All text will now be saved to the script file. Type UNSCRIPT at any time to discontinue scripting. >restore This file does not contain a saved game position. >restore Restored. Attic This is a little attic space, barely tall enough for you to stand in. Thick boards run in parallel lines along the floor, with pink insulation laid out in between. A thick brass pipe passes up from the floor next to the window and continues up through the ceiling. A tiny window to the south has been boarded up. A ladder attached to a hatch leads down into the darkened house below. >x pipe It looks like it burst open and broke. Sections are missing from the middle, and the ends are sharp jags of splayed metal. >open window I don't know how to open the little window. >d You descend the hatch ladder. Upstairs hallway You are in the upstairs hallway, but it has been desecrated nearly beyond recognition. The once pristine white carpeting has been stained and burned, and a section of it has been torn up, revealing the shredded matting underneath. The walls have been spraypainted with unreadable graffiti, shocking swirls of black and silver paint. A fist sized hole has been smashed into the east wall, and the light fixture in the ceiling has been torn out, leaving gangly dangling wires and a darkness that oppresses. The hatch ladder leads back up into the attic. A rickety staircase leads down to the bottom floor. To the east is the upstairs bathroom, and a bedroom is to the south. A smaller bedroom is north. >x hole The hole looks like it was made by a fist striking the wall. >look in it There's nothing in the hole. >s Upstairs bedroom The larger of the two upstairs bedrooms has been looted, but the mattress and bedframe remain. The graffiti on the walls is sadistic and nasty. A pile of random debris clogs the northern corner of the room. The hallway is to the north. >search debris That isn't important. >x debris That isn't important. >x graffiti The graffiti covers the walls. It is the markings of territorial youth, strange symbols and stylized lettering. What little of it makes sense to you is obscene. >x mattress That isn't important. >n Upstairs hallway You are in the upstairs hallway, but it has been desecrated nearly beyond recognition. The once pristine white carpeting has been stained and burned, and a section of it has been torn up, revealing the shredded matting underneath. The walls have been spraypainted with unreadable graffiti, shocking swirls of black and silver paint. A fist sized hole has been smashed into the east wall, and the light fixture in the ceiling has been torn out, leaving gangly dangling wires and a darkness that oppresses. The hatch ladder leads back up into the attic. A rickety staircase leads down to the bottom floor. To the east is the upstairs bathroom, and a bedroom is to the south. A smaller bedroom is north. >n Smaller upstairs bedroom The smaller of the two upstairs bedrooms has a sloped ceiling where it meets the edge of the north roof. Two windows face east, miraculously unbroken but fogged with dirt and sediment from rains. The furniture is all gone -- the bed, the small dresser, the old writing desk -- all that you remember. A picture frame hangs on the wall, but the photo it held is gone, and the glass has been spraypainted over. The hallway is to the south. >x picture I don't see any picture here. >x frame I don't see any frame here. >s Upstairs hallway You are in the upstairs hallway, but it has been desecrated nearly beyond recognition. The once pristine white carpeting has been stained and burned, and a section of it has been torn up, revealing the shredded matting underneath. The walls have been spraypainted with unreadable graffiti, shocking swirls of black and silver paint. A fist sized hole has been smashed into the east wall, and the light fixture in the ceiling has been torn out, leaving gangly dangling wires and a darkness that oppresses. The hatch ladder leads back up into the attic. A rickety staircase leads down to the bottom floor. To the east is the upstairs bathroom, and a bedroom is to the south. A smaller bedroom is north. >e (Opening the small door) Upstairs bathroom This is a hideous scene of waste and ruin. It looks as if someone took a sledgehammer to the place, destroying the tub and breaking tiles off the walls. The sink has been ripped out, it is gone. Someone attempted to do the same to the toilet, leaving it yanked out at an angle but still attached to the floor. Swimming in the bowl is a foul brackish that fills the room with a rancid stench. The mirror above the sink area is cracked but still attached by its hinges to the medicine cabinet behind it. A broken window looks out into the front yard. The only exit is west, back into the hallway. >x mirror It's attached to the medicine cabinet. >look in it You see a cracked reflection of yourself. >get it It's fixed in place. >x window Outside you see the front of the house. >w Upstairs hallway You are in the upstairs hallway, but it has been desecrated nearly beyond recognition. The once pristine white carpeting has been stained and burned, and a section of it has been torn up, revealing the shredded matting underneath. The walls have been spraypainted with unreadable graffiti, shocking swirls of black and silver paint. A fist sized hole has been smashed into the east wall, and the light fixture in the ceiling has been torn out, leaving gangly dangling wires and a darkness that oppresses. The hatch ladder leads back up into the attic. A rickety staircase leads down to the bottom floor. To the east is the upstairs bathroom, and a bedroom is to the south. A smaller bedroom is north. >d You descend the staircase. Foyer The entryway to your home has been used as a dumping ground for trash and broken bottles. The tiled floor has been scuffed and scarred, and swirled with what looks suspiciously like tire treads. Open doorways lead to various areas of the house. A broken staircase leads up to the second floor. The front door is east. A hallway leads south, and the dining room is through a doorway to the west. >x trash That isn't important. >x floor The tiled floor has been scuffed and scarred, and swirled with what looks suspiciously like tire treads. >x tire It's a black rubber tire, suitable for swinging. >x treads The tiled floor has been scuffed with what looks like tire treads. >e You'll have to open the front door first. >open front door The outside of the door has been nailed shut with boards and cannot be opened. >x it Unlike the rest of your house, the door still looks firm and strong. The door has been nailed shut from the outside. The nails poke through the jamb and the door itself. >x nails The door has been nailed shut from the outside. The nails poke through the jamb and the door itself. >hit nails The nailed boards are outside. You will have to go there if you want to do something about them. >[Hmm.] I don't understand the punctuation "[". >n Kitchen The kitchen has been looted and trashed, as if anger had been vented upon it once its supplies ran out. Every cabinet and drawer has been opened, and some of the drawers are heaped in a broken pile on the floor. The refrigerator is wide open and full of disgusting green stains and patterns of blackening mold. The stove has been dented and shows evidence of muddy footprints having stood on top of it and kicked it. The small kitchen table has been overturned in the western corner of the room. Windows look out west and east to the back and front yards. The dining room is west, and the foyer is to the south. A back door leads north into the garage. >n In the garage This room is a total mess, in a totally new and horrible way than the total mess you were used to. A soiled mattress is lumped into one corner, surrounded by filth and discarded bottles. There's a garage door button on the wall. A door leads south into the kitchen. The garage door to the north is open. You see a wall opener button here. Fred is here, sitting on a soiled mattress. >n North of house The north side of your house is dominated by your garage door, just the way you remember it. It looks somewhat weathered, as if no one had tended to it for ten years, but is otherwise normal. The garage door is open. The driveway extends east, and a small path leads southeast to the front of the house and southwest to the back. A scaled stone wall runs up the side of the house. >se Front of house This is the front of your house. It looks somewhat weathered, as if no one had tended to it for ten years, but is otherwise normal. Sopping mounds of rotting leaves that have collected along the edges and corners indicate years of neglect. A pool of dirty yellow water trickles down from the driveway and collects, full of black silt, near the front door. The driveway is to the northeast, and a clearing is visible far to the southwest. The front door is to the west. >x boards The boards are browned and warped with the passage of several years. On closer inspection, a rectangular outline marks a discoloration where something was once posted. Your first guess, based on the evidence, is that it was a notice that the property has been condemned. >get boards They're fixed in place. >pry boards (with the crowbar) It's tough work, fighting against long-rusted nails and tough, wet wood, but you succeed in removing all of the nailed boards from the front door. >x front door Unlike the rest of your house, the door still looks firm and strong. >open it It is locked as well as swollen shut. >x door Unlike the rest of your house, the door still looks firm and strong. >x boards The boards are browned and warped with the passage of several years. Harsh, rusted nails jut at crazy angles from the ends of each plank. >get boards It's best to leave them alone now, as you could injure yourself on the rusty nails. >nw North of house The north side of your house is dominated by your garage door, just the way you remember it. It looks somewhat weathered, as if no one had tended to it for ten years, but is otherwise normal. The garage door is open. The driveway extends east, and a small path leads southeast to the front of the house and southwest to the back. A scaled stone wall runs up the side of the house. >s In the garage This room is a total mess, in a totally new and horrible way than the total mess you were used to. A soiled mattress is lumped into one corner, surrounded by filth and discarded bottles. There's a garage door button on the wall. A door leads south into the kitchen. The garage door to the north is open. You see a wall opener button here. Fred is here, sitting on a soiled mattress. >s Kitchen The kitchen has been looted and trashed, as if anger had been vented upon it once its supplies ran out. Every cabinet and drawer has been opened, and some of the drawers are heaped in a broken pile on the floor. The refrigerator is wide open and full of disgusting green stains and patterns of blackening mold. The stove has been dented and shows evidence of muddy footprints having stood on top of it and kicked it. The small kitchen table has been overturned in the western corner of the room. Windows look out west and east to the back and front yards. The dining room is west, and the foyer is to the south. A back door leads north into the garage. >s Foyer The entryway to your home has been used as a dumping ground for trash and broken bottles. The tiled floor has been scuffed and scarred, and swirled with what looks suspiciously like tire treads. Open doorways lead to various areas of the house. A broken staircase leads up to the second floor. The front door is east. A hallway leads south, and the dining room is through a doorway to the west. >unlock door It's a strain to turn the rusted lock, but you do so. >open door It is unlocked but swollen shut. >x it Unlike the rest of your house, the door still looks firm and strong. >x lock I don't see any lock here. >kick door Kicking things is more likely to hurt your foot than help your situation. >open door with crowbar It takes some work just to wedge the end of the crowbar in between the door and its frame. You steady yourself, and throwing your weight into it, force the crowbar as hard as you can. You hear a terrific, splitting crack, and the door swings open. >e Front of house This is the front of your house. It looks somewhat weathered, as if no one had tended to it for ten years, but is otherwise normal. Sopping mounds of rotting leaves that have collected along the edges and corners indicate years of neglect. A pool of dirty yellow water trickles down from the driveway and collects, full of black silt, near the front door. The driveway is to the northeast, and a clearing is visible far to the southwest. The front door is to the west. >x door Unlike the rest of your house, the door still looks firm and strong. >get it You can't take the front door. >w Foyer The entryway to your home has been used as a dumping ground for trash and broken bottles. The tiled floor has been scuffed and scarred, and swirled with what looks suspiciously like tire treads. Open doorways lead to various areas of the house. A broken staircase leads up to the second floor. The front door is east. A hallway leads south, and the dining room is through a doorway to the west. >x door Unlike the rest of your house, the door still looks firm and strong. >[Oh, I bet that was in case I didn't find the other time machine.] I don't understand the punctuation "[". >x lock I don't see any lock here. >close dor I don't know the word "dor". >close door Closed. >lock it What do you want to lock it with? >hands I don't know how to lock anything with yourself. >n Kitchen The kitchen has been looted and trashed, as if anger had been vented upon it once its supplies ran out. Every cabinet and drawer has been opened, and some of the drawers are heaped in a broken pile on the floor. The refrigerator is wide open and full of disgusting green stains and patterns of blackening mold. The stove has been dented and shows evidence of muddy footprints having stood on top of it and kicked it. The small kitchen table has been overturned in the western corner of the room. Windows look out west and east to the back and front yards. The dining room is west, and the foyer is to the south. A back door leads north into the garage. >s Foyer The entryway to your home has been used as a dumping ground for trash and broken bottles. The tiled floor has been scuffed and scarred, and swirled with what looks suspiciously like tire treads. Open doorways lead to various areas of the house. A broken staircase leads up to the second floor. The front door is east. A hallway leads south, and the dining room is through a doorway to the west. >e You'll have to open the front door first. >open dor I don't know the word "dor". >open door Opened. >e Front of house This is the front of your house. It looks somewhat weathered, as if no one had tended to it for ten years, but is otherwise normal. Sopping mounds of rotting leaves that have collected along the edges and corners indicate years of neglect. A pool of dirty yellow water trickles down from the driveway and collects, full of black silt, near the front door. The driveway is to the northeast, and a clearing is visible far to the southwest. The front door is to the west. >full In a total of 863 turns, you have achieved a score of 129 points out of a possible 151, which means you are a first class adventurer. You have earned the following: 5 points for finding the armrest compartment 4 points for climbing onto the roof the first time 10 points for getting to the end of the junk in the garage 5 points for stepping onto the platform the first time 5 points for arriving in the far past the first time 5 points for arriving in the past the first time 5 