"The Cowboy from the Past"

Today, we're going to go to 2010, when I wrote this three part story, "The Cowboy from the Past." You're the first to see all three parts at once without having to wait! Congratulations.

                                                           The Cowboy from the Past

Melanie's time machine looked finished.  Little lights of red, yellow, blue, green, and orange blinked here and there.  The metal walls gave out little hollow-sounding noises as Melanie did a final check on the inside.
"Melanie!  What are you doing in there?"
Melanie's older brother, Pete, was pounding at the locked bedroom door.
"Working on my time machine!" Melanie called back.
Pete snickered.
"Whatever you say, Melon," he said, using the nickname his younger sister hated.
Melanie took a deep breath.
"Fine, Squash!" she called back, using the nickname Pete hated.
Melanie took one more look at the time machine's circuit board, and then put the metal panel back on.
"All set," Melanie murmured, taking her tool box and getting out of the machine.
Melanie looked over her time machine with great satisfaction.  The metal door hung open invitingly.
"Well," she said, getting back into the machine, "what am I waiting for?  Time for the real test!"
Melanie pulled the door shut, and fastened it tightly.
Once inside, Melanie pressed the power button.  Instantly, a mechanical noise started up, and roared around her, and the bright green light on the ceiling began flashing with a slight throbbing noise.  The time machine was working.
"Let's see," Melanie said, thinking aloud, "if the time machine works correctly, I should be able to approximate a time in history, and when the sequence is over I'll have a visitor from the past."
Now that it came to this, Melanie hardly knew what time to choose.  She finally decided that it might be interesting to bring back a hippie from the 1960's, but she accidentally pushed the button a few too many times.  It was too late, however--Melanie didn't notice her miscalculation, and pulled the Initiation Lever.  The time machine roared even louder.  Louder, louder, louder--and then the green light, which had been flashing faster and faster, suddenly clicked off.  The smaller lights on the walls, buttons, and levers also went off, and Melanie found herself surrounded by complete darkness.
It didn't take Melanie long to remember, however, that she had programmed the lights to go off when the sequence was almost completed--that way, the visitor didn't have to go through the shock of waking up in a little metal box--at first, they would just see darkness.  Melanie figured that the whole process of bringing someone out of the past depended on how far out of the past the person was coming from.  She guessed that bringing someone out of the 1960's would take something around fifteen minutes, so she was surprised when it seemed as if the sequence was taking longer than this.  Melanie was beginning to be afraid that the time machine didn't work, when suddenly she heard a lot of grumbling on the other side of the machine.
"I reckon' I musta hit my head on somethin'," the voice said.
It sounded like a man.  Melanie kept completely still and quiet so she wouldn't frighten the visitor.  He sure didn't sound like a hippie.  He sounded more like a...a...
"Where has that gosh-darn pistol gotten to?" the voice said.
Cowboy?
Of course! Melanie realized.  She must have pressed the button a few too many times, and brought someone further out of the past than the 1960's--and it seemed as if she'd ended up bringing up a cowboy back with her.  Oh well, Melanie thought.  A cowboy should be interesting.
"Where in tarnation am I?" said the voice.  "And what's that gosh-darned noise?  Sounds like a mochine."
The voice kept making comments as the lights came back on, dim at first, but getting brighter and brighter until...
"Holy smokes!  Where am I?" said the cowboy, for a cowboy he was.
The cowboy looked around, and then spotted Melanie, sitting with her back against the wall of the time machine, her arms wrapped around her knees.  Melanie stared back at him.  An awkward silence followed.
Finally, the cowboy said, "Howdy."
"Um, howdy," Melanie said.
The cowboy pointed at the wall of the time machine.
"What in tarnation is this thing?" he asked.
Melanie found herself in a tight spot.  The cowboy would never believe her if she told him it was a time machine, but what else was there to say?
"It's a time machine." she said.
The cowboy stared at her.  The time machine suddenly made a huge BUMP!.  Then, the roar in the machine slowly became quieter until suddenly, the noise just shut off.  Melanie got up, and, unfastening the latches on the door, let it swing open into her bedroom.
"Welcome to the 21st Century," she said.


                                                                                 ***
Melanie stepped out into her bedroom, followed by the very confused cowboy. 
"What do yer mean, 21st Century?" he asked, looking around the bedroom.
"This is the year 2010," Melanie explained, pointing to her calendar.
The cowboy froze.  Melanie hoped she hadn't given him a heart attack.
"What do yer mean, 2010?" he asked.
"I mean 2010," Melanie said, "you know, in the 21st Century?"
The cowboy was looking more confused by the second.
"Do yer mean that we've gone forward in time?" the cowboy asked.
"Well, sort of," Melanie said.  "Actually, for me, this is present day.  But we have come to the future from your time."
