The Journal

By:
Abigail
 I was once walking down one of the streets in London, when I found a
journal lying just beside the trash bin. I don’t know if it simply one of the fictional
works of a teenager, or if it is actually true. Everything is of the original text as
written by Zelaine, the author of the journal. Attached to the journal is a note.

Dear Reader,

Hi, I’m Zelaine Gentilly and I live in Control, or what used to

be London in your time. I am from the future, the year 2111. I am
writing, not to tell you of the latest innovations, but to warn you. I
am currently 11 years old, and although it would be impractical for
you to believe me, I sincerely hope that you would take this
seriously. This is not a joke. Everything inside this journal is true. I
may not be able to change our world, but you could still save yours.
As I said, you may not believe me, but take this as a warning. It is
your choice.

Yours truly,

Zelaine Gentilly
15 June 2111

I wake up and it’s 6:45 a.m., the time we’re all supposed to rise. I rub my eyes
sleepily and stagger towards my closet to grab one of my many orange dresses
and put it on. I never really liked the color orange, but since that was assigned to
us, I can’t really do anything about it. I’m Zelaine Gentilly and today’s my 11th
birthday. I live in Control, a place that used to be called London.

We don’t have to go to the learning institute today, even though it’s mid-June.
Every year on June 15, we have something we call a “mid-year gathering”. It’s
the only gathering in the year that everyone, old or young, is required to attend.
During the gathering, important announcements are made and new assignments
and inventions are presented to the city. However, this year’s special. It’s the 50th
year since the institution of Control.

We don’t really have to wear something pretty to the gathering, but I do anyways.
No, wait, scratch that, who am I kidding, girls aged 10-19 always have to wear a
dress of uniform design and the color would depend on what was assigned to
you. We’re all assigned colors depending on which part of Control we live in and I
happen to be assigned the color orange. The dress isn’t horrible, it’s pretty
actually, but that’s practically the dress of every girl aged 10-19 today. Well, it
actually isn’t that bad, but you get the point. I slipped into my silver gladiators,
another of our “requirements”, and walk through the cleaner, where UV rays
eliminate all forms of pathogens and blowers instantly fix my messy mane. I think
people used to “take a shower” before the cleaner was invented, but that was a
long, long time ago. I wasn’t supposed to know of that, but I once slipped in the
restricted area of the government library and flipped through a book called, “The
Life and Times before Control”. I wasn’t able to take a good look, because before
I knew it, I was already being led out and was told that it was “very unbecoming
of a Control citizen” to sneak in restricted areas. Great.

“Zelaine!” mom called.

“Coming!” I replied as I bounded down the stairs of our Victorian-styled home,

which is more or less the design of every residence in Control.

“Better get ready for the gathering, your bus is coming at 7:17 a.m.” said mom as
she handed me my bacon and egg-flavored food bar. We never had those strips
of greasy bacon seen on the front of the package, nor do we have those small,
white grains people used to call “rice”. The government has replaced all of those
with food bars. According to them, it’s “more efficient”, but I wonder what real
food tastes like.

“BEEP,” my watch goes as it displays 7:16 on its screen. I better get to the bus
stop before the bus comes. In Control, everything has to be exact. When you’re
scheduled for, say 8:34 p.m., you have to be there at exactly 8:34 p.m. or if
possible, earlier. Latecomers have their appointments cancelled, no ifs, no buts,
and cancelled appointments do disrupt your schedule. That’s just the way it is
here in Control, everything under control and in control.

“Good morning Miss Zelaine,” Rabeen, the bus conductor, greets me as the bus
pulls in. Rabeen’s really nice and she’s the only person I know who’s wearing a
multi-colored dress. She doesn’t have a permanent home, and she stays in
guesthouses of the area she’s currently in. It’s awesome to be traveling around,
and wearing multi-colored dresses, but come to think of it, it’s sad too, having to
leave an area every now and then.

I walk to my seat next to the window. C-23. My seat number, another one of
those things that they have assigned to us. Well, at least I get to sit with my best
friend Danvar. He’s 3 years older than I am and is currently in the Tertiary
Institute for Science, whereas I’m still in Secondary. I got detained in Secondary
4 for a few months, thanks to my little feat in the government library back then.

