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Robert Essex Books
Category:
Children
Pages: 100
Copyright: Jan 2005
The Time Sledge allows Wendy and Tony to travel through time and space. The question is, can they ever return to their own time?
The Time Sledge is a fantastic adventure story, about a wonderful machine, that was given the name of the 'Time Sledge' when it was first discovered by Wendy and Tony.
The 'Time Sledge' takes Wendy and Tony back to the era in which their great grandparents lived. Once in the past they met and befriend their Great Grandparents, (without knowing who they are) and set out on a wonderful adventure. One which will probably be the most dangerous journey of their lives, taking them one thousand years into the future. What they did not know however, was that in moving into the future they would cross the mysterious Zort Barrier, locking them in the future with no way of returning home.
Some wild and exciting adventures await them, but the big question is this - will they ever get back to the time they came from? And will they ever see their parents again?
Excerpt
Chapter 1 - The start of the visits
Had we known two weeks earlier what was going to happen, we would not have believed it possible, an adventure so fantastic our lives were never going to be the same ever again.
We, being children, were able to accept all that happened initially, where our parents would have been sceptical and because of that fact, unable to understand where this could lead, or maybe very frightened because they did, but that’s mums and dads I suppose.
No one in their wildest dreams could even begin to imagine what was going to happen when we first made the discovery.
It all started one week before we broke up for our summer holidays. Having finished this particular day at school, I was on my way home and looking forward to some scones and raspberry jam with lashings of cream. Tuesday was always Mum’s baking day. We always had something nice to look forward to as she always told us the night before exactly what she was going to bake.
It was very warm on that special day, but then, it was July. There was not a cloud in the sky that was so blue.
I could smell the hay and hear the drone of bees on their journey to and fro. A tractor was working close by in the field I was passing and I could smell the paraffin exhaust as its engine popped and spluttered.
I looked back to see if Wendy was coming up behind, but I can’t see her yet. Wendy is my sister and although she is always late, we are great pals. She is four years older than me and will be thirteen in August.
The old lane I am walking along has been here for over five hundred years and is a wonderful walk home from school, the half mile to our home.
I spotted a Red Admiral butterfly as it landed on the ground in front of me. It had the largest pair of wings I had ever seen. Then I heard her.
“Tony! Stop please!” Yes, it was Wendy, late as usual.
When I turned and looked for the Red Admiral again, it had gone.
A little more out of puff more than usual, Wendy was at my side.
“Phew!” she exclaimed. “It’s jolly hot.”
“Where did you get to then?” I asked.
“Oh, Miss Seaton had to give us some homework and left it until it was time to go home.” She bent down to tie her shoelace. “I say Tony, what’s that?”
“What?” I asked. I couldn’t see anything.
“Get down here,” she instructed. “Look through the bottom part of the hedge.”
I bent down and looked through the bottom of the hedge Wendy had been staring through. Then I saw it. A glint of light, as though someone were using a mirror in the sunlight to draw attention to themselves.
“Come on,” I said. “Let’s go and investigate. It might be a valuable ring.”
“Don’t be daft!” said Wendy. “It’s probably a piece of glass or something.”
I hoped it was the ‘or something’ rather than glass. I climbed over the top of the gate into the field and put my hand up to help Wendy over. She had to sit on top of the gate for some reason or other, and then she slid down and almost knocked me over.
“Come on,” I said. “We will be here all day if you don’t hurry.”
“Who saw it first?” she asked. “And anyway, must you always be so impatient?”
“Yes,” I snapped, setting off at a run towards the shining object, with Wendy hot on my heels, and although with me being the first to run off, we both stopped almost together. You see, her legs are longer than mine. I waited to see what she would do next.
“Get down here Tony,” she said, lying down on her stomach in front of the hedge, legs bent and waving her nose backwards and forwards about two inches away from the object.
Having got down onto my stomach beside Wendy, I took a close look decided that it looked rather like a small torch with buttons on. It was silver in colour, highly polished and although we had not touched it, it seemed to be metal.
“Well,” said Wendy. “What an earth is it do you think? Someone’s torch that was thrown over the hedge?”
