty.”

Being older than me, my brother Tim spoke. “Oh Mama, we can’t stop playing my new game called, ‘No Man’s Sky’. We are at a point in the game where we are ready to find wormholes, black holes and energy fields to travel through time. If we stop, we lose it all and we have to start over again.”

My mama would have nothing of the sort hearing this excuse. “You both need to blast off to the outside and find some wormholes and black holes outside in the yard. Or you can wait until your father comes home and deal with his death ray.”

Tim said, “Ok Mama. I’ll take this dweeb with me.”

We headed out to the woods behind our house. Tim and I walked around the grove of trees looking for a place to rest our royal rumps.

“How about we sit here little brother under the shade of this old apple tree?”

With a puzzled look I said, “But the ground is littered with apples. Some of them look pretty raunchy. “

Tim said, “I’ll clear a place to sit for you Wimpy.”

As soon as I sat down my brother kicked a bunch of rotten apples into my direction. Eventually, we both sat leaning against the base of the tree. Despite the shining sun, our faces were registering our dismay and boredom.

I perked up saying, “Hey Tim, some of these apples look pretty good to eat.”

I didn’t wait for his affirmation as I started to stuff both my pockets full of these red apples which were only the size of half dollars. They looked so delicious I was about to bite into one when Tim said, “you bonehead, these apples are full of wormholes. Don’t eat any of them.”

Just as he was finishing his sentence, I had already bitten into one not noticing the wormhole. “Oh yuck!” I cried. “I think I’m going to be sick to my stomach.” I sat on the ground. “Tim, I don’t feel right. My body is all tingly. I feel lighter.”

Annoyingly, Tim responded, “Stop being such a baby!” You’ll be fine! Just don’t eat any more.”

Shazam! Kaboom! Poof! I could no longer sense my arms, my legs. I could feel nothing. Tim was no longer beside me. Darkness surrounded me.

In an instant and literally out of nowhere my body reconstituted like powdered milk. From the void I plopped onto a group of soft ferns. Where was I? I am just a kid. Why is this happening to me? I looked around seeing lush, green, thick vegetation and fruit trees. I heard voices. Peering cautiously through the ferns I saw a man, and a woman without clothes. Yikes, they were naked! A third figure stood with them. It smelled of sulfur and his eyes burned with red like fire. Even from my distance, I could feel his heat coming from his body. It looked like a large reptile or serpent. The woman and serpent were talking to each other. And the serpent said to the woman,

“Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” And the woman replied “but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’”

Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (1)

Wow! I had traveled way back in time to the Garden of Eden. Eve was about to eat the forbidden fruit (which by the way looked more like a pomegranate and not an apple). Frantically, I jumped out of the ferns to get her attention shouting, “Eve don’t eat it! Adam why don’t you stop her? Please, please don’t do it.”

They did not see me. They could not hear me. But the serpent could. It just laughed at me knowing I had no power to do anything about it. “And then they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.”(2)

I trembled at the sound of the Lord’s presence. It was time for me to leave, but how? I figured if the apple with the wormhole got me here, I could hopefully do the same again. I nearly emptied my pockets of the apples searching for one with a wormhole on it. Surprisingly most of them had one. But which one? I grabbed the reddest one I could find. Then Shazam! Kaboom! Poof! There was darkness again. I felt like a feather. Bits and pieces of me were floating in the air like the first go round. This time I fell onto the hard ground. Thankfully there was no one under me to break the fall. Unfortunately, there was someone. I had landed on a stately looking middle-aged man. This time I was not invisible.

As he laid sprawled on the ground with me on top of him, he exclaimed, “Eureka! There is a force that causes objects to fall toward the earth. I shall call this gravity!

I thought to myself, “Geez! I just fell onto Sir Isaac Newton of all people!” I asked him if I hurt him.

He said, “Oh no my boy. I was watching the apples fall in my mother’s garden. They always fall straight down in a perpendicular fashion; never sideways or upwards. I think this force of gravity explains why the moon stays around the earth. I need to tell you I cannot tell my colleagues that a young lad came crashing down on me. Instead, I will perpetuate the observation that an apple clunked me on top of my head. Now off with you my boy before my neighbor ends up becoming suspicious.”

With those endearing parting words, I took another apple with a wormhole and bit down hard followed by another bite. Shazam, kaboom, poof! I had become fairy dust and drifted onto my next destination wherever that would be. I happened to land in a Swiss courtyard next to a dude who looked like he was a member of Robin Hood’s merry men. He took hold of me and introduced himself as William Tell.

“I need you to act as though you are my son. I am trying to avoid the Governor because he wants me to bow down to his hat hanging on a pole in the Altdorf Square. If he knows I have a son it affords me an excuse not to pay homage to him.”

