Schuck, schuck, schuck, schuck. Dirt was being scraped into the air and flying into a pile. Max, George Ferdit’s golden doodle, was digging to the center of the Earth, it seemed. George had turquoise blue eyes and poofy blond hair just like his beloved dog. The dog, however, had tons more kinetic energy than George. Even though George had a lot of potential energy, it rarely converted into kinetic energy. George wondered what in the world Max was digging for and how he could stand this intense heat.
“Why did we have to move to Egypt? It’s soooooooooooo hot!” George called out to his father, though he knew his dad was already investigating hieroglyphics that depicted King Hankuran, one of ancient Egypt’s pharaohs, always carrying around a mysterious device that seemed to change everything nearby when it was activated. His mother was back in the US with the family’s newborn child. George missed his mother but George’s dad would never go back to Egypt until he found the device.
When Max came back inside, he was holding something dusty yet shiny that could easily fit into his slobbery mouth. Once George wrenched the mysterious object out of Max’s mouth and washed off all the dust and slobber, he was astounded. He was holding a gold square, one inch thick, connected to another gold square by the corners with cylinders. On the inner gold square there were bright green emeralds on the sides and a ruby right in the center. What was this ancient artifact and what on Earth did this object do?
Max was dashing this way and that because it was almost Dinner time!!! Out of nowhere, Max slammed into George like a runner from third base railroading the catcher. George lay sprawled out on the floor, watching the object flip through the air in what seemed like slow motion. It landed ruby side down. The ruby slipped further into the object. George noticed that the emeralds were glowing and illuminating green onto the walls. George went to the mysterious object and flipped it over. The ruby was also glowing. Where the green and red mixed on the wall, there was this weird off-yellow glow. In the red zone it seemed that physics was reversed. The clock ticked backward, the red of the thermometer was on the top and Max was falling onto the ceiling. Max was clawing the ceiling, wondering what happened. When Max got re-oriented, he dashed around the ceiling because he hadn’t been fed and it was still dinnertime. From that off-yellow line near the ceiling appeared first the upside-down head, then the neck and front legs, then the body and the back legs, and lastly came the tail of a second Max, but how could any of this be? Of course! George remembered watching a Discovery Channel special about how scientists thought there were parallel universes and maybe even ways to get there. When Max sprinted close to Parallel Max, Max started to fade away, but then he reappeared as he ran farther away from Parallel Max. Each time, though, it took Max longer to reappear. George had to shut off the device, and quickly, to save his dog.
As George was racking his confused brain for ideas, the need for a solution became more urgent. George remembered that the ruby slid into the object, so maybe sliding it back out would get rid of the parallel universe. But what if it got Max stuck in the parallel universe too? He had bring Max off the ceiling somehow. He came up with his clever idea with moments to spare. George dashed to the pantry where they keep the dog food. Max was eager to claim his bounty so he ran past the yellow line; he did a half flip from the ceiling to the ground like an olympic pole-vaulter. George, using a paperclip, pried out the ruby. Immediately, the parallel universe disappeared.
George was curious and wanted to find out more about the object, so he brought it to the Museum of Egyptian History. You guessed it, this was the mysterious device that the hieroglyphics in King Hankuran’s tomb had depicted and that George’s father was investigating. With this discovery wrapped up, George and his father could finally return to the United States and George happily reunited with his joyful and relieved mother.
