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Charlie Chaplin Gets a Taste of Modern Times
My appointment was for 9:00 am at the Cahill Center for Astrophysics at Cal Tech. I was given a haz-mat suit with a respirator and protective glasses and led into a clean room with high-tech equipment. An elderly physicist with floppy gray hair and a white smock led me to a wooden chair in front of a glassed-off steel kiosk resembling a futuristic phone booth.
“Welcome. I’m Professor Welles,” the physicist said. “I’m sure you have many questions but we don’t have much time. This machine is a corporeal conveyance device. It allows us to transport a human being from the past into our modern world. It’s like a time machine but there’s a catch. Current technology only allows the subject to reside in our world for twelve hours. In order for him to be reinstated to his place of origin, you need to return him to the lab by 9:00 pm this evening. If not, he will be stuck in temporal purgatory forever. Do you understand?”
“Yes sir,” I said.
“Good. There are a couple things you should know. Your subject will be disoriented. We’ve programmed our computers to summon him at the peak of his existence, approximately age 45. He may try to venture on his own. You are never to leave his side. Understand?”
“Yes.”
“Any questions?”
