The Teleporter

Good evening once again peeps, welcome to my Friday night short story. This one’s more science fiction than anything else, with what is hopefully a humorous edge. Enjoy!

“Take a look at this.”
The room filled with a blinding flash of light. A second later it was gone and the room returned to its normal lighting level.
“ What was that?” asked Eric, rubbing his eyes. He hadn’t been expecting a blinding flash of light and now he had been left with a green smudge imprinted on his vision.
“It’s a time travelling machine” said Rob excitedly, a child in the body of a thirty year old man. Rob was attired in full mad scientist garb, including the stereotypical white lab coat. The goggles placed carefully atop his head had left circular indents on his forehead, giving him the appearance of some weirdly enthusiastic alien creature. He didn’t have to wear any of this. He chose to.
Eric looked around the room. Every little detail was precisely as it had been before his eyes had been burned.
“We’re still in your bedroom mate” said Eric.
“Take a look outside” said Rob, starting to bob up and down on the balls of his feet.
Eric shrugged and walked over to the window. He waited a moment for his eyes to adjust to the light and focused on where his car had been parked no more than thirty minutes ago. Instead there was a space. A car sized space.

“Somebody’s nicked my car” said Eric, anger starting to build up slowly. He usually managed to get things under control before he erupted like Mount Vesuvius. The theft of his precious Vauxhall Astra was enough to send him over the edge.
“Relax, it’s still where you left it” said Rob, joining Eric at the window.
“But it isn’t though, is it?” said Eric, pointing and remonstrating with barely contained rage. Rob waved him down. Eric twitched at Rob’s carefree attitude. Hewasn’t taking this seriously enough. Eric felt the anger bubbling up faster and faster.
“Honestly, it’s exactly where you left it. It’s us that have moved, not your car.”
“What do you mean?” Rob had always been a little bit odd, a little bit weird even, but this was starting to look like he had finally gone off the deep end.
“Like I told you, I invented a time machine. It moves us from one place to another.”
“So what happened to my car?”
Rob rolled his eyes. “As I keep telling you, it’s exactly where you left it. We’ve moved in time but your car is still parked outside at the time we left.”
“What time did we leave?”
Rob checked his watch. “11.31am.”
“Okay, and what time is it now?”
“11.33.”
This wasn’t looking good.
“So we haven’t travelled anywhere then.” It was a statement.
“Now that you mention it, no. Apparently not.”
“So…” Eric had to connect the dots for his mad scientist of a friend. “We haven’t gone anywhere, but my car has.”
Rob processed this, his face contorting as if he was completing a difficult mental arithmetic question. Eventually he just nodded in response. Eric could feel the anger building up again.
“Mate, that’s not time travel, that’s teleportation.”
Rob paused for a second. Just a second.
“Is it?”
Eric nodded. Rob found it difficult to process this information. It was if his entire life had been a lie.
“So what’s this then?” He pointed at his invention.
“I just said. It’s a teleporter.”
“Right…”
Silence descended. Eric gave Rob a couple of minutes, trying to quell his own developing rage. He soon decided the atmosphere was getting oppressive and broke the silence.
“That leads me back to my question. Where’s my car gone?”
Rob looked out the window, smiled a half smile, and shrugged noncommittally.
This was going to end very badly. For Rob.