points for arriving in the future the first time 4 points for giving the bad shingle to the architect 3 points for cleaning out the drainpipe 4 points for making it through the maze to the stream 6 points for planting the acorn in the hole 2 points for fixing the wheel with the screwdriver 3 points for pouring a second jug of miracle-gro 5 points for pouring a fifth jug of miracle-gro 10 points for leaping to the attic 5 points for giving a piping hot sandwich to the architect 5 points for entering the secret passage the first time 7 points for opening a new bank account 4 points for installing the lightning rod 5 points for buying DibbleBits stock 20 points for finding various items >sw South of house The house is older and sagging, with long ruts where splinters have broken off, but it otherwise looks the way you remember it. The ground slopes down slightly here, and the wall of the house looms an extra story high because of it. The tiny window high in the wall has been crudely boarded shut. A large and sagging tree grows here, leaning its bulky canopy toward the house. A large branch has snapped from the middle of its trunk and lies in the mud. To the southwest is the old rock and, farther, the clearing. You can walk around your house to the northwest and northeast. A secret door is open to the north. >u Mid-way up tree You are mid-way up the large tree, which extends upward and outward into swollen limbs, although many of the larger ones have been severed and blown away by recent storms. The tree is too slick and has lost too many branches to climb any higher than here. There is nowhere to go except back down to the ground. >u The tree is too slick and has lost too many branches to climb any higher than here. There is nowhere to go except back down to the ground. >d South of house The house is older and sagging, with long ruts where splinters have broken off, but it otherwise looks the way you remember it. The ground slopes down slightly here, and the wall of the house looms an extra story high because of it. The tiny window high in the wall has been crudely boarded shut. A large and sagging tree grows here, leaning its bulky canopy toward the house. A large branch has snapped from the middle of its trunk and lies in the mud. To the southwest is the old rock and, farther, the clearing. You can walk around your house to the northwest and northeast. A secret door is open to the north. >sw At the rock A large rock juts up out of the ground right in your way, a familiar landmark in an otherwise unfamiliar landscape. Once nestled along a wooded path, it now is the sole feature of an eerily empty landscape, distorting your perceptions of scale and distance. The broken remains of dark glass bottles lie around the base. To the northeast is your house, and a clearing is visible to the southwest. >sw Clearing The clearing here is desolate, giving the distinct impression that all natural life has left this area. The ground is hard and overgrown by weedy grass. There are no trees any more, but there are some stumps where once they stood. Your old footpath is nowhere to be seen. You do see your house to the northeast, but it too looks abandoned. You see a time machine here. The hinged compartment seems to contain some money (170 dollars). >enter machine Okay, you're now standing on the time machine platform. >x dial The knob can be turned to settings numbered from 1 to 5. It's currently set to 4. >push button You push the big red button. Click! The time machine vibrates and heats up like a toaster oven. A bright blue light envelops you. The world around you spins into a wild vortex that suddenly vanishes, leaving you to find yourself in a ... Parking lot You are standing in the middle of a gigantic parking lot which extends as far as you can see in most directions. An ugly, hot wind whips past you, scorching across the miles of black pavement, drawing at you like a vacuum, pulling you toward one of the ugliest skyscrapers you have ever seen. A monolith of black glass and steel, it rises fully 80 stories, at least. The fearsome structure is a short walk to the northeast, right where your house used to be. You see a time machine here. The hinged compartment seems to contain some money (170 dollars). >ne (first getting off the platform) Okay, you're no longer on the time machine platform. Beneath the skyscraper The skyscraper looms, looms, looms above you. It could be as high as 100 stories, but somehow the rippling heat from the blacktop is making your vision distorted, and you really can't trust your eyes right now. The name "Lothario" is displayed in striated steel letters 20 feet up over the entranceway, which extends through glass doors into an expansive lobby. There is not another soul in sight. Your only means of escape is the time machine, visible through the hazy heat to the southwest. You hope it isn't just a mirage. The glass doors are to the west. >w (Opening the lobby doors) The blast of dessicating heat settles into the sterile chill of air conditioning as you pass through the doors... Expansive lobby The floor of this oppressively architectured lobby, with proportions guaranteed to make the visitor feel powerless and insignificant, is made of polished pink granite. Black marble walls laced with stripes of brass lurch upward to a curved ceiling. An almost laughable fresco has been painted in the dome, depicting Atlas shouldering the world as angels look on. In this rendition, Atlas sports a tailored, double-breasted gray suit and an advertising-age, beaming white smile. You are aware of the presence of security cameras, at least four that you notice right away, pointed in your direction. A massive security desk built of granite, with an arcing black marble countertop, is situated in the middle of the lobby. An array of black and white monitors are visible behind it. The lobby doors exit to the east. To the northeast is a long hallway, and to the northwest you see a set of three elevators. There is a security guard here, sitting behind the desk. >x guard She is a tall, powerful-looking woman in her late thirties. Her orange hair has been yanked straight back into a tight bun, stretching her already tense face into a taut mask of ill humor. She wears a uniform, a badge, a stun gun, a pistol, and an air of unassailable authority. >nw Lobby elevators This short hallway is painted a deep shade of crimson. A large building directory is bolted to the wall. A leafy plant sits in the corner, attempting to breathe some semblance of real life into the sterile atmosphere. There are three closed elevator doors here, and up and down call buttons. The lobby is back to the southeast. >push up You push the up button. You assume one of them will respond to your call, but nothing immediately changes. The security guard comes walking slowly towards you. "You there," she says. "Who are you going to see?" >laura "Oh?" she asks. "One moment." She goes back to her desk and places a quick call. When she returns, she regards you even more grimly than before. "You don't have an appointment, and as far as anyone can tell, you have no legitimate business here. I'm going to have to ask you to leave this area." She escorts you back to the lobby and eyes you warily from behind her desk, as if at any moment she expected you to start waving sticks of dynamite and making wild demands. Expansive lobby The floor of this oppressively architectured lobby, with proportions guaranteed to make the visitor feel powerless and insignificant, is made of polished pink granite. Black marble walls laced with stripes of brass lurch upward to a curved ceiling. An almost laughable fresco has been painted in the dome, depicting Atlas shouldering the world as angels look on. In this rendition, Atlas sports a tailored, double-breasted gray suit and an advertising-age, beaming white smile. The lobby doors exit to the east. To the northeast is a long hallway, and to the northwest you see a set of three elevators. You see a security desk here. There is a security guard here, sitting behind the desk. >undo (Undoing one command) Lobby elevators This short hallway is painted a deep shade of crimson. A large building directory is bolted to the wall. A leafy plant sits in the corner, attempting to breathe some semblance of real life into the sterile atmosphere. There are three closed elevator doors here, and up and down call buttons. The lobby is back to the southeast. >ask guard about house I don't see any guard here. >se Expansive lobby The floor of this oppressively architectured lobby, with proportions guaranteed to make the visitor feel powerless and insignificant, is made of polished pink granite. Black marble walls laced with stripes of brass lurch upward to a curved ceiling. An almost laughable fresco has been painted in the dome, depicting Atlas shouldering the world as angels look on. In this rendition, Atlas sports a tailored, double-breasted gray suit and an advertising-age, beaming white smile. The lobby doors exit to the east. To the northeast is a long hallway, and to the northwest you see a set of three elevators. You see a security desk here. There is a security guard here, sitting behind the desk. >ask guard about house The security guard says, "I'm not authorized to tell you anything about that." >se There is nowhere to go in that direction. >e The sterile chill of conditioned air gives way to the punishing blast of dessicating heat as you pass through the doors... Beneath the skyscraper The skyscraper looms, looms, looms above you. It could be as high as 100 stories, but somehow the rippling heat from the blacktop is making your vision distorted, and you really can't trust your eyes right now. The name "Lothario" is displayed in striated steel letters 20 feet up over the entranceway, which extends through glass doors into an expansive lobby. There is not another soul in sight. Your only means of escape is the time machine, visible through the hazy heat to the southwest. You hope it isn't just a mirage. The glass doors are to the west. >sw Parking lot You are standing in the middle of a gigantic parking lot which extends as far as you can see in most directions. An ugly, hot wind whips past you, scorching across the miles of black pavement, drawing at you like a vacuum, pulling you toward one of the ugliest skyscrapers you have ever seen. A monolith of black glass and steel, it rises fully 80 stories, at least. The fearsome structure is a short walk to the northeast, right where your house used to be. You see a time machine here. The hinged compartment seems to contain some money (170 dollars). You hear a sharp noise that dies quickly away. >enter machine Okay, you're now standing on the time machine platform. You see something moving in the shimmering air. >set dial to 1 Okay, it's now turned to 1. Something is moving quickly toward you from the northeast. >push button You push the big red button. Click! The time machine vibrates and heats up like a toaster oven. A deep red light envelops you. The world around you spins into a wild vortex that suddenly vanishes, leaving you to find yourself in a ... Clearing The woods part in a marvelous natural clearing here. Moonlight streams prettily through the canopy of leaves above. The ground is hard and flat and clean. Your footpath leaves the clearing to the northeast, heading back to the house. You see a time machine here. The hinged compartment seems to contain some money (170 dollars). >ne (first getting off the platform) Okay, you're no longer on the time machine platform. Path in the woods This little spot is one of your favorite places to sit and think. A well-trod path winds through a natural grove of cedar and live oak trees. A large rock juts up out of the ground right in your way, so the path does an abrupt curve around it. The path leads northeast to your house, and a clearing is visible to the southwest. >ne South of house The ground slopes down slightly here, and the wall of the house looms an extra story high because of it. There is a tiny window high in the wall, about 30 feet up. There is a rope dangling from the window. A little path made by you on your many daily walks leads southwest into the woods. You can walk around your house to the northwest and northeast. A secret door is open to the north. A beautiful, leafy tree is growing here next to the house, right where you always thought it should. >n Secret passage The secret passage is a narrow hallway of sorts, only about twelve feet long and three and a half feet wide. The walls are bare plaster and sheet rock. Various springs and tumblers are connected together in an elegant set of mechanisms to open the doors. A small light bulb hangs from the ceiling, but it is currently turned off. The only light in the passage is from the open door. The short hallway dead-ends at a crudely-carved staircase leading down. There is another door to the west, and you can go out the way you came in. >n Secret chamber Whether this nondescript room existed before the secret passage was made is unclear to you, but here it is now. It is made of concrete, about thirty feet square, with a fifteen foot ceiling. The floor of room must be at least twenty feet below the ground. The dim amber light, just enough to see by, seems to be coming from the ceiling itself, rather than any kind of recognizable fixture. The only exit that you can see is back up. You see a time machine here. >enter machine Okay, you're now standing on the time machine platform. >set dial to 5 Okay, it's now turned to 5. >save Saved. >push button You push the big red button. Click! The time machine vibrates and heats up like a toaster oven. A blinding purple light envelops you. The world around you spins into a wild vortex that suddenly vanishes, leaving you to find yourself in a ... Storage room This room is barely big enough to hold the time machine. It is full of filing cabinets, old computer equipment, stacks of old ledgers and printouts, and other discards. Fluorescent lighting fixtures flicker overhead. The air is conditioned and cold, almost antiseptic smelling. A door leads east. You see a time machine here. >drop all perfect blue crystal: Dropped. blue pencil: Dropped. desk lamp: Dropped. screwdriver: Dropped. frisbee: Dropped. tire: Dropped. newspaper: Dropped. ATM card: Dropped. package: Dropped. paper napkin: Dropped. rare book: Dropped. monkey wrench: Dropped. >out Okay, you're no longer on the time machine platform. >x macine I don't know the word "macine". >x machine It's a large contraption that's about the size and shape of an engine block, and made of solid metal. It sits on a platform that is welded firmly to the machine itself. On the front is a knob and a large red button. On the back side of it is a hinged compartment. There is a label on the knob. You feel heat radiating from the machine. The machine is covered by a layer of dust, as if it had been sitting here for some time. On the time machine platform you see a perfect blue crystal, a blue pencil, a desk lamp, a screwdriver, a frisbee, a tire, a newspaper, a ATM card, a package, a paper napkin, a rare book, and a monkey wrench. >set dial to 1 Okay, it's now turned to 1. >e You'll have to open the door first. >open door It's locked. >unlock it Unlocked. >e (Opening the door) Sub-basement hallway You find yourself in a long hallway stretching north and south. Faceless, identical doors line both sides. The floor and ceiling are white, but the walls are a muted blue. To the north the hallway hits a T-intersection, and to the south you see the hallway turn a corner to the east. Immediately to the west is the storage room door. Around the corner to the south, you hear a tiny ringing noise. It sounds like an elevator has just arrived. >s Corner The hallway