We’re all kids, or should I say young adults, in our bus. I have no idea why we
have to go with our age group, but that’s just how it is in Control.

We’ve finally reached the plaza where the gathering will be held, and we’re being
led to the area labeled “10-19”. It seems to be that everyone’s present and the
gathering is bound to begin in a few minutes.

I see our tall stocky governor, Governor Frolo, head up the stage. He’s the one
in-charge of presiding over the gathering.

“Good morning citizens of Control!” the governor’s voice booms out of the hidden
speakers.

“Control was once just a dream of a congregation a hundred years ago. Slowly,
but surely, this group was able to gather more members until they were able to
overthrow the unfair rule that once governed this land. We, the new government,
worked hard and made Control the perfect society, the perfect place to live in.

“Equality is one of our main principles of our society. We strongly believe that
through equality, there would be no envy and greed, which is the one of the main
causes of downfall. Consequently, we applied the ideologies of Karl Marx, as well
as some innovations, to come up with the perfect city-Control!” announced Gov.
Frolo with much enthusiasm as he did in every gathering.

“To achieve equality in the society, each family of three is assigned a Victorian
home in their assigned areas. In accordance to this, all citizens in the orange
district will be provided orange clothing, while those in the blue district will be
provided blue clothing, and so on and so forth. This is to ease the citizens and
officials of confusions during assignments. Well, another plus for those who
always have a hard time picking out their clothes, and don’t worry citizens, these
are all fashioned by top fashion designers all over the world!” he adds with a
laugh. Expectantly, we, the audience laugh along, although I bet that more than
half don’t really think it’s funny. But since we’re in Control and we were instructed
to do so, there’s nothing else to do but follow.
Governor Frolo practically re-announced all of our rules and it takes more than 5
hours for him to finish. Here’s a brochure of Control they gave us today.

All About Control

A Brief History
Control, previously known as London, was once a monarchic
kingdom. In the year 2011, a secret society was formed by the great
Lucas Schneider. Schneider, wishing to obliterate the unfair rule of
the monarchs, gathered members from all over the world. The
secret society, called The Nonpartisan, slowly grew until it was
large enough to overthrow the presiding monarch. In a span of 20
years, Control was formed, through the hard work of the members
of The Nonpartisan.

The Great Philosophies of Karl Marx

The establishment of Control was inspired by Marxism, which
was founded by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Marxism promotes
equality by bringing in a classless and stateless community.
Through equality, we eradicate the presence of envy and greed,
thus minimizing the chances of downfall. In establishing Control,
The Nonpartisan incorporated the ideologies of Marxism, as well as
some innovations, in order to create the perfect society we now
know as Control.