No sooner had he finished telling me that, the Governor ordered his guards to tie me up putting an apple on my head. I quickly put another wormhole apple in my mouth. The Governor scolded Willliam Tell saying,

“You defy my ultimatum! Your son’s life is riding on the balance. You have a single shot to pierce the arrow. If you miss there will be catastrophic consequences for you and your son.”

Mr. Tell took aim at me. Or rather, I hoped it was the apple. Boing, woosh as the arrow sped toward my head. I chomped down the apple in my mouth. Just as the arrow pierced the apple, then shazam, kaboom, poof! I vanished into thin air. More fairy dust. I felt the elements of my body were again scattered across the universe.

Those elements of my body congealed into my form in the center of a great pasture right in front of a dude who looked like he was farming the land. He seemed startled at my sudden appearance. Then collecting himself, he cordially introduced himself as John Chapman.

“The townsfolk and strangers affectionately call me Johnny Appleseed. I spread seeds, particularly of the apple variety, far and wide throughout the United States. I’ve planted seeds in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana. Come join me as I head west to Illinois.”

I replied, “Thanks all the same Mr. Appleseed, but I need to get to California.” (I lied.) I added, “I am hoping to get home before the grapes in my vineyard turn sour. Harvest time you know. Just point me in that general direction.”

Johnny turned me toward west. Shazam, kaboom, poof! As quickly as I appeared I was gone again. In midair, I congealed smashing through the roof of a large building. Fortunately, I was not injured or even bruised due in part to the wormhole apple. (Personally, I believe meeting God in the Garden had much to do with it. I think He was well aware of my little adventure.)

I landed in an auditorium of sorts seated in a cushy chair. Other people were seated as well oblivious to my theatrical entrance. Their eyes were riveted on a screen in front of them. I recognized that an animated film was playing. It was “Snow White”. I looked over to my right seeing a poster advertising the “Snow White” film as Carthay Circle’s premier event, a full-length feature produced by Walt Disney.

Snow White was about to eat the apple, when I jumped out of my chair shouting, “Don’t eat it. The witch has poisoned it!” Every head in the theater turned toward me, shushing me. I had forgotten I was not invisible. I could feel my face turn as red as that apple Snow White had bitten. I had overstayed my intrusive appearance. So, as has been the routine of my story, I pulled out another apple with a worm hole, of course.

You know by now there was a Shazam, kaboom and poof. Instantly, I ‘demolecularized’ (fancy word I created for congealed) back into my handsome self. Of all places, I found myself in someone’s garage. Two guys were intensely working around a bunch of wires, circuits, old TV screens. It looked like a heaping mess. Then one of them noticed me asking who the hell I was.

“I am a delivery boy making a delivery in the neighborhood.” (I lied, again). “Who are you guys? I asked in a friendly, respectful tone.

“The guy with glasses said, “I am Steve Jobs and this is my engineering wizard Steve Wozniak. We are embarking on a journey into a new world. A world full of personal computing to the masses. We are more than dreamers. We are the embodiment of the future. We have become the lifeblood of computers in the here and now.”

My jaw dropped to the floor. All I could say was “Wow! You guys are the real thing! The gurus of the modern technological era.”

Wozniak squinted his eyes as he looked at me. I felt nervous as he kept looking me over, and over again.

“You are a spy. Jobs, we have a spy in our midst. We need to tie him up,” Wozniak yelled.

“Oh boy. Here we go again.” I pulled yet another apple out of my pocket, gulping it down as fast as I could. But nothing happened. Steve Jobs lunged at me. I pushed his face away from me. Shazam, kaboom, poof! It took a moment for the wormhole to kick in. I figured I must be developing a tolerance to its effects. Shazam, kaboom and poof!

My mind was in a fog. My body was one huge throbbing ache. I found myself laying in my bed.

I heard Tim’s voice saying, “Get up lazy head. Mom wants you out of bed for breakfast. She made us apple pancakes.”

I cringed and clutched my pillow. “Ooh, ooh, my stomach aches too much.”

Hearing my groans, Mama came into my room. “Peter Michael, get your butt out of that bed. It serves you right for eating so many apples yesterday.”

“Yes, Mama. Tim, wormholes do exist,” I said.

“You are still a dweeb, a bone head and a wimp. But you’re still my brother. Hurry up and get dressed so we can play “No Man’s Sky.”

“Tim, let’s hold off on the game for now. I think I have had enough wormholes for quite a while.” I grimaced a smile as I held the wire rim glasses that once belonged to Steve Jobs.

“Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old.” (3)

And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. (4)

END-

(1) Genesis 3:1b-5, NKJV

(2) Genesis 3:8 NKJV

(3) Isaiah 43: 18, NKJV

(4) Philippians 1:9-11, NKJV

NKJV=New King James Version