turns a corner here, from north to east. Just ahead to the east, the hallway dead-ends at a trio of elevators. >e Elevator room The hallway dead-ends here, but this is probably as far as you need to go. The elevators for this floor are here. One of them has recently arrived. The only way back is to the west. >x button I see nothing special about the up button. >push up You push the up button. One of the elevators immediately opens, and you enter. In the elevator You are in a spacious, gleaming little elevator car. A brass panel near the doors contains a large array of possible destinations. The only exit is out. >push 27 You push the button for floor 27. The elevator begins to move. After a smooth ride, it arrives at floor 27. >out Nabbed by guards The elevator doors part to reveal a set of massive security guards, each itching for a reason to withdraw their weapons and take you down violently. A walkie-talkie crackles to life on someone's hip. "We have the suspect," someone responds. Hands grab you and pin your arms back. "Don't you know that trespassing is a serious offense? You could do jail time for this." A different voice leans close to your ear and whispers, "These people ain't known for their lenience, you know? You don't want to be messing with them. Whatever they tell you to do, you do it, hear?" You are escorted to an empty holding room on the top floor of the building. The door shuts, and is locked from outside. Holding room There is nothing to see here, nowhere to sit, and nothing to do. The walls are painted a severe midnight blue. The ceiling, twelve feet high, holds a row of fluorescent lights. The door, painted the same color as the walls, is only barely visible. There is no knob or handle on this side of the door. There are no exits from the room, as far as you can tell. >x door The door is locked from outside, and lacks any way to open it from this side. >knock on door There is no answer. >search room I don't see any room here. >search walls Those aren't important. >l Holding room There is nothing to see here, nowhere to sit, and nothing to do. The walls are painted a severe midnight blue. The ceiling, twelve feet high, holds a row of fluorescent lights. The door, painted the same color as the walls, is only barely visible. There is no knob or handle on this side of the door. There are no exits from the room, as far as you can tell. >z Time passes... >z Time passes... >x lights That isn't important. >x door The door is locked from outside, and lacks any way to open it from this side. >open it You can't open the door. The door swings open. Instead of a security guard, you see a large gentleman, none the less imposing in stature, but one whose bulk has been fitted into a tailored, double-breasted wool suit instead of a security uniform. You recognize him as Carl, one of Laura's goons from ten years ago. It seems more than likely that you are about to be taken to meet the Laura of today. "Come along," he says. "You've been allowed five minutes with the Executive Vice-President. She's a busy woman, so hop to it." He says this in a way that suggests you should consider it a privilege. You follow Carl down a series of carpeted hallways, with the doorways you pass becoming grander and more imposing the farther you go. You turn a final corner and see the largest doors of them all, as if you had entered a land where giants walk the earth and work as business executives. Carl stops before the penultimate door, this one merely eight feet high and made of solid slabs of redwood. He raps it with his beefy knuckles. The door buzzes and pops open. Outside the Executive VP's office This is the office-before-the office, or one of them. In your mind's eye you can picture the unfolding layers of hierarchy and bureaucracy, doors that lead to bigger doors, executive desks that are humbled by ever larger executive desks. This office has two such desks, sculpted antiques of dark-stained wood with burnished, gleaming surfaces, and only tiny reminders of humanity: picture frames with families, post-it notes with lazy scrawls and doodles. A cherry-haired woman behind one of the desks asks, "Is this the 6:45?" "You bet," says Carl, checking his gleaming, platinum watch. "One moment, please." Carl folds his arms, rocks on the balls of his feet and, inexplicably, flashes you a wink. He regards you for a moment, then extends one of his huge hands. "Carl," he says. "Remember me?" He does a clownlike mime of you hanging for dear life from the tree trunk, complete with "Aughghh!" noises to indicate struggle. Carl punches you lightly in the arm. "Just messing with you," he says. The woman at the desk says, "Ms. Foster will take the appointment now." Carl says, "Thanks, baby." He leads you inside. Executive VP's office This is not so much an office as it is a rippling gravity well of corporate power, condensed by forces beyond imagining into an architectural metaphor for the excesses of human vanity, lust, greed, and envy. As much a papal audience chamber as a prison cell fashioned from the finest materials on Earth, its proportions so dwarf the human being at its center as to ridicule what it purports to exalt. Sitting on the imposing desk is a placard. Lavish pillars of marble rise from a floor constructed of concentric rings of polished black and red granite. The ceiling vaults up into a dome, from which hangs a futuristic, stainless-steel fixture, some sort of 21st Century reimagining of a 16th Century chandelier, with a layered beehive shape holding three or four dozen flashbulb-bright lamps. A purely decorative fireplace, framed in a bad mixture of burnished bronze and black slate, gapes open in the west wall like a direct doorway to Hell, a mouth that laughs at what has been wrought here. There are ceramic vases on golden stands, gold trim slicing through the walls, trailing like the threads on an integrated circuit chip, leading to the apotheotic throne, the chair, at the far end of the room. A twenty by forty foot embroidered carpet lies underneath it, and in front of it, a desk that felled a forest so that it might exist. The throne chair itself is made of black leather. Its back is nearly six feet high. Sitting in this contrivance is a tiny woman in a pearl white suit, diamond jewelry flashing from every finger, each earlobe, and her neck. Behind her, a wall of windows reveals the purple, darkening sky. You hear the doors shut behind you. Carl has left you alone in here. >x laura Sitting in the high-backed leather throne is a tiny woman in a pearl white suit, diamond jewelry flashing from every finger, each earlobe, and her neck. Laura looks at you. Though she is far away, you can feel her eyes cut deeply into you. "Please sit," she says in an even, steady voice that has grown hushed with age. "I have a number of things to tell you, and not much time." She points out a chair in front of her desk, so tiny in comparison to everything else that you didn't even notice it before now. "When I'm finished, you may leave. Please." >sit (the tiny chair) You sit down in the tiny chair. "Thank you," Laura says, folding her fingers into a steeple that she touches to the bridge of her nose. Laura gazes at you from across the expanse of her desk. She seems almost ashamed of the ridiculous luxury around her. You regard her as she takes a moment to gather her thoughts, and you find yourself suddenly expecting a confession rather than an inquisition. "Let me tell you a story," she begins. "It's my story. It's the story of the Devil." She pushes back in her chair, shaking her head as she rises. "Naturally, I'm not the Devil. That's not what I mean." She walks to the windows and gazes from horizon to horizon. "I'm not a religious woman, not any more. I don't believe in God or in Heaven. But," she says, facing you, "I find I have to believe in the Devil and in Hell." She sweeps her arms wide as she walks forward to the corner of her desk. "This ... is Hell." A moaning sound issues from the fireplace, air flowing resonantly through the flue. "And the Devil rules it. The Devil made it. The Devil ..." She leans forward, her fingers tapping the desk's surface. "The Devil put me here -- because I wanted it." She straightens her jacket, smoothing the front of it as she stands up again. "You understand what a metaphor is, I hope. Otherwise, you won't understand any of this. You're in Hell. A metaphor for it. It was made by the Devil -- the Devil being the name we give to another metaphor. Christ in the wilderness: a metaphor meets a metaphor in a metaphorical landscape." She holds out her hand to you. "Shall I complete the metaphor, by taking you to these windows behind me, where you can gaze down upon the whole Earth below?" She takes back her hand. "Or are you with me this far, and I can go on without laboring the point?" >nod I don't know the word "nod". >say "yes" Okay, "yes". Laura cocks her head and a smile appears on her face. It's the same face that smiled up at you from the New Accounts desk forty years ago, but the smile is different. It's not the wrinkles and creases, the whitened hair, the change in clothes and jewelry; it's the darkness behind the smile that's the difference. It's something in the eyes, or something lacking that was once there. "Can I get you something?" Laura asks, playing hostess. "Coffee? Water? Wine?" Her smile twists another notch. "Wealth? Fame? Power?" >ask laura for water Laura says, "I don't have a stream to give you, sorry." She sobers up again. "Fame isn't what it's cracked up to be, but I recommend taking the rest." She walks around behind you, far enough that you can't turn your neck far enough to see her. You feel her, though, as a sensation in the hair on the back of your neck. "I met the Devil the first of seven times when I was a teenager. This was before you and I met the first time, in the bank one sunny morning four decades ago." Suddenly, her voice is right behind your ear. "You think I don't remember you?" she asks. "The Devil is in the details." A chill runs the length of your spine and back again. Laura walks back into view. "The first lie, the first promise, was about freedom. What else does a teenaged girl want? When you scrape away the superficialities, when you go to the heart of adolescent longing, this is the tender meat, the flesh of your young soul so easily primed, probed, and bruised. 'I will give you the freedom to do as thou wilt,' the promise goes. 'You can be on your own, make your own rules, earn your own money, buy what you want, date whomever you want. Deal?'" >laura, yes Laura says, "Whatever you say." Laura removes her suit jacket and hangs it over the back of her chair. The width of the chair's back makes the white sleeves stick out at acute angles. "Deal," Laura says. She looks at you, watching to see if you're keeping up. "Care to guess," she asks, "what the next six lies were?" >laura, no Laura says, "Whatever you say." "That's right. They were exactly the same as the first. The deal was the same -- I will sell you total freedom, but I'm really taking it away. The best part is, I'm not stealing it, you're giving it away." Laura sits back on her black throne, the jacket-sleeve wings flaring to either side. "Does this look like freedom to you?" >laura, no Laura says, "Whatever you say." Laura leans forward across her desk, her eyes bearing down on you for a long moment. "Do you believe that I'm not the Devil?" she asks. "I told you I wasn't, but do you believe me?" >yes "I'm going to offer you a deal, so you had better be sure. Because what I'm offering you is freedom." You expect her to smile ironically, but she does not. You can stand up, and you can walk out those doors, and you can go back to where you came from. You're free to go. I could put you under arrest for trespassing, but I won't. I'm giving you your freedom. But." At last, she does smile. "You knew there was going to be a catch, didn't you?" >yes "The catch is, if I give you your freedom, you have to give me back mine." She turns a key in a latch on the other side of the desk. A drawer slides open, and she removes a small, cream colored envelope sealed with red wax. She slides the drawer shut and locks it again. "I want you to go back and give this to me on that first day we met. I'll recognize it, don't worry. I'll recognize it, I'll read it, and I'll cease to exist." She stands again, dropping the envelope onto the desk. "Not me then, me now. This." She once again indicates the whole room as she turns away and walks toward the gaping mouth of the fireplace. It was farther away and larger than you had thought. Laura looks like a morsel ready to be swallowed whole by it. "This," she concludes, "will cease to exist." She turns to face you again. "I'm prepared to die. I'm prepared for nothingness to consume me as soon as you climb on that shiny little machine of yours and vanish. What will the suddenness of nonexistence feel like? To be blotted out, not like dying, but as in never having ever existed in the first place? No one will remember that I had a chance to live, and I chose to turn out like this." She regards you from across the room and begins to remove her jewelry. One by one, she tosses each piece into the fireplace. "You, though. You'll remember." She strips completely naked, revealing a pale old woman's body, and tosses her clothes, too, into the fireplace. It is a ghastly but hypnotic sight, one that leaves you trembling slightly. "Try to forget," she says. "Try." She touches a button on the wall, and orange flames belch into roaring life, consuming quickly everything in the fireplace. Laura stands naked in front of the curling flames, gazing at them for a long time. "Go," she says, shouting over the noise of the fire. "I'm finished." >x envelope It is a cream colored envelope, the kind that holds small stationery. It has been sealed shut with red wax. >ask laura about envelope She has nothing more to say. >out You're not going anywhere until you get out of the tiny chair. >get up You arise, warily, from the tiny chair. Laura nods at you. >x laura Laura is standing naked in front of the curling orange flames, gazing deeply into them. >x flames Laura is standing naked in front of the curling orange flames, gazing deeply into them. >touch laura Laura isn't someone you should fondle. >[Hee! I just wanted to touch her shoulder.] I don't understand the punctuation "[". >out Laura says, "Don't leave without your things." She doesn't look around. >l Executive VP's office This is not so much an office as it is a rippling gravity well of corporate power, condensed by forces beyond imagining into an architectural metaphor for the excesses of human vanity, lust, greed, and envy. As much a papal audience chamber as a prison cell fashioned from the finest materials on Earth, its proportions so dwarf the human being at its center as to ridicule what it purports to exalt. The only exit is back out the doors to the south. Sitting on the imposing desk is a placard and a sealed envelope. >get all placard: You can't take the placard. sealed envelope: Taken. >x placard A placard on the desk reads: 'Laura Angela Foster, Executive Vice-President.' >out Laura says, "Don't leave without your things." She doesn't look around. >x desk It is a desk so massive and imposing that it must have felled a forest so that it might exist. A placard on it says: 'Laura Angela Foster, Executive Vice- President'. On the imposing desk you see a placard. >e There is nowhere to go in that direction. >w There is nowhere to go in that direction. >s Laura says, "Don't leave without your things." She doesn't look around. >x door They're closed. >open door Opened. >s Laura says, "Don't leave without your things." She doesn't look around. >x closet I don't know the word "closet". >ask laura about things She has nothing more to say. >search desk On the imposing desk you see a placard. >l Executive VP's office This is not so much an office as it is a rippling gravity well of corporate power, condensed by forces beyond imagining into an architectural metaphor for the excesses of human vanity, lust, greed, and envy. As much a papal audience chamber as a prison cell fashioned from the finest materials on Earth, its proportions so dwarf the human being at its center as to ridicule what it purports to exalt. The only exit is back out the doors to the south. Sitting on the imposing desk is a placard. >s Laura says, "Don't leave without your things." She doesn't look around. >[Ack! I left my stuff on the machine.] I don't understand the punctuation "[". >[ I don't understand the punctuation "[". >[Well, since I have to restore anyway...] I don't understand the punctuation "[". >open envelope It is not for you to open. >e There is nowhere to go in that direction. >w There is nowhere to go in that direction. >n There is nowhere to go in that direction. >x fireplace A purely decorative fireplace, framed in a bad mixture of burnished bronze and black slate, gapes open in the west wall like a direct doorway to Hell, a mouth that laughs at what has been wrought here. Laura is standing naked in front of the curling orange flames, gazing deeply into them. >x flames Laura is standing naked in front of the curling orange flames, gazing deeply into them. >enter flames That isn't important. >restore Restored. Secret chamber (on the time machine platform) Whether this nondescript room existed before the secret passage was made is unclear to you, but here it is now. It is made of concrete, about thirty feet square, with a fifteen foot ceiling. The floor of room must be at least twenty feet below the ground. The dim amber light, just enough to see by, seems to be coming from the ceiling itself, rather than any kind of recognizable fixture. The only exit that you can see is back up. You see a time machine here. >push button You push the big red button. Click! The time machine vibrates and heats up like a toaster oven. A blinding purple light envelops you. The world around you spins into a wild vortex that suddenly vanishes, leaving you to find yourself in a ... Storage room This room is barely big enough to hold the time machine. It is full of filing cabinets, old computer equipment, stacks of old ledgers and printouts, and other discards. Fluorescent lighting fixtures flicker overhead. The air is conditioned and cold, almost antiseptic smelling. A door leads east. You see a time machine here. >e There is nowhere to go in that direction. >open door It's locked. >unlock it Unlocked. >open it Opened. >e There is nowhere to go in that direction. >out Okay, you're no longer on the time machine platform. >e Sub-basement hallway You find yourself in a long hallway stretching north and south. Faceless, identical doors line both sides. The floor and ceiling are white, but the walls are a muted blue. To the north the hallway hits a T-intersection, and to the south you see the hallway turn a corner to the east. Immediately to the west is the storage room door. Around the corner to the south, you hear a tiny ringing noise. It sounds like an elevator has just arrived. >s Corner The hallway turns a corner here, from north to east. Just ahead to the east, the hallway dead-ends at a trio of elevators. >e Elevator room The hallway dead-ends here, but this is probably as far as you need to go. The elevators for this floor are here. One of them has recently arrived. The only way back is to the west. >e There is nowhere to go in that direction. >in In the elevator You are in a spacious, gleaming little elevator car. A brass panel near the doors contains a large array of possible destinations. The only exit is out. >push 55 You push the button for floor 55. The elevator begins to move. After a smooth ride, it arrives at floor 55. >out Nabbed by guards The elevator doors part to reveal a set of massive security guards, each itching for a reason to withdraw their weapons and take you down violently. A walkie-talkie crackles to life on someone's hip. "We have the suspect," someone responds. Hands grab you and pin your arms back. "Don't you know that trespassing is a serious offense? You could do jail time for this." A different voice leans close to your ear and whispers, "These people ain't known for their lenience, you know? You don't want to be messing with them. Whatever they tell you to do, you do it, hear?" You are escorted to an empty holding room on the top floor of the building. The door shuts, and is locked from outside. Holding room There is nothing to see here, nowhere to sit, and nothing to do. The walls are painted a severe midnight blue. The ceiling, twelve feet high, holds a row of fluorescent lights. The door, painted the same color as the walls, is only barely visible. There is no knob or handle on this side of the door. There are no exits from the room, as far as you can tell. All of your possessions have been taken from you. >z Time passes... >z Time passes... >z Time passes... >z Time passes... >z Time passes... >z Time passes... >z Time passes... >z Time passes... >z Time passes... The door swings open. Instead of a security guard, you see a large gentleman, none the less imposing in stature, but one whose bulk has been fitted into a tailored, double-breasted wool suit instead of a security uniform. You recognize him as Carl, one of Laura's goons from ten years ago. It seems more than likely that you are about to be taken to meet the Laura of today. "Come along," he says. "You've been allowed five minutes with the Executive Vice-President. She's a busy woman, so hop to it." He says this in a way that suggests you should consider it a privilege. You follow Carl down a series of carpeted hallways, with the doorways you pass becoming grander and more imposing the farther you go. You turn a final corner and see the largest doors of them all, as if you had entered a land where giants walk the earth and work as business executives. Carl stops before the penultimate door, this one merely eight feet high and made of solid slabs of redwood. He raps it with his beefy knuckles. The door buzzes and pops open. Outside the Executive VP's office This is the office-before-the office, or one of them. In your mind's eye you can picture the unfolding layers of hierarchy and bureaucracy, doors that lead to bigger doors, executive desks that are humbled by ever larger executive desks. This office has two such desks, sculpted antiques of dark-stained wood with burnished, gleaming surfaces, and only tiny reminders of humanity: picture frames with families, post-it notes with lazy scrawls and doodles. A cherry-haired woman behind one of the desks asks, "Is this the 6:45?" "You bet," says Carl, checking his gleaming, platinum watch. "One moment, please." Carl folds his arms, rocks on the balls of his feet and, inexplicably, flashes you a wink. He regards you for a moment, then extends one of his huge hands. "Carl," he says. "Remember me?" He does a clownlike mime of you hanging for dear life from the tree trunk, complete with "Aughghh!" noises to indicate struggle. Carl punches you lightly in the arm. "Just messing with you," he says. The woman at the desk says, "Ms. Foster will take the appointment now." Carl says, "Thanks, baby." He leads you inside. Executive VP's office This is not so much an office as it is a rippling gravity well of corporate power, condensed by forces beyond imagining into an architectural metaphor for the excesses of human vanity, lust, greed, and envy. As much a papal audience chamber as a prison cell fashioned from the finest materials on Earth, its proportions so dwarf the human being at its center as to ridicule what it purports to exalt. Sitting on the imposing desk is a placard, a perfect blue crystal, a blue pencil, a desk lamp, a screwdriver, a frisbee, a tire, a newspaper, a ATM card, a package, a paper napkin, a rare book, and a monkey wrench. Lavish pillars of marble rise from a floor constructed of concentric rings of polished black and red granite. The ceiling vaults up into a dome, from which hangs a futuristic, stainless-steel fixture, some sort of 21st Century reimagining of a 16th Century chandelier, with a layered beehive shape holding three or four dozen flashbulb-bright lamps. A purely decorative fireplace, framed in a bad mixture of burnished bronze and black slate, gapes open in the west wall like a direct doorway to Hell, a mouth that laughs at what has been wrought here. There are ceramic vases on golden stands, gold trim slicing through the walls, trailing like the threads on an integrated circuit chip, leading to the apotheotic throne, the chair, at the far end of the room. A twenty by forty foot embroidered carpet lies underneath it, and in front of it, a desk that felled a forest so that it might exist. The throne chair itself is made of black leather. Its back is nearly six feet high. Sitting in this contrivance is a tiny woman in a pearl white suit, diamond jewelry flashing from every finger, each earlobe, and her neck. Behind her, a wall of windows reveals the purple, darkening sky. You hear the doors shut behind you. Carl has left you alone in here. >x laura Sitting in the high-backed leather throne is a tiny woman in a pearl white suit, diamond jewelry flashing from every finger, each earlobe, and her neck. Laura looks at you. Though she is far away, you can feel her eyes cut deeply into you. "Please sit," she says in an even, steady voice that has grown hushed with age. "I have a number of things to tell you, and not much time." She points out a chair in front of her desk, so tiny in comparison to everything else that you didn't even notice it before now. "When I'm finished, you may leave. Please." >yes You sound rather positive. >sit (the tiny chair) You sit down in the tiny chair. "Thank you," Laura says, folding her fingers into a steeple that she touches to the bridge of her nose. Laura gazes at you from across the expanse of her desk. She seems almost ashamed of the ridiculous luxury around her. You regard her as she takes a moment to gather her thoughts, and you find yourself suddenly expecting a confession rather than an inquisition. "Let me tell you a story," she begins. "It's my story. It's the story of the Devil." She pushes back in her chair, shaking her head as she rises. "Naturally, I'm not the Devil. That's not what I mean." She walks to the windows and gazes from horizon to horizon. "I'm not a religious woman, not any more. I don't believe in God or in Heaven. But," she says, facing you, "I find I have to believe in the Devil and in Hell." She sweeps her arms wide as she walks forward to the corner of her desk. "This ... is Hell." A moaning sound issues from the fireplace, air flowing resonantly through the flue. "And the Devil rules it. The Devil made it. The Devil ..." She leans forward, her fingers tapping the desk's surface. "The Devil put me here -- because I wanted it." She straightens her jacket, smoothing the front of it as she stands up again. "You understand what a metaphor is, I hope. Otherwise, you won't understand any of this. You're in Hell. A metaphor for it. It was made by the Devil -- the Devil being the name we give to another metaphor. Christ in the wilderness: a metaphor meets a metaphor in a metaphorical landscape." She holds out her hand to you. "Shall I complete the metaphor, by taking you to these windows behind me, where you can gaze down upon the whole Earth below?" She takes back her hand. "Or are you with me this far, and I can go on without laboring the point?" >yes Laura cocks her head and a smile appears on her face. It's the same face that smiled up at you from the New Accounts desk forty years ago, but the smile is different. It's not the wrinkles and creases, the whitened hair, the change in clothes and jewelry; it's the darkness behind the smile that's the difference. It's something in the eyes, or something lacking that was once there. "Can I get you something?" Laura asks, playing hostess. "Coffee? Water? Wine?" Her smile twists another notch. "Wealth? Fame? Power?" >no She sobers up again. "Fame isn't what it's cracked up to be, but I recommend taking the rest." She walks around behind you, far enough that you can't turn your neck far enough to see her. You feel her, though, as a sensation in the hair on the back of your neck. "I met the Devil the first of seven times when I was a teenager. This was before you and I met the first time, in the bank one sunny morning four decades ago." Suddenly, her voice is right behind your ear. "You think I don't remember you?" she asks. "The Devil is in the details." A chill runs the length of your spine and back again. Laura walks back into view. "The first lie, the first promise, was about freedom. What else does a teenaged girl want? When you scrape away the superficialities, when you go to the heart of adolescent longing, this is the tender meat, the flesh of your young soul so easily primed, probed, and bruised. 'I will give you the freedom to do as thou wilt,' the promise goes. 'You can be on your own, make your own rules, earn your own money, buy what you want, date whomever you want. Deal?'" >no Laura removes her suit jacket and hangs it over the back of her chair. The width of the chair's back makes the white sleeves stick out at acute angles. "Deal," Laura says. She looks at you, watching to see if you're keeping up. "Care to guess," she asks, "what the next six lies were?" >no She picks up the time machine manual, regards it for a moment, and drops it back on the desk with the rest of your things. "That's right. They were exactly the same as the first. The deal was the same -- I will sell you total freedom, but I'm really taking it away. The best part is, I'm not stealing it, you're giving it away." Laura sits back on her black throne, the jacket-sleeve wings flaring to either side. "Does this look like freedom to you?" >no Laura leans forward across her desk, her eyes bearing down on you for a long moment. "Do you believe that I'm not the Devil?" she asks. "I told you I wasn't, but do you believe me?" >yes "I'm going to offer you a deal, so you had better be sure. Because what I'm offering you is freedom." You expect her to smile ironically, but she does not. You can take your things, and you can walk out those doors, and you can go back to where you came from. You're free to go. I could put you under arrest for trespassing, but I won't. I'm giving you your freedom. But." At last, she does smile. "You knew there was going to be a catch, didn't you?" >yes "The catch is, if I give you your freedom, you have to give me back mine." She turns a key in a latch on the other side of the desk. A drawer slides open, and she removes a small, cream colored envelope sealed with red wax. She slides the drawer shut and locks it again. "I want you to go back and give this to me on that first day we met. I'll recognize it, don't worry. I'll recognize it, I'll read it, and I'll cease to exist." She stands again, dropping the envelope onto the desk next to your possessions. "Not me then, me now. This." She once again indicates the whole room as she turns away and walks toward the gaping mouth of the fireplace. It was farther away and larger than you had thought. Laura looks like a morsel ready to be swallowed whole by it. "This," she concludes, "will cease to exist." She turns to face you again. "I'm prepared to die. I'm prepared for nothingness to consume me as soon as you climb on that shiny little machine of yours and vanish. What will the suddenness of nonexistence feel like? To be blotted out, not like dying, but