Basic Rules and Regulations

1. All citizens of Control are required to comply with all the

rules and regulations issued by the government.
2. Attire:
a. Children below 10 are required to wear jumpsuits and
rubber shoes in accordance to their area color.
b. Girls ages 10-19 are required to wear the assigned dress
and silver gladiators in accordance to their area color.
 c. Boys ages 10-19 are required to wear a polo shirt, khaki
pants and black leather shoes in accordance to their
area color.
d. All professionals will be informed of their attire on their
orientation. All garments should be in accordance to
their area color, unless specified.
e. The government will provide all garments to be worn.
f. Any other garment that is not on the dress code is
strictly prohibited.
3. Education:
a. All children age 4 are required to attend the Primary
Learning Institute (PLI), where they will be taught the
basics of being a Control citizen.
b. All graduates of PLI are required to attend the
Secondary Learning Institute (SLI) to be further trained
in becoming a Control citizen.
c. All graduates of the SLI will be assigned to various
Tertiary Learning Institutes (TLI) depending on their
assessment exams
i. The following TLIs are available
 1. Math TLI
2. Science TLI
3. Arts TLI
4. Production TLI
5. English TLI
6. Economics and Finance TLI
7. Technology TLI
d. All students of the PLI and SLI are required to take at
least one and at most three activities every month that
will further hone their skills.
i. The following activities are available:
1. Math (Basic, Intermediate, Advanced)
2. Science (Basic, Intermediate, Advanced)
3. Arts (Basic, Intermediate, Advanced)
4. English (Basic, Intermediate, Advanced)
5. Economics (Basic, Intermediate, Advanced)
6. Finance (Basic, Intermediate, Advanced)
7. Technology (Basic, Intermediate, Advanced)
8. Foreign Languages
ii. A student must complete the Basic, Intermediate
and Advanced levels of at least one subject area.
iii. Assessment exams will be given after the
completion of each activity.
e. Primary Learning Institute comprises of 3 levels, while
the Secondary Learning Institute consists of 6 levels
and the Tertiary Learning Institute has 4 levels.
f. Each level spans one year, but it can be completed in
less than a year, depending on the student’s
performance
g. Each citizen is expected to finish his/her education
before he/she reaches 19 years old.
h. More information can be found on the Learning Institute
Handbook given out every year.
4. Profession
a. All graduates of the TLI will be assessed, and then
assigned to a profession suitable for him/her.
5. Housing
a. Each family of three will be assigned in a fully-
furnished, 2-storey Victorian house in their area.
 b. Each house has the following amenities:
i. 3 designer bedrooms, complete with a cleaner and
stocked wardrobe each
ii. TV screens in every floor
iii. Command panel for easy controls in each area
iv. City-view in each room
c. Each citizen must stay in his/her own house and is not
allowed to stay in another family’s house.
d. All citizens are prohibited to tamper with the
technologies installed in the house.
6. Activities:
a. All students will be given schedules in their respective
Learning Institutes.
b. All professionals will be given schedules in their
respective orientations.
c. All schedules span from 6:45 a.m. (waking time) to 9:45
p.m. (lights out)
d. All citizens must be home on/before 9 p.m. Daily
rounds will be made by the officer-in-charge.
e. Schedules should be strictly followed and partaking in
any activity not found in the schedule will be
considered as an offense to disrupt order in the society.
7. Families
a. Each family should only consist of a father, mother and
a child, totaling 3 citizens in each family.
b. Any child other than the firstborn will be given to
another couple.
8. Visitors
a. Control is currently closed to visitors from other
countries.
9. Any form of violence, physical or verbal, is strictly prohibited.
10. Violators will be dealt accordingly.

For more information and updates about control, log on to the

Control website.
“Well, now that you’re all informed of the rules of Control, we have some
important announcements to make.

“First of all, since this is the 50th year anniversary of Control, there would be
some guests coming from different parts of the world. Citizens of Control are
expected to be on their best behavior.

“There would also be selected students from each level of the learning institute to
escort the guests around the city. Their names will be announced tomorrow,”
said Governor Frolo.

Well, that’s one thing I’m sure I won’t be chosen for. Considering that I had a
previous offense, they would be nuts to pick me.

“That’s all for this year’s mid-year gathering,” ended Gov. Frolo.

No inventions, no assignments. That’s weird and it was surprisingly short for a

mid-year gathering, more over for the 50th year.

“Beloved citizens! Please go to your respective buses to be transported back to

your homes. Your schedule for the rest of the afternoon is to be spent at home.
No activity is specified,” the voice from the speakers announced.

That, too, is weird. We rarely have free time to do what we want to do. I’m
currently writing this journal during the free time. We’re not supposed to keep
journals, but it just feels awesome to do so, after seeing the young girls in The
Life and Times Before Control do so.

“Zelaine! It’s time for the anniversary feast!” dad called.

We have to gather in the plaza to have an anniversary feast every decade. This
is technically my 2nd anniversary feast, but I never had any recollection of my
first, since I was just a one-year old baby back then.

Oh right, you must be wondering what kind of celebration I had for my birthday.
Well, here in Control, we don’t celebrate birthdays; we don’t get gifts and
greetings. It’s merely a day in our lives.

“Zelaine!” dad called again.

I have to go now, I’ll probably write again tomorrow. Bye for now!

Zelaine Gentilly
16 June 2111

6:37 a.m.
We have classes today in the Secondary Learning Institute. I’m already in
Secondary 5, and I’m supposed to be in Secondary 4, but I was able to finish
some levels in less than a year. Oh right, that included the 3-month detainment I
got, cool, right?

