Pd.+3+--+Group+3

Renee Bull, Cailin Sacher, Louis Sanchez, Vaden Edwards ~The Goodbye Waves in the Driveways Just Resonate~ Jacquelyn stamps her feet out of the apartment and down the hallway, her foster parents following close behind. She starts darting to the door, trying to keep in front of the two in back of her. "Jacky!" her foster mother called out to her, "we are trying to help!"She is very silent & continues on. "You need to improve those scores or the college might abandon you," explained Jacky's foster father. As usual, Jacky ignored them while she departed the building to grab her bike and ride away. She knew that up until a few years ago she wouldn't have dared mess up her chances of getting into a really nice college,but things were differnt now. "Your parents would be ashamed of this behavior, don't you think?" her foster mother questioned. Jacky stopped and gazed at them. She knew her foster mother was right but she had already thought much about what her parents would think of her recent actions and she felt a slightly guilty but with this new attitude she had,she concluded that she didn't care much.Or that she couldn't care because it hurt to much. After all they are no longer around and werent comming back anytime soon. She then continued to her bike and waved her left hand over it, unlocking it, and escaped her foster parents' chastisement. There was no road, but a sidewalk in between the hundreds of rows of apartment buildings, closely crammed beside one another. In an extremely overpopulated world of more than twelve billion, they have to be crammed. On the roofs are parking lots, or rather landing lots for aero automobiles, which some might call "flying cars". Jacky looked forward at the empty sidewalk as her smooth, blackberry hair flew in the wind and her glazed blue eyes shivered in the frigid June air. The sidewalks were almost always barren of humans because most people these days only travel in the air, rather than take a brisk walk. Biking is a leisure activity that is decades gone. Jacky looked up to see the scatter of aero automobiles in the sky. It was then that she had the most horrid flashback. She was sixteen years of age and known as one of the most gentle, beautiful girls in her school when her parents had died. Jacky was also very intelligent from simple third grade calculus to the complicated workings of radioactive electron pendulanium. She was the most perfect daughter any parent could ever ask for. In this memory, she was in the back seat of an aero automobile; her dad driving and her mom in the passenger's seat. Her parents were smiling and in conversation about her dad's invention when another vehicle crushed the front of their own vehicle and Jacky was ejected immediately. A parachute softly brought her down to a landing lot and she was soon after informed that both of her parents were killed before she was even ejected. Jacky was brought to tears again with this vivid memory. Now twenty years of age, though she is still gorgeous, Jacky is hostile to those around her and just barely gets by in the university, in hopes of still having a bright future ahead. She started in the direction of her old home, located just outside the great grid of apartment buildings. She and her parents were one of the few richer families that could live in single family houses. Therefore, even four years after her parents' deaths, the house remained unsold and untouched. She dropped her bike in the driveway, entered the front door and went down into the basement. There sat her father's invention; a time machine, unknown to everyone except Jacky herself. The Time Machine was styled similarly to the ones used in old, early twenty-first century cartoons. It appeared as a phone booth with maroon painted lining and a five by two grid of windows on the front door. Jacky had always assumed her father chose this fashion purposefully. Above the door read "Time Machine: use with caution!!" She opened the door to enter. It had been explained to her that using the time machine alone was hugely dangerous, let alone without permission. Even her father was very lacking in knowledge of the mechanics of the fourth dimension. Inside, there was not much more than a sort of necklace charm hanging on the wall on the right, a keyhole below the time settings on the left wall, and a wall of instructions and additional information directly in front of Jacky, in very large, maroon font: "Use this Time Machine with EXTREME caution. There is no telling what effects time travel may have on the overall structure of the universe. The world we know might be drastically changed or destroyed while meddling with different time periods. "Instructions: Set the exact time you so desire to enter. Take the key; put it in the keyhole below the time, and twist. Use the button on the key to return. DO NOT LOSE IT!! "Have fun!" Jacky had already known the directions, but she had not yet actually traveled. She set the time and used the key. Suddenly, she felt nothing. Weightless. Everything was blurry as all of the colors of the visible spectrum of light, the rainbow, flowed around her. She seemed to be falling unconscious. From what seemed to be a life time only lasted two seconds by the time everything was ordinary again. The problem was that she was in a restaurant. She stood, motionless. In front of her was a table of four, a family, listing foods they must have wanted. When they finished, she walked away into the bathroom. She looked in the mirror. In the mirror was a slightly different looking Jacky. Her name tag wrote "Jacquelyn". Jacquelyn, twenty-four years of age, a ravishing waitress, she thought. Then again looks can be deceiving.

