Chapter 36. Wilburs 'bright' idea.
Wilbur rolled his adventure in time over in his mind for the next few days.
The idea of going back in time to see historical figures wasen't to exciting for Wilbur, but the idea of messing them up made him happy. He also liked gloating to his friends.
He told his friends about his trip to Kitty Hawke, leaving out only one detail, and that was his mother punishing him once he had got home. His friends rolled their eyes at him and smiled fake grins.
"Yeah Wilbur, sure," they'd say.
"You do believe me don't you? My dads made the first working time machine!" Wilbur would say.
"We believe you Wilbur." His friends would answer in a mocking voice.
Wilbur lay on his bed staring at the ceiling, he held a small pillow in his hand which he twisted and turned.
"I have to prove it to my friends." Wilbur muttered. "I have to prove that I have been back in time."
He heard a rip and looked at the pillow he held, which now had a small tear in it.
He tossed it away and looked at his shelf. A camera sat on the shelf, looking sad and lonely.
"I got it!" Wilbur cried, jumping off the bed and grabbing the camera.
He jumped onto the floating platform and let it slowly sink to the floor, he jumped off before it reached the ground.
The twelve year old boy ran out of his room and to the lab, which was just down the hall.
He opened the door and ran smack into Carl.
"Little buddy!" Carl said. "Whats up with you?"
"Not now Carl," Wilbur said. "I need to talk with Dad."
"About what?" Carl asked.
"The time machine." Wilbur answered.
"Aren't you grounded?" Carl mused.
"Silly silly robot," Wilbur grinned, tweaking the robots nose. "thats not the point, now is it? Now move."
"Oh, real nice Wilbur." Carl rolled his eyes.
Wilbur pushed past his robot friend and began to walk the stairs. "Dads up here, right?"
Carl didn't answer, so Wilbur shook his head and reached the top.
His father sat at his desk drawing up a small blueprint.
Wilbur walked up behind him and dangled the camera infront of his fathers face.
"Yes Wilbur?" Cornelius sighed, not happy to be interupted.
"Do you know what this is dad?" Wilbur asked, still dangling the camera.
"Wilbur, what do you want?" Cornelius asked as he turned the chair around to face his son.
"Oh, nothing really. Except, I-want-you-to-take-me-back-to-kitty-hawke-so-I-can-see-the-brothers-again." Wilbur said in one breath.
"Oh I see." Cornelius grinned. "No."
"What? Why?" Wilbur groaned, letting his arms fall limp in defeat.
"Lets see, last time I took you to kitty hawke you tried to kill Orville, and you are grounded." Cornelius said.
"Now see, why do you have to bring up me being grounded?" Wilbur asked.
"Because you are. Now, I'm not taking you to Kitty Hawke. No more discussing this." He began to turn the chair again.
Wilbur grabbed his fathers shoulder and turned him around. "Dad, please. I just want to prove to my friends-"
"No Wilbur. If your friends don't believe you the first time, then oh well for them." Cornelius said sternly.
"Then I'll take the time machine myself." Wilbur started to leave when his fathers hand grabbed his small arm and brought him back. He pulled his son infront of him and held both his arms tightly.
"You look me in the eye." Cornelius said in a dangerous tone.
"Whoa dad." Wilbur said, startled at his father, who is usually easy-going and rarely pulled a Franny on him.
"You do not touch that machine. Ever. Or I'll have you in my hands so quickly, you won't know what happened until you feel it, you got that?"
"Your threatening me with pain?" Wilbur asked, raising an eyebrow. "Geez dad, way to pull a mom. Ow!"
Cornelius tightend his grip on Wilburs arms. "You do not touch that machine, got it?"
Wilbur nodded quickly, staring at his arms which were turning blue. "Can you let me go?"
Cornelius let go of his sons arms and turned him towards the stairs. "Get going now." He gave Wilbur a light pat and Wilbur began to decend from the lab. "And don't go near the garage!"
Came Corneliuses voice as Wilbur left the lab, defeated. Or at least thats what Cornelius thought.
Wilbur had more plans up his sleeve.
Late that night Wilbur carefuly snuck out of his bedroom.
His black pajama's shined in the darkness as he tip-toed into the living room.
The camera dangled from its cord from his palm. He looked around carefuly.
He reached the garage door and put his hand on the scanner.
"WILBUR ROBINSON IS NOT PERMITTED IN THE GARAGE."
Came a loud robotic voice.
"Dang it." Wilbur muttered under his breath. He looked around to make sure nobody in the house had heard the voice, then snuck over to the front door.
He opened and closed it silently, then broke into a sprint, he circled the house and sprinted up the hill that lead to the next entrance to the garage.
He walked up to the door and put his hand on the hand scanner.
"WELCOME BACK WILBUR ROBINSON."
