The Time Capsule

Oobi came home from school one day very excited. He had a wonderful idea. He wanted to bury something and dig it back up in twenty years. He read about the time capsule idea at school and he thought that would be a great thing to do.

He rushed in the back door and surprised his mother with his enthusiasm. “Mom,” he exclaimed, “I’ve got a great idea!”

What is it?” She asked with her hands full of flour. “I’m going to build a time capsule.” Oobi pronounced. “And I’m going to put things in there so that when I come back here, I can remember all those things I did as a child.”

His mom rolled the flour quietly thinking about what Oobi was planning. “That sounds like a wonderful idea. Do you know what you’re going to put inside it yet?”

“Not yet.” He mused, “but that’s what I’m going upstairs to plan, right now.”

Quickly he grabbed some cookies out of the cupboard and upstairs he flew.

In his room Oobi took a sheet of paper and a pencil and started drawing what his time capsule would look like. Then he started making a list of the things that he would like to put inside of it. He gazed around his room and thought about the things that he liked right now, and thought about what he would think about as an adult.

“I should put in one of my models,” he said to himself. “But I don’t know which one I’d like to leave in there for the next twenty years.”  He looked at all his dangling airplanes then beyond to his shelf of rockets. “Yeah,” he smiled to himself. “A rocket would be the thing for the next twenty years. I’ll put in my red and white rocket.”

And with that he climbed up his shelves till he reached the red and white rocket. “Goodbye rocket, bring me back good memories,” he muttered to the ship.

Then he reached over and took two comic magazines and rolled them up. Placing them next to the rocket. His space intruder comics had made for good reading, so now he thought it would be something that he would like in the future. He took two of his favorite soldiers, the green and the black one, and stood them next to the rocket. Then he remembered that a time capsule was supposed to have some sort of document so that he could verify the time that it was placed. Oobi vaulted down the stairs and looked around the living room. What could document the time? A newspaper he thought. “I’ll put in the front page of the newspaper.”  Oobi rummaged around the sitting room, and looked on either side of the ottoman till he found the paper. He saw the new one folded up ready for his dad to read, and thought better than to take that one. “Where’s yesterday’s paper Mom?” Oobi shouted, then rummaged through the side stand where all the magazines were stuffed.

‘They’re outside by the trash Oobi, where we always put the day old paper.”

Oobi knew that, he was just so excited, he forgot. As he looked in the paper bin, there stood Cannubi. “Woof,” said Cannubi. That meant that the dog wanted something in the time capsule too.

“I don’t know what to put in for me, let alone you Cannubi.” Oobi shrugged his shoulders in exasperation. Then he reached down and took Cannubi’s collar. “There,” he said,” I can’t bury a bone for you, but now you and I will remember your collar.”

Now the collar and the day old paper were going upstairs to Oobi’s room as part of a collection for his time capsule.

The rest of the afternoon was spent gathering and collecting things for his time capsule. Oobi had decided on some photographs of the family, an old favorite cup, and a shoe filled with small trinkets that he got from the fast food stores.

The pile sat on his desk, now looking more like trash than a collection for the time capsule. But the bigger question was now starting to fill up his mind. What was he going to bury all this stuff in? He couldn’t put it in a box; cause the box would rot in a couple weeks. He could put it in a can. But what kind of tin would be able to hold all of his things? A coffee can might, but it still wouldn’t hold his shoe. How’s about two coffee cans tied together? That sounded like a grand idea, but how was he going to fasten two cans together.

Oobi wanted to call his dad, but he didn’t want to bother him at work. So he patiently tried to work out his problem.

When Pannubi walked in the front door, his tie was undone, his glasses were slightly tilted, and his face looked like it had a rough day at work. Oobi had waited on the stairs for his dad. “Hi Dad.” Oobi waved at him through the railings. “You got home early huh?”

“Yeah,” said Pannubi. “We had a meeting that was so grueling that I went home after it was done.”

“How come it was so grueling?” Oobi queried.

“Because I was having a rough time solving the problem, and it was tiring my brain out.” Oobi’s dad sighed as he put his briefcase down. “How’s about you? What kind of day did you have?”

“The same kind. I’m trying to build a time capsule and I don’t know what to put everything in.”

“That sounds like a problem too.” His dad agreed. “Well let me relax for a bit and then maybe we can look at it after dinner.”

“Okay, great.” And with that Oobi hopped up from the stairs kissed his dad on the cheek and ran out the front door.

“Dinner in an hour Oobi!” His mom shouted after him.

Oobi and Cannubi ran down the street and screamed and yelled. Both had a lot of energy to burn off.

After dinner Pannubi and Oobi went to the garage. Pannubi’s tools hung on the pegboard next to pipes and tubes. Everything was stacked and organized as if it were ready to go into a museum. Oobi told his dad and mom at the dinner table about what he was putting in the time capsule and they all agreed that Oobi had chosen the right things, besides the green beans he said he wanted to put in, but his parents knew that was just a trick so he wouldn’t have to eat them.

Oobi told his dad about the idea of the two coffee cans, and how he couldn’t seal the two together. His dad showed him how they could solder the two together, and while his dad was explaining idea to him, Oobi spied some clay tiles that were stuck in the corner. “What’s that dad?” Oobi interrupted.

“It’s some of the clay tile for the roof that I had left over. Why” Oobi’s dad stopped holding the cans together and saw what Oobi was thinking. “That would be a great thing for the time capsule Oobi.”

Oobi smiled back, yeah it was. Together Oobi and his dad created a clay pipe. Oobi’s time capsule was ready for burial.

The next day, when Dad came home, they had a great ceremony. Oobi had dug a hole with the help of Cannubi, and when everyone was ready. Oobi made a speech, Dad made a speech, and so did Mom. Cannubi howled, but everyone knew what he was saying too. Then the time capsule was dropped into the ground.

“Now,” Oobi said, “part of my future will have some of my past.”

“All of your future is made up of your past.” Oobi’s dad said. Then they went inside for dinner.