The Misadventures of Karry, Larry, Barry and Harry

Sorry about that. My pen slipped when the earth gave a sudden jolt.

As quickly as it started, the shaking stops. Harry whimpers and buries his furry face in my leg. “Larry?” I call out. “Are you ok?” I’m fine!” he calls back. “I got the time machine!”

I look up at Larry. He is clinging on to a vine for dear life. I imagine the song ‘Keep Holding On’ playing in the background as Barry, Harry and I run for cover.

In which I almost kill Larry, and we witness the wonders of plate tectonics.

We’re in a completely different place from where we are supposed to appear. None of the landmarks are the same. It looks like we’re in the jungle. Far away, I hear some unknown creature roar. 

Larry has done something to the machine. I can see that right away.

Worst of all, our time machine is nowhere to be found. We’ve somehow materialized in this strange place without the time machine.

By the time I’m done explaining plate tectonics to Larry and Barry (who was also confused), they are fidgeting impatiently. “So...” Larry cuts in. “Where is the time machine? How do we get home?”

Oh no. The time machine is at the top of the tallest tree in the forest.

We take a look around. Finally, Barry lets out an excited bark. “There it is!” exclaims Larry. “Where?” I ask, looking around wildly. “Up there!” Larry points.

I round on Larry. “You created this problem, you fix it. Climb up the tree and get back our time machine!” Larry hesitantly faces the tree. I can tell he is nervous. He puts one hand on the tree, then a foot. Hand over hand, he starts to climb.

So, the big news: Our boss thought that we had done such a good job making a time machine that we deserved a pay raise. Not only that, but we also got a promotion! Now we’re Master Scientists, and we get to boss people around.

In fact, I’d better go, unless I want to miss our flight! I guess that’s it for this book now that we’re done with the time machine. It was fun talking to you guys!

Now Larry, Barry, Harry and I are going to take a big vacation. Not to Alaska, or Berlin. We’re going to Hawaii.

I look over at Larry. He has a half-gleeful, half-sheepish expressions on his face. My blood begins to boil. “What did you do?” I explode. Harry barks in indignation. “I just thought it would be funny if... if I set the date to a bit earlier than 1970. I wanted to see your face.” He cracks a smile. “It was pretty funny.” I start to feel panicked. “What time did you set it to?” I ask. “Where are we?” “Well, just a bit before when we were supposed to arrive. You know, just 200 million years ago.”

“Larry, you nincompoop!” I yell. It is not my finest moment, but you will have to forgive me. I have just arrived at my destination 200,000,000 years early. “What is this place?” Larry asks. “It sure doesn’t look how I thought it would. I mean, where are the cave-men?” “Larry, you never payed attention in science class,” I scold. “I thought you knew this. We’re on Pangaea.”

“Nobody believed him because there wasn’t enough evidence, even though his theory provides a great explanation for continental drift, which is how continents move around.”

Let’s get out of here. All these nasty scientists are making me uncomfortable.

The four of us leave, after giving Alfred a hurried explanation about how we needed to meet our mother. We get back onto street and take a breath of fresh air. “I don’t like it much here,” says Larry. Barry whines in agreement.

“The people of Anchorage, Alaska weren’t very prepared for the earthquake. That’s why so much was destroyed, and so many people died. If we educate ourselves about tectonic plates and the earth’s geological processes, we can be more prepared for disasters in the future!”

But right now, it doesn’t matter what Larry calls me. All I want is to go home.

“You realize that you just spouted a whole bunch of nonsense, right?” Larry says. “No one but a super-nerd would understand that.”

Suddenly, Barry gives a low growl. Harry joins him, and they bark at the street. I look at Larry. “What’s going on?” he asks.

Finally we reach an old elevator shaft. The building has already collapsed, and we scramble inside. Harry whines as we huddle together, too frightened to move.

I don’t have time to answer before the ground starts shaking. It’s like the other earthquake we felt before on Pangaea, except a hundred times more intense. The four of us are thrown to the ground, and we struggle to regain our footing as buildings collapse all around us. “Run!” screams Larry, the first sensible thing he’s said all day. We take off down the street, grabbing at each other to stay upright.

At last the shaking stops. We look around and cautiously step outside.