Another robot voice sounded.
Wilbur grinned his toothy smile. "Nice try dad, but you forgot about this entrance. Ha ha ha."
He laughed mockingly as he entered the garage and spotted the red machine. He ran up to it and noticed a small scanner lock on the latch of the time machine.
It was a hair scanner. He plucked a hair from his cowlick and dropped it onto the scanner.
"WILBUR ROBINSON IS NOT PERMITTED TO USE THIS MACHINE. CORNELIUS ROBINSON WILL BE ALERTED AT ONCE."
"Ahh! No!" Wilbur cried, stepping backwards away from the machine.
A robotic voice sounded, calling out his fathers name.
"Dang it-dang it-dang it-dang it." He muttered, looking around for an escape. He was in big trouble if he was caught, and he knew it.
"Cornelius Robinson, Cornelius Robinson, Cornelius Robinson."
Wilbur, panicked and scared, spun on his heel and turned to make a run for it. His face hit something very hard and he fell backwards onto the ground.
"Oooow." He whimpered, rubbing his face. He looked up and realised he had run into the wing of the second time machine.
"Thats it!"
He jumped up, forgetting his pain, and opened the latch of the green time machine.
He jumped in and he quickly hit a button and the machine came to life.
"Aha! It does work!" Wilbur said triumphently, he quickly punched in the numbers to December 17th, 1903 and disappeared with the time machine through the hole in the roof.
Wilbur smiled again as he landed the time machine on a rough sand dune.
Orville and Wilbur Wright and their two friends were pushing a large flying contraption onto the topmost sand dune.
Wilbur jumped out of the time machine and began a hard climb up the sand dune.
When he reached the top, Orville was already in the machine ready for take off as Wilbur Wright filled the engine full of gasoline.
"Excuse me!" Wilbur asked suddenly.
Wilbur Wright looked up and smiled. "Hello. What say you boy?"
"Uh..." Wilbur mumbled, confused.
"Ah, its alright. I and my brother here, Orville, are going to try to fly today. Care to watch?"
Wilbur looked at the flying contraption and shrugged. "I really can't. Mind if I take a picture of you?"
"Ah, you have a pictrograph I have not yet seen before. Did you invent it yourself, child?" Wilbur Wright asked, peering at the camera.
"No, my dad did." Wilbur said. "Its not like the cameras you are used to. This is from my time."
"Your time? My dear boy, what do you mean?" Wilbur Wright asked, scratching his head.
"Uh...I'm going to take your photo now." Wilbur said, lifting the camera.
"Wait." Orville said from the flying machine. "Why don't you let our friend take the photo, that way you can be in the picture with my brother and I?"
"Fine idea, Orville!" Wilbur Wright said gaily. "What say you, boy?"
"I say me yes?" Wilbur said, confused yet again.
"Wonderfull!" Wilbur Wright said, taking the camera from Wilbur and handing it to his friend.
Orville stepped out of the machine and stood next to his brother, Wilbur stood infront of the two.
"You just, uh, press that button on top right there." Wilbur said as the Wrights friend had trouble taking the picture.
Finally he snapped the photo and handed the camera back to Wilbur.
"It was fun to meet you boy." Orville said, shaking Wilburs hand. "By the way, what is your name?"
"Wilbur." Wilbur answered.
"Oh, just what I need." Orville muttered playfully. "Another Wilbur!"
"I have to go now." Wilbur said, motioning to the time machine that was hidden behind another dune.
"Go right on, we don't want to keep you!" Orville said, giving a small wave.
"Good-bye young Wilbur, may you invent many things! Remember, get it right on paper and it'll be right in real life!" Wilbur Wright said, aslo waving good-bye to Wilbur.
Wilbur gave him a thumbs up, then trotted down the hill, finally knowing where that quote in his fathers buisness had come from.
He hopped from the time machine once it had landed safely in the garage.
The alarm had stopped sounding, and Wilbur couldn't make up his mind if it was a good or bad thing. He began to walk toward the exit in darkness when suddenly he hit a soft wall.
The light flickered on and Wilbur lifted his head from his fathers stomach.
Cornelius stared down at his son with a mad expression, and looked as if he was biting his tongue.
"Ahehheh." Wilbur laughed guiltily, grinning a guilty smile and shrugging his arms.
Cornelius grabbed one of Wilburs arms and lead him out of the garage in silence.
Wilbur kept silent as he let himself be lead through the Robinson household, thoughts of what his father might do to him ran through his mind, non of them were very good.
Wilbur sat in his lit bedroom, his knees pulled up to his chin.
The beanbag he was sitting on, he barely noticed. He stared at his bedroom door, having no idea what was happening outside it.
All he knew was that he was in deep trouble.
