by Rachel Funk

Created on: September 28, 2009

Excerpt from The Fearless Three and the Time Machine, Part 1. An early readers book.

When Mike, Marie and Harry came home from school their mom and dad were excited. They had bought a new refrigerator and today it came.

"What are you doing with the box?" Mike asked looking at the huge cardboard box the refrigerator had come in.

"Yeah! Can we have it? Please?" Harry asked and Marie jumped up and down excitedly.

"Sure, you can play in it if you want to." Their mom said.

"Great!" Marie shouted. Then she asked her brothers, "What do you want to make?"

Mike answered right away, "A time machine!"

The kids hurried to grab their crayons and markers and paints. It didn't take them long to have it just right.

"Ready to go inside, guys?" Harry asked.

"We're ready!" They shouted and they opened the cardboard flaps and stepped inside, closing them behind them. Once the door shut, the lights and the buttons on the walls of the time machine lit up. It glowed with colorful blinking lights.

"Where are we going, Mike?" Marie asked.

"Not where...When!" He said. There are three buttons on the wall in front of them: A green one, a yellow one and a red one. Mike pointed to them and said, "The green one goes to the past, the red one goes to the future and the yellow one brings us back home again."

"Push the green one, Mike!" Harry said. Green is his favorite color.

"Okay. Here goes!" Mike said, and pushed the green button.

The kids grinned when the time machine started to hum around them. The green button started to flash and the hum got louder. It felt like the time machine was flying! They could hear wind outside and the lights on the walls blinked faster.

"Is this supposed to happen?" Marie asked, just a little nervous.

"Sure it is!" Mike answered.

Just then the time machine stopped humming and the kids felt a small bump. Then it was quiet. The blinking lights slowed down and then stopped blinking. They stayed lit. The kids looked at each other and smiled.

"We're there!" Marie said.

"How far back did we go?" Harry asked.

"Only one way to find out." Mike said and pushed open the big door of the time machine and stepped outside and looked around. They were in the middle of a big field of tall grass. It was almost as tall as Mike! There were no houses anywhere.

"Where are all the people?" Marie asked. She walked over to some pretty purple flowers and smelled them. They smelled sweet.

"I don't see any people." Mike said, looking up at the sky. "There are birds though, look!"

His brother and sister looked up and saw what Mike was pointing to. High above them there was a bird flying way up high. It flew in a big circle, around and around. And it looked like it was getting closer.

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