"…and that's how I learned you shouldn't buy smoke detectors at a garage sale," Ms. Tutweiller continued, "By the way, has anyone seen Cody?"
"He wasn't at breakfast," Zack said
"Last night he cut out date short," Bailey explained, "I think he was sick."
"Oh," Ms. Tutweiller nodded, "OK. Anyway, like I was saying…"
/
Bailey and Zack walked to Cody's cabin after school to give him his homework. Bailey knocked on the door.
"Cody, it's me!" Bailey said
"Bailey, I'm kind of busy right now!" Cody yelled
"We've got your homework!" Zack said
"Slide it under the door!"
"Cody, what's wrong?" Bailey asked, "Are you sick?"
"No, I'm just very busy!"
"Are you sure?" Zack asked, "I could get you some soup…"
Cody opened the door with the chain on. He was sweating, out of breath, and was wearing what he had on last night.
"Guys, really, I'm fine," he said, "I'm just working on something. Something big. If I stop now, I can't finish it."
"Is that why you ran out on our date?" Bailey asked
"Yeah. The idea came to me, and I knew I couldn't put it off."
Cody took the homework, and then shut the door.
"Let's just leave him to it," Zack said, "He gets like this sometimes. He'll be over it in two days, tops."
"OK, if you're sure…"
/
A week later, Cody was still shut away in his room, working hard. He had Bailey bring him his work, Zack bring him his food, and had London bring him strange packages by air mail. Woody had been sleeping in Zack's room, since Cody kicked him out. Everyone was getting tired of Cody's antics; Ms. Tutweiller missed having a smart person in class, Bailey missed her boyfriend, and Zack hated having to do his own homework. Zack had had enough; he walked to Cody's room, and banged on the door.
"Cody! Get out here you lousy…!" Zack began
Cody opened up the door; he was in his bathrobe.
"Hey bro," he said, smiling
"Cody, you're driving all of us mad!" Zack yelled, "We're sick of running chores for you!"
"I'm sorry," Cody said, "But I'm done now."
"Oh," Zack wished he hadn't yelled, "Sorry."
"It's cool. I just really need to take a shower, and then I'll show you and Bailey what I've been working on."
"Ok. I'll bring her by."
/
Cody stepped inside his shower, and let the hot water wash away all the grime and sweat he had accumulated from the week. He shoved his hair right beneath the shower head, and poured almost half a bottle of conditioner on his head. He had neglected his hair; he had neglected a lot of things.
"Oh yeah…" Cody moaned
He finished his shower twenty minutes later, and stepped out. He dressed himself in white shorts and a green polo shirt; he wanted to look nice for the grand unveiling. Once he stepped out of the bathroom, and he saw Bailey, Woody, London, Ms. Tutweiller, and Zack were there, waiting for him. Cody had hoped they would be longer; he wanted to clean up the place a bit.
"Hey guys," Cody smiled, "Can I get anyone a soda?"
"Can you just get to the point?" Woody groaned
"OK…"
Cody walked to the center of the room, where there was something under a tarpaulin. He yanked on the tarpaulin, and revealed what looked like a large wooden crate, about the size of a phone booth.
"Are you going to mail yourself somewhere?" Zack asked
Cody opened the crate, revealing a huge room. The gang didn't know what to say.
"Come on in," Cody said
They followed the genius inside. The room was circular with sienna walls, a white roof, and a Turkish rug on the floor. In the center of the room was a metal box, with four large wires extending out to the wall.
"It's larger inside," Ms. Tutweiller breathed
"Holy cow!" London exclaimed
"This is amazing," Bailey breathed, "And you only built it in a week?"
"Yeah, but this is only part of it," Cody explained, "I only used dimensional manipulation so I could have space for its true purpose: a time machine."
Bailey raised an eyebrow.
"OK, Cody, trans-dimensional engineering is one thing, but time travel…that's just science fiction."
"Would you like a demonstration?" Cody asked
"Sure…"
Cody reached to the metal box, and opened it up, revealing two levers and a red button.
"Come see this," Cody ordered, "You might need to know it."
Everyone crowded around the box.
