By Rachel Van Tuyl
“Wait for me, Jenny!” My ten year old
sister, Carrie, ran to catch up with me. I sighed and stood impatiently waiting
for Carrie. She couldn't run as fast as I could because she was five years
younger than me. We had just been dismissed from school for the day and it was a
two mile walk back to our farm. Ma wanted us to stay together on the walk home.
Ma greeted us as soon as we came into the
yard. She was hanging the wash up on the clothesline outside. Wiping her hands
on her long skirt, she said to me, “Jenny, go bring Roy and your Pa some water. They've been working out in that field since lunch.”
“Yes Ma,” I replied. I quickly filled a
pitcher with water and started the long walk to the field where my Pa and
younger brother were working. However, after about five minutes of walking I
suddenly stopped and looked at something lying on the ground. Puzzled, I
stepped closer and inspected the object without touching it.
It was a thin silver-colored rectangular
object, maybe about four or five inches long. I carefully picked it up and
turned it over in my hands. It was surprisingly light. One side had a dark
circle on it and on the other side was a smaller black rectangle. There were
strange circles embedded on the object near the black rectangle and on top of
the object. I stood there for several minutes turning the strange object over
in my hands. I finally pressed one of the circles on the top of the object and
nearly dropped it on the ground when the black rectangle suddenly gave off
light!
It took me a few moments to realize that
the rectangle giving off light was actually a reflection of the ground in front
of me. When I moved the object, the picture on the rectangle moved with the
object. I decided to press another circle. When I did so, the picture on the
rectangle froze and then words flashed across the rectangle, “Photo Saved”. I didn't have any idea what that was supposed
to mean but I was absolutely fascinated with this strange object and suddenly I
was running across the field, the pitcher of water lying forgotten in the
grass. “Ma! Carrie! Come quick!”
My mother and sister came running out of
the house and Ma exclaimed, “Jenny! Is something wrong? Are your father and
brother alright?”
“They’re fine,” I said. “But look at this
strange object I found in the field! What do you suppose it could be?”
Ma took the object and carefully examined
it. “I've never seen anything like it in my life," she said. She suddenly
exclaimed, “Good heavens! I can see right through it! But there is no way I
could possibly see through it because this other side is not clear.”
“Let me see!” begged Carrie. When the
object was in her hands, she asked, “What are these small circles for?” Carrie
pushed the circle that I had first pressed and the rectangle went dark. At Ma’s
suggestion, Carrie pressed the circle again and the rectangle became light
again.
“Press this circle,” I said, pointing to
the second one I had pushed. When Carrie pressed it, the screen froze and the
words “Photo Saved” flashed across the rectangle, just as they had the first
time I pressed the circle. “What could that possibly mean?” I asked. Carrie
looked just as puzzled as I was.
Ma finally told us to bring the strange
object into the house because there was work to do. I carried the object into
the kitchen and placed it on the table. As an afterthought, I pressed the first
circle and the rectangle went black. I thought it would be best to leave the
object as I had found it.
That night at supper, the only thing we
could talk about was the object. I had already shown my family the exact
location where I had found the object. It hadn't been difficult to find the
place because of the pitcher of water I had left there. Unfortunately, we hadn't found out anything useful by inspecting the location where the object had
been found. There was no indication as to where the object had come from or how
it had ended up on our farm.
Roy wondered if we ought to tell anyone
about the object but the rest of us thought if we did that we would have many
people coming here wanting to look at the object and it might get damaged. It
was decided that we wouldn't tell anyone about the discovery of the object, at
least not until we could learn more about it.
Carrie and I washed the dishes as quickly
as possible after we had finished eating. When we had finished, Ma handed me
the object and everyone gathered around me as I pressed the first circle and
the rectangle lit up. I decided to try pressing a different circle this time. I
pressed a large circle next to the lighted rectangle and suddenly the rectangle
turned into an image of the ground in front of our house. Everyone gasped.
“Look!” Roy exclaimed. He pushed a circle
that had an arrow printed on it and the rectangle changed to an image of our
field. Everyone gasped again.
“I think I may know what happened,” I said
slowly. “I pushed this circle when I was in the field and the words ‘Photo
Saved’ flashed across the rectangle. It happened a second time when Carrie
pushed the same circle when we were in front of our house. I didn't know what
it meant at the time but now I think that when you press the button, this
object might somehow save the images so we can look at them later.”
Over the next several days, we discovered
more about the strange object. Roy found a circle that made one of the images
disappear. We decided not to push that circle again. Carrie and I became quite proficient
at capturing images of our family and somehow the object stored all the images we
had captured so we could view them over and over again.
However one day when I pushed the circle
to light up the rectangle, nothing happened. I tried again and again but still
nothing happened. I finally brought the object to Pa. We pushed every single
one of the buttons before we concluded that the object no longer worked. My
family and I were quite disappointed at the loss of the strange object, but we
supposed that the object had ceased working simply because it had been used for
hours every single day. We never came across anything like it again but we kept
the strange object as a souvenir.