I really don’t have much time to write, since it’s about to be 6:45 a.m. soon. As I
said, I’m not really supposed to do this, but it’s fun. I’ll just attach a copy of my
schedule today, so you’ll get an idea on how my day will be like.

Zelaine Gentilly – Orange C-23

June 16, 2111 Tuesday

6:45 a.m. – Rise and shine!

6:50 a.m. – It’s Cleaner time!

6:55 a.m. – Grab your food bar and get ready to go.

7:17 a.m. – Hop on the Magic School Bus

7:30 a.m. – Welcome to the Secondary Learning Institute!

7:30 a.m.-7:35 a.m. – Listen up, it’s time for announcements!

7:35 a.m.-7:55 a.m. – Please and thank you! Manners class with
Miss Jenick Wetar

8:00 a.m.-9:30 a.m. – Bow and curtsy. Etiquette class with Miss
Kayple Xeron

9:30 a.m.-9:45 a.m. – Have a break!

9:45 a.m.-11:45 a.m. – Attention! All about Control Part 1 with Mr.
Clyde Stojacovic

11:45 a.m.-12:10 p.m. – Lunch time! Yummy food bars!

12:10 p.m.-1:00 p.m. –All about Control Part 2 with Mr. Clyde
Stojacovic

1:00 p.m.-1:10 p.m. – Assessment time!

1:10 p.m.-3:00 p.m. – Activities! Intermediate Math with Miss

Alianne Fusion

3:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m. – Activities! Advanced English with Mr. Kei

Xoyo

5:15 p.m. – Bus ride, yay!

5:28 p.m. – Home sweet home

6:00 p.m. – Sports time (Bicycle riding with Danvar Frenos)

7:30 p.m. – Dinnertime!

8:00 p.m. – Tech-time! A one-on-one lesson with Mr. and Mrs.

Gentilly on how to operate household technologies

9:30 p.m. – Cleaner time!

9:45 p.m. – Lights out!

5:31 p.m.
I just got off class and you have no idea what just happened during the
announcements.

“Good morning students of the Secondary Learning Institute! As you’ve heard

yesterday from Governor Frolo, we’re announcing the selected students today.
These students will be excused from class when the visitors come. Aren’t you all
excited to know who these lucky students are?” our headmaster said giddily.

I’m surely not one of them anyways, so I fiddle with my hair, which is one of the
reasons why I get low grades in Etiquette class.

“Well, here I have the list of students that were chosen through the frivolous
assessments made by our beloved staff. From Secondary One, we have Lycella
Sola!” announced the headmaster as a pretty girl of around 6 or 7 walked
gracefully up the stage.

Much of the others became a blur, since I was too busy fiddling with my hair. It
wasn’t until they started announcing the candidate of Secondary 4, when
Thresha, my classmate in Manners, tapped my shoulder and started gushing on
how she wished she would be picked. All I answered was, “Well, I’m sure I won’t
be picked,” without any tone of regret or bitterness.

“I bet all of you Secondary Five students can’t wait to know who was chosen, so
here it is, we have Zelaine Gentilly!” the headmaster announced as I suddenly
felt weak.

This is a mistake. How could I, the girl who had an offense, be chosen? How
could I, the girl who was always too noisy and too free-willed, be chosen? This is
all a mistake.

“Go on, Zelaine, aren’t you just happy that you’ve been chosen? Stop acting and
get up the stage. I’ll just be here clapping for you,” said Thresha with much
sarcasm.
Oh great. Now, I’m even said to be acting. I wanted to talk back, but I just find
myself tongue-tied every time I tried retaliating at Thresha. I guess there’s
nothing to do but head up the stage. As the headmaster congratulates me, I
smile sheepishly, and I see a lot of eyes rolling at me. Great, just great.

“Selected students, please see me in my office in 5 minutes, afterwards, proceed

to your respective classes” said the headmaster.

Nothing much happened in the headmaster’s office. We were merely assigned

the guest we’re going to escort, and given a 2-inch thick booklet on how to guide
them along town. They’re coming tomorrow. I was assigned to a guy named
Manuel Santos, from somewhere called the Philippines. Manuel. What an odd
name.