"Don't step on the wires, they're what power the time circuits," Cody said quickly
"Sorry!" Ms. Tutweiller backed away
"This one sends us back in time," Cody tapped on the left lever, "This one sends us forward."
He tapped on the right lever.
"By how far?" Bailey asked
"I can only control the direction," Cody explained, "Sometimes it goes millennia, sometimes centuries, and sometimes it just goes seconds."
"Then how would you get back here?" Woody asked
"Ah, now that's where this comes in," Cody indicated the red button, "It returns to a fixed point in time, wherever I leave my time-marker, which is just outside."
Cody reached to the lever on the right.
"Do you want to take a trip?" he asked
No objections. Cody pulled the left lever, and the room changed; its color descended into ultra violet blue, and the room warped. Bailey and Zack were flattened; Cody was stretched wider than a car. Ms. Tutweiller started to look like she did in high school. London was split in two, Woody became thinner.
"I'm going to throw up!" Woody groaned
"Don't worry!" Cody said, "This is supposed to happen!"
The light changed from violet to red, and the warping changed. There were seven London's, Woody looked anorexic, Ms. Tutweiller began morphing into a killer whale, and Zack started to look like he was made of yarn.
"Cody…!" he wailed
Suddenly, it stopped. Things were back to normal.
"Whew!" Cody wiped his forehead
Bailey shook her head, "Wow, doing that really clears your nasal passages!"
"Can we take a look outside?" Zack asked
"Hold on…" Cody reached to a hidden compartment, and took a silver gun out from it, "Laser gun. For emergencies only."
Woody walked to the door, and opened it. To his surprise, outside was a Roman marketplace.
"Cody!" Bailey exclaimed, "How did we get to Rome? Can this thing fly?"
"It's got a device that locks on to the nearest mass of people."
"What stops us from landing in a brick wall?" asked Ms. Tutweiller
"I made about a billion safety features," Cody continued, "It can only land on solid ground in space occupied by air."
/
The three of them walked around the market, observing the citizens in togas, merchants selling vases and jewelry, and people speaking Latin.
"Cody, you're a genius!" Bailey squealed
"What are you going to do with the machine?" Zack asked, "You could sell it for billions. Hey! We could buy the ship and make Mr. Moesby work as a towel boy!"
"The machine's for scientific research only," Cody replied
"Well, if you want to enter it in the science fair, I guarantee you'll get an 'A'," Ms. Tutweiller said
Suddenly, there was a loud bang. The gang turned to see a volcano erupt.
"This isn't Rome!" Cody croaked, "This is Pompeii!"
At once, they ran back to the time machine; smoke was already filling the marketplace, ash was raining down on them. Cody took out a special key, and unlocked the crate.
"Quick! Press the button!" Cody ordered, slamming the door
London flipped open the metal box, and pressed the red button. To Cody's shock, nothing happened.
"I don't get it!" Cody said, "It's supposed to automatically home in on the silver watch in my quarters!"
"Oh no!" Bailey gasped
"What did you do?" Cody exclaimed
"I was mad at you when we came into your quarters," Bailey said nervously, "So I…I took your watch. It was the only thing I could think of doing to hurt you."
Cody's face turned from confused to furious; he lunged at Bailey, attempting to claw her eyes out. Suddenly, Zack leapt to the future lever, and they began warping and discoloring. Ms. Tutweiller turned to stone, Cody caught on fire, Bailey started shrinking, Woody and London fused together, and Zack began getting older. Then the process stopped.
"We all need to remain calm," Zack said, "Bailey didn't mean to do any harm. Cody, you need to think about what to do."
"OK," Cody took a deep breath, "You're right. I'm sorry Bailey. This is a complicated machine."
"But you can get us back, can't you?" Zack asked
"I can't promise anything," Cody said, "Our only choice is to drift from past to future; we might get lucky."
"Well…shall we take a look at where we've landed?" Bailey suggested
"OK," Cody took back his laser gun from Zack
"We're probably going to see a lot of strange and foreign places," Ms. Tutweiller said
"Drift from time to time," Woody added
"Meeting a lot of weird-o's," London added
Bailey felt terrible about what she had done.
"I'm sorry, Cody," she said
"It's alright," he replied, with a little smile, "I'm actually looking forward to it…"
/
To be continued…