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A Most Ambitious Experiment

"Now," Robert told his wife, "I am going on a long trip. You won't see me for years, but I will come back and see you."

"Where are you going?"

"I am going into the future. I am sure you will be angry when you see me, but it won't be for long, because once I have seen you, I will then vanish again and you will see me standing in this very spot exactly five minutes from now."

Robert's wife was puzzled.

"I am curious what our 401k will do if I invest in certain options and leave them," he said. "I've decided to go twenty years into the future and see the outcome."

"What if you can't come back?"

A slight pause - then, "I hope I made the right choice."

"What do you want for dinner?"

"I wouldn't make anything for me now, but, five minutes later, I will tell you what I want."

Robert left for the basement. His wife, still confused, but knowing that Robert was a puzzling man, went to the kitchen to make dinner, with or without her husband's request. She was quite unsure what to make of all of it, but, after a few minutes, she quickly forgot the conversation.

Later in the afternoon, Robert's wife walked over to the basement door and knocked. She waited. She knocked again, and, again, nothing. Finally, she opened the door and walked down to the laboratory. Robert was nowhere to be seen. She hadn't heard him come up. Where had he gone?

When supper was ready, and the light outside turned a dim color, Robert's wife called out his name, but no one answered. The house was quite still.

"I don't like this," she thought. "He's never been late for dinner before."

Robert's dinner grew cold, and his wife placed it in the oven to keep warm hoping he would notice it when he came back. In the morning, Robert's plate was still warm in the oven. He had never touched it. His wife looked for him once again and called out his name, but it was to no avail - he wasn't in the house.

After several days, Robert's wife contacted the authorities and told them what had happened. They searched the house for clues, but all they could find was a slightly discolored spot on the basement floor.

←2→

"Did he say anything before he left?" they asked.

"I'll be back in five minutes," she said.

After the authorities had left, and after several more days, weeks and months, the case was officially closed. Robert was missing, but since no foul play could be determined, it was decided that he had just deserted his wife. Robert's wife was not pleased.

Years passed, and Robert's wife was able to secure a job that kept her living slightly above poverty level. Day after day, while working, she cursed her husband for leaving her. She would never forgive him. Never! Her face became more wrinkled and the pretty smile she once wore turned into a permanent scowl.

Finally, twenty years to the day her husband had left, Robert's wife was sitting at the kitchen table when she heard a noise coming from the basement. She immediately got up in fright. Who was down there? She heard footsteps slowly walking up the stairs and - finally - the door flew open and there, before her eyes, was none other than Robert. He didn't look any different than when he had left.

"You!" she managed to say.

"Okay, what's the value of our 401K?" Robert asked.

"Where have you been?"

"That doesn't matter. What matters is the value of our 401K. I need to know if I invested wisely or not."

"You left me twenty years ago with nothing to live in and expect to find anything left of the 401k?"

"You spent it all?" Robert asked. "Oh great - that's just great. I'll be right back."

Robert turned and went down into the basement.

"Robert? Robert, where are you?" Robert's wife said but suddenly saw a brilliant blue flash of light and then nothing. Robert had vanished once again.

Robert's wife went back to the dining table. She sat down and tried to think of what had happened. Her mind was muddled. She couldn't think. The 401k had been - had been - she thought - left untouched when Robert had first left, but now - she was beginning to remember different things. The 401k had been placed in a trust. A trust where she couldn't touch the money for twenty years. Then, she remembered that when the authorities had informed her that Robert had deserted her and was never located, that she had him declared legally dead so the trust would be legally hers without waiting for twenty years.

←3→

Another flash of light in the basement, more footsteps, and Robert walked into the kitchen.

"The value?"

"I told you I spent it."

"I put it in a trust."

"I had you declared legally dead." Robert's wife said.

"Oh bother," Robert said. "I'll be back again."

A flash of light and Robert's wife was again confused.

"Did I say spent it? Spent what?" she thought. She had tried to obtain some money after Robert had left her. When she had gone to inquire how much was in their 401k, she had found out that Robert had withdrawn the money and had hidden it somewhere - but where?

Another light and Robert was there in the kitchen again.

"Do you know how much you put me through? You left me nothing to live on."

"This will all be a bad dream," Robert said.

"If it wasn't for some gold coins that I found buried in the backyard, I would never have survived."

"You found the gold coins?"

"So that's where you hid the money!" Robert's wife said. "Good. I'm glad I found it and spent it all!"

Robert went back into the basement and disappeared. His wife sat still for awhile expecting him to appear, but he never did. She got up and went to cook. She thought of her husband and tried to remain bitter against him. She suddenly couldn't think of what would make her bitter. Deserted her? He had never deserted. What an imagination she must have. As she opened a cupboard, Robert walked into the kitchen.

"Have you decided what you want for dinner?" she asked. "I haven't started making anything yet."

"Leave me alone, I'm not hungry," Robert said and sat down at the kitchen table.

"What's wrong?"

"Can't you keep your grubby hands off our money for twenty years?"

←4

"What?"

"You can't let me leave you for a measly twenty years without spending everything we have, can you?"

"What are you talking about, honey? You haven't been gone for five minutes and already something is troubling you."

Robert looked at the wife of his youth.