He scolded himself over and over again in his head as he rocked back and forth and tried to listen to his mother and father talking outside his door.
It was three in the morning, and the alarm had woken everybody in the house. None of them were very happy, but out of the whole bunch it was Franny and Cornelius that were the angriest.
"You disobeyed me." Cornelius had said as he lead Wilbur to his room.
"I know."
"You didn't listen to what I said in the lab."
"I know."
"You could have ruined the time stream."
"I know. And I'm sorry." Wilbur said in a small voice as he stared at his feet.
Cornelius had opened Wilburs bedroom door by then. "Get in there and wait for me and your mother." He had said. "You have no idea how much trouble you are in right now, Wilbur."
And there Wilbur was, sitting in his room rocking back and forth hugging his knees.
He had stopped panicking only seconds before. "Stupid stupid stupid." He repeated to himself.
The doorknob on his door jiggled, Wilbur was up on his feet before Franny and Cornelius stepped inside.
"I'm sorry!" Wilbur said at once.
Cornelius opened his mouth to say something.
"I know I'm in a lot of trouble. Please don't hit me." Wilbur said, trying to put on his best pout as he shielded his face.
"We're not going to hit you," Franny rolled her eyes. "at least I'm not."
Wilbur shot a worried glance at Cornelius.
"I'm not either." Cornelius told his son, who breathed a sigh of relief. "Even though you are in need of a good hit."
"So...What are you going to do to me?" Wilbur asked, dropping his arms to his sides.
Cornelius let out a long sigh. "Wilbur, let me just start by telling you you really blew it big this time."
Wilbur hung his head, knowing that no good could come from a scolding that began with 'Let me just start by'.
"I know. Am I grounded?"
"Ho ho!" Franny said. "Grounded? Honey, you passed the point of grounded a long time ago!"
Wilbur ignored his mother and stared at his father, the person he was most scared of at the moment. He stuck out his bottom lip and repeated the question.
"Quit pouting Wilbur." Cornelius said in a bland voice, Wilbur quickly stopped pouting.
"Your punishment will be," Cornelius began, Wilbur swallowed hard and looked his father in the slippers.
"You will not go near the garage again unless you have permission. You will not have friends over until your 13th birthday, you will not be alowed to go anywhere until your 13th birthday, you will not alowed to play chargeball until your birthday, you can not watch TV until your birthday. You will also help me and your mother around the house whenever we need your help, until your birthday."
Wilburs jaw dropped, his birthday was four months away. "B-b-but, thats not fair!" Wilbur sputtered, completely upset. "I didn't mess up the past or future."
"Don't you dare tell us whats fair, young man," Franny said in a very dangerous tone.
Wilbur frowned at his mother. "What am I supposed to do around here then?"
"Like your father said, you'll help him and I around the house," Franny told him. "You could also read a book."
Wilbur rolled his eyes at his mother. "Mom, I don't read if I don't have to, you know that!"
"Oh well then." Shrugged Franny.
"Now its pretty late," Cornelius said. "And the nights been full of time machine rides and emotional turmoil, I say we all hit the hay."
Franny gave Wilbur and hug and kissed him goodnight then left the room, leaving Cornelius and Wilbur alone in the room.
"I...I got the picture." Wilbur murmured, trying to make his father less angry.
"Let me see it." Cornelius held out his palm.
Wilbur took from his pocket the developed picture and handed it to his father.
Cornelius looked at it for a few minutes then chuckled. "You look so confused."
"That crazy bald Wright brother kept talking weird." Wilbur muttered.
"Yeah. They did that back then." Cornelius handed the picture back to his son.
"You mean I can keep it?" Wilbur asked.
"You can," Cornelius embraced his son in a deep hug, then in a dangerous tone, he whispered in Wilburs ear:
"If you ever touch one of the time machines again, I promise you, next time I will make sure you will get a worse punishment. Do you got me?"
Wilbur nodded silently as his father let him go. "Now get to bed. Its almost four and your going to be getting up early tomorrow."
"But its saturday tomorrow." Wilbur said.
"I know." Cornelius winked as he opened Wilburs bedroom door. "Your helping your mother weed her garden tomorrow. What fun, huh?"
He chuckled and shut the door behind him, leaving Wilbur defeated and tired.
The first three months passed rather quickly, but it seemed the countdown to Wilburs birthday took forever.
To Wilbur, the seconds felt like minutes, the minutes like hours, the hours like days, the days like weeks. This, he had to admit, was one of the worst punishments he had ever been given.
He had complained for the first two weeks of his punishment, but quickly stopped once Cornelius had given him a quick lesson.
"This is extremely not fair." Wilbur had complained as he slowly dragged a bucket full of heavy metal over to his father. "I hate this, I hate this, I hate this. I can't believe how much I hate this."