as in never having ever existed in the first place? No one will remember that I had a chance to live, and I chose to turn out like this." She regards you from across the room and begins to remove her jewelry. One by one, she tosses each piece into the fireplace. "You, though. You'll remember." She strips completely naked, revealing a pale old woman's body, and tosses her clothes, too, into the fireplace. It is a ghastly but hypnotic sight, one that leaves you trembling slightly. "Try to forget," she says. "Try." She touches a button on the wall, and orange flames belch into roaring life, consuming quickly everything in the fireplace. Laura stands naked in front of the curling flames, gazing at them for a long time. "Go," she says, shouting over the noise of the fire. "I'm finished." >get all I don't see what you're referring to. >get all from desk placard: You can't take the placard. perfect blue crystal: Taken. blue pencil: Taken. desk lamp: Taken. screwdriver: Taken. frisbee: Taken. tire: Taken. newspaper: Taken. ATM card: Taken. package: Taken. paper napkin: Taken. rare book: You've already got your hands full. monkey wrench: You've already got your hands full. sealed envelope: You've already got your hands full. >put all in package perfect blue crystal: Done. blue pencil: Done. desk lamp: Done. screwdriver: Done. frisbee: Done. tire: You can't fit that in the package. newspaper: You can't fit that in the package. ATM card: You can't fit that in the package. package: You can't put the package in itself! paper napkin: Done. >get all from desk placard: You can't take the placard. rare book: Taken. monkey wrench: Taken. sealed envelope: Taken. >s You're not going anywhere until you get out of the tiny chair. >get up You arise, warily, from the tiny chair. Laura nods at you. >x laura Laura is standing naked in front of the curling orange flames, gazing deeply into them. >s Carl escorts you out of the office and into the elevator. He pushes the button for the sub-basement and stares straight ahead, saying nothing. When the elevator stops, he looks at you. "I don't claim to understand this," he says soberly. Then he affects a caveman voice and says, "Carl only pawn, in game of life." He laughs roughly as he walks you back to the storage room, gives you a final nod, and shuts the door behind you. Storage room This room is barely big enough to hold the time machine. It is full of filing cabinets, old computer equipment, stacks of old ledgers and printouts, and other discards. Fluorescent lighting fixtures flicker overhead. The air is conditioned and cold, almost antiseptic smelling. A door leads east. You see a time machine here. >enter machine Okay, you're now standing on the time machine platform. >x dial The knob can be turned to settings numbered from 1 to 5. It's currently set to 5. >set dial to 1 Okay, it's now turned to 1. >push button You push the big red button. Click! The time machine vibrates and heats up like a toaster oven. A deep red light envelops you. The world around you spins into a wild vortex that suddenly vanishes, leaving you to find yourself in a ... Secret chamber Whether this nondescript room existed before the secret passage was made is unclear to you, but here it is now. It is made of concrete, about thirty feet square, with a fifteen foot ceiling. The floor of room must be at least twenty feet below the ground. The dim amber light, just enough to see by, seems to be coming from the ceiling itself, rather than any kind of recognizable fixture. The only exit that you can see is back up. You see a time machine here. >out Okay, you're no longer on the time machine platform. >s Secret passage The secret passage is a narrow hallway of sorts, only about twelve feet long and three and a half feet wide. The walls are bare plaster and sheet rock. Various springs and tumblers are connected together in an elegant set of mechanisms to open the doors. A small light bulb hangs from the ceiling, but it is currently turned off. The only light in the passage is from the open door. The short hallway dead-ends at a crudely-carved staircase leading down. There is another door to the west, and you can go out the way you came in. >s South of house The ground slopes down slightly here, and the wall of the house looms an extra story high because of it. There is a tiny window high in the wall, about 30 feet up. There is a rope dangling from the window. A little path made by you on your many daily walks leads southwest into the woods. You can walk around your house to the northwest and northeast. A secret door is open to the north. A beautiful, leafy tree is growing here next to the house, right where you always thought it should. >sw Path in the woods This little spot is one of your favorite places to sit and think. A well-trod path winds through a natural grove of cedar and live oak trees. A large rock juts up out of the ground right in your way, so the path does an abrupt curve around it. The path leads northeast to your house, and a clearing is visible to the southwest. >sw Clearing The woods part in a marvelous natural clearing here. Moonlight streams prettily through the canopy of leaves above. The ground is hard and flat and clean. Your footpath leaves the clearing to the northeast, heading back to the house. You see a time machine here. The hinged compartment seems to contain some money (170 dollars). >enter machine Okay, you're now standing on the time machine platform. >set dial to 2 Okay, it's now turned to 2. >push button You push the big red button. Click! The time machine vibrates and heats up like a toaster oven. A dull orange light envelops you. The world around you spins into a wild vortex that suddenly vanishes, leaving you to find yourself in a ... Clearing The woods part in a marvelous natural clearing here. Light streams prettily through the canopy of leaves above. The ground is hard and flat and clean. You can hear the busy noise of construction work nearby, coming through the woods from the northeast. You see a time machine here. The hinged compartment seems to contain some money (170 dollars). >ne (first getting off the platform) Okay, you're no longer on the time machine platform. Woods The smell of freshly-sawed wood wafts through this natural grove of cedar and live oak trees. A large rock juts up out of the ground right in your way. A construction site is to the northeast, and a clearing is visible to the southwest. >ne South of house You are standing on what will be the south side of your house. The house is currently under construction. The wooden frame has gone up, but apart from that, there's not much to see. The ground slopes down slightly here, and the wall of the house looms an extra story high because of it. A little bare path made by you just now leads southwest into the woods. You can walk around the house to the northwest and northeast. To the east is a dirt road leading to town. You see a sapling here. >n Inside house You finally step into your house. Not much of a victory, given the circumstances. Just a lot of planks and rafters. A temporary work ladder is nailed into the structure, and leads up to the second floor. >e Front of house You are standing in what will be the front of your house. The house is currently under construction. The wooden frame has gone up, but apart from that, there's not much to see. A construction blockade is to the northeast, preventing you from stepping on the freshly-poured cement driveway. A huge supply truck sitting on the other side of the driveway, behind the blockade. You can walk around the house to the northwest and southwest. You can go around the driveway and find the road into town to the southeast. >e There is nowhere to go in that direction. >ne You can't walk across the newly-poured cement driveway. >se Sidewalk The concrete sidewalk that leads away from your house is also recently poured. It follows alongside a dirt road that will soon be paved. The sidewalk disappears to the east, just before the road takes a bend to the north. The construction site is back to the west. >e Bend in path The unpaved dirt road that leads in the direction of the construction site has been crisscrossed by a number of vehicles with large treads. The road bends here from the west to the north, following a scenic paved road into the shopping village. The divining rod vibrates, pulling to the sewer hole. >n Oakwood drive This pleasant road wanders peacefully through the lush tree growths native to the area. In the intervening years, they'll straighten the road and widen it, cutting down dozens of these forty- to ninety-year-old live oaks. The road leads north into the shopping village, and south to a familiar bend in the direction of your house. >n In the village The little shopping village looks a little different than you're used to seeing it. Colored signs point you to this merchant and that. To the west is the bank, which seems like it's always been here and always will. To the east is an empty plot of land. The sandwich shop is to the north. The road leading back is south. >w In the bank The bank interior is polished and impeccable. A desk to the south says "New Accounts." A teller window to the north is labeled "Deposits and Withdrawals." A hallway leads west into the bank's back offices. The exit is east. >w Laura's office Laura's office is a small, windowless room with a file cabinet and a plain white desk. The only exit is to the east. Laura is here. >give envelope to laura Laura reacts with curious surprise as you hold out the sealed envelope to her. "What's this?" she asks. She gingerly breaks the red wax seal, trying to preserve it. "How fancy," she says, drawing out a letter written on brittle, translucent stationery. Laura begins to read the letter. Before she even finishes the first page, she abruptly stands up, her hand going to her throat. She looks at you, and you stare blankly back. "Did ..." she starts to say, but breaks off. She reads the remaining two pages, then folds them back into the envelope and closes it. [ Your score just went up by 10 points. ] >ask laura about envelope She doesn't seem to register that you asked a question. You get the feeling she has a lot of other things on her mind right now. >z Time passes... >x laura You recognize her as Laura, the woman from the bank. In fact, now that she is older, you remember that you met her before, around this time -- subjectively speaking. She was a junior manager at the bank, and you talked to her on one or two occasions about the mortgage on the house, and setting up your trust fund to pay for it. Since this is one of those occasions, it enters your head that you might have to worry about meeting yourself in the past, but you're pretty sure you don't remember dropping by the construction site on this particular day. Laura is dressed in a knee-length violet skirt and matching shoes, with a sleeveless white blouse that's opened a couple of buttons at the top, a concession to the summery weather. She looks tanned and healthy, but there is a distinct pensiveness in her green eyes. >x envelope It is a cream colored envelope, the kind that holds small stationery. It has been sealed shut with red wax. >[it's still shut?] I don't understand the punctuation "[". >tell laura about fred You tell Laura what you know about Fred, but it doesn't amount to much, and the conversation sort of ends there. >ask laura about fred She doesn't seem to register that you asked a question. You get the feeling she has a lot of other things on her mind right now. >x cabinet It's just a file cabinet. >e In the bank The bank interior is polished and impeccable. A desk to the south says "New Accounts." A teller window to the north is labeled "Deposits and Withdrawals." A hallway leads west into the bank's back offices. The exit is east. >e In the village The little shopping village looks a little different than you're used to seeing it. Colored signs point you to this merchant and that. To the west is the bank, which seems like it's always been here and always will. To the east is an empty plot of land. The sandwich shop is to the north. The road leading back is south. >s Oakwood drive This pleasant road wanders peacefully through the lush tree growths native to the area. In the intervening years, they'll straighten the road and widen it, cutting down dozens of these forty- to ninety-year-old live oaks. The road leads north into the shopping village, and south to a familiar bend in the direction of your house. >s Bend in path The unpaved dirt road that leads in the direction of the construction site has been crisscrossed by a number of vehicles with large treads. The road bends here from the west to the north, following a scenic paved road into the shopping village. The divining rod vibrates, pulling to the sewer hole. >w Sidewalk The concrete sidewalk that leads away from your house is also recently poured. It follows alongside a dirt road that will soon be paved. The sidewalk disappears to the east, just before the road takes a bend to the north. The construction site is back to the west. >w South of house You are standing on what will be the south side of your house. The house is currently under construction. The wooden frame has gone up, but apart from that, there's not much to see. The ground slopes down slightly here, and the wall of the house looms an extra story high because of it. A little bare path made by you just now leads southwest into the woods. You can walk around the house to the northwest and northeast. To the east is a dirt road leading to town. You see a sapling here. >sw Woods The smell of freshly-sawed wood wafts through this natural grove of cedar and live oak trees. A large rock juts up out of the ground right in your way. A construction site is to the northeast, and a clearing is visible to the southwest. >sw Clearing The woods part in a marvelous natural clearing here. Light streams prettily through the canopy of leaves above. The ground is hard and flat and clean. You can hear the busy noise of construction work nearby, coming through the woods from the northeast. You see a time machine here. The hinged compartment seems to contain some money (170 dollars). >enter machine Okay, you're now standing on the time machine platform. >set dial to 5 Okay, it's now turned to 5. >push button You push the big red button. Click! The time machine vibrates and heats up like a toaster oven. A blinding purple light envelops you. The world around you spins into a wild vortex that suddenly vanishes, leaving you to find yourself in a ... Clearing The clearing here is desolate, giving the distinct impression that all natural life has left this area. The ground is hard and overgrown by weedy grass. There are no trees any more, but there are some stumps where once they stood. Your old footpath is nowhere to be seen. You do see your house to the northeast, but it too looks abandoned. You see a time machine here. The hinged compartment seems to contain some money (170 dollars). >undo (Undoing one command) Clearing (on the time machine platform) The woods part in a marvelous natural clearing here. Light streams prettily through the canopy of leaves above. The ground is hard and flat and clean. You can hear the busy noise of construction work nearby, coming through the woods from the northeast. You see a time machine here. The hinged compartment seems to contain some money (170 dollars). >set dial to 4 Okay, it's now turned to 4. >push button You push the big red button. Click! The time machine vibrates and heats up like a toaster oven. A bright blue light envelops you. The world around you spins into a wild vortex that suddenly vanishes, leaving you to find yourself in a ... Clearing The woods part in a marvelous natural clearing