Chapter 4 The Alloy The man and I looked at each other.
He laughed and smiled, and I saw that he was not afraid.
He turned to two others behind him.
They spoke in a strange but pleasant-sounding language that I did not understand.
Others arrived until there were ten of them standing around me.
They seemed to be asking me questions, but I didn't say anything.
They spoke in such a whisper and acted like such shy little animals.
I thought my voice would scare them.
The first men stepped forward and touched my hand.
Soon they were all gently stroking me.
It was as if they wanted to make sure I was real.
They crowded around me, but I wasn't afraid.
They were like curious children.
A small group of them were standing near the time machine.
They hardly noticed it, but to be safe I reached into the machine, unscrewed the lever and put it safely in my pocket.
Without the lever, it wouldn't be going anywhere.
Closer, look at the faces of these people of the future.
Their mouths were small, and they had thin red lips.
Their little chins were pointed.
They had small ears, and their eyes were large.
Finally, I spoke.
In a soft voice, I tried to tell them about myself.
I pointed to the machine.
I tried to explain by pointing to the sun that I was from another time.
One of them pointed to the sun, too.
Then she made a sound, like thunder.
I was confused. was she asking if I had come from the sun in a thunderstorm.
I began to think that these creatures were not as advanced as humans of our time.
This surprised me.
I always imagined that people would become smarter with time.
After all, just think how far we have come since we lived in caves.
I would have guessed that people from the year 800 and 2000 would be far ahead of us in science and art.
In every way, but instead, these people thought I had come from the sun.
I was filled with disappointment.
I felt as if I had built the greatest invention ever, only to discover a disappointing future.
One of the people came toward me laughing.
She handed me a necklace made of beautiful flowers, and I put it around my neck.
I had never seen this type of blossom before.
Everyone smiled and clapped their hands.
Then they all darted into the bushes to gather more flowers.
They threw the flowers at me until there was a pile of colorful petals at my feet.
Next, they took my hands and led me past the great statue to a large white building.
It had a huge doorway made of carved stone.
There were cracks in the doorway and walls that made the building look very old.
More people greeted me inside.
They danced around me in their bright colorful robes and filled the air with laughter that sounded like singing.
I felt out of place in my dark, dirty clothes.
We went into a large room with windows of color glass.
The floor was made of white metal and it was worn where people had walked for so many years.
There were tables made of shiny stone.
Great piles of fruit sat on the tables.
Some of the fruit looked familiar, but some looked very odd.
We sat down on cushions around the tables and began to eat the fruit.
I was hungry, so I was glad we were eating.
There were about a hundred people in the room.
They all watched as I ate my meal.
The room was beautiful, but it looked old.
It looked as if no one had taken care of it.
Many of the windows were broken, and the curtains were covered with dust.
The corners of some of the tables were broken.
After I had eaten, I attempted to learn the language of the people of the future.
I held up a piece of fruit and tried to get them to tell me its name.
They didn't seem to understand and gave me an odd look or laugh.
Finally, one of them understood what I was trying to do.
He said a word and then pointed to the fruit.
I tried repeating it, which made them laugh even more.
But I kept at it and soon I could say the names of some of the fruit, along with a handful of other objects.
I even discovered that they called themselves Eloi.
Next, I tried to get them to tell me their word for eat, but they didn't understand.
They soon became bored and wandered off.
In fact, after a while they went back to their tables and ignored me as if I were just another Eloy.
So I decided I would go outside and take another look at this world of the future.