“I don’t know,” I replied, reaching out to touch it.
“Be careful Tony!” she said. “We don’t know what it is yet.”
“Well, I think it’s a torch as well, but have you noticed – the little screen on it? It covers half way down the length of the thing.”
“Yes,” she replied. “That is strange.”
“Here goes,” I said, reaching out and grabbing the thing. As my fingers closed over the top, I expected to simply pick it up, but what I had hold of was, in fact, the top of something that had buried itself into the ground and try as hard as I could, it would not move. By this time, we were both on hour knees, tugging and pulling at the object, but to no avail whatsoever. It simply would not budge, whatever we tried.
Wendy stood up, “Mother will get very worried if we don’t arrive at home soon Tony. We had better leave it and come back later – after tea maybe.”
“Oh alright,” I replied. “But I am going to cover it up with some earth or cow dung. We don’t want anybody else to find it, do we?”
“Well, I suppose not,” said Wendy. “But must you be so disgusting, covering it with cow pats? Look at your hands! And you smell as well. I can’t see anybody going near that!”
“Exactly,” I replied, a large grin of complete satisfaction on my speckled face. “That was exactly the point!”
After tea, we helped Mother with the washing-up. That was only fair; after all, she had cooked everything and prepared it.
“Is it alright if we go out to play Mother?” I asked. “Wendy is coming as well, aren’t you Wendy?”
“Yes, I would like to Mother,” Wendy replied.
Mother’s eyes went up to the cuckoo clock on the kitchen wall, just as the cuckoo shot out of his door to announce that it was five-thirty in the afternoon.
“Very well, the pair of you. Two hours only. Back at seven-thirty, no later. Have you completed your homework?”
We both replied that we had, stretching the truth about as far as it would go without telling a porky pie.
We had changed our clothes from our school uniform to scruff order so it didn’t matter if we got dirty – within reason of course!
We arrived back at the field fifteen minutes later, me with one of Father’s spades that he used for trenching his celery. As long as I cleaned it afterwards, there wouldn’t be a problem. Wendy brought along some old rags, a well-used paintbrush and a bottle of water to clean the object, plus an old screwdriver. We were both out of breath, having run most of the way and we collapsed side-by-side next to the huge pile of cow dung that I had put by the hedge earlier.
“You move that little lot,” said Wendy. “It’s absolutely awful!”
I had to laugh when I looked at the expression on her face at exactly the moment I put my fingers into the dung. I thought she was going to be sick. It was the worms, I suppose.
Having got down to the torch shaped object, I got onto my hands and knees again and with two hands, I tugged and heaved until I could feel my face going red with the effort and heat.
“It’s no good,” I wheezed.
“I can see that!” said Wendy. “Here, let me have a go.” She picked up Father’s spade and started to dig to the side of the object. As she drove the spade down into the ground, allowing a good foot either side of the object, there was a loud bang of metal hitting metal as the spade hit something.
“It must be much wider Wendy. Let me try prodding around with the screwdriver to get some idea of the shape and size.”
We were both getting very excited now. This was much larger that we had previously thought. I prodded around with the screwdriver, marking where I had been with twigs. The shape of the object appeared to be about six feet long and about three feet wide at the widest points.
“What an earth do you think it is Tony?” Wendy asked.
“Not a clue,” I replied. “But we’ll soon find out.” I carefully pushed the trenching spade down to the side of one of the narrowest points of the objects and in no time, we had a fair sized hole, the shape of which was oblong. The object appeared to be metal and along the sides there were what looked like four rather thick fins.
With no warning whatsoever, Wendy shouted at me. I nearly jumped out of my skin.
“It could be a bomb!” she said. “I read about those things. Leave it alone please!”
“Not likely!” I retorted, and kept digging until I had completely uncovered the object, by which time, Wendy had overcome her initial fright and had begun to help me. Even so, I was very tired - we both were.
“Oh dear, this wouldn’t be a treasure trove would it?” I asked her.
“Of course not Tony! It’s not treasure, but we had better get it over to that cow trough. We can give it a good wash. What do you think?”
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