'The Time Machine' (1960)
The Morlocks are restless...
The author H. G. Wells
wrote many wonderful books…
some volumes were comprehensive
collections of the history of the world…
while others,
considered more flights of fancy,
envisioned a distant future
of men and machines…
one such classic stands out,
‘The Time Machine’…
a man invents a machine
that carries him
backward or forward in time…
he eventually finds himself
in the distant future
in a world populated
by the youthful Elois
who are raised like cattle
in a world of plenty
overseen by a monstrous group
of underground mutants
called Morlocks…
cannibalistic ghouls
with grotesque features…
in 1960
the director George Pal
made the story into a movie…
it starred Rod Taylor
as ‘George’ the time traveler…
I was ten
my brother Jon was eight…
one Friday evening our mom
took us to see it at the Gulf Theater…
she loved to see movies and didn’t
care much what they were about…
she knew the story vaguely
and she knew Rod Taylor
from some biblical epic
she’d liked him in…
so that was enough
to get the three of us
out of the house for the evening…
we all ate popcorn,
drank RC Colas,
enjoyed the coming attractions,
cartoons, and finally the main feature…
all went very well…
we laughed at the funny stuff,
were amazed at the amazing stuff,
and jumped
and winced at the scary stuff…
by 10:00 pm Jon and I were home,
with our teeth brushed, pajamas on,
and tucked into our single beds
in a shared bedroom…
mom and dad had settled in watching
the old Zenith black and white
in the living room…
relaxing in the quiet…
absorbed in their viewing…
Jon and I soon drifted into sleep…
within a half an hour of dozing
I had to get up and use the bathroom…
I got out of bed and sleepily
weaved my way toward
the bedroom door…
in doing so
I groaned as I bumped
into the foot of Jon’s bed…
this was enough to wake him…
through sleepy eyes he saw me…
hunched over the bed
my darkened shape
was silhouetted in the light
behind me in the open doorway…
he let out a scream!…
it scared hell out of me
and I let out a scream as well!…
he screamed again!…
and I, fearing for my life,
turned and ran into the hall…
he was hot on my heels screaming…
and quickly was pawing at my back
trying to push me out of the way
so he could get by…
we both ended up
climbing over each other
all the way to the end of the hall…
spilling out into the living room
and falling in a writhing heap
on the floor…
both parents looked at us
in total, wide-eyed amazement…
mom leaping up to pull us apart…
dad grumbling at the display
once he figured out
we weren’t being murdered…
mom finally got us quieted down…
Jon quit sobbing long enough
to gasp out that there were
‘Morlocks in the bedroom!’…
mom grinned,
‘ohhhh, that’s what this is all about!’…
I said, ‘what?’
not sure that I’d heard him correctly…
‘there was a big Morlock on my bed
and it was coming to eat me!’
he gasped…
he was referring to me…
the Morlock at the foot of his bed…
‘that was me, you moron!’ I laughed…
mom smacked the back of my head,
‘don’t call your little brother a moron!’
dad grumbled again…
‘see what happens when you take
these two to those weird movies, Jane?’
he shook his head disgustedly,
‘you’ll have ‘em both up all night
with nightmares, squealing
like a bunch of loonies!’
mom led us back to bed…
calmed us down and tuck us in…
telling us to be quiet
and go to sleep…
she pulled the door to…
her feet padded off down the hall…
a moment past in the darkness…
I grinned, thinking
that this would there after
be the night I was mistaken
for a Morlock…
‘Morlock!’ groaned Jon, from his bed…
‘moron!’ I snapped back…
then as a final statement
to the whole evenings misadventure…
from down the hall
dad barked, ‘shut-up in there!’…
and we did…
for he was far scarier
than any Morlock ever was…
R. C. Arquette - 2/22/04
