John Pento Jr. woke up with a start.
He was having such a strange dream. He was in a place where no one had a clock or a watch but for some unknown reason it was very important for him to know the time.
He didn't know why, but he got a very bad feeling from that dream. And he would have been gloomy all morning if he hadn't suddenly remembered that it was his birthday. All at once that cheered him up and he jumped out of bed even though it was still early.
He got dressed as quickly as he could and went into the living room. To his surprise, he found his father already up and sitting by the window.
Hi, Dad," he said. "Is Mom up too?"
"She is," answered his father. "But she's not here. The hospital had an emergency and she had to go in to fill in for a nurse who was sick."
John nodded.
His mother was a nurse at St. Mary's, a nearby hospital, and she was always getting called in at odd times. His father would joke and say it was worse than being a doctor. At least they made more money!
While he was thinking this, he looked at his father. He didn't look as if he had just gotten up. As a matter of fact, he looked as if he had never gone to sleep!
But John shrugged off the thought as he reached out for the small package his father was handing him.
"Happy twelfth birthday," he said.
"Thanks, Dad," answered John.
Without wasting time, John opened the package and picked up what was inside. It was an old silver dollar. It was just what he wanted!
"Oh, great! Thanks, Dad," he cried. "It's just the date I need to complete my coin collection. It's the most valuable one too!"
His father nodded and smiled, but there was something strange in his expression. John couldn't figure out what it was.
"You're welcome," he said.
There was a brief moment of silence and his father looked as if he were trying to decide something. Then he sighed and pulled a strange-looking object out of his pocket and handed it to John.
"What's this?" John asked with a puzzled grin.
He put the silver dollar in his pocket and took the object and looked at it.
It was about the size and shape of a pack of playing cards and seemed to be made of some kind of transparent hard black plastic. There was a screen on one side and behind the screen he could see a mass of wires and twinkling lights. The screen was displaying the time and the date and right on top of the unit was a small red switch.
"What is it, Dad?" he asked. "A new electronic game?"
His father looked at him in that strange way again, but this time there was sadness in the look.
"No," he said. "It's a Time Machine."
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