Fever Days

This summer set record highs, just like every year before it for the past decade. The weather forecasters drip with excitement reporting on the temperatures. The weather causes a creepy look on their face while they talk incessantly about its humidity, index, and whatever other terms they say on the television. Their delighted faces begin to look like a doll’s each time the temp rises, and the perpetual heat is their puppeteer.

Ugh! Every time I watch them repeat the same five minutes, it incites such anger in me. They have nothing more to say? No positive outcome to all this? Just continuous noise flies out of their mouths.

I really need to move north, but the properties are too expensive. If only the people before us realized how they could fix the issues, this would never happen. There should have been a law… wait! I shook my head. Nature never cared about the laws of humanity. Humans made the laws of nature to oppose its own will upon it. We lived outside nature for too long, and realized too late that the wild will always stay non-tamable. We caused the intense heat, and we need to fix it.

More determined than ever, I pick up the pace to my lab. Yes, the human species caused the decades long heat wave we are experiencing. I know I can fix it, though. I am so close to finishing the time machine. Just a few more adjustments needed and voila!

Reaching the lab, I throw off my goggles and respirator. I grab myself a quick cup of coffee. I doubt this will be enough coffee for the day, but it is a start. I need to finish this machine soon. The heat kills me and makes anger well up in me.

My co-workers at the lab think they have the answer for this issue. They invented a device that cleans all the pollution out of the environment. They plan to turn it on in the next few weeks and surely will do what they say it will do. It's just not fast enough for me because the clean-up project will finish in the next decade.

I never want to feel the heat, not even in my infant stage on earth.

If I make it to the past, I can fix everything using the prototype contraption they created. Their machine is cute, but we need to see what happens before the tipping point if we turn it on. Maybe

After several hours, I finished the time machine. I should test it, but the heat is too unbearable. The sweat distracts me dripping down my face. Screw this! I jump in and flip the switch. The machine hummed to life.

I decide to go to the year 2021. It is still cold enough and there is still a chance to change the outcome. Ideally, I should land in a remote area somewhere on the globe. There is no guarantee where I will land.

With the coordinates set, I hit the green button to get this machine to move through time. Sparks begin to fly around the engine. It doesn’t seem right, but my heated brain didn’t care as the engine buzzed louder.

I began to see what looked like ghosts walking around me. These apparitions were just people, I think. They wore strange clothing, but I’m not an costume expert. I really have no clue what clothes looked like before now, so there was no way of knowing what time period they came from.

A small child noticed me and pointed. He must’ve told his mom about my presence. His mother looked directly at me and screamed. Picking up what looked like a rock, she hurled it in my direction. It hit the engine hard, and it sputtered for a second. I cringed. Surely the engine dies at this point.

My machine lost control. It began going further, and faster, back in time. This is out of control. I need to fix this fast! I worked on getting the manual controls to fire, but they felt stuck. Struggling against the shaking of the machine, I finally wriggled the panel and stick free from its place. The machine jerked, and I fell on my newly freed controls. Broken, they laid in pieces before me.

I sat down. I realize that I will need to ride this out. This is out of my control at this point, and there is no going back.

Dread sank in at the predicament I found myself in. I rushed too fast into this and trouble followed. I let the heat decide my actions and I may pay dearly. I felt a cold rush of air, always a welcome feeling for me, and I close my eyes to savor the feeling across my face.

The combination shook up my senses, and I began to slip into slumber. I let the sensations overtake me. If I died at this moment, I didn’t care. As long as the happiness engulfs me.

Waking with a start, I realize that I am not in a time machine but in my bed. I close my eyes in disappoint at the fact that I failed at what I worked so hard to achieve. No end to the greenhouse gasses that caused the massive heat wave plaguing humanity for the last ten years.

Wait a minute. I am not a scientist in the slightest bit. Slinking my head into my hands, what a strange dream. Hopelessness envelopes me. If I just dreamt the time machine, I dreamt the other scientists and their invention to heal our environment.

I close my eyes slowly and took in a deep, disappointed breath. Getting up, I perform my usual morning ritual of getting coffee and food, dressing myself, and brushing my teeth. Time for work. I sigh thinking about the heat outside. Putting on my goggles, I tear up a little. At least hope lives in my dreams.

Heat melts away impurities, I’m told. Yet years have passed and we stay impure. Perhaps our worth is more than I previously thought, or we truly are in hell.