Back to the Renaissance

Back to the Renaissance

Tom could not understand what he was seeing. He had gone to the garage after he finished his dinner (He and his family were eating Thai food). He needed an oil can because his bed was making a strange creaking sound. While he was searching for the oil can, he fell through a secret trapdoor into another room. That is when he saw ‘it’. ‘It’ would have looked like a bathtub if it was not surrounded by computers and wires. There was some sort of electric generator beside ‘it’. Out of instinct, Tom went and sat in the bath tub. There were two buttons, a red one and a green one. He pressed the green one and everything went black.

‘Hello, Hello?”

“Ugh, what? What happened?”

Tom got up and saw a boy about 15 years old standing in front of him. That boy was wearing some weird robes as if he was going to fancy dress fair.

“Who are you? And what are you wearing?” Tom said.

“Why? I am wearing what I wear every day.” The boy said.

“You are joking right?” Tom said.

“No. And to answer your first question my name is Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci; but my mother calls me Leo.” The boy said.

“What?” Tom asked confused.

“Why don’t you come with me, I think my mother will be pleased to see you. It’s not everyday that a stranger comes to this part of town.”

Without asking another question Tom got out of the bathtub and went with Leo. When they came to Leo’s house, Tom was so shocked that he could not utter a word. The house looked like as if it was from the renaissance period. It was old-fashioned. There were no electronics, not even a cellphone, but there was a library of books. Tom immediately understood what had happened. The bathtub was actually a time-machine and it had sent him back to renaissance period! He had lot of questions in mind, but he was too shocked to open his mouth.

“Do you want something to eat?” There was a lady probably Leo’s mom.

He was still standing outside the house.

“Please come and sit inside. I will get the fire ready,” she said.

Tom sat down and asked Leo, “Where am I?”

“Oh! You don’t know where you are?” asked Leo.

“No”, Tom thought quickly and said, “I was travelling, and I got lost.”

“Oh! Then let me tell you something about my country.” Said Leo, “All the people are going through a change. Our country was in a dark age. People did not have any interest in literature and culture. Very recently many writers, painters, engineers, mathematicians etc. have emerged. They are bringing back interest of my countrymen in various fields. I hope that one day I can also become like them. Oh, the food is here. Let’s eat!”

Tom and Leo sat down and ate quietly. Then they went back outside.

“I need to go back home”, said Tom.

“Ok then”, said Leo.

“But my home is in the future.”

“Cool! So you got here through a time machine.”

“Yes, why are you not surprised?”

“I am being introduced to many new concepts. Time traveling is also something being studied.”

“Cool, but I really need to get back to the time machine else I will be stuck here forever.”

“Well then I guess this is goodbye.”

“Goodbye Leo, I hope I will see you again.”

“Me too Tom.”

Tom pressed the red button of time machine and went back home. Leo grew up to be a man of art and renamed himself as Leonardo da Vinci. He also tried to engineer new devices that could help him meet Tom again. He never succeeded. He painted pictures from which he attained fame. While on deathbed he lamented on not meeting Tom again. He said that he has offended God and men (Tom) by failing to practice his art as he should have done.

Tom got up from sleep with a jerk. He looked around and saw that he was in his bedroom in his present.

“That’s it, no more Thai food,” said Tom.

By Nirmay Joseph

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