Chapter 3 – Edmund's Time Machine

Edmund stood grinning before the bewildered Opal and Lily.

"There's a time machine in Pine Valley?" Opal asked, to make sure she had heard him correctly.

He nodded. "Only I don't know where it is. That's where you two come in."

Opal made a face. "This is the dangdest thang I ever heard! Edmund has being a ghost made you lose your mind? How could there be a time machine in Pine Valley? How could there be a time machine anywhere? Everybody knows there's no such things as a --"

"Not everybody, Opal," Lily interrupted her. "I read a book once by Jules Verne that had a time machine in it. Actually, that was the name of the book. Did you ever read that book, Edmund?"

"Sure did, honey. Jules Verne knew what he was writing about."

"That was science fiction!" Opal said with emphasis. "There never was a real time machine!"

"But Edmund says there is," Lily pointed out.

"It's mine," Edmund revealed. "I invented it. It's what brought me here in the first place."

Opal made another face. "Your agent brought you here in the first place, sweetie. Just like everybody else!"

Edmund did everything he could to keep his voice even. "Opal, I am not like everybody else. For one thing, I'm a ghost. And for another thing, I'm from the future."

"Oh, for pity's --"

"Opal, Edmund can't lie!" Lily cried out in his defense. "Oh, what a second. I can't lie. I don't know whether or not Edmund can lie."

"I can lie," Edmund announced. "But I'm not lying."

For some crazy reason they both found themselves believing him.

"So how did you lose your time machine?" they asked him in unison.

"Damned if I know," he replied at once.

More than slightly exasperated, Opal started cleaning hairbrushes in the sink with a vengeance.

"The thing is that when I was alive, I didn't remember having gotten here in a time machine. I thought I was an actor in a soap opera."

Opal put more brushes in the sink. "You were an actor in a soap opera!"

Edmund had to make her understand. "Opal, there are levels of reality. There is more in heaven and earth than is dreamt of in your philosophy, Horatio."

Opal started drying the brushes and putting them away. "Who the hell is Horatio?"

"He's a character in 'Hamlet" by William Shakespeare," Lily explained. "He's a friend of Hamlet and he dies in the last scene."

"Horatio didn't have a time machine," Edmund put in.

Opal snorted. "But you do?"

Edmund nodded. "If only I could remember where I left it!"

"Maybe you parked it downtown," Lily theorized. She loved mysteries and took them where she could find them.

"No, it wasn't a car," Edmund was somehow certain.

"Then what was it?" demanded Opal. "A roller-coaster?"

"Nope, I don't think so," Edmund said. "Opal, I'm sorry you're doubting me."

Opal was sorry too. "It's just so far-fetched. Why would you time machine yourself from the future into a soap opera?"

Edmund shrugged. "That's the mystery."

"I'm good at solving mysteries," Lily told them both.

"Then here it is," Edmund said. "Somewhere in Pine Valley is my time machine. And if we don't find it first and deactivate it, it's going to bring matter together with antimatter. And you know what happens then."

"Boom?" guessed Lily.

Will Edmund find the time machine before matter collides into antimatter? Lots of chapters, lots of surprises still to come! Please read on! Your Review is welcome!