_______________________________________________________________

“Riiiiing!”

I heard the bell ring, as I snapped out of my reverie.

“Riiiiing!”

Danvar! He must be here for our bike riding session. Bye then! I can’t be seen
writing on my journal, lest I want it confiscated by the officials.

9:32 p.m.

Bike riding with Danvar was really fun! I didn’t get to talk to him much since last
week. I told him about the announcement a while ago. It seems that he, too, was
picked in their level. Well, that’s no surprise, Danvar’s really smart and he gets
high grades in practically everything. He’s also the model for some of Control’s
advertisements. Well, who wouldn’t want to choose someone like him? As for
me, there’s nothing really good about me. I’m a fast learner, but that’s it.
Anyways, Danvar says he’s assigned to a guy named Travis Wright from
America. All these guests really do have weird names. I really do hope they’re
not weird too.

Zelaine Gentilly
17 June 2111

4:30 a.m.
I’m not supposed to wake up this early, but I really can’t help it. Today’s the first
day of being an escort to the guests. They’ll be staying here for 5 days and it’s
our job to escort them around the city and answer their questions. I just finished
reading our 2-inch thick booklet, which was actually 146 pages long. It’s
practically a script for the whole tour. There’s a script for every situation
available, and it’s drastically long. Honestly, I didn’t really even pay much
attention to the lines we’re supposed to memorize. I don’t think anyone would
really notice if I did memorize it or not anyways. What really interested me was
the profile of Mr. Manuel Santos. It says that he’s a writer; I wonder what that is.
I’ll probably bring my journal along; hopefully, he might allow me to write while on
the trip.

There was a line in the booklet that I found really funny. Never, ever say anything
degrading about the Control in front of the guest, it said. Well, what bad thing
could be said of the Control anyways? It’s the perfect society.

Oh, yeah, they changed my schedule today. Everything I do until 8:45 p.m. would
be related to the tour. It’s really ironic to pick students to escort the guests when
there would be professional tour guides to bring them around. Well, I guess it
would get really boring talking to the tour guides too.

Anyways, I’m feeling really sleepy right now. I better get some sleep, I wouldn’t
want to run the risk of drifting off to sleep during the tour.

9:23 a.m.
We’ve just fetched Mr. Manuel from the Receiving Area, and guess what, he
allowed me to write during the tour!

Our conversation went something like this,

“Mabuhay Mr. Manuel! Welcome to Control!” I said, since that was the prescribed
greeting, although I have no idea what mabuhay even meant.

“Hello, dear child, may I ask what your name is?” he asked.

“I’m Zelaine Gentilly, sir, may I ask you something?” I replied.

“Ask away then!”

“What’s a writer, Mr. Manuel?”

“Well, a writer is one who writes, I do it for a living, don’t you have writers in
here?” said Mr. Manuel.
“Oh, no, sir, people here usually invent or work in government offices, but no one
writes for a living” I explained.

“I see, have you tried writing or keeping a journal?” he queried.

I wanted to tell him badly that I keep a journal, but it might just end up being
confiscated.

“Mr. Manuel, we’re not allowed to keep journals in Control,” I said, but as soon as
I saw the disappointment plastered on his face, I quickly added, “But I do keep
one.”

“That would be our little secret then,” he added with a laugh.

That just probably made Mr. Manuel’s day, from then on, he wouldn’t stop smiling
and asking me about my journal, which made me muster courage to ask him if it
would be alright if I write during the tour, and I explained how I was able to sneak
writing in my daily schedule.

“Of course, you may!” Mr. Manuel said, and that gave me a good impression of
Mr. Manuel.

“You better keep your journal now, Zelaine,” Mr. Manuel said as the car stopped
in front of the Control museum.

The door of the limousine opened as a guard assisted us in getting out. Our tour
around the museum mostly consisted of our chat with Mr. Manuel on Control.

It wasn’t until we got to the car that Mr. Manuel started talking about his country,
the Philippines.

“Sir, what is the Philippines?” he asked.

“Oh, well, the Philippines is where I came from and it’s a lot different from
Control. To begin with, not everyone in the Philippines has Victorian homes and
pretty clothes.”

