The Imagination Machine

Chapter 3

Courtney was lying on the carpet of her room, clutching her throat that no longer had a rope tied around it. She could still see the marks on the backs of her legs and feel the stiffness in her arms.  The shackles which had been on her wrists were still there, and beginning to hurt. Courtney detached both their wristbands and turned to Rudy.

"You idiot!" she snapped at her brother. "Why didn't you just push the button?!"

"I-I'm sorry, Courtney," Rudy sniffed, trembling. "I didn't know! I'm sorry!"

"You forgot about the alarm, too?"

He nodded, wiping his nose.

Courtney forced herself to calm down, reminding herself that she'd thrown her brother into the middle of her experiment without giving him a clue about what was going on. He's only seven, after all.

 "Here's the deal. If we're in a game, whenever one of us wants the button pushed, we push it. Even if we're not in any danger," she said.

Rudy nodded again, a guilty look on his face. He stood and began to limp, dragging himself over the bed and collapsing on it. Courtney glanced at her wrists, frowning. "I guess that anything we had with us during the fantasy stays on us when we get home," said Rudy.

"Go get some ice for both of our arms. And a drill. We need to get those shackles off. Remember, not a word to mom and dad. Make sure they aren't around," Courtney told her brother.

Rudy nodded, still sniffling.

"You know where the drill is, don't you?"

Another nod.

"Then go."

Rudy complied, quickly heading downstairs, trying to hide the limp in his leg.

Little did Courtney know that her adventures weren't even close to being done yet. Over the course of the next few days, she and Rudy went skiing down Mount Everest, dove into a pool of chocolate, and went riding on the back of Rudy's wolf. All of this was coordinated perfectly so Rudy and Courtney came back to real life the instant they left. Courtney and Rudy spent hours up in their room without a minute ticking by on the clock in their parent's bedroom. Courtney and Rudy kept the machine covered up in their closet, only bringing it out when Rudy wanted to play something.

As soon as Courtney knew that Rudy could handle the machine responsibly, she left him on his own.  She was not ashamed to admit that she sometimes joined him in play. Pretending was one thing, but actually entering the realms of Rudy's mind in real life was another, and actually rather fun.

The machine she invented proved to be useful. It effectively kept Rudy busy for hours without interfering with his summer schedule of TV and hockey practice. No longer would she have to suffer the torture of pretending to be at the mercy of Doctor Doom. The invention now also bore a new name. Rudy called it 'The Imagination Machine'.

"Not the most articulate name," Courtney said as she strapped on their wristbands one day nearing the end of the summer. "But it will work."

Rudy shrugged, considering first his wristband, then his older sister as he pondered a thought. "Hey Courtney, why don't you come up with the fantasy today?"

Courtney gave him a look. She'd never used her imagination to take them into a fantasy before. It had always been Rudy who'd control when and where they went to. "Are you sure?"  Rudy gave her a nod.

Courtney pulled a red curl into her mouth. Although it was a habit, and something she naturally did when she was anxious or in deep thought, she had been trying to stop.

She closed her eyes and began to focus. As soon as her fantasy formed an image into her brain, the ground began to tremble as usual. This time, however, it seemed to heat up beneath her feet. The air in front of her appeared to grow cracks and split into several different sections. Instead of a bright white flash, a multicolored rainbow took over her vision. She didn't have much time to worry about it, though, before they landed.