The cowboy sank down onto Melanie's bed.
"That just plain dun't make any sense," he said.  "How could I have come into this here, what you call, 'future'?"
"Well," Melanie said, "I made a time machine."
The cowboy looked dejectedly up at her.  His big black moustache seemed to droop.
"Well, that dun't explain it," he said.
Melanie sighed, and picked up a binder from her desk.
"See, look, these are the plans for my time machine." she said, opening up the binder and showing him.
"Ya know," the cowboy said, "ya keep on sayin' time mochine, but it don't make sense to me.  What's a time mochine?"
Melanie smiled.
"It's a machine that allows you to travel to a different time," she explained.
The cowboy was completely lost.
"You mean like it's high noon when I ride into town, but by the time I get to the saloon it's after high noon?" the cowboy asked.
"No," Melanie said, "it's...well, I don't think I can explain it to you...I don't think you'd understand."
"Well then, lemme see if I can git you straight," he said.  "Yer sayin' that this here time mochine transported me from my own time."
"Yes," Melanie said, nodding.
The cowboy shook his head.
"That's real crazy," he said.
Conversation dwindled for a few minutes.  Melanie looked at her feet, trying to think of something to say, and the cowboy took his pistol out of its holster and inspected it.  Finally, he slipped the pistol back into its holster, and looked up at her.
"What's your name, Ma'am?" he asked her.
"My name's Melanie," Melanie said.
"Melanie," the cowboy said slowly and contemplatively.  "Real purtty."
"Thanks," Melanie said.  "What's your name?"
"Weeeell, lemme see now." the cowboy said.  "I reckon you can just call me Ted."
"Oh, OK," Melanie said.  "Are you hungry, Ted?"
"I reckon so," Ted replied.  "Haven't had nothin' to eat since...well, I dun't even remember."
"Then let's go get something to eat," Melanie said.  "I'm hungry, too."
Melanie led the way out of her bedroom and down the hall, towards the staircase.
"You got a real nice house, Melanie," Ted said.  "Rather peculiar though, if you don't mind my sayin' so."
Melanie laughed.
"I'm sure it does seem peculiar to  you," she said.
Melanie led the way into the kitchen.  She made a couple of sandwiches.
"I hope you like peanut butter and jelly," she said to Ted.
"I reckon it'll be fine," Ted replied.  "Never heard of puttin' peanuts and butter between bread, though."
"Oh," Melanie said, "no, it's peanut butter.  The peanuts are ground up."
"And I guess mixed into butter," Ted said, looking at his sandwich.
Melanie sighed and gave up trying to explain.
"This is a mighty good...what do ya call it?" Ted asked.
"A sandwich," Melanie said.
Ted laughed.
"You put sand in there, too, eh?"
"No..." Melanie said, "there's no--"
But Ted wasn't listening anymore.  He was staring out of the kitchen window.
"Who is that there young fella out there, on that nag?" he asked.
Melanie looked where Ted was pointing.
"That's my brother, Pete.  Looks like he's riding his horse."
"Ridin'?" Ted said disgustedly.  "More like sittin' and hangin' on!  I've gotta go and set him to rights."
Ted ran towards the back door.  Melanie leaped up after him.
"No, wait, Ted!" she cried.  "Wait!"
Pete was in the pasture, cantering his horse, a big bay gelding named Loophole.  Melanie didn't know for sure how much her parents had paid for Loophole, but she knew it had been a lot--Loophole was no nag, that was for sure. 
Ted ran up to the fence and leaped over it.  Pete saw the cowboy running towards him and his eyes widened.  Then he saw Melanie, running at top-speed, after the cowboy.
"Melanie, what the heck is going on?" Pete yelled.
He slowed Loophole to a trot, and Ted ran up and grabbed the horse's bridle.
"You git down, you young rascal," Ted commanded.
Pete frowned down at Ted.  "Who are you?" he asked.
"I'm Ted." the cowboy said.  "I've just come to the...what do you folks call it?  The 'future'."
Pete looked at Melanie, who had just run up.  Melanie gasped for breath.
"My time machine, Pete!" she said finally, grinning up at her brother.
"Yep, I came here in a time mochine.  Real crazy." Ted said.
The three of them looked at each other.  Ted was still gripping Loophole's bridle.
"So," Ted said finally, "ya gonna git down or am I gonna halfta pull ya off?"
"What do you mean?" Pete said.
"I'm gonna show ya a thing er two about ridin'." Ted said, glaring at Pete.  "You gotta get straightened out about a few things."
Pete looked to Melanie for support.  Melanie just shrugged.
"Git down," Ted said.
Pete sighed and dismounted Loophole.  Ted threw his cowboy boot into the stirrup, and swung himself onto Loophole's back with incredible ease.  However, as soon as he was seated, Ted looked confused.