“…But that’s just immoral of the government, don’t they provide you with those?”
I ask.

“Well, no. We have an entirely different form of government in the Philippines.

We aren’t provided food or clothes; we have to work for them. Remember the
one in your brochure - the one about the classless and stateless society? Ours is
the entire opposite. You see the rich and the poor, there are people who merely
sit in an office all day and earn lot, while there are also some who go around
town begging for alms,” he explained.

“That’s just cruel and unfair! How could you live in such a country, Mr. Manuel?”

“That’s a good question, Zelaine. However, in the Philippines, everybody gets to

choose what they want, but they work hard for it. It’s something called freedom,”
he replies.

“Freedom? What’s freedom?”

“Freedom is the power to do what you want without being hindered. Say, I want
to wear my pajamas to work. That’s just fine, and you won’t get caught. Although
that would mean putting up with mockeries, but you get my point,” Mr. Manuel
said with a smile.

“Oh, I see, in Control, we’re not allowed to do anything like that! It’s just so… Oh,
I’m sorry, Mr. Manuel!” I say as I remembered the line that says Never, ever say
anything degrading about the Control in front of the guest.

That stopped our conversation about the Philippines, but until now, I can’t seem
to take it off my mind. Freedom. What is freedom? How come we never came
across that word?

Is this all a coincidence?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I saw Danvar before we went home and asked him about freedom. According to
him, they have never mentioned that word even in English TLI, where one
practically studies the dictionary. I repeat Mr. Manuel’s explanation and Danvar
seems to get a glint of hope in his eyes.

“What?” I ask him.

“Nothing, it’s just that, what if we have freedom? Wouldn’t that mean…we can do
anything we want?” he says as he grins.

“Well, I think so, but that’s just hard. I mean, we have to work hard for it, and all
these would be gone,” I say as I point at our homes and garments.

“So? You would trade those for freedom? Well, I wouldn’t. Good night Zelaine.”
Danvar said as accompanied me to the front door.
I couldn’t seem to sleep; Danvar and Mr. Manuel’s words have found their way to
my thoughts and made rest impossible. I kept thinking, What if Danvar’s words
were true? What if we were to have freedom?

As it reached 11 p.m., drowsiness seemed to get the better of me, but it did not
stop me from thinking…

What if…

Zelaine Gentilly
18 June 2111

“Danvar, what you said just made a lot of sense…But what are we supposed to
do? We’re powerless against the government,” I tell Danvar as soon as I see
him.

“I know,” said Danvar with a distant look on his face.

“Wait, Danvar, don’t you think…” I trail off.

“What?”

“By changing the past, we change the future, don’t we?” I say.

“Well, technically, yes, but that’s really dangerous, Zelaine. By tampering with the
past, we might be gone forever. Nonexistent, to be more exact,” he replies, now
bright-eyed.

“Oh, I was just thinking of sending my journal off to the past. I think it has
sufficient information to convince people, but I just couldn’t think of a way on how
to send it off to the past. I’ve heard of time machines, but as far as I know, they’re
still in the process of making it in Control,” I tell him.

“You have a journal? That was…unexpected, but I like your plan. In fact, we do
have a completed and working time machine in Control. My friend from the
Science Institute says that it was supposed to be presented in this year’s mid-
year gathering. They’ve been working on it for years.” he says in a hushed voice.

Our conversation was cut off when the messengers came to pick us up for the
tour, but that didn’t stop me from thinking about the time machine.

A time machine. It was supposed to be presented to us, yet it wasn’t, but why?

Isn’t this too much of a coincidence? Could it be?

Visitors suddenly come and they assign students instead of professionals to be

their escorts. Could it be that they were afraid of the trouble that may be caused
when adults knew of freedom? Could it be that they don’t present any new
invention, because they think it might be used against them?

Could it be?

“Mr. Manuel, how did you attain freedom in the Philippines?” I ask.
“Oh, well, our ancestors fought really hard for it. There was a lot of bloodshed at
that time. You wouldn’t really want to get into the details, it’s a history of more
than 400 years,” he said.

“Wow. It really took that long to have freedom?”