What if he killed her? He could strangle her now, go into the future, see what the 401k did, come back a few minutes before, and live happily ever after.

"May I see that dish towel for a sec?"

Robert's wife handed it to him, and, much to her desperate surprise, he tied it around her neck and choked her, all the while telling her, "Don't worry, this is just an experiment."

Robert went back down into the basement, and twenty years later reappeared in a flash of light.

"Who's down there?" a man asked walking down the basement stairs.

Robert hadn't thought of this. He looked for somewhere to hide, but it was too late. The new owner of the house had a rifle.

"Say your prayers."

"Wait! I can explain!", but it was too late. Robert was immediately shot and fell backwards quite dead - a most miserable end to a most ambitious experiment.

The End.

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Comments

Submitted by admin on Mon, 06/21/2004 - 10:26

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So what? Actually, thats a bit more abrupt than is perhaps necessary. This is a bit of fun but predictable and lacking any essential conflict. Why is he so keen on his financial performance? This guy is so cocksure of his own brilliance that he kills his own wife. Sure, hes greedy and ruthless but whats his motivation? And, in light of his rather miraculous invention, why does he care so blindly about his investments? Time travel is always interesting (I use it myself) but focus on the characters. I want to know why Robert works alone in his basement, why he so badly needs money (in twenty years) when hes sitting on the most earth-shattering invention in history, why he would kill his wife with so little internal agonising, why such a smart man has to go back and forth because he cant set up or ask a decisive and meaningful set of questions in the first sitting. At the moment, this is slightly naive techno-voyeurism with little emotional content. But the seeds for more than one excellent story are there! Just concentrate on the people and keep asking yourself "why?"

Submitted by admin on Thu, 08/12/2004 - 12:20

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I really enjoyed this story for its simplicity and humor. In response to the comment above from (what I assume to be) another writer, there is no need to go into exhaustive detail about Robert, and his need for money, and why he made a time machine, and blah, blah, blah. All those details in a lighthearted piece of work such as this would just weigh the story down and make it overly dark (as a matter of fact you would probably be left with "the Time Machine"). If the author went on and spelled out every nuance of Roberts character we would have us a bona-fide case of not seeing the Forest for the Tree.

Submitted by admin on Tue, 12/21/2004 - 00:36

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As i waded through this story i was quite enjoying myself, untill a most awful ending stopped me. why is it that the main character gets killed in the end? it reminds me of a poor movie i recently watched, Aces High, it had good action secuences, but in the very end the main character collides his biplane in mid air with another. i was dissappointed

Submitted by admin on Wed, 12/14/2005 - 05:19

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Entertaining read; however, the Dialogue was terrible! I have to ask; are you married? My wife would never act the way your character did. The lack of description and emotion killed the story. No man would kill his wife, even if he thought that he could return and fix things.

Im sorry, this story lacked depth, and did nothing for me. Sure, good theme behind it. Dont fool around with time travel or take things for granted, ect. But, nothing made me sit there and think. Nothing inspired me.

Submitted by admin on Fri, 08/25/2006 - 15:19

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It was vaguely humerous, but I would have to agree with the person that asked "WHY?" why is he so interested in his future financial status? Why does he just kill his wife so appathetically and over such a superficial thing as money? but most of all...He had a freakin time machine!! He didnt think to go back in time and rob someone or invest in a company he knew would prosper. It doesnt make much sense to me that he would go to all the trouble of building a time machine, if he is only going to go into the future to check his financial status. He alone discovered the secret to time travel, simply because he was curious about his future finances. If I had a time machine I would go back in time and reveal the secrets of modern medicine to the doctors, thereby advancing medicine for the present. By the time I got back who knows, maybe there would be a cure for cancer...? Okay, Ill be honest...Id get rich off of it too =)

Submitted by admin on Mon, 09/11/2006 - 20:23

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Im appalled by the kind of comments being posted. This is supposed to be a humourous story, not a graduate thesis - the why questions are completely irrelevant! All that matters is that he did, it is, and thats that! So Roberts a greedy fool. Who cares? Just enjoy the simple plot as the writer intended

Submitted by admin on Thu, 11/09/2006 - 22:44

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I liked the story. It was short and funny. Definetly keep writing. I think that you already know what your own improvements need to be so Ill just say that know one has ever wrote a perfect story that appealed to everyone. Certainly listen to your critics especially those that you are trying to speak to. But dont take it to heart those comments by technical writers who have to know every single boring a** detail."Why?" Because I said so. Waiting for another twisted idea.

Submitted by admin on Wed, 01/31/2007 - 06:24

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I didnt understand the end...i didnt really understand anything...see, at first i thought i had gotten it all right...but then we discussed it in class and i quickly understood that I had not gotten it allright...at all, nor had my teacher. And Im not blaming our lack of brains, rather Mike Kraths hopeless way of expressing himself. He makes the whole going back and forth very confusing! and the end was very rash and made the story collaps
H.H

Submitted by admin on Tue, 04/10/2007 - 03:07

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I found this story both humorous and entertaining. Nice ending with the husband getting what he deserved for trying to change his own future. No confusion; no problem with the ending. Please continue to write, your work is worth reading. MGE Oregon

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