The Missing Light Bulb

“A time capsule,” said Mary in disbelief. “This is the greatest plan in the world?”

Mary’s light, scarlet-colored hair obscured the view of her frown, but Jack could still tell it was clearly there. Her straight hair normally was tied messily into a bun, but it was never a good bun because hair always kept on getting in her face. Mary straightened her navy-blue shirt and moved her light blue skirt away from a puddle of water.

“I know you’re annoyed,” said Jack.

 “Clearly,” grumbled Mary.

Jack rolled his amber-colored eyes. “Very funny. Anyways, we could be famous in the future! We could be known as the people who showed other humans what life is like right now!”

“You mean with us being the Greeks about to be overrun by a large empire called Romans?”

“Yes!” 

Mary studied Jack’s expression. He didn’t seem to be lying. 

Jack raised his arms and grinned. He smoothed his brown shirt and shorts and struck a pose.

“See? I’ll be a wonderful star.”

Mary sighed. “You seriously didn’t buy that, right? We live in the eighteenth century, Jack. We’re not greeks.”

“Whatever, that isn’t the point.”

“We are not doing a capsule.”

“We could.”

“We aren’t.”

“You aren’t fun at all.” sighed Jack. “Can we do a running contest?”

“Please. You know I’ll beat you.” 

“Will you?” Jack grinned slyly and snatched Mary’s bag, which she had made herself. “I’ll only give it back if you'll do a capsule!”

“Jaaack!”

Jack sprinted away without another word. Grumbling to herself, Mary got up and started running faster than you’d expect for a girl living in the 1800s. 

Mary finally cornered Jack when he ran into the woods. There, she hid behind a tree and grabbed her bag back. 

“I told you I’d beat you.” Mary smugly waved her bag in front of her friend.

“Not fair!” groaned Jack.

“Well, too bad,” Mary smirked.

“Please do the capsule,” pleaded Jack. “You’ll go to a finishing school this week, and everyone else here is boring. No one else actually speaks to me.”

“Oh fine,” Mary gave in. “Only because I’m leaving soon.”

“Yes!” Jack pumped his fist and sat down on the ground.

“Jack, what are you doing-?”

“Watch the magic happen!” Jack dug several centimeters and brought out a big wooden chest. “Help me,” Jack grunted.

Mary easily lifted the chest out of the hole.

“Thanks.” panted Jack. He opened the chest and proudly showed her its contents. “This is why I went to the woods. I knew you’d catch up to me eventually.”

“Since you knew I would win?” Mary asked coyly.

Jack turned red. “No!” he protested too quickly.

“Right,” Mary rolled her eyes.

Jack changed the subject. “I’ve got yesterday’s newspaper, some cool classic 1800s things, but I have nothing else to put in! So I need your help. You work as a handmaiden for the famous lady in town, right?”

“Lady Bonze?”

“No idea why anyone would name her that, but yeah, her. Her husband is a famous scientist, and he gave me some of the samples of his very secretive work because I helped him. It’s precious, but I need you to know if its real or not.”

“The Lord is an honest person.” Mary was offended. “Why would he lie?”

“I’m just saying!”

“It’s probably real. End of story.”

“And I need some photos of important events. You know the local photographer, right?”

“Yeah,”

“Could you ask him for some pictures?”

“Absolutely.”

"Jack, I'm done," called Mary as she went to the backyard of his house.

"You got the pictures?" Jack poked his head out of his bedroom window.

"Yeah."

"Wow! I'm coming!"

There was a loud thud on the floor as Jack crashed to the ground. A few minutes later, he appeared, his hair disheveled, but he didn't care. His eyes were sparkling with excitement. "Are you ready to dig the time capsule?"

Mary couldn't help feeling excited, too. "Yes," she said firmly.

The two heaved and hauled, but finally, their efforts were rewarded when their shovels hit a chest with a loud clunk.

“Yes! We finally got to it!” Jack yelled, pumping his fist into the air.

Mary sighed. Jack always got too excited over little things, and sometimes he was too sneaky (Like the time when he stole her chocolate. She still hadn’t forgiven him for that), but she still would miss him while she was at her finishing school. “Hold on, we have to open it..” 

Once they creaked open the lid any trace of excitement that was on Jack’s face was immediately wiped off.

Mary covered her mouth. “Jack…” she started. 

“I-It’s..” Jack began but he couldn’t finish. The time capsule he had spent so long developing was empty. “No, no, no,” Jack said in horror. “This can’t be happening-”

“I’m so sorry,” Mary told him quietly. “I know you spent a long time finding things for this.”

Jack gasped.

“What is it?” Mary asked in alarm. 

“There’s a note. It says You shouldn’t have taken the samples.”

“The science samples?”

“Yeah.”

“But why would someone go after some science samples? What’s so important about it?”

“The samples were something that could change the world! It was a light bulb example. Thomas Edison gave several to Lord Bonze, and he gave me some. It was so cool.”

“A light bulb?!” Mary gasped. “No way!”

“It was a light bulb… but someone stole it.”

“But why would someone steal something as trivial as a lightbulb? Sure, Thomas Edison made it, but surely it’s not to this point, right?"

“They would want to take it for themselves to get the credit, of course! No one would no as long as they hushed it up, which meant they could…” Jack stuttered to a halt as a possibility occurred to him. “...They could eliminate anyone who knows.”

“Us,” realized Mary in shock.

“Then we have to stop them,” Jack said with a determined look. “We have to save Lord Bonze, and stop the killer.”

“Jack, we could die, you know that, right?”

“We have to stop them from getting the light bulb. Burglars do not deserve that anything. You in?”

“Definitely.”