here. Moonlight streams prettily through the canopy of leaves above. The ground is hard and flat and clean. Your footpath leaves the clearing to the northeast, heading back to the house. You see a time machine here. The hinged compartment seems to contain some money (170 dollars). >ne (first getting off the platform) Okay, you're no longer on the time machine platform. Path in the woods This little spot is one of your favorite places to sit and think. A well-trod path winds through a natural grove of cedar and live oak trees. A large rock juts up out of the ground right in your way, so the path does an abrupt curve around it. The path leads northeast to your house, and a clearing is visible to the southwest. >ne South of house The ground slopes down slightly here, and the wall of the house looms an extra story high because of it. There is a tiny window high in the wall, about 30 feet up. There is a rope dangling from the window. A little path made by you on your many daily walks leads southwest into the woods. You can walk around your house to the northwest and northeast. A secret door is open to the north. A beautiful, leafy tree is growing here next to the house, right where you always thought it should. >n Secret passage The secret passage is a narrow hallway of sorts, only about twelve feet long and three and a half feet wide. The walls are bare plaster and sheet rock. Various springs and tumblers are connected together in an elegant set of mechanisms to open the doors. A small light bulb hangs from the ceiling, but it is currently turned off. The only light in the passage is from the open door. The short hallway dead-ends at a crudely-carved staircase leading down. There is another door to the west, and you can go out the way you came in. >n Secret chamber Whether this nondescript room existed before the secret passage was made is unclear to you, but here it is now. It is made of concrete, about thirty feet square, with a fifteen foot ceiling. The floor of room must be at least twenty feet below the ground. The dim amber light, just enough to see by, seems to be coming from the ceiling itself, rather than any kind of recognizable fixture. The only exit that you can see is back up. You see a time machine here. >enter machine Okay, you're now standing on the time machine platform. >set dial to 5 Okay, it's now turned to 5. >push button You push the big red button. Click! The time machine vibrates and heats up like a toaster oven. A blinding purple light envelops you. The world around you spins into a wild vortex that suddenly vanishes, leaving you to find yourself in a ... Laboratory From the look of things, time machines are built here. The room is thirty feet square, with a fifteen foot ceiling. Rows of refrigeration ducts and sealed- off tubes poke through the wall on the north side. Along the east wall is a set of poster-sized pictures detailing the development from the first, room- sized prototype to machines that look similar to the ones you have been using. Drafts of engineering blueprints are tacked to the remaining walls. A busy workdesk is set up to one side. You see various unrecognizable machine parts and prototypes in various stages of assembly, and one unused electrical socket. A carpeted staircase to the south leads up. You see a time machine here. [ Your score just went up by 5 points. ] >u (first getting off the platform) Okay, you're no longer on the time machine platform. Secret passage The secret passage is a narrow hallway of sorts, only about twelve feet long and three and a half feet wide. The walls are bare plaster and sheet rock. Various springs and tumblers are connected together in an elegant set of mechanisms to open the doors. A new light bulb hangs from the ceiling, but it is currently turned off. The only light in the passage is from the open door. The short hallway dead-ends at a crudely-carved staircase leading down. There is another door to the west, and you can go out the way you came in. >w (Opening the west door) Exhibition room What used to be your master bedroom is now an exhibition room, full of colorful photographs, charts, and schematics, as well as a video projection providing a family-friendly documentary about the museum. The lobby is back to the north. A secret door is open to the southeast. A young man approaches from the north, smiling broadly. His smile gets even wider as he says, "It's you! Look at you!" and, laughing, embraces you with his strong young arms. "Sorry, I guess you weren't expecting that," he says. "Come in, come in." He steps back to the north, waving you to follow. >n Museum lobby The lobby of the museum is homelike and welcoming. What used to be a tiled floor has been replaced with polished wood, and tasteful decorations hang on the walls. A visitor information desk has been set up here, but no one is staffing it at the moment. The front door is east, and hallways lead south and north. A wide staircase leads up. The young man is here. The young man says, "So, what do you think? Pretty nice, huh?" >x man He is about eighteen years old, with a head of dark hair that has been tamed into submission with a thick application of fragrant gel. He has intelligent brown eyes and a bright smile. He's wearing a pair of shorts and some sort of souvenir t-shirt. The young man rocks back and forth on his feet. "Hey, I know. Would you like me to show you around?" he asks. "Should I give you the grand tour?" >yes The young man says, "Great. Follow me." He starts by leading you upstairs. Upstairs hallway The staircase ends at a slightly expanded upper hallway. The doors lead north and south, as usual, but into tiny offices stuffed with files and computers. In place of the upstairs bathroom is yet a third office. You almost wonder how many people are really needed to staff such a place as this. It's starting to seem like a surreal joke of some kind. The staircase leads back down. It also leads up to the third floor, but a velvet rope has been strung across it as a barrier to museum visitors. He says, "The upstairs kind of looks the same as always, except we've added another floor on top." He gestures to the staircase. "Upstairs are staff offices for the museum. Kind of boring. Well, let me show you anyway." He takes you past the rope and up another flight of stairs. It's a small hallway with doors leading off into offices. On one wall is an enlarged picture of you, looking a bit older, standing next to a time machine in the clearing. A small team of people you don't recognize are hugging shoulders with you. The young man notices your interest in the picture and says, "Yeah, how about that, huh? I can't tell you when that's taken, of course, but it's not far off." He briefly takes you out onto a balcony that provides a grand view of the area. The shopping village has expanded, but you see that many new trees have been planted in the area, replacing the old trees that were removed from Oakwood Drive ages ago. "Come on, there's more to see," he says. The young man leads you back downstairs to the lobby, and then north into the new wing of the house. In fact, this is the only part of the house that is still living quarters, he explains. "This is where we live," he says. "We decided to keep the old house open as a museum, so we had to move somewhere new, so we built this wing. It's only been a year or so. You can kind of still smell the fresh paint." He leads you to a door at the east end of a hallway full of golden afternoon light. He raps his knuckles on the door and says, "We've invited a guest today who was anxious to greet you," he says, smiling enigmatically. "You ready for this?" >yes The young man says, "Okay, brace yourself." He opens the door into a large salon of paneled wood and tasteful chairs. Sitting in one of the chairs, and rising as you enter, is Laura, looking mature with her silvered hair, but vibrant. She approaches you tentatively and gives you a hug. "You put me on quite a different path forty years ago, one of environmental activism and fighting corporate interests. I know you're probably curious what that letter said. All I can tell you is that the first part was full of secrets that I never told anyone, and the second part was a set of warnings, and the third part was a set of wishes." She idly picks a bit of lint off of your shirt. "Good wishes, from a bad person." She gives you a small kiss and steps aside. You find your thoughts turning to Fred. You wish he were here now, but the way he was going he's probably been dead and forgotten for years. If only you had done something to help him. There is another few minutes of idle chit-chat, but the young man breaks in. "We have to go." The young man escorts you back to the lobby. Laura waves and departs. "Let's go back downstairs," he says. He leads you to the south, back through the secret passage, and down into the laboratory. Laboratory From the look of things, time machines are built here. The room is thirty feet square, with a fifteen foot ceiling. Rows of refrigeration ducts and sealed- off tubes poke through the wall on the north side. Along the east wall is a set of poster-sized pictures detailing the development from the first, room- sized prototype to machines that look similar to the ones you have been using. Drafts of engineering blueprints are tacked to the remaining walls. A busy workdesk is set up to one side. You see various unrecognizable machine parts and prototypes in various stages of assembly, and one unused electrical socket. A carpeted staircase to the south leads up. You see a time machine here. The young man is here. >ask man about fred The young man says, "Sorry, I've been instructed not to answer any questions, even if they seem innocuous." He smiles and says, "Besides, we don't have much time." "This is where it all begins," he says. "Well, sort of. It's a long story. A retroactive effort was made -- or will be made -- to preserve the crystal cavern that used to be here in this spot. He searches a drawer of the workdesk and withdraws a small tube of plastic. Sealed inside the tube, preserving it, is a shimmering blue crystal, about an inch long, with perfect hexagonal symmetry. He plops it back in the drawer. "Can't have you running off with that," he says. "That'd really screw things up, let me tell you." He looks at his watch. "Speaking of which, we've got to wrap this up and send you home. Oh!" He fidgets in his pocket. "First things first, though." He withdraws a key and puts it on the workdesk. "I've been instructed to tell you that you can't take this key back with you," he says apologetically, "but I've been led to understand that you've come prepared to make a copy ...?" He starts to head back upstairs. "I'll be waiting in the lobby. Just bring the original back to me when you're done. Thanks." He takes a long, funny, grinning look at you, and hops up the stairs three at a time. >get key Which key do you mean, the car key, or the front door key? >front Taken. It's a key to your house, all right, but it doesn't look like the original one that was missing from your doormat. It's a copy, but an old one from the looks of it. It has the markings and smoothness of having been used for many years. >[Wait, the original was missing? Did Fred take it?] I don't understand the punctuation "[". >enter machine Okay, you're now standing on the time machine platform. >set dial to 2 Okay, it's now turned to 2. >push button You push the opener button. Click. Nothing happens. >push machine Pushing the time machine doesn't do anything. >x machine It's a large contraption that's about the size and shape of an engine block, and made of solid metal. It sits on a platform that is welded firmly to the machine itself. On the front is a knob and a large red button. On the back side of it is a hinged compartment. There is a label on the knob. The machine is covered by a layer of dust, as if it had been sitting here for some time. >push red button You aren't allowed to take the original front door key back in time with you. >out Okay, you're no longer on the time machine platform. >drop front door Dropped. >in There is nowhere to go in that direction. >enter machine Okay, you're now standing on the time machine platform. >push button You push the big red button. Click! The time machine vibrates and heats up like a toaster oven. A dull orange light envelops you. The world around you spins into a wild vortex that suddenly vanishes, leaving you to find yourself in a ... Secret chamber Whether this nondescript room existed before the secret passage was made is unclear to you, but here it is now. It is made of concrete, about thirty feet square, with a fifteen foot ceiling. The floor of room must be at least twenty feet below the ground. The dim amber light, just enough to see by, seems to be coming from the ceiling itself, rather than any kind of recognizable fixture. The only exit that you can see is back up. You see a time machine here. >u (first getting off the platform) Okay, you're no longer on the time machine platform. Secret passage The secret passage is a narrow hallway of sorts, only about twelve feet long and three and a half feet wide. The walls are bare plaster and sheet rock. Various springs and tumblers are connected together in an elegant set of mechanisms to open the doors. A small light bulb hangs from the ceiling, giving the room some gentle illumnation. The short hallway dead-ends at a crudely-carved staircase leading down. There is another door to the west, and you can go out the way you came in. >w Master bedroom This is your bedroom, the one you've been longing all night to get back to. Unfortunately, there is no place to sleep here, even if you could close your eyes to the general nightmare that your house has become. The bed is missing. The large dresser that used to stand in the southeast corner of the room has been toppled over, and its spilled contents have been thoroughly looted, leaving nothing behind but some soiled linens. Ratty curtains are open to the west side of the house, letting some amount of somber, muted light in. The dimensions of the room look slightly smaller than you remember. Perhaps it is a trick of the eyes due to the unsettling damage. The foyer is north through the hallway, and the master bathroom is to the east. A secret door is open to the southeast. >n Downstairs hallway The hallway is dark and feels cramped due to the collected refuse that has built up along the wall. Graffiti covers every flat surface, as usual. There is no sign of the photographs that used to hang here. The foyer is north, and a doorway into the living room is west. The master bedroom is to the south. A small door leads east into a half bathroom. >n Foyer The entryway to your home has been used as a dumping ground for trash and broken bottles. The tiled floor has been scuffed and scarred, and swirled with what looks suspiciously like tire treads. Open doorways lead to various areas of the house. A broken staircase leads up to the second floor. The front door is east. A hallway leads south, and the dining room is through a doorway to the west. >e Front of house This is the front of your house. It looks somewhat weathered, as if no one had tended to it for ten years, but is otherwise normal. Sopping mounds of rotting leaves that have collected along the edges and corners indicate years of neglect. A pool of dirty yellow water trickles down from the driveway and collects, full of black silt, near the front door. The driveway is to the northeast, and a clearing is visible far to the southwest. The front door is to the west. >e There is nowhere to go in that direction. >ne Driveway Your driveway looks much the same, a thankful sight after the ruin your house has become. The road to town still lies to