Testing the strange device

Dinner at the Turner household was the usual humdrum affair. His mother being upbeat and excited as she regaled them with the events of her day. Ben thought it was a pretty typical day at a realtor’s office, but his mother’s enthusiasm and warmth was infectious.

Lucy spouted the usual gossip about the other girls at school. Who was dating who, who was cheating, rivals, friendships, the whole song and dance. Having only been 18 months older, he had faces to go with the names that were mentioned, but most of these people were brats in his experience and he couldn’t really be fucked engaging with his sister’s drama.

His dad was monosyllabic, but seemed to be paying attention to everyone’s stories.

Eventually the meal came to an end and everyone vacated to their individual living spaces. Ben played around on his computer, chatting with friends and mostly just killing time for a while before throwing himself onto his bed.

Something heavy thumped at his side and he realised he still had the device from earlier. Now that he was alone within the safe confines of his room he decided to properly examine it, tapping on its screen.

It lit up and the device showed its digital clock face once again, with the exact date also displayed. Ben figured it was like any touchscreen device and began tapping, dragging and pinching at different things until a menu of sorts came up.

Month:

Day:

Hour:

Century/Year:

The first four were obvious, but that last one? What the hell did that mean?

Cautiously he tapped the bottom option and suddenly another slew of choices came up as a digital Rolodex. There was a list of years, from the present going all the way back until the tag “BC” came up.

He frowned. Was this some kind of jokey calendar that Mr Daniels had toyed around with? Did it display a historical screensaver depending on what you set it on?

No, that wouldn’t be right. The old man wasn’t the sort to make gag products. But what was it then?

After going back and forth on the matter for a while he decided to pick a date at random and see what would happen.

Flicking the Rolodex and tapping without thinking, he watched as the screen shifted into a loading icon. Then there was a bright, flashing light that consumed everything. Ben felt his whole body vibrate, from the soles of his feet right to the top of his head.

Sensation exploded, the world shifted around him, and then there was darkness. He wasn’t sure that he lost consciousness exactly, but when Ben regained his bearings he knew at once that something was drastically different.