We step into the time machine and flip the lever that will take us back to the present. The machine starts to whir.

  “Me neither,” I say. “Let’s get back to the time machine. Hopefully it’ll work this time.”

In which I’m getting really irritated by now. Oh yeah, and we also almost die.

Just then, Harry whines at me. He needs to use the bathroom. We hide the time machine in a crevice in the parking lot and walk out into the street. 

We step out of the time machine. For a moment, it seems like we’ve made it back to the lab: we were in a well-lit concrete room with no windows. But I soon realize that there is a faint musty smell of the underground, and old fashioned automobiles are lined up along one wall.

It must be pretty early, because it’s still dark out. I can see faint rays of light coming from the east: the beginning of the sunrise. Larry yawns, and for the first time, I sympathize with him. We’ve been up for hours.

In which things do not go as planned, and we meet an interesting scientist.

We emerge from our time machine into the sunlight. The sunlight. There isn’t any sunlight in the lab. Only artificial LED lights in a white room. This was definitely not that.

I said at the end of the last chapter that I was excited for some egg salad sandwiches and a good night’s sleep. I said that because I thought that I was going home. Alas, it was not to be.

“It’s no trouble!” says the man. “My name is Alfred Wegener. Are you kids a little lost?” “Yes, a bit,” I say. “ My name is Karry, and this nitwit here is Larry. These are Barry and Harry. Do you happen to know what city we’re in?” “Wow! Your really lost!” Alfred Wegener chuckles. “This is Berlin, of course! Would you like to know the date, too?” I can’t tell if he’s being sarcastic. “Yes please,” Larry says. I elbow him. “It’s 1925!” says Alfred Wegener. “You know, I like you four. Would you like to accompany me to my office? I’m going to need some moral support today, I think.”

We follow Alfred down the street to his office. It’s a towering grey building, with men dressed like Alfred bustling in and out.

When we get inside, some of the men jeer at Wegener. “Look! It’s Mr Slab Theory!” they crow. “What’s going on?” Larry asks me. Something in my brain finally clicks into place. “Alfred Wegener thought of the theory of tectonic plates,” I whisper.

In which we meet our fellow inventors, and see how much our past attempts at making a time machine suck.

Larry... Larry is my brother. My twin brother. We’re really close, but sometimes he can be really irritating. Like, really irritating. That’s why I like pranking him so much.

Hi. I’m Karry. I am a fourteen year old inventor. I like egg salad sandwiches, happy-face stickers, and pranking my brother, Larry.

I have a dog named Harry. He’s pretty smart. He likes reading and dried liver treats. Harry has a twin brother as well. His name is Barry. Barry is Larry’s dog.

Pangaea is a supercontinent that covered about a third of the world about 200,000,000 years ago. It was made up of all the continents that you know in the world today. But all those continents are separate now. How?

Tectonic plates move across the earth, propelled by convection currents. If something is hot, it becomes less dense, so it floats. If the same material is cold, it becomes more dense, so it sinks. When the magma inside the earth heats up, it rises to the surface, where it cools down, and sinks. This causes convection currents, which can move tectonic plates around.

Believe it or not, underneath the earth’s surface are huge slabs of rock, called tectonic plates. These plates cover the entire earth. There are 7 plates on the earth.

There are three different types of plate boundaries, where two different tectonic plates touch. Convergent plate boundaries are where two plates are pushing together. These boundaries can create mountains. Divergent plate boundaries are when two plates are pulling apart. These boundaries can cause volcanoes and mid-ocean ridges (mountains in the ocean). Transform plate boundaries are where two plates are sliding past each other.

People hurry down the busy street. Old-fashioned cars drive past, honking at each other and spewing gas into the air. Towering grey buildings stretch into the sky. “Where we?” I asked. “Larry, did you fiddle with the machine again?” “No! Of course not!” Larry says, looking around. Barry starts barking at a passing dog, who barks back. Harry cowers in the time machine. “Well, at least the time machine is still around. We should probably hide it; people are giving us weird looks. Come on!” I grab a handle on the side. Larry stares at me. “You mean we’re staying here?” he asks incredulously. “I thought you wanted to get back to the lab a fast as possible.” “I want to find out where we are. Also, I smell something delicious.” Mmm. Egg salad sandwiches. Larry takes a whiff. “Ok. We’re staying,” he says, looking for the source of the smell.