the east. Your front door is to the southwest. >se There is nowhere to go in that direction. >e Sidewalk After the shocking sight of your house, this once-familiar sidewalk is a calming surprise. Someone must have recently repoured the walk, as it is smooth and free of flaws. The sidewalk wanders east-west alongside the road from your house into the nearby strip mall. You see a mailbox here. >e Strip mall The walk to town is much shorter, because progress seems to have brought the town to you. Where there used to be some nice trees and bushes is a concrete strip-mall. The old village square with the library, bank, and sandwich shop seems to have been mowed down to make way for this thing. In fact, a sign here makes you think even this strip mall isn't long for this world. Even the bank is gone, replaced by an impersonal automated teller machine (ATM). In the strip mall you see a number of vacant offices. The only shop that seems to be open for business is an alabaster little store labelled "Locksmith," which is directly to the north. The sidewalk leads back west. >n Locksmith shop A sign inside says, "Going out of business - Free stuff." Most everything has been taken already. The only exit is south. You see a motorized grinder here. The motorized grinder seems to contain a blank. >get grinder You'll have to unplug it from the socket first. >unplug grinder You unplug the motorized grinder from the socket. >s Strip mall The walk to town is much shorter, because progress seems to have brought the town to you. Where there used to be some nice trees and bushes is a concrete strip-mall. The old village square with the library, bank, and sandwich shop seems to have been mowed down to make way for this thing. In fact, a sign here makes you think even this strip mall isn't long for this world. Even the bank is gone, replaced by an impersonal automated teller machine (ATM). In the strip mall you see a number of vacant offices. The only shop that seems to be open for business is an alabaster little store labelled "Locksmith," which is directly to the north. The sidewalk leads back west. >w Sidewalk After the shocking sight of your house, this once-familiar sidewalk is a calming surprise. Someone must have recently repoured the walk, as it is smooth and free of flaws. The sidewalk wanders east-west alongside the road from your house into the nearby strip mall. You see a mailbox here. >w Driveway Your driveway looks much the same, a thankful sight after the ruin your house has become. The road to town still lies to the east. Your front door is to the southwest. >sw Front of house This is the front of your house. It looks somewhat weathered, as if no one had tended to it for ten years, but is otherwise normal. Sopping mounds of rotting leaves that have collected along the edges and corners indicate years of neglect. A pool of dirty yellow water trickles down from the driveway and collects, full of black silt, near the front door. The driveway is to the northeast, and a clearing is visible far to the southwest. The front door is to the west. >w Foyer The entryway to your home has been used as a dumping ground for trash and broken bottles. The tiled floor has been scuffed and scarred, and swirled with what looks suspiciously like tire treads. Open doorways lead to various areas of the house. A broken staircase leads up to the second floor. The front door is east. A hallway leads south, and the dining room is through a doorway to the west. >w Dining room The dining room, which you had recently converted into a study area, has been kicked around and spraypainted in a similar fashion to the other rooms in the house, but the large table remains standing where you left it. Piled upon it are empty cans and bottles, and its surface is mottled with cigarette burns and knife marks. A bookcase that stood in the southern corner of the room is missing, but a pile of yellow, water-damaged books remains in its place, underneath more trash. Two large windows face west out to the back yard. The fireplace, too, is cluttered with debris. The kitchen is east, and the living room is to the south. A doorway at the southeast corner of the room leads to the foyer. >get tv I don't see any tv here. >n There is nowhere to go in that direction. >w There is nowhere to go in that direction. >s Living room The first thing you notice is that your television set is still here, which seems ironic because you never used to watch it and were planning on giving it away. The tv set is no longer on a stand, it sits against the northern wall under a stack of pizza boxes that emit a rude odor. A stained and beaten couch -- not your own -- sits to the south, facing the television set. Some of its cushions are missing, but it doesn't look as if it were particularly comfortable even in its prime. Bent and twisted blinds hang over the west- facing windows. The dining room is north, and a doorway into the hallway is east. >get tv You'll have to unplug it from the wall socket first. >unplug tf I don't know the word "tf". >unplug tv You unplug the television set from the wall socket. >s There is nowhere to go in that direction. >se There is nowhere to go in that direction. >e Downstairs hallway The hallway is dark and feels cramped due to the collected refuse that has built up along the wall. Graffiti covers every flat surface, as usual. There is no sign of the photographs that used to hang here. The foyer is north, and a doorway into the living room is west. The master bedroom is to the south. A small door leads east into a half bathroom. >s Master bedroom This is your bedroom, the one you've been longing all night to get back to. Unfortunately, there is no place to sleep here, even if you could close your eyes to the general nightmare that your house has become. The bed is missing. The large dresser that used to stand in the southeast corner of the room has been toppled over, and its spilled contents have been thoroughly looted, leaving nothing behind but some soiled linens. Ratty curtains are open to the west side of the house, letting some amount of somber, muted light in. The dimensions of the room look slightly smaller than you remember. Perhaps it is a trick of the eyes due to the unsettling damage. The foyer is north through the hallway, and the master bathroom is to the east. A secret door is open to the southeast. >se Secret passage The secret passage is a narrow hallway of sorts, only about twelve feet long and three and a half feet wide. The walls are bare plaster and sheet rock. Various springs and tumblers are connected together in an elegant set of mechanisms to open the doors. A small light bulb hangs from the ceiling, giving the room some gentle illumnation. The short hallway dead-ends at a crudely-carved staircase leading down. There is another door to the west, and you can go out the way you came in. >d Secret chamber Whether this nondescript room existed before the secret passage was made is unclear to you, but here it is now. It is made of concrete, about thirty feet square, with a fifteen foot ceiling. The floor of room must be at least twenty feet below the ground. The dim amber light, just enough to see by, seems to be coming from the ceiling itself, rather than any kind of recognizable fixture. The only exit that you can see is back up. You see a time machine here. >enter machine Okay, you're now standing on the time machine platform. >set dial to 4 Okay, it's now turned to 4. >push button You push the big red button. Click! The time machine vibrates and heats up like a toaster oven. A bright blue light envelops you. The world around you spins into a wild vortex that suddenly vanishes, leaving you to find yourself in a ... Laboratory From the look of things, time machines are built here. The room is thirty feet square, with a fifteen foot ceiling. Rows of refrigeration ducts and sealed- off tubes poke through the wall on the north side. Along the east wall is a set of poster-sized pictures detailing the development from the first, room- sized prototype to machines that look similar to the ones you have been using. Drafts of engineering blueprints are tacked to the remaining walls. A busy workdesk is set up to one side. You see various unrecognizable machine parts and prototypes in various stages of assembly, and one unused electrical socket. A carpeted staircase to the south leads up. You see a drawer, a front door key, and a time machine here. >plug in tv What do you want to plug? >tv I don't see any tv here. >plug tv What do you want to plug it in? >socket I don't see any tv here. >i You are carrying: a tire a newspaper a ATM card a package a Herring detector an old pillowcase a car key a garage door opener a crowbar a can of WD-40 a shovel a divining rod a machete a library book a biology book the time machine manual a perfect blue crystal a blue pencil a desk lamp a screwdriver a frisbee a paper napkin a rare book a monkey wrench > undo (Undoing one command) Laboratory (on the time machine platform) From the look of things, time machines are built here. The room is thirty feet square, with a fifteen foot ceiling. Rows of refrigeration ducts and sealed- off tubes poke through the wall on the north side. Along the east wall is a set of poster-sized pictures detailing the development from the first, room- sized prototype to machines that look similar to the ones you have been using. Drafts of engineering blueprints are tacked to the remaining walls. A busy workdesk is set up to one side. You see various unrecognizable machine parts and prototypes in various stages of assembly, and one unused electrical socket. A carpeted staircase to the south leads up. You see a drawer, a front door key, and a time machine here. > undo (Undoing one command) Laboratory (on the time machine platform) From the look of things, time machines are built here. The room is thirty feet square, with a fifteen foot ceiling. Rows of refrigeration ducts and sealed- off tubes poke through the wall on the north side. Along the east wall is a set of poster-sized pictures detailing the development from the first, room- sized prototype to machines that look similar to the ones you have been using. Drafts of engineering blueprints are tacked to the remaining walls. A busy workdesk is set up to one side. You see various unrecognizable machine parts and prototypes in various stages of assembly, and one unused electrical socket. A carpeted staircase to the south leads up. You see a drawer, a front door key, and a time machine here. > undo (Undoing one command) Laboratory (on the time machine platform) From the look of things, time machines are built here. The room is thirty feet square, with a fifteen foot ceiling. Rows of refrigeration ducts and sealed- off tubes poke through the wall on the north side. Along the east wall is a set of poster-sized pictures detailing the development from the first, room- sized prototype to machines that look similar to the ones you have been using. Drafts of engineering blueprints are tacked to the remaining walls. A busy workdesk is set up to one side. You see various unrecognizable machine parts and prototypes in various stages of assembly, and one unused electrical socket. A carpeted staircase to the south leads up. You see a drawer, a front door key, and a time machine here. > undo (Undoing one command) Secret chamber (on the time machine platform) Whether this nondescript room existed before the secret passage was made is unclear to you, but here it is now. It is made of concrete, about thirty feet square, with a fifteen foot ceiling. The floor of room must be at least twenty feet below the ground. The dim amber light, just enough to see by, seems to be coming from the ceiling itself, rather than any kind of recognizable fixture. The only exit that you can see is back up. You see a time machine here. > undo (Undoing one command) Secret chamber (on the time machine platform) Whether this nondescript room existed before the secret passage was made is unclear to you, but here it is now. It is made of concrete, about thirty feet square, with a fifteen foot ceiling. The floor of room must be at least twenty feet below the ground. The dim amber light, just enough to see by, seems to be coming from the ceiling itself, rather than any kind of recognizable fixture. The only exit that you can see is back up. You see a time machine here. > undo (Undoing one command) Secret chamber Whether this nondescript room existed before the secret passage was made is unclear to you, but here it is now. It is made of concrete, about thirty feet square, with a fifteen foot ceiling. The floor of room must be at least twenty feet below the ground. The dim amber light, just enough to see by, seems to be coming from the ceiling itself, rather than any kind of recognizable fixture. The only exit that you can see is back up. You see a time machine here. > undo (Undoing one command) Secret passage The secret passage is a narrow hallway of sorts, only about twelve feet long and three and a half feet wide. The walls are bare plaster and sheet rock. Various springs and tumblers are connected together in an elegant set of mechanisms to open the doors. A small light bulb hangs from the ceiling, giving the room some gentle illumnation. The short hallway dead-ends at a crudely-carved staircase leading down. There is another door to the west, and you can go out the way you came in. > undo (Undoing one command) Master bedroom This is your bedroom, the one you've been longing all night to get back to. Unfortunately, there is no place to sleep here, even if you could close your eyes to the general nightmare that your house has become. The bed is missing. The large dresser that used to stand in the southeast corner of the room has been toppled over, and its spilled contents have been thoroughly looted, leaving nothing behind but some soiled linens. Ratty curtains are open to the west side of the house, letting some amount of somber, muted light in. The dimensions of the room look slightly smaller than you remember. Perhaps it is a trick of the eyes due to the unsettling damage. The foyer is north through the hallway, and the master bathroom is to the east. A secret door is open to the southeast. > undo (Undoing one command) Downstairs hallway The hallway is dark and feels cramped due to the collected refuse that has built up along the wall. Graffiti covers every flat surface, as usual. There is no sign of the photographs that used to hang here. The foyer is north, and a doorway into the living room is west. The master bedroom is to the south. A small door leads east into a half bathroom. > undo (Undoing one command) Living room The tv set is no longer on a stand, it sits against the northern wall under a stack of pizza boxes that emit a rude odor. A stained and beaten couch -- not your own -- sits to the south, facing the television set. Some of its cushions are missing, but it doesn't look as if it were particularly comfortable even in its prime. Bent and twisted blinds hang over the west-facing windows. The dining room is north, and a doorway into the hallway is east. > undo (Undoing one command) Living room The tv set is no longer on a stand, it sits against the northern wall under a stack of pizza boxes that emit a rude odor. A stained and beaten couch -- not your own -- sits to the south, facing the television set. Some of its cushions are missing, but it doesn't look as if it were particularly comfortable even in its prime. Bent and twisted blinds hang over the west-facing windows. The dining room is north, and a doorway into the hallway is east. > undo (Undoing one command) Living room The tv set is no longer on a stand, it sits against the northern wall under a stack of pizza boxes that emit a rude odor. A