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ELMO’S INVENTION: CHAPTER 1, ELMO’S WORKSHOP, THE BEGINNING OF THE TIME MACHINE

June 22, 2026 at 11:15 am Leave a comment

ELMO’S INVENTION

                                              CHAPTER 1

ELMO’S WORKSHOP

“Mildred,” Elmo Baker shouted, “Come down here.  I have something important to show you.”  Standing at the base of the cellar stairs, Elmo was in his usual excited state when a project was completed.  Of medium build, with a broad face and a mass of curly black hair, Elmo’s passion was science, physics in particular.   Mildred, with great trepidation, began walking down the stairs to the cellar.  At the base of the stairs stood Elmo, beaming, not a good sign, and Mildred could tell by the twinkle in his eye as she approached her husband, that a demonstration or explanation of an invention was about to take place.  And that twinkle would slowly if the experiment failed, which was often the case. 

The year was 1966, and Mildred loved Elmo so, but shortly after their marriage three years ago, it became clear how intense Elmo’s love for science was and that love would follow them all of their lives.  Mildred loved Elmo’s sense of curiosity but not the prospect of cleaning up the destruction, the mess of a failed experiment. 

 “Come here, Mil, I’ve got something to show you.” Elmo held out his hand to Mildred and said, “You have got to see this.  I’m ready to make the first test.”

Mildred was not looking forward to what Elmo might present to her.  Her husband was one of the first ‘dumpster divers’.  Los Alamos was the government facility known for its research of the atom, and it was where Elmo worked. And he knew that when an experiment failed, some of the materials that went into the effort were tossed, deemed trash. Lab bosses also discarded equipment they considered ‘obsolete’ to be replaced by the latest version.  But Elmo thought of this trash as treasure.  This was much to Elmo’s benefit and was the source that supplied his cellar laboratory.  At the end of his workday at his Los Alamos lab, Elmo would back his car up to the dumpster area and go to work.  On many days, he would come home with the backseat of his Chevy filled with scientific odds and ends.  To Elmo, Los Alamos’ trash was the building blocks of his inventions.

 Elmo led Mildred to the corner of the cellar where he had his workbench and lab of the cellar.  The remainder of the room was occupied by the usual accumulation of life which now had no use but never thrown away.  Below a bare overhead bulb was his invention.  Which looked to Mildred like and iron lung, one she had seen delivered. Elmo could see the confusion on his wife’s face, and proudly said, “Doll, I have invented a time machine.”

                                             * * *                                                                                                                                                                                                  

  Mildred kept her love for Elmo strong, although that could be difficult at times. 

Elmo was two years older than Mildred.  He was handsome, but that was not what had attracted Mildred to him.  It was his passion for a new curiosity he discovered, usually scientific. He found the world of science fascinating, with the wonder of a child enthralled by a rattle. At times he could sit for hours just thinking and occasionally smiling.  However, the toys that mystified him were sometimes slightly more dangerous than a toy.  

Mildred could not recall how many times Elmo called from the cellar, “Call the fire department!”  Shortly thereafter, dense smoke would issue from the open cellar door and begin to fill the kitchen.  This was long before 911 existed.  Mildred knew the phone number of the local fire department by heart.

She recalled the time Elmo constructed two small chambers attached by wires to an intricate control device with a host of dials and flashing lights.  The device was meant to transfer objects through space.  He wanted to test the machine before building the full-scale model.

Unfortunately for Mildred, she had been busy in the cellar doing some unpacking.  She wanted to display in her hutch the beautiful delicate six china teacups and saucers her mother had left her.  She knew exactly where they were packed and couldn’t wait to see them again.

The search did not take long, and while admiring one of the cups, she heard Elmo mutter, “I need something small.”  He happened to glance at Mildred and exclaimed, “Perfect.”

Before she realized what her husband was up to, he grabbed a cup and put it in one of the chambers.

“Elmo, what are you doing?  That was my mother’s cup!” shouted Mildred. “It’s precious to me.”

Elmo was only half listening as he began turning dials and focusing his attention on the chamber containing the cup.  “Don’t worry, Mildred.  Your cup is perfectly safe.  I’m just going to send it to the chamber at the other end of my workbench.”

Much to Mildred’s surprise, her vision of the cup appeared to waver, and then disappears.

Much to Elmo’s surprise, it did not reappear in the other chamber.

“Don’t worry, Mildred.  Let’s just give it some time.”

An hour later Mildred went storming up the stairs with five cups and six saucers, angry and sad at her loss.

Elmo continued to stare at the second chamber scratching his head and repeating over and over again, “I wonder where it went.”  He was happy that his wife wasn’t there when suddenly he began laughing hysterically, thinking of the cup suddenly appearing someplace quite by surprise and mystifying some unsuspecting person.  He was sure the cup went somewhere as matter.  For if it had been converted to energy, all that would be left of his house and most of the surrounding area would be cinders.

                     THE BEGINNING OF THE TIME MACHINE

One day after visiting the supermarket, although in those days they weren’t very super, Mildred was pulling her two-wheeled shopping cart down the street and was amazed to see a pickup parked in her driveway.  It was three in the afternoon, and four burly men stood behind the truck.  They looked relieved when they saw her approach.  In the bed of the truck was a huge piece of equipment.  Mildred recognized it immediately.  It was an iron lung.

Just recently, the newly developed polio vaccine began distribution on sugar cubes. Gradually iron lungs were no longer needed.  However, Mildred had lived with the fear of polio, knew people who had contracted the disease. Some still depended on the device for their lives to continue. “Where do you want this, lady?” asked the man obviously in charge.

“I don’t want it anywhere,” answered Mildred.  She had no idea why they had brought this to her home.  Then her mind had a flash, Elmo.

“Does an Elmo Baker live here?” the man asked. 

There it was.  Her husband had bought an iron lung.  Shaking her head, Mildred said, “I’m sure it belongs in the cellar.  I’ll show you the way.”

After many grunts and groans, the machine rested on its wheels in the cellar.

 “What could Elmo want with this thing?” pondered Mildred out loud.

Hearing Mildred one of the men said, “I don’t know nothing, lady.  We just deliver.”

The crew went back upstairs and climbed into their truck and left. And Elmo had some explaining to do when he came home from work.

Entry filed under: Elmo's Invention, Elmo's Invention, free science fiction and horror stories, free stories, READER'S OPPORTUNITIES, Walt Trizna, Walt Trizna's Stories. Tags: books, fantasy, fiction, invention, iron lung, Los Alamos, science fiction, short story, time machine, Walt Trizna, writing.