16 The Time Traveler Returns

CHAPTER 16 The Time Traveler Returns And so I began my journey back in time from the distant future. I sat in the seat and watched as the blinking of days and nights returned. The sun shone a brilliant white again. The sky became its familiar blue, and the ocean disappeared from view. Trees and grass appeared, and the countryside became green

again. The dials spun backward until the one showing millions of days stopped at zero. I was almost back to present day. I slowed my speed. Buildings rose up around me. The dial showing thousands of days reached zero, too. Then, the walls of my workshop appeared. Very gently, I slowed the Time Machine even more. At one point, I saw everyone at the workshop door, looking into the room. Then I saw my housekeeper again. She walked across the workshop in the blink of an eye—just as before. But because I was traveling backward through time, she was moving in reverse. Then I stopped. I was in my old workshop again. It was good to see everything—my tools, workbenches, and drawings. It was good to hear the sound of traffic coming from outside. I took a deep breath and smelled the air that I knew so well. I got out of the Time Machine. I was shaking

and my legs were weak, so I sat down in a chair. I looked around. Everything was exactly the way I had left it. I almost wondered if I'd simply fallen asleep. Perhaps my adventure was nothing more than a dream. But not everything was exactly the same. When I started my journey, the Time Machine was sitting in one corner of the workshop. But when I returned, it was sitting on the other side of the room. In the future, the Morlocks had dragged it from the lawn into the base of the statue. That meant that it had been moved from one side of the room to the other in the present. I got up from the chair and walked into the hallway. There was a newspaper on the table by the front door. I looked at it and saw today's date. Then I looked at the clock and saw that it was almost eight o'clock in the evening. That's when I heard your voices and the clatter of dishes in the dining room. At first, I just wanted to go upstairs because I was still

feeling weak and sick. But then I smelled the meal. I opened the door and... well, you know the rest. I washed and ate, and now I am telling you my story.