"Elsewhere" by Aaliyah Caliente-Zymph

I found the strangest thing in my pocket last night.  It's round and shiny, light blue but kind of warm.  It's not like any stone I've seen, too round, too perfect.  I stare deep into the entrancing orb, and the world around me fades away.  I blink, startled, and notice I am not quite where I was.  I watch a fish go by and panic.  I'm sure not in Kansas anymore!  Thus I decide to go and explore, and I find myself in the sea.  I'm in a different reality!  Here maybe nobody cares about how I dress or when I speak.  I may stay here a week!  Maybe forever.  Back to the old world I will never go.  I am safe and I bet I'll be loved.  Then I hear somebody call, "So perhaps it will be a happy New Year, after all."

"Portal" by Alicia Judd

I woke up early one winter morning, and one quick glance out the window confirmed my hopes.  The snow was much higher than I thought was possible, except in Antarctica or something.  It was up to my third story bedroom window.  Happily, I pulled on a sweatshirt, grabbed my favorite book, and fell onto my beanbag chair.  I opened the book to the first well-loved page.  What I saw was a mass of swirling purple.  I touched it tentatively with my finger.  As soon as I did, I regretted it.  I was sucked through the book and was whirled around crazily.  "Why did I do that?" was my only thought.  Finally, my legs hit some cold, hard surface and I fell to the floor.  I heard some clattering from behind me.  Groggily, I lifted my head and wished I hadn't.  Standing above me was a stern man wearing rusty, dented armor.  He shouted something I couldn't understand and I crawled to my feet.  Instantly, he slammed manacles onto my wrists and pulled me toward a gilded door.  I suddenly noticed a strange purply tinge to the gold.  Charging forward, I hurtled through blackness.  I was back in bed.

"Time" by Alicia Judd

Where have the 1300s gone?

The days where we

farmed the fiefs.  The nobles with

their vibrant cloaks, embroidered by delicate

hands.  Where are the days when we

sat around the hearth, joking merrily?

What about the years when we were

sent to the crusades?  What happened to

chasing the chickens at twilight?  We

would stumble through streams, calling

vainly for the cow, who was really

asleep in the pasture.  Alas, gone are

those days.

"Vampire Hunter" by Marie O'Grady

Artist: Edvard Munch

Time travel is one of those things that never gets old, no pun intended.  My first time was when I when I was twelve years old.  Life was going to that far off world with flaming pits of fire.  Not a good thime for me.  Anyway, I happened to notice something weird from my bedroom mirror.  I was looking into it and instead of seeeing me as twelve, I saw me as twenty-five.  Scariest thing ever, I tell you.  I couldn't help but reach out to the other me; after all, she was pregnant and scared.  When I reached out, I went through the mirror and came to sit next to future me.  I didn't say anything, I just sat there.  That's when she looked up at me and started crying.  I reached out again, and this time hugged her.  As I hugged her, I noticed our surroundings.  We were in a damp cellar.  It was dark and creepy.
"Why are we here?" I asked in a whisper.
"They've taken over..." is all she would say.
"Who?  Who took over?"  I asked, freaking out.
"Don't you watch TV?  I know we did."  She looked damaged and scared at the most.
"I watch TV.  What of it?" I asked.
"Vampires...they're not myths," she whispered back.
"Why would they make shows of vampires, if they're real?" I asked, leaning on her shoulder.
"They made the shows, so we wouldn't be able to stop them."
"If they took over, then how are we, you and me, still alive?"
"I met one in high school," she said, twirling her wedding ring.  "He and I are mated, but he has to keep me locked up so that others can't kill our child."
"Why doesn't he stop them?"
"His father is the leader..."

TO BE CONTINUED...

"1920s" by Marie O'Grady

1920's, those were the days.

Corsets and hoopskirts oh joy.

Gunshots and punches,

Bandits and goons.

TV in black and white,

Horses and carriages,

Saloons and inns.

1920s: time for fashion,

time for goons,

time to let loose.

"Where have those days gone?" by Haley Ryan

Artist: Leon Battista Alberti

Remember 1200 B.C.?  We had freedom to

explore, a whole new world to discover.

Some of us lived in castles and some on quiet, peaceful

farms.  Where have those days gone?

We went on adventures in the summer.

In the winter, we sat by a warm fire.

I miss that time, that time of freedom.

Where have those days gone?

The whole world was open to us, waiting

to be discovered.  Where have those days

gone?

"How I found out my journal's a time machine" by Haley Ryan

My favorite attempt at time-travel was my first.  I was sitting in bed writing in my journal about how cool it would be to time-travel to a time when we can live on other planets.  All of a sudden I was in the 41st Century, sitting in an apartment.  I thought, "OK, so I must still be on earth, just somewhere else in time."  I couldn't have been more wrong.  I looked out my window and I saw fish swimming by -- at least, I thought they were fish, but they didn't look like any I had ever seen.  So I decided to explore.  I walked around until I found somebody and I asked them where I was and what year it was, just to be sure.  Their reply: "Planet 51, year 4011, of course."  Oh yeah, like that was totally obvious.  I then realized I was still holding my journal.  That gave me an amazing, wonderful, crazy idea.  My journal was a time-travel device.  Well, there was only to make sure.  I wrote the year 2011 in my journal and suddenly I was back in my room, sitting on my bed.  Oh, yeah!  Now I can do whatever I want.  Time better watch out, because here I come.