The Neanderthal didn’t know the word cylinder when he pulled one from the swamp. It was hard and light and he found a thousand usages for it. When he looked into it, the crystalline interior sparkled like heaven in the rain.
He gave it to his son, who passed it to his. It was lost and found a dozen times through the ages, resting finally behind climate-controlled glass, a light shining through its crystalline core.
Marcus saw the cylinder at the museum while wrestling with an intractable problem. His brain shouted “Eureka!”
He ran home and finished his time machine.
The Green-Walled Tower 
October 28th, 2015 at 8:32 pm
It’s made of tubes…XD
October 28th, 2015 at 9:45 pm
Yep. Maybe it’s the flux capacitor.
October 28th, 2015 at 11:48 pm
1.21 Jiggawatts! *laughs maniacally*
October 28th, 2015 at 8:34 pm
Great take on the photo, David! It’s so much fun to get everyone’s interpretation.
October 28th, 2015 at 11:12 pm
Ah, the flux capacitor. Of course! Ha. Wildly creative and well written piece.
November 7th, 2015 at 10:39 pm
Thank you, Amy. I actually saw a flux capacitor a month ago at an exhibit of very old electrical devices. I have no idea what it is in real life.
October 29th, 2015 at 2:59 am
I love that “Back to the Future” logic-defying quirkiness.
November 7th, 2015 at 10:37 pm
Thanks. That’s why I like time-travel stories.
October 29th, 2015 at 5:03 am
Dear David,
When it comes to serving up imagination I believe G-d gave you a second helping. Love this take, it sends lots of images to my mind. Well done as always.
Shalom,
Rochelle
October 29th, 2015 at 6:06 am
I can see that tube in my mind’s eye. Good one.
November 7th, 2015 at 10:37 pm
Thanks, Sandra.
October 29th, 2015 at 10:04 am
Oh, that was clever! Great story.
November 7th, 2015 at 10:35 pm
Thanks!
October 29th, 2015 at 10:48 am
Very clever, David.
I love time travel stories.
November 7th, 2015 at 10:34 pm
Yeah, me too. The circularity of them always leaves room for some very interesting implications.
November 8th, 2015 at 3:59 am
And all sorts of dilemmas:
http://ceayr.com/2015/07/05/time-machine-sunday-photo-fiction/
October 29th, 2015 at 2:28 pm
Wow a great idea, a time machine. I like this story going from Neanderthals to modern/future times when they recognize what it is.
November 7th, 2015 at 10:34 pm
Thanks! 100 millennia in a 100 words, I guess.
October 29th, 2015 at 3:26 pm
I love that last line. I still feel very strongly you should leave your imagination to science 🙂
November 7th, 2015 at 10:31 pm
Thanks, my dear. I like this type of story. I find them very satisfying.
October 30th, 2015 at 2:32 am
I’ll have a large helping of temporal paradox, please. 🙂
November 7th, 2015 at 10:30 pm
Definitely, with pleasure. 🙂
October 30th, 2015 at 2:14 pm
Brilliant. What a great take on the prompt.
November 7th, 2015 at 10:29 pm
Thanks! Glad you liked it.
October 30th, 2015 at 3:53 pm
I wonder what came first the chicken or the egg… ?
November 7th, 2015 at 10:29 pm
That’s always the problem with time travel. I guess the answer in this case is neither, or both, or something else equally unhelpful.
October 31st, 2015 at 2:01 pm
Cool!
October 31st, 2015 at 4:19 pm
And all this time I thought it was a kaleidoscope.
November 7th, 2015 at 10:28 pm
Call it a kaleidoscope-plus.
November 1st, 2015 at 4:23 pm
Now that’s a nice twist upon a twist! Good story.
November 7th, 2015 at 10:28 pm
Thanks, Perry.
November 3rd, 2015 at 9:42 am
Someone’s been leaving spare parts behind in time, litterbug. I wonder if those Neanderthals also found some fast food wrappers. Good story, David. 😀 — Suzanne
November 3rd, 2015 at 9:45 am
Someone else with a time machine has been leaving spare parts behind in time, litterbug. I wonder if those Neanderthals also found some fast food wrappers. Good story, David. 😀 — Suzanne
November 7th, 2015 at 10:27 pm
Thanks, Suzanne. Actually, in my mind, the piece of the time machine was from the very one he built himself and crashed in the distant past. You’ll need to decide what happened to him though.
November 3rd, 2015 at 6:22 pm
If only I had the time to finish my time machine!
(…I would have the time to finish my time machine…)
November 7th, 2015 at 10:25 pm
And thus the paradox of time travel. As soon as you have the time machine, you don’t need it. 🙂
November 13th, 2015 at 1:51 am
brilliant!
November 22nd, 2015 at 5:01 pm
Thanks!