Chapter 18: The Time Machine

Good morning, Ida! It's Snowflake Day! Stop doing that for a second, it's time to go to the festival!

She's a fast learner with that workbench.

Anyway, Snowflake Day! This will be Ida's last holiday before her young adult birthday. It's snowing quite heavily today, but that doesn't stop the Hands.

Apparently Morgana Wolff is similarly undeterred. Shanti is pleased to see her old friend looking happier these days.

Alexander shows off his fancy backward-skating skills.

And Rain shows up! Hi, Rain! Rain tells her sister about her new job in professional sports and about how hectic it is living in a small house with her best friend and her best friend's boyfriend.

"Rosalind and Dana are talking about getting engaged, can you believe it? I'm so happy for them..."

Ida wants to know if it isn't just a little fast. "I mean, you guys were all just kids a few days ago. Don't they want to live a little, have a career or something before settling down?"

"There's no reason you can't do both," says Rain, but Ida is still dubious.

"Anyway, it's wonderful to see you," Rain says, enveloping her sister in a hug. They've never been apart for this long before, and it's strange for both of them.

"Hey Rain, you're artistic, do you think this looks a little uneven?"

"How should I know? Aren't you the one who's good at building stuff? Jeez."

"Alex, stop, you have to fill in the bricks on the lower layers before you can do the ones on top," Shanti admonishes. It seems everyone is learning lessons about teamwork today.

Ida says hello to a girl named Edith Mae. Edith goes to school with Ida but they barely know each other.

They discover that they both like comic books.

And snowball fights.

The elders have their own snowball fights. Alex and Morgana team up against Shanti.

The group takes a quick break a the greeting card booth...

before it's back to snowball fighting. This time it's just the Hands, all four of them together again like the old days.

Alex is really good at throwing snowballs, but Ida and Shanti still win 100-50.

Ida wanders off to try some skating.

She does a little jig as she fights to remain standing.

Again with the arms thing...

She has better luck snowboarding.

Nice.

More fancy skating from Alex:

He's beauty, he's grace.

Alex and Shanti take a few minutes to catch up with Rain before the festival closes.

Shanti wants to know what her daughter has been reading.

Alex wants to know what she's been painting.

When he starts talking about grandchildren, everyone knows it's time to go home.

Rain ends up following them back, to make use of the martial arts equipment. It's one of the things she misses most about home.

Shanti watches, and offers not-so-constructive criticism.

"Your form! It's all wrong! I can't watch this."

"Mom, please, I'm just as good as you and you know it."

Rain is invited to stay the night. "You'll always have a place here," her parents tell her. She still chooses to sleep on the ground in a sleeping bag rather than in her old bed, though.

Happy Snowflake Day from the Hands!

While her family sleeps, Ida builds a miner.

Now that she's inventing large machines, Ida feels she might be getting closer to her eureka moment. She stays up well into the night inventing, only pausing briefly to eat perfect-quality plums from her father's garden.

When she's too exhausted to even walk up the stairs to her room, she camps out in her sleeping bag next to the workbench.

In the middle of the night, she wakes up sweaty and frantic from a particularly inspiring dream. Immediately she sets to work and invents.... This.

The Time Machine. Theoretically, it can transport Ida to a single point in either the future or the past. To Ida, it's a no-brainer. To the future!

Meanwhile, in the present, Alexander tries out a new invention of Ida's.

Uh oh. That doesn't look fun.

...Aaand she's back! Ida learned a lot from her visit to the future. For one thing, she knows what the mysterious object is now; it's a Time Portal. In the future she visited, they're pretty commonplace; almost every household has one. She also meets aliens, attends a zero-gravity rock concert, and nearly gets nabbed by the time police; but to Ida, the most interesting part about visiting the future is the technology. All the plumbots, the holographic computers and cell phones, the hovercars and jetpacks are enough to make her eccentric little heart sing. They barely even have books anymore in the future; she steals one from the museum and gives it to her mother, thinking Shanti would love some futuristic reading.

As it turns out, Ida chose a book that's already been published in the present, and her mother's already read it. Shanti says nothing, though, instead pretending to be engrossed in the novel.

That night, Ida calls Marlin up and tells him about her adventures. They agreed to take a break for a little while until Ida ages up, because an adult (even a young adult) dating a teenager would raise concerns in the neighborhood. She's actually breaking their rules to talk to him, but she is desperate for him to know all about her trip into the future. They stay up late talking about all the possibilities the Time Portal provides. 

The rickety, ramshackle time machine she built only allowed her to stay in the future for a few hours, but the Time Portal should allow her to stay indefinitely. Of course, she won't stay in the future forever, but she has plans. "I want to learn how to make robots," she tells Marlin, and to do that she needs a few days at least to take classes, read books, and purchase equipment.

Ida goes to bed that night with a full heart of love and a full head of dreams.

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Notes -

The house is lonely without Rain... I know I should leave her alone to live her life as SP intends but I can't help inviting her over as often as I can. Argh.

This chapter is a little on the short side because a) I was quite busy today, and b) this part, the transition between one generation and the next, is always really rocky for me. If I can keep it together until gen 3 is born then things should be all right, I think. Gosh, but I'm getting ahead of myself! Next chapter: Ida becomes YA and her full rolls are revealed! Also, the future! If I can fit it. I'm looking forward to it, are you?