The Time Torch and the Slap

NB: While these stories are all my own, I have to credit the excellent The Chronoscope (2007) with with the idea of a portable viewer into the past for pointing me towards this idea.

Mid-afternoon and it was still a beautiful, sunny day. After a wild morning of running, playing, swimming and climbing, Ari was pooped. He stretched out on the couch, put on his Yoto, took in a masssssive yawn and rested his eyes, drifting off into a well-earned nap.

…

SMACK!

Ari awoke with a splutter, sitting up and holding his stinging cheek. “What! What was that!?” he yelled. Whipping his still sleepy head around, he saw Ada tottering out of the room and realised that she must be running from the scene of the crime. Leaping to his feet, he scarpered after her and shouted “Ada! Why did you hit me!?”. She looked around at him in surprise. “No, Ari! No hit!”. Something about her genuine surprise gave Ari pause and he slowed down. “Ada. Did you hit me?”. “No, Ari”. Hmmmmmmmm.

💡

Ari had a great idea. “Of course! The Time Torch!”. He ran over to the hallway and pulled it out of its hiding place under the stairs. FLick on. Flick off. Dial the wheel back three minutes and flick it on, shining it in front walking back into the living room. Shining it on the couch, he could see himself fast asleep. Nothing much seemed to be going on, so Ari shone the torch around the room to see if there was anthing else different. Nothing, everywhere the light shone looked just like it did in the present. Sweeping the light back on the couch, he was still lying there asleep, but now there was a beautiful purple butterfly fluttering around his head, finally landing on his snoozing nose.

“Huh,” said Ari. This was interesting, but still didn’t explain his stinging sore cheek. If anythin-…oh well now, what’s this? Behind his sleeping face, Macklin slowly raised his head from where he’d been hiding, and Ari got a sense of what was about to happen ne-POW! So fast it was almost instant, Macklin LEAPED from his hiding place and landed, all four paws, with claws out, on Ari’s face, kicking his head hard to one side, narrowly missing the butterfly as it flew out of the way, and using Ari’s face to immediately kick off into the air to chase it. As sleepy Ari struggled to wake up with the terrible shock, the Ari with the Time Torch followed Macklin, who followed the butterfly, both of them right past Ada, who chased after Macklin, not knowing anything about poor Ari!

“Aaaaaaaaah OK I get it,” Ari said as he flicked the time torch off. “Sorry, Ada!” he said as he approached Ada and went to the back door, looking out at Macklin chasing the same butterfly in the back garden. “Macklin! Don’t jump on my face anymore!”

THE END