The Thing

Here's another one of my many creative writing assignments entitled "The Thing." The assignment was to tell a story from the perspective of a person from the 19th century coming across a piece of modern technology. Hopefully from the story you can figure out what the piece of modern technology is. :) Enjoy.


I gasped in shock as I stared at the "thing" ahead of me. What could this be? How could this be real? Was I dreaming? Ah I must start at the beginning. On a cold winter day in 1800, I happened to be enjoying an early morning stroll around the small town in which I lived. As I reached Burke Street, eccentric Mrs. Peterson poked her head out of her small home and invited me in for some early morning tea.
"Come right in, Miss Harrison!" she had called in a loud voice. "I haven’t seen you in the longest time!"
Not wanting to be rude, I accepted the invitation. It was when the old woman was in the kitchen, getting ready to serve the tea, that I saw the thing. I, Annie Harrison, love to explore, so I was looking casually around the home by Mrs. Peterson’s own invitation. I saw the thing in a small back bedroom. At first I thought it was merely nothing. It was a small square shaped thing that look almost like a box, except it wasn’t. For one thing the center of it was glass almost, and it seemed at a distance as if one could see right through it. I ventured forward for a closer look and tapped on the glass. I then stepped back in shock. I could see my own reflection! As I continued to stare, I noticed a small row of buttons on the lower half of the "box". Feeling adventuresome, I reached down and pushed the button down as hard as I could. It was then that I had the worst shock I’ve ever had in all of my 17 years.
As soon as I pressed the button, it was as if the little box came alive. A strange picture popped up on the screen. It was a man talking! Can you believe it! My first thought was that a man was trapped in the box but then I realized how ridiculous that assumption was. I jumped back and continued staring. Then a more frightening idea popped into my head. Could this be some form of witchcraft? I mean what else but pure magic could cause a man to be trapped in this thing? Was Mrs. Peterson a witch? It made perfect sense. She was, after all, a very queer sort of lady who nobody knew to well. Someone needed to put a stop to this! Someone needed to help that man! I began yelling in the direction of the box, "Don’t worry, sir! Stay put! I’m going for help!" The man made no indication that he had heard me, however, and went right on talking. I gulped in surprise. Why could I see him and hear him but he apparently couldn’t see or hear me? I’d never thought of that until just now. Something awfully strange was going on, and I was sure it was the work of dark magic.
I became even more surprised when the man started talking about a war that was going on in the year 2002. 2002? That was way in the future. Obviously, some witch had been fooling with this man’s mind. Just as I was about to run out of the room in a fit of terror, I noticed a long thing right behind the box. It was extremely long and looked almost like a snake with a very odd kind of skin on. It also seemed to be connected to some kind of weird place in the wall that had tiny holes in it. Curious, I grabbed the long wire thing and pulled. To my shock, it came out of the wall, and as it did so the man in the box suddenly hushed his talking. Puzzled, I peered down at the strange snake like thing. It had two weird metal like things at the end of it. Suddenly, I noticed a little bit of the skin like stuff was starting to come off. As I began to curiously investigate, I suddenly heard a loud voice yell, "Annie! Stop! Drop it!"
In shock I dropped the thing and saw Mrs. Peterson race in the room and grab the cord. "Mrs. Peterson!" I stammered. "What in the world is this...thing??"
Mrs. Peterson sighed. "I didn’t mean you to find this, Annie."
"Well listen here, Mrs. Peterson. If you really are a witch..."
Mrs. Peterson threw her hands up in the air at mock horror. "Of course I’m not! Come right in my room, Annie, and I’ll tell you the whole story. At least I’ll tell you what that thing is. I can’t tell you how I got it and all. Too complicated if you ask me." She paused uncertainly. "Annie, could we possibly keep this a secret?"
"Of course," I answered readily. And I kept her secret about the strange "television" and am still keeping it today. It’s not like anyone would believe me. They would just laugh and say I was addled in the head. All I know is what I saw was really there, and maybe someday other people besides me will see it too.