Calling Einstein By Rachel Snyder

In a small town right outside of New York City, lives a 62 year old former scientist. This is me, my name is Jack. I live alone in a tiny house. Trees line my street and at night you can see all of the stars. Today is a Tuesday in September and it is early afternoon. Most people are working so the street is nearly empty except for the occasional dog walker or mailman. The air is warm and there is a light drizzle that has not stopped for days, making the air feel sticky. I do not I have any living family, but I used to work for a corporation called Ungerleiter Labs but was fired by Kyle Ungerlighter. He is the son of Bobby Ungerlighter. Bobby was a wonderful man and he was my boss and one of my closest friends, but when he died, his son Kyle was given the company to do what he wished with it. He has chosen to go down an evil path because of his need for control of the world.

During my time at Ungerlighter Labs I was working on the same project for almost my whole life. A time machine. I was never able to finish it, but now that I am finally free from the company that did not appreciate my work, I have finally finished the project of my life. I found a way to make my whole house into a time machine. All of the science should be right, but now I need to test it. I have been planning my test for 30 years, and now I can finally try it. I am going to give Albert Einstein an iPhone.

I hoped that when I came back to my time, the world as I knew it would be gone, and in its place would be a whole new modern world that without my help would not have existed for another thousand years. So without any further thought I took the brand new iPhone from my kitchen table still in the box, thought of where and when I wanted to go, and pressed the big red button in the middle of my living room floor.

I felt swirl of wind and then what felt like an electric shock. Then I saw a big flash of light and then I saw nothing. Zap! I landed on the sidewalk outside of what I recognized as Albert Einstein's home. In my hand was a small red button just as planned for my return to my time. I placed the phone in the small white box, on his doorstep and tied a little bow around it. On the box was a little note reading,

Albert, this is something for you to play around with. Try to figure it out. I hope you like it. Your world has never seen anything like it. And with that, I knocked on his door, thought of my house and my time, and pressed the button and in a flash I was back in my house, except it wasn't exactly my house.

Everything looked different. Everything looked so modern, and all of the furniture was floating about an inch off the ground. When I looked out my window I was amazed to see hundreds of cars flyinkg through the air. There were hologram billboards and all of the buildings around me were floating a few inches off the ground, like my furniture. There were also people standing on the sidewalks but the people weren't moving. The sidewalk was! This is amazing! I thought. As they glided along the path many of them were staring at glass rectangles. Right when I thought my plan was working and that giving Albert the phone would advance our world thousands of years in technology, I saw something that made my heart leap with fear. The same six words were printed on everything. The cars, the stores, the glass rectangles, and even the sidewalks. In neat swirly black lettering everything said,

Ungerlighter Labs,

The future of technology.

“Oh no,” I said to myself, “this is bad.” This was all my fault. Kyle is running the company, and if he has this much control of the world, he must be up to something very bad. If he gets too much power, he could be a dangerous as a outlet, a fork, and a toddler in the same room. That is when I felt something in my pocket where my iPhone should be. I pulled out one of the glass rectangles that everyone was carrying and realized that it was a phone. I looked at the screen and saw in big letters the headline of a newspaper:

Cameras Found in all Ungerlighter Labs Products. Are they Watching?

As I worried about what to do, I realized that the only way to fix what I had done was to undo it. I needed to go back in time to right before Albert got the phone and take it back. With that plan in mind, I went to the living room, thought of the place and time I wanted to go to, pressed the button and I was there. I was on walking down the block just in time to see myself knock on the door. I ran and took the package off the step and walked casually around the corner so nothing seemed suspicious.

When I came back to the present, everything looked normal again. I was becoming quite proud of myself for saving the world, when I heard a knock on the door. I opened the door slowly, wondering who would be at my house. When I looked outside, standing on my steps was Kyle Ungerlighter. My jaw tightened. Kyle could see my tension and said, “Don’t be so worried, I’ve decided to quit my job. I have realized that owning a science company can't get me anywhere closer to running the world.” If only he knew. “I'm giving you the company, my dad liked you and I hope that he was right about you.”

A few days later I signed a contract giving me full ownership of the company. I promised myself that I would only use the company only for good and not ever get carried away in trying to run the world like Kyle.

I also destroyed the time machine. I decided that it had caused enough trouble already.

Ungerlighter Labs became one of the best in the the world for helping people and doing only good for the world.

The End

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