A visit to the future

-"You may bring the prisoner in, “Monsieur Jean, the king's inquisitor, said, lifting his head from his parchment-strewn desk where he was working. Two soldiers stood at the door, like steel statues. The two disappeared in the long corridor, and before long Monsieur Jean heard the clatter of opening bolts and heavy hinges.

A moment later the soldiers returned, with a man in handcuffs between them. He was a dark-haired man, with a dreamy power in his eyes. Monsieur Jean raised his head and lifted one of the parchments:

-"Henry, isn't it?" he asked in a clear voice. He did not wait for the prisoner to answer and continued to read.

-"Is accused of transgression against God and the king by committing sorcery."

-"I'm not a wizard, sire." the prisoner said in a faint voice.

Monsieur Jean quietly read on:

-"Many witnesses have testified that you are a powerful sorcerer and that even exorcists could not stop you. It is also confirmed that you spent many hours in a field that has been infested by the devil for a long time. Several people witnessed how on the third day of the month, at dawn, you went to this unholy place, carrying with you certain instruments, where you were observed, conjuring up a thunderstorm by diabolical claims, during which you vanished completely out of sight. You are a minion of the devil, are you not?"

Henry didn't answer.

-"For that reason, I am compelled to see you as a sorcerer, and to sentence you to death by fire." Monsieur Jean put down the parchment and looked at the prisoner.

 -"Sire." Henry began, "Please allow me to tell You what has happened to me and what I have seen."

The Inquisitor nodded.

"Sire," Henry continued in a fiery voice, "I am no wizard. I have always, ever since childhood, been fascinated by the secrets of the earth, the sky, and the mysteries of the heavens. I was looking for the nature of lighting, an answer to the question of why birds are able to fly, and fish can live underwater.

I went to that field to study the thunderstorm. I was well aware of the gossip and backbiting of my neighbors.

On the third day of the month, superstitious people secretly followed me, and at one point I disappeared from their sight during a thunderclap. I cannot really describe what actually happened. I had involuntarily closed my eyes because the eruption of the great thunderclap intoxicated me with fear. When I opened my eyes again, I was astonished to see that I was no longer in a field, but in a room, I had never seen before. I stood in the center of a large metal circle. There were appliances and machines everywhere in that room with smooth white walls. Then I heard voices, I turned and saw two men coming towards me, whom I have never seen before and who were dressed very strangely. I do not know exactly what language they spoke, but I got a rough estimate of ​​what they were talking about.

One of the men was short and plump and the other had a white beard. They started shouting excitedly at each other that they had succeeded. The man with the white beard leaned over and asked me what time it was. I was literally dumbfounded, and they thought I didn't understand them because I didn't answer. I started to feel weak and sick. Dazed is the word that best describes how I experienced my condition. The other man took my arm and seated me in a strange chair.

He spoke very slowly and asked for my name. I replied that my name was Henry and those men kept repeating my name. Then they explained to me that I had traveled five hundred years into the future. I told them as best I could that I was just standing in a field on the edge of town. They took me to a window. I looked out; and what a sight before my eyes. Everything I had ever known was gone. I saw a terrible city with wide streets and tall buildings on either side of it. There were so many people in the street, and they were all dressed like those two men in the room with me. I saw strange vehicles, but they were not drawn by horses. You cannot imagine the speed at which they moved. My brain was spinning wildly. I looked at that circle on the floor and those strange machines in the room.

For the love of God, I begged, are you angels or demons? They said they were physicists who wanted to learn everything about humankind. They started talking about things I could not understand. I was lost in a maze of words beyond my comprehension. They explained to me that their machines applied a force to that metal ring on the floor and thus were able to travel in time. They had tried it many times before, but they had not succeeded until now.

 I told them about the thunder I had heard in the field, and they started telling me things again: about air movements and stuff and all kinds of things I couldn´t understand a single iota of. They said that I happened to be there when they called in their forces, transporting me from my own time to theirs. They told me not to be afraid, I saw so many wonders in that room, Sire, things I could never have dreamed of.

They showed me a small glass bottle with wires in it. I had to touch it, and when I did, the glass began to shine, with light much brighter than ten thousand candles. Then the little fat man touched a button, and the light went out again. I looked up and saw a lot of those glass bottles hanging from the ceiling. My head was shaking from all the wonders they showed me. I was stunned with surprise. One of the men brought a small black box to me. From an opening in that box came a singing voice. I started to shudder when they told me I heard the voice of a woman who had died years earlier. I asked if they could speak to the dead.

Sire, I wish I were able to describe to you all that I saw there. There was also another box or rather a cupboard with an opening. I was allowed to touch a few buttons, and a voice came out that spoke in a language I did not understand. The men explained to me that the man I heard was on the other side of the western ocean. They gave me a little wine because they saw how dazed I was. I resumed a little courage because that wine tasted just like ours.