"What are these strange things ya use on yer hoss?" he asked. 
Pete gave Melanie a sideways glance.
"Um...a saddle and bridle," he said.
Ted laughed.
"Ya gotta be kiddin' me," he said.  "These pitiful things here can't be no saddle and bridle."
Pete threw up his hands.
"Well, never mind," Ted said, "I reckon these'll do...for now."
Ted nudged his spurs into Loophole's sides and yelled, "Git goin' now, hoss!"
Loophole was frightened and confused.  He shot forward like a bullet.
"Would you mind telling me where in the world that crazy guy came from?" Pete asked Melanie.
"Out West." Melanie said.
                                                                        ***
"Ted," Melanie said, gently but firmly, "you really frightened Loophole.  What were you trying to do?"
It had taken a lot of convincing on Melanie's part to talk Ted into getting off of Pete's horse.  Now, as Ted stood in front of her, adjusting his cowboy hat and grinning broadly, Melanie realized with some sadness that she should probably get Ted back to his own time as soon as possible.
"I were jus' showing that young scoundrel how to ride his hoss," Ted explained.  "I hope ya don't mind my sayin' so, Miss Melanie, but yer brother is real bad at ridin'."
Melanie couldn't help smiling at this.  Pete liked to talk about how his riding was always improving, and it was a nice change to hear a different opinion for once, whether Ted was right or not.  Melanie really didn't know, as she had never paid much attention to her brother's hobby, and didn't know much about riding.  She was more interested in inventing.
"Ted, let's go inside," Melanie said.  "I think we'd better--"
"What's that there thang, there?" Ted ask, elbowing Melanie and pointing.
What now?, Melanie thought, but followed Ted's finger. 
"Oh," Melanie said, "that's my dad's truck."
"Truck?" Ted said, slowly, scratching his head.
"Yeah, it's a car...oh, wait a minute." Melanie thought for a moment.  "You know," she said finally, "how in your time, most people use horses to get around?"
"Some of them use them pufferbellies, too," Ted said, nodding.
"What?" Melanie asked.
"Don't ya have pufferbellies in yer time?" Ted asked.  "You know, them long metal thangs pulled by iron horses."
"Iron...oh, trains?" Melanie asked.
"I reckon'," Ted said.
"Well," Melanie said, "...wait, what were we talking about?...Oh yeah.  In our time, we use a lot of cars, like my dad's truck over there."
"Is it anythang like a train?" Ted asked.  "It sure looks kinda like one."
"I guess you could say it's kind of like a train," Melanie said.  "Come on, I'll show it to you."
Ted eyed the truck rather suspiciously as they neared it. 
"It's not goin' to move, is it?" he asked Melanie, walking very cautiously towards the truck.
"Don't worry, it's not on," Melanie said.
Melanie opened the driver's door and got into the truck.  She moved over to the passenger's seat. 
"Come on," she said, "get in."
Ted very carefully climbed into the truck.
"What are these thangs?" he asked, pointing to the keys dangling from the ignition.
"Those are my dad's keys," Melanie explained.  "The one in the slot, there, turns on the truck, if you turn it."
Ted shook his head.  "Real crazy."
They sat silent for a few moments.
"Well," Melanie said, "should we get out?  I think it's about time we--"
Ted turned the key.  The engine roared to life.
"Holy smokes!  Sounds a bit like your time mochine, eh?" Ted hollered.
He grinned at Melanie.
"Uh, yeah," Melanie said nervously, "but, Ted, speaking of my time machine--"
"How does this thang move?" Ted asked.
"Ted," Melanie yelled over the harsh grind of the engine, "turn off the truck!"
"How do I do that?" Ted yelled back.
"Turn the key back towards you!" Melanie screamed.
There was nothing more frightening than being in a running truck with a cowboy behind the wheel.
Ted obediently turned the key.
The engine went off.
Melanie sighed with relief.
"I think it's about time we get you back home, Ted," she said.
"Home?" Ted said.  "Ya mean, back to lil' Silver Corner?"
"Yes," Melanie said.
Ted thought for a moment.
"Well," he said, "it's been a real pleasure visitin' your time here in the 21st Century, but I reckon' you're right.  It's time to go home."
Melanie nodded.  She hesitated for a second, and then grabbed Ted's hand.  They made their way up to the house and back into Melanie's bedroom.
Melanie opened the time machine door, and Ted climbed in.  She climbed in after him, and fastened the door shut, as she had before.
"It's been a real pleasure gettin' to know ya, Melanie," Ted said, nodding politely at Melanie, and shaking her hand.
"You too, Ted," Melanie replied.
Melanie pressed the power button.  The time machine came to life in an instant.  Melanie pulled a lever.  Louder and louder the time machine roared, and faster and faster blinked the green light.  Then, suddenly, all went dark.