1,132 words.

The Machine

The parking lot was empty so Lily unlocked the back door of the thrift store using a key that didn’t belong to her. When she got inside she thought, “I need to get what I’m after before this store opens. I know I’m not supposed to be in here, but if I don’t get what I need Mom will die. I don’t even want to think of it. Lily looked around for a while, keeping a watch on the time. After a half hour, she heard something.

“Oh dear, it’s not time for this store to open yet,” she whispered.

When she looked she saw an old man all humped back and gray-haired walking in the door. She didn’t want him seeing her but he did.

“Do you work here?” he asked.

“Well, to tell you the truth. I have a mom who is dying and I was looking to see if there was anything here that could help save her life.”

“That’s what I was looking for. I’m aging and I was told someone came in here one day and overheard someone saying to a person who was with her, that the machine she had in her hand could make you become young again and heal any problem you may have.”

“Mr. I guess I have to say I’m looking for the same thing. My mom’s been sick for some time and I don’t want anything to happen to her, so I thought maybe there would be something here.”

“Let’s go look around. I can’t remember exactly where I was told it was. If we look together we might find it.”

“Do you know what it looks like?”

“I can’t remember that. You see I’m 85 years old and can’t remember anymore. But if we find that machine then I will become young again.”

“That would be great. Then my mom will live.”

They continued looking around. 

“We have to find it before the workers come,” The old man said.

“Before you came I realized today is Sunday and no one works. So we have time to look around,” Lily said. “I don’t want my mom to die. She’s all I have.”

“Well, they say it’s a miracle machine. I need it as well to put more years into my life.”

They continued to look around. They picked up one thing after the other.

“Maybe it’s gone. They may have sold it. If we don’t find it, what will we do?”

` “As long as no one believes in it then it hasn’t sold, and it’s a costly machine, I was told.”

“Oh, that’s great. Then it could be here. People around here don’t have much money so there may be a chance it’s still here,” Lily told him.

“The machine can also give you money. But not always. If you have a good reason you need it then it will give it.”

“Really? My mom takes pills but if this machine heals her she won’t need any.”

“That’s right.”

“Will it give you money if you need food or anything important?”

“Sure it will,” the old man said.

As they kept looking around while the sun was coming up, someone pulled up with a car. 

“Oh no, I thought they didn’t work here on Sundays.”

“Let’s keep quiet and see what they are going to do.”

They watched and the woman who owned the store went into the back room.

“Where is she going?” Lily whispered.

“I think that is where she keeps her safe.”

When the woman came back out she was holding a small bag. Before she left she made sure the door was locked to the back room. Then she opened the front door to leave. Just then she heard something fall. She stopped and looked around. She just looked here and there and never bothered to go to the back. “Something just fell. Anything can fall in here, it's so packed,” she said to herself, then left.

“That was close,” Lily said.

“I know. I knocked an ornament off the shelf by mistake.”

“Oh, we were lucky she didn’t come to check.”

“I know let’s find that machine so we can get out of here,” the old man said. “It could even be in a box,” he added.

“So you think it’s small?” 

“Well, according to my friend, he told me it wasn’t too big.”

“Okay, so let’s look in every box.”

After about a twenty-minute search Lily found something that looked like a small box with numbers and words running across it. “Would this be it?” Lily asked.

“Let’s ask it something, and see if it will answer,” the old man said.

“Okay, let me try,” Lily then asked, "Is the thrift store closed today?”

They waited for an answer. The words kept running across it. It then stopped to ‘Yes’.

“Look it answered right Mr.”

“We found it. Great,” the man replied.

“Let’s ask a question for you. Tell it, you want to look like thirty years younger.”

They waited and waited. Suddenly Lily looked and the old man turned back to his 30s and Lily couldn’t get over how good he looked.

“Wow! You are handsome. Now we know this machine does work.”

“Yes, so let’s go and help your mother.”

“By the way, what’s your name?”

He looked at her with a smile. Johnny Jackson, and yours?”

“Lily, Lily Lander,” she replies.

“Okay, let’s go,” Johnny said. 

When they arrived at Lily's place she introduced Johnny to her mom.

“He’s a handsome man. As long as I’m sick I will never find one.”

“Yes, you will Mom because I got the machine to help you.”

“Oh, thank you, honey. I am too sick to sit up.”

“Okay, let’s be quiet. Machine please heal my mom. She’s been sick for a long time.”

They watched as the words and numbers passed. They watched her mom and gradually her mom started looking better. She sat up in her bed, smiling.

“How do you feel Mom?”

“I feel like a new woman.”

“Mom look, it's telling us to go in your drawer and you will find some money to pay your doctor's bills.”

“Oh my. Really?”

Johnny then added, “It will give you money only if you need it but treat it gently and it will do anything you want it to.”

“Oh, thank you, Lily. This is like a miracle,” her mother added.

“You should have seen Johnny before this machine changed him.”

“Really?”

“Yes, he was an 80-year-old man. He couldn’t walk straight nor remember much.”

“So the machine helped him?”

“Yes, Mom, it brought him back to his 30s.”

“That is some machine. Take care of it, Lily. We may need it again. I might need a man.”

They all laughed.