The little fat man asked if I wanted to see the city. They wanted to take me, but I had to change clothes first. They gave me a long tunic that covered my own clothes, and a grotesque round hat to put on my head. Then they led me out into the street. Hundreds of people walked there. And women, with bare legs! The men were all dressed like the men from the room. The people did not carry swords or daggers. I saw no knights, peasants, or priests. They all looked the same in their strange clothes. There was a boy somewhere screaming; he sold very thin sheets of a kind of parchment I had never seen before and that had black letters on them. The man with the white beard said it contained all the things that happened all over the world.

I saw one of the vehicles I'd already seen from the window that wasn't horse-drawn and was fast as lightning. Another vehicle was carrying so many people. A carriage came to the side of the road, and they told me to sit in it. The men sat down next to me in a leather chair. Suddenly there was a buzzing sound and that vehicle started running forward. I was terrified. My ears and eyes were numb from all I saw.

When we arrived at a large field outside the city, I had to get out. At the end of that field were some large buildings, and there I saw vehicles with wing-like projections. I was fascinated, but by the Mother of God, how scared I was. The two physicists got into that vehicle and told me to do the same. There was another man there. At the front of that vehicle were paddles, there was a roar and those paddles started to turn. So horribly fast I could not see them anymore. That vehicle began to roll, and when it stopped bumping, I opened my eyes again, because I had closed them in fear, and began to shiver, for the ground was so far below. I flew in the sky! The third man who had joined it was moving levers. We began to bend back and forth just like the birds do. The man with the white beard tried to explain to me how and why we were flying, but I could not understand. I was held by wild excitement. The earth was so far below. Then my winged vehicle began to descend. It circled like a bird. There was a vehicle waiting for us when we were back on the ground.

It was late in the afternoon; the sun was setting, and darkness was beginning to fall.

We moved back to town, but it was not dark there at all. There was light everywhere. We stopped in front of a large building, and the men led me inside. At first, I thought it was a big church, but it was not. I saw an exceptionally large white wall and people were moving on it, and they were speaking to each other. What magic, I tell you, Sire!

I had to sit down on a chair, between the two men. I was fascinated by that strange world that played out on that white canvas on the wall. I saw a very large statue holding up a torch. Then a city emerged through the mists, with buildings so high they seemed to climb into the sky. Madness!

And people...so many people. When darkness began to come, this city burned with living light. I saw so many wonderful things. I saw men gazing at the stars through giant tubes. The man with the white beard explained to me that they were studying the sun, which was so much larger than the Earth and revolved around it, not the other way around. The little fat man added that the earth was as round as an apple. I stared my eyes out of my head. But then we had to leave.

We walked through the streets, back to that building where I had been before. Someone came up to me, and he did not even ask me who my Lord was. The man with the white beard declared that there were no more lords. That everyone was now his own Lord, and kings or noblemen were no longer needed. Each man was his own master.

That was truly the greatest miracle I had seen up to that point. I told the men that I wanted to go back to my time, to tell people what I had seen. The men were concerned and said that my folks might not believe me. But I insisted on going back.

They took the clothes and hat I had been wearing and took me back to the room I had arrived in earlier. It was noticeably light there, because of a lot of those glass bottles hanging from the ceiling.

There were so many other men there now, and they all looked at me strangely. They spoke so quickly that it was impossible for me to understand them.

We brought you across five centuries by rotating the time dimensions on this spot, and now we must turn it around to send you back. The man with the white beard explained.

I had to stand in the metal circle, and I did. The little fat man was doing something with levers and buttons. There was a blue light coming from tubes that started to buzz. Everyone stared at me as I stood there in the middle of that circle. Everyone was quiet. I saw the two men who had accompanied me all day bid me farewell with their eyes. They smiled and waved at me. The buzz grew louder. A great thunderclap broke around me. I closed my eyes and felt myself spinning and falling at the same time. In an instant, the sound died down. I opened my eyes and saw that I was back in that field I had walked to on the third day of the month before I disappeared into another time.

It was nighttime and a lot of people were standing around the field. They were scared and started screaming. Others fled. My head was full of all the things I had seen, and I wanted so badly to tell them. But nobody wanted to listen to me. They started shouting that I was a blasphemer and a wizard in league with the devil. I was grabbed and taken to the Inquisitor. Here, to you, sire. And I have told you everything in truth. I realize I have sealed my own fate, but I'm thankful I was able to tell at least one person. And I am glad I got to see it all.

A week later Henry was led to the stake and burned alive. Monsieur Jean followed the thick black smoke, curling toward the sky before his eyes.

He wondered if there was any truth to Henry's strange speculations. He shook his head to shake off those crazy fantasies. He returned to the silence of his study, picked up his pen, bent over a parchment, and

 began to write…