Four years older, Jacquelyn still looked as beautiful as she did before with her bright blue eyes and long flowing blackberry hair. Although she looked the same she was completely different. Her attitude towards everything had changed but Jacquelyn didn't notice, not then at least. After working a long 10 hour day at the restaurant, Jacquelyn had headed home to where she would have thought to have been greeted by her high school sweetheart/fiancé of nine years. "Honey, I'm home!" hollered Jacky as she jiggled the rusty door knob to open the door. There was no reply. As she went through her home looking for Jake she finally realized that all of his belongings were gone. She was then led to a note by the satellite TV. It read: // Dear Jacquelyn, // I am deeply sorry but I am calling off our wedding. I already moved my belongings out of the apartment so we wouldn't have to see each other again for some time. I am leaving because I feel as though I don't know who you are anymore. After your parents’ death when you were 16, you lost your innocence, your sweetness, and your true beauty. I still do love you but I just can't take your attitude anymore. You are too cruel and disrespectful now. You only care about yourself. I am sorry, but it's a goodbye for now. Yours Truly, Jake

Jacquelyn could not believe this was happening to her. She broke down in tears reading the letter over and over again, occasionally pinching her self to make sure it all wasn't some kind of horrible nightmare. Sadly it wasn't. It was all true. Jacquelyn had become some kind of treacherous monster. A monster she didn't want to be. She had lost some of the most important people in her life, (her foster parents, best friends, and now her fiancé). This was all just because of her attitude and the way she had changed. Jacky now trembling with fear of losing anything or anyone else wanted to go back into the present day and fix her mistakes. She no longer wanted to be miserable and so cold-hearted.She couldnt bear to see any more of the future, she needed to get back to the present.

Again, Jacky returned to the Time Machine. She was done with the miserable future. This time she would take a trip into the past. She was in the back seat of an aero automobile; her dad driving and her mom in the passenger's seat. Quickly, Jacky unbuckled herself so she could step forward, breaking through the middle of her parents' conversation. Tears rolling over her cheeks, she had placed her foot on her dad's, pushing harder against the gas pedal. She grabbed the steering wheel as her parents screamed at her and took a sharp left and then descended some, making sure to be clear of the accident site, as well as all other vehicles. She returned to her seat. Her parents turned around to look at her. "Jacky... No...” her father said calmly. But she pressed the button on the key and went back to her twenty year old body, back to the Time Machine, back to real time. She walked out of the Time Machine to find the basement had not changed at all. It spat at her misery and old memories. She sprinted out of the house. "Mrs. Smith!" Jacky yelled to the woman in the neighboring yard on the left. "Jacquelyn?" Mrs. Smith replied, "why, I haven't seen you since-" "Where are my parents?" "Gracious, are you okay?" "WHERE!?" Mrs. Smith stuttered, "h-honey, they were in an accident four years ago." Jacky aimlessly looked around, trying to figure out what had happened. "Don't you remember? You were there. They were landing the car and there was a malfunction. They crashed into the side of the building while you were thrown out of the car." Jacky ran back inside and to the basement. She curled up in a corner, crying until her face glistened in the little bit of light that lit the room. Then she noticed an envelope on a table that had her name on it. She wondered how she had never noticed it there before. She decided to open it. It read: // "Dear Jacquelyn, // // Out of curiosity, I had taken myself into the days that should come. Out of luck, I had taken myself to the last hour of existence of your mom and me. When you read this, your mom and I should be dead. Do not use the Time Machine to save us for I have already tried many times. It seems that neither the past nor the future can be fully changed. Time is part of nature. It finds its ways around obstacles to make everything work correctly. The Time Machine is an obstacle to the nature of time. This Time Machine was my life's work and I am glad to have finished it. However, I ask three more things of you. First is that you live a wonderful life without the grief of what you have lost. Second, I want you to destroy the Time Machine. There is no good use out of it. Some things were meant to happen the way they do, and there is nothing anyone can do about it. Thirdly, always stay sweet and if obstacles are thrown your way, make the best of them, and appreciate what you have for it may be gone too quickly. Just always remember that "We love you so much!" and we're in a better place now. // Jacky set down the letter. She felt happy and relieved. She hesitated at first to complete the wishes the note had entitled about destroying the time machine, but respecting her parents’ final wishes she did. The time machine was diminished in a matter of minutes. Jacquelyn trotted out of the house and looked around. The sky looked bluer and the grass looked greener. "Are you alright, Jacky?" Mrs. Smith said to her. "Yes, Mrs. Smith, thank you for your concern. Would you like help with your gardening?" Mrs. Smith was silent, and then smiled.