A THOUSAND CROSSINGS X

Dear Diary...
Time
mercredi 13 mai 2009

Just did an essay on time for fun, to let Mr Tan mark :D I'm eager to get A1 for English hahahaha.

I think my grammar, especially tenses, are very very wrong in this essay. I think even I am confused in the different dimensions of time present in the essay. :/

Time.

“I think I did it!” I screamed, as I ran down the maze-like corridors of the laboratory, shouting as loudly as my lungs could keep up. I wanted everyone to know this piece of good news. I was a scientist at the C+ Research and Development facility. I always had been interested in time travel, and that day the first phase of test results had been released. My time turner worked.

For the past 25 years, ever since I have graduated from Stanford University at the age of 23 in 2017, I had been conscientiously working on a machine that could transport persons back into time, so we could correct what we have done wrong. My motivation behind the project was a childhood accident, that cost the life of my best friend, Alvin. We were playing matches in the house then, but the flame licked at the curtains and we were engulfed in a blazing inferno. I escaped, but Alvin did not. From that day on, I wanted to create a time turner, so I could go back and set things right.

“Congratulations Jason! Your 25 years of hard work had not gone to waste. It has finally passed the first phase of electronical tests.” The head scientist, Thomas congratulated me and pat me on my back, “have you found a subject to test the machine on?” I had been waiting for this opportunity for 35 years, as long as I prepared to answer that question. I replied with complete aloofness, “I am the subject. I shall try it.”

Thomas’ eyes narrowed and stared at me, “You cannot be serious. Experimental prototypes like this go wrong all the time. It’s too large a risk. We should start with an animal subject first, not you!” Although I had been working diligently on the time turner for 25 years, it never eroded the arrogance I had, and I could not take critiscm as such. I stared at Thomas and replied coldly, “It will work,” before I turned on my heels and walked back to my laboratory, fiddling with the leather strap of my Omega Seamaster watch at the same time.

There was no time to lose, although technically speaking, if I really was late, I already was 35 years late. Nevertheless, there was the presence of the systematic sense of urgency as I read the graphs and the reports from the first phase of tests on my machine. The comments and observations as stated in the report were positive, except for the last paragraph. Which warned me to exercise extreme caution when using the time turner, as it shut itself off in the middle of the tests twice. Despite the checks the research staff had made on the Laboratory’s electrical system, and the machine’s circuits, no errors could be spotted and the problem persisted.
In my mind, I was chanting a single phrase again and again as I read that paragraph, “Nothing can go wrong.” I performed final electrical checks before throwing a silvery anti-static cloth over the machine. The next day, I got my aide to bring along a video camera and document my safe entry and exit of Time.

>I looked around at the spartan white walls of the laboratory, the desk and computer where I had been working on my theories, my aide who had assisted me in more ways than one in the entire construction of the time turner. Then I turned around, and adopted a crouching position in the cramped confines of the time turner. The chamber was so small that it can make the most fearless person claustrophobic. But I only had excitement and ecstasy in my mind. The thought of my wish coming true was simply overwhelming, I would even have jumped in the time turner if I could.

The door shut and I only heard a whirling sound. Then, the lights in the chamber flickered shut, and I could hear the ghastly power down sound I had feared. In no longer than fifteen minutes, what I had feared the most would happen. I would vaporise, and cease to exist, to prevent a time paradox in alternate dimensions.

At that moment, I came to a realisation. All this time, I had been working on ways on how to run away from time, discovering methods on how to travel back in time. However, I could have used this time to make my life more useful and meaningful, instead of feeling guilty of the past and refusing to move forward. If I could live it all over again, I would have lived it differently, I swore I would have. Suddenly, blinding white light flooded my vision, before I slipped into a comatose.

“Jason! Want to make a bonfire in the house?” Alvin asked mischievously, with a box of matches in hand.

“I think you should put that down Alvin, it is dangerous. I’ll tell my mum to tell your mum if you play with fire!”I replied with childish fury, pouting my lips, and placing my arms at my waist at the same time.

“Fine, spoilsport. Let’s go fly paper aeroplanes!” Alvin said as he threw the box of matches on the ground and ran out of the house.

How's it :D I like the ending. So subtle. :D

Au Revoir

yongliang

he closed his diary at {00:11}