“Yes, it was a hard battle. Our colonizers had all those advanced weapons, while
the Filipinos only had daggers. Why the sudden interest, by the way?”

“Oh…Nothing, I just wanted to ask.” I say.

Freedom. It’s a word I couldn’t get out of my mind.

If I were to send my journal back in time, when and where should I send it?
London, no doubt. It was where it all began, but when?

I sneak in the government library during the tour of the government building with
Mr. Manuel. I told him I was going to check on something for school. I hate lying
to people, but this is the only chance I’m probably going to get.

I take off my silver gladiators and drop it in the backpack I brought along.
Barefoot, I crept towards the restricted area of the library.

The Flickering Light…

The Haunted Room of Control…
The Life and Times Before Control… There! Found it!

I grabbed the book and placed it in the backpack. I was about to go when I found
a book entitled, Time Machines and Where to Find Them.

Well, I ended up getting that as well.

Zelaine Gentilly
19 June 2111

I was browsing through The Life And Times Before Control and Time Machines
and Where to Find Them last night. Time machines are said to produce a lot of
commotion when transporting something. Well, I shouldn’t pick a normal day
then. I flipped through the Important Events section of the first book and found
the perfect date. April 29, 2011. The Royal Wedding.

“Danvar! I’ve found the perfect day and place!” I called out to him.

“Well, the problem is, how?”

“Figured that out too. Come along!” I said as I led him to the study.

“Look at this! Time machines were invented in the year 2103, but it was never
publicly announced, so as to avoid disruptions in the time space continuum. Time
machines are stored and heavily guarded in the basement of the government
building. You might think they’re big machines, but they’re not. A time machine’s
just as big as a radio.” I read to Danvar.

“Well, that clears up a lot. Do you think we’d be able to do it?” he asks.

“Why not give it a try?” I say.

“Mr. Manuel, would you want to go to the government building?” I ask.

“Zelaine, we’ve just been there, do you want to go there?”

“No, I mean, yes…It’s pretty urgent.” I say as I explain to him the plan.

Thankfully, Mr. Manuel understands us well and agreed to play along.

“Excuse me, I’ve heard that Control has been developing some sort of time
traveling device. I’m really interested in it, I’ve been looking for those innovations
that I could invest in,” Mr. Manuel tells Governor Frolo.

“Actually, we are already done developing the time machine. Control would be
happy to accommodate you as an investor, Mr. Manuel Santos,” says Gov. Frolo
with a big grin.

“Oh, that’s just great! Would it be possible for me to see it?” asked Mr. Manuel
earnestly.
“Of course! Of course! Anything for our beloved investor!” said Gov. Frolo.

We head down to the government basement. Danvar wasn’t able to come along,
because his guest wanted to go to the museum again.

“Here’s the room for the time machines!” announces the governor.

“I see it’s heavily guarded. Good. Good. May I enter alone with my escort? If it’s
alright, I’ll be taking one home as a sample,” says Mr. Manuel.

“Sure, I’ll be right outside if you need me.”

Mr. Manuel and I went in the room and I was amazed by the various sizes of time
machines available. The book was not updated; a time machine could be as
small as a watch! There was actually one that was designed as a watch.

“I’ll be taking this,” says Mr. Manuel, grabbing the watch-designed time machine.

“Zelaine, you better finish up your journal, Gov. Frolo might get suspicious if we
take too long,” he said, handing me something to attach at the back of the
journal.

We start up one of the time machines, and it gives a whirring sound. I try
throwing a piece of paper in, and it made a loud zap.

“Are you alright in there, Mr. Manuel?” Gov. Frolo knocks.

“Yes, I was just trying one of the machines in here!” shouts Mr. Manuel from the
back end of the room as he winked at me.

I hastily attached a note to the front of my journal as I write my final words here.

Well, this is it. I hope you would really take this seriously. Please, do forward it to
authorities. It’s the only hope we’ve got.

This is Zelaine Gentilly, now signing off.

Zelaine Gentilly
As I said before, I don’t know whether this is merely a fictional work or a true
account by Zelaine. However, I would like all of you to know I found something
attached at the back cover of the notebook.

It’s a watch.

-THE END-