He stopped halfway to his father. "I am so sick of this." He kicked the bucket. "I am going to leave this stupid lab and never come back, I swear it."
He kept on complaining and making false promises to himself.
Cornelius, fed up with his sons constant whining, rolled his eyes then called his son over.
Wilbur slumped over to his father, who was at his desk working on a new invention.
"Wilbur, I'd like you to be the first to try out my newest invention." Cornelius grinned.
"Whatever," Wilbur muttered.
"Okay then," Cornelius said. He grabbed one end of his invention and pulled it over, then pulled the other part over.
It looked somewhat like a trip wire. The more you spread the two parts over, the rope between them grew longer. Cornelius flipped the switch on one of the end parts.
"What is that?" Wilbur asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Its something I'm working on for the garage." Cornelius winked. "Now Wilbur, grab the wire in the middle for me, okay?"
"Whatever." Wilbur said, reaching for the wire. He grabbed it, a sizzling noise erupted and he pulled his hand away quickly.
"Ahh! What the heck?" He cried, rubbing his hand. "Dang it! It shocked me!"
"Aha!" Cornelius clapped his hands happily. "It works!"
"What works?"
Cornelius flipped the off switch on the machine. "My new secuirity system. I'm going to plant these in a few special places near the garage, to keep certain people out," Cornelius said, glancing at Wilbur. "It gives the intruder a sharp shock. Now, quit your whining, got that? Go finish with the bucket, or you'll be feeling more shocks."
Wilbur then walked back to the bucket, grumbling and rubbing his sore hand.
Ever since then, Wilbur had stopped his complaining and only whined every so often.
A week before his birthday he was sweeping the lab when the phone rang. He and Cornelius both bounded for it, but Cornelius picked it up first.
"Hullo?" He said into the piece.
He talked a few minutes then placed the phone back down.
"Who was that?" Wilbur asked, leaning on the broom handel.
"My job. I've got to go out of town the day after your birthday for two days." Cornelius replied as he went to leave the lab. He looked at his desk at the still unfinished secuirity system.
"I guess I'll put that up once I get home." He then decended from the lab.
"Aha, he's going to be out of the house, huh?" Wilbur said to himself as he raised an eyebrow.
He quickly finished up the sweeping and ran out of the lab to find Carl.
He found the robot outside, watering Frannys flowers from a hose that sprouted from his arm.
"Carl!" Wilbur cried, jumping up behind the robot.
"AH!" Carl screamed as he spun around and accidently soaked Wilbur with the hose. "Wilbur! Don't do that!"
Wilbur lifted his arms out from his sides and let the water drip from his drenched body, he looked himself over then looked at Carl. "Why?"
Carl began to fit the hose back in his arm. "What did you want, Wilbur?"
"What makes you think I want something?" Wilbur asked inocently.
Carl raised a robotic eyebrow at Wilbur and gave him a face that clearly said: 'When DON'T you want anything?'
"Okay, you got me. I do want something." Wilbur said, grinning his famous smile.
"I'm not giving anything to you, your grounded." Carl said.
"Silly robot!" Wilbur said. "I don't want you to give anything to me. Now, dads leaving on a buisness trip right after my birthday. And dad's not setting the security system up, so that'll leave the garage clear and-"
"Ho! Wait there Wilbur, hasen't this whole four month grounding taught you anything?" Carl asked.
"Yeah. It taught me next time, don't get caught." Wilbur said. "Now, I already have a picture of me with the Wright brothers, here's my list of people I need."
He handed Carl the paper and the robot scanned the list over. "And how do you suppose your going to get the pictures when your grounded?"
"Now you see, he leaves after my birthday. I'll be UN-grounded." Wilbur grinned at his own smartness.
"What about the time machine?"
"Well, you see. Mom always ask's me to take out the trash right? She'll give me permission to take it out through the garage. And from there, its easy sailing." Wilbur grinned again.
"And what are you going to take the pictures with? Your dad took the camera and locked it away." Carl stated.
"That is an excelent question!" Wilbur said, he plucked the paper from Carls fingers then turned and sprinted back into the house.
"I really need to get away from him and get some quiet time." Carl muttered, producing the hose again.
Wilbur ran into the music room and slid to a stop just inches away from his mother.
"Wilbur! Be carefull!" Franny cried.
Wilbur smiled at his mother. "Can I have a camera for my birthday? I want to take pictures of all my friends and I want to take pictures of all this wonderful family so I'll remember them for my whole life." Wilbur said.
Franny raised an eyebrow. "Sounds like a good reason. I'll see what I can do."
"Thanks mommy!" Wilbur said, then attacked him mother with a tight hug.
He then walked out of the room calmly, leaving Franny confused.
"'Mommy'? What is up with that boy?