We start to walk down the street. Barry and Harry sniff everything, straining on their leashes. The delicious smell of egg salad sandwiches comes closer. Suddenly, I hear a thud, and a “sorry!” Turning around, I see Larry lying on the ground next to a man in an old-fashioned suit. “So sorry about that,” I say. “My brother can’t seem to keep his balance.” “Hey!” Larry protests, but he looks slightly embarrassed.

In which we make it home (finally), and we get a promotion.

Yesterday we fixed the machine. It turns out that when Larry set the date of arrival to 200,000,000 years ago, he jammed to lever so hard that one of the time detectors broke, so the time machine thought it was 2019 when it was actually, 1925, 1964, etc.

Ok. We’re home now, and I’ve got big news.

Two days ago we arrived home, stressed out and exhausted. The first thing we did after stumbling out of the machine was making ourselves big egg salad sandwiches (obviously we have our priorities straight). Then we cleaned out the time machine, fed Harry and Barry, and went to bed.

Luckily it was an easy thing to fix. Now we have a working time machine, and our boss is happy. So are our clients. So are we, because we didn’t have to do any more tests.

The Misadventures of Karry, Larry, Barry, and Harry

So. The moment of truth. Will it work? I sure hope so.

Finally, we’ve made a model that takes us to the right place and the right time, without being huge and conspicuous. At least, I think it does. We haven’t tested it yet.

Goodbye, friends! See you on the other side!

The entire city is in ruins. Rubble covers the streets. Shocked people stumble outside and gawk at the mess that the earthquake has created.

We start to dig. After a moment, Barry gives a bark. I see the glint of metal under the stones.

“We should go,” I say. “There might be aftershocks, and an earthquake that size could have triggered a tsunami.” We jog back to the parking garage in which we stashed our time machine. It‘s just a heap of rubble. “Oh no,” Larry moans. “What if the time machine is destroyed? Then we’ll be stuck here forever!” What a cheerful thought. Thanks for sharing, Larry.

Thankfully the time machine isn’t damaged. We hop inside and flip the levers. “That city really wasn’t prepared for such a big earthquake,” I say, my voice still a bit shaky. “I wonder where it was.” “That was Anchorage Sound, Alaska,” said Larry. “1964.” “What?” I exclaimed, “How did you know that?” “It was on a newspaper I saw,” said Larry. “Why are you so surprised?” “The Great Alaskan Earthquake!” I told him. “We just survived the Great Alaskan Earthquake!”

Fault lines are where two tectonic plates meet. Areas around fault lines are especially at risk from earthquakes, because the epicentre - where the earthquake starts - is almost always on a fault line.

Wow. What a crazy test. The four of us get back in the time machine and travel away, looking forward to some egg salad sandwiches (or, in the dog’s case, dried liver treats) and a good night’s sleep.

When an earthquake occurs, the shock travels in seismic waves. Imagine that you dropped a pebble in a puddle: the water moves outward in ripples. That’s how the ground is moving.

I should probably tell you why I am writing in this book in the first place. Our boss wants me to be keeping a book that includes all of the information on our latest project. 

As you can probably tell, we’ve been having some trouble.

Test 1 15/10/19 Took us to Sweden instead of China. Very confusing when I tried to have a conversation in Mandarin. Date stayed the same.

Test 2 20/10/19 Got to China, but date still the 20th of October.

Test 3 31/10/19 Went to witch-hunt in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692. Very fitting for Halloween, but not where we wanted to go at all.

Test 4 8/11/19 Took us to China, so right place, but date was 1870 instead of 1970. A century off! I thought we’d fixed this problem!

You see, the four of us are making a time machine for some very special clients. We aren’t allowed to know who they are. 

Test 5 23/11/19 Finally! Right place, right time! Only problem is that the machine is so huge and boxy that someone mistook us for a UFO and tried to shoot us out of the sky. It was a close call!

Name

Safari may block some audio or video from playing automatically and ‘read to me’ will skip these. You can configure this in Safari’s preferences.