stained and beaten couch -- not your own -- sits to the south, facing the television set. Some of its cushions are missing, but it doesn't look as if it were particularly comfortable even in its prime. Bent and twisted blinds hang over the west-facing windows. The dining room is north, and a doorway into the hallway is east. > undo (Undoing one command) Living room The tv set is no longer on a stand, it sits against the northern wall under a stack of pizza boxes that emit a rude odor. A stained and beaten couch -- not your own -- sits to the south, facing the television set. Some of its cushions are missing, but it doesn't look as if it were particularly comfortable even in its prime. Bent and twisted blinds hang over the west-facing windows. The dining room is north, and a doorway into the hallway is east. > undo (Undoing one command) Living room The tv set is no longer on a stand, it sits against the northern wall under a stack of pizza boxes that emit a rude odor. A stained and beaten couch -- not your own -- sits to the south, facing the television set. Some of its cushions are missing, but it doesn't look as if it were particularly comfortable even in its prime. Bent and twisted blinds hang over the west-facing windows. The dining room is north, and a doorway into the hallway is east. > undo (Undoing one command) Living room The tv set is no longer on a stand, it sits against the northern wall under a stack of pizza boxes that emit a rude odor. A stained and beaten couch -- not your own -- sits to the south, facing the television set. Some of its cushions are missing, but it doesn't look as if it were particularly comfortable even in its prime. Bent and twisted blinds hang over the west-facing windows. The dining room is north, and a doorway into the hallway is east. > undo (Undoing one command) Dining room The dining room, which you had recently converted into a study area, has been kicked around and spraypainted in a similar fashion to the other rooms in the house, but the large table remains standing where you left it. Piled upon it are empty cans and bottles, and its surface is mottled with cigarette burns and knife marks. A bookcase that stood in the southern corner of the room is missing, but a pile of yellow, water-damaged books remains in its place, underneath more trash. Two large windows face west out to the back yard. The fireplace, too, is cluttered with debris. The kitchen is east, and the living room is to the south. A doorway at the southeast corner of the room leads to the foyer. > undo (Undoing one command) Dining room The dining room, which you had recently converted into a study area, has been kicked around and spraypainted in a similar fashion to the other rooms in the house, but the large table remains standing where you left it. Piled upon it are empty cans and bottles, and its surface is mottled with cigarette burns and knife marks. A bookcase that stood in the southern corner of the room is missing, but a pile of yellow, water-damaged books remains in its place, underneath more trash. Two large windows face west out to the back yard. The fireplace, too, is cluttered with debris. The kitchen is east, and the living room is to the south. A doorway at the southeast corner of the room leads to the foyer. > undo (Undoing one command) Dining room The dining room, which you had recently converted into a study area, has been kicked around and spraypainted in a similar fashion to the other rooms in the house, but the large table remains standing where you left it. Piled upon it are empty cans and bottles, and its surface is mottled with cigarette burns and knife marks. A bookcase that stood in the southern corner of the room is missing, but a pile of yellow, water-damaged books remains in its place, underneath more trash. Two large windows face west out to the back yard. The fireplace, too, is cluttered with debris. The kitchen is east, and the living room is to the south. A doorway at the southeast corner of the room leads to the foyer. > undo (Undoing one command) Dining room The dining room, which you had recently converted into a study area, has been kicked around and spraypainted in a similar fashion to the other rooms in the house, but the large table remains standing where you left it. Piled upon it are empty cans and bottles, and its surface is mottled with cigarette burns and knife marks. A bookcase that stood in the southern corner of the room is missing, but a pile of yellow, water-damaged books remains in its place, underneath more trash. Two large windows face west out to the back yard. The fireplace, too, is cluttered with debris. The kitchen is east, and the living room is to the south. A doorway at the southeast corner of the room leads to the foyer. > undo (Undoing one command) Foyer The entryway to your home has been used as a dumping ground for trash and broken bottles. The tiled floor has been scuffed and scarred, and swirled with what looks suspiciously like tire treads. Open doorways lead to various areas of the house. A broken staircase leads up to the second floor. The front door is east. A hallway leads south, and the dining room is through a doorway to the west. > undo (Undoing one command) Front of house This is the front of your house. It looks somewhat weathered, as if no one had tended to it for ten years, but is otherwise normal. Sopping mounds of rotting leaves that have collected along the edges and corners indicate years of neglect. A pool of dirty yellow water trickles down from the driveway and collects, full of black silt, near the front door. The driveway is to the northeast, and a clearing is visible far to the southwest. The front door is to the west. > undo (Undoing one command) Driveway Your driveway looks much the same, a thankful sight after the ruin your house has become. The road to town still lies to the east. Your front door is to the southwest. > undo (Undoing one command) Sidewalk After the shocking sight of your house, this once-familiar sidewalk is a calming surprise. Someone must have recently repoured the walk, as it is smooth and free of flaws. The sidewalk wanders east-west alongside the road from your house into the nearby strip mall. You see a mailbox here. > undo (Undoing one command) Strip mall The walk to town is much shorter, because progress seems to have brought the town to you. Where there used to be some nice trees and bushes is a concrete strip-mall. The old village square with the library, bank, and sandwich shop seems to have been mowed down to make way for this thing. In fact, a sign here makes you think even this strip mall isn't long for this world. Even the bank is gone, replaced by an impersonal automated teller machine (ATM). In the strip mall you see a number of vacant offices. The only shop that seems to be open for business is an alabaster little store labelled "Locksmith," which is directly to the north. The sidewalk leads back west. > undo (Undoing one command) Locksmith shop A sign inside says, "Going out of business - Free stuff." Most everything has been taken already. The only exit is south. You see a motorized grinder here. The motorized grinder seems to contain a blank. >get grinder You've already got your hands full. >put all in package tire: You can't fit that in the package. newspaper: You can't fit that in the package. ATM card: You can't fit that in the package. package: You can't put the package in itself! rare book: You can't fit that in the package. monkey wrench: You can't fit that in the package. >put all in pillow tire: Done. newspaper: Done. ATM card: Done. package: You can't put the package in the old pillowcase, because the old pillowcase is already in the package. rare book: Done. monkey wrench: Done. >get grinder Taken. >s Strip mall The walk to town is much shorter, because progress seems to have brought the town to you. Where there used to be some nice trees and bushes is a concrete strip-mall. The old village square with the library, bank, and sandwich shop seems to have been mowed down to make way for this thing. In fact, a sign here makes you think even this strip mall isn't long for this world. Even the bank is gone, replaced by an impersonal automated teller machine (ATM). In the strip mall you see a number of vacant offices. The only shop that seems to be open for business is an alabaster little store labelled "Locksmith," which is directly to the north. The sidewalk leads back west. >w Sidewalk After the shocking sight of your house, this once-familiar sidewalk is a calming surprise. Someone must have recently repoured the walk, as it is smooth and free of flaws. The sidewalk wanders east-west alongside the road from your house into the nearby strip mall. You see a mailbox here. >w Driveway Your driveway looks much the same, a thankful sight after the ruin your house has become. The road to town still lies to the east. Your front door is to the southwest. >sw Front of house This is the front of your house. It looks somewhat weathered, as if no one had tended to it for ten years, but is otherwise normal. Sopping mounds of rotting leaves that have collected along the edges and corners indicate years of neglect. A pool of dirty yellow water trickles down from the driveway and collects, full of black silt, near the front door. The driveway is to the northeast, and a clearing is visible far to the southwest. The front door is to the west. >w Foyer The entryway to your home has been used as a dumping ground for trash and broken bottles. The tiled floor has been scuffed and scarred, and swirled with what looks suspiciously like tire treads. Open doorways lead to various areas of the house. A broken staircase leads up to the second floor. The front door is east. A hallway leads south, and the dining room is through a doorway to the west. >w Dining room The dining room, which you had recently converted into a study area, has been kicked around and spraypainted in a similar fashion to the other rooms in the house, but the large table remains standing where you left it. Piled upon it are empty cans and bottles, and its surface is mottled with cigarette burns and knife marks. A bookcase that stood in the southern corner of the room is missing, but a pile of yellow, water-damaged books remains in its place, underneath more trash. Two large windows face west out to the back yard. The fireplace, too, is cluttered with debris. The kitchen is east, and the living room is to the south. A doorway at the southeast corner of the room leads to the foyer. >s Living room The first thing you notice is that your television set is still here, which seems ironic because you never used to watch it and were planning on giving it away. The tv set is no longer on a stand, it sits against the northern wall under a stack of pizza boxes that emit a rude odor. A stained and beaten couch -- not your own -- sits to the south, facing the television set. Some of its cushions are missing, but it doesn't look as if it were particularly comfortable even in its prime. Bent and twisted blinds hang over the west- facing windows. The dining room is north, and a doorway into the hallway is east. >get tv You'll have to unplug it from the wall socket first. >unplug it You unplug the television set from the wall socket. >get it Taken. >s There is nowhere to go in that direction. >e Downstairs hallway The hallway is dark and feels cramped due to the collected refuse that has built up along the wall. Graffiti covers every flat surface, as usual. There is no sign of the photographs that used to hang here. The foyer is north, and a doorway into the living room is west. The master bedroom is to the south. A small door leads east into a half bathroom. >s Master bedroom This is your bedroom, the one you've been longing all night to get back to. Unfortunately, there is no place to sleep here, even if you could close your eyes to the general nightmare that your house has become. The bed is missing. The large dresser that used to stand in the southeast corner of the room has been toppled over, and its spilled contents have been thoroughly looted, leaving nothing behind but some soiled linens. Ratty curtains are open to the west side of the house, letting some amount of somber, muted light in. The dimensions of the room look slightly smaller than you remember. Perhaps it is a trick of the eyes due to the unsettling damage. The foyer is north through the hallway, and the master bathroom is to the east. A secret door is open to the southeast. >se Secret passage The secret passage is a narrow hallway of sorts, only about twelve feet long and three and a half feet wide. The walls are bare plaster and sheet rock. Various springs and tumblers are connected together in an elegant set of mechanisms to open the doors. A small light bulb hangs from the ceiling, giving the room some gentle illumnation. The short hallway dead-ends at a crudely-carved staircase leading down. There is another door to the west, and you can go out the way you came in. >d Secret chamber Whether this nondescript room existed before the secret passage was made is unclear to you, but here it is now. It is made of concrete, about thirty feet square, with a fifteen foot ceiling. The floor of room must be at least twenty feet below the ground. The dim amber light, just enough to see by, seems to be coming from the ceiling itself, rather than any kind of recognizable fixture. The only exit that you can see is back up. You see a time machine here. >enter machine Okay, you're now standing on the time machine platform. >set dial to 4 Okay, it's now turned to 4. >push button You push the big red button. Click! The time machine vibrates and heats up like a toaster oven. A bright blue light envelops you. The world around you spins into a wild vortex that suddenly vanishes, leaving you to find yourself in a ... Laboratory From the look of things, time machines are built here. The room is thirty feet square, with a fifteen foot ceiling. Rows of refrigeration ducts and sealed- off tubes poke through the wall on the north side. Along the east wall is a set of poster-sized pictures detailing the development from the first, room- sized prototype to machines that look similar to the ones you have been using. Drafts of engineering blueprints are tacked to the remaining walls. A busy workdesk is set up to one side. You see various unrecognizable machine parts and prototypes in various stages of assembly, and one unused electrical socket. A carpeted staircase to the south leads up. You see a drawer, a front door key, and a time machine here. >plug tv What do you want to plug it in? >socket (first dropping the television set) Okay, you plug the television set into the socket. >turn on tv You turn on the television set. A snowy picture appears. >x picture The pictures detail the development of the first, room-sized prototype time machine, as well as subsequent efforts to get them down to a manageable size like the ones you've been using tonight. Apparently, development was swift after the first working model was created. >x tv Playing on the television is a snowy picture. >change channel You change channels a few times, but the picture doesn't get any better. You've always been more of a book reader than a television watcher, anyway. >unplug tv You unplug the television set from the socket. The picture shrinks to a white dot, which soon disappears. >plug in grinder (the motorized grinder) You can't plug anything into the motorized grinder. >plug grinder What do you want to plug it in? >socket (first dropping the motorized grinder) Okay, you plug the motorized grinder into the socket. >get front Taken. >put it in grinder Done. >turn on grinder You turn on the grinder, and the lathe goes to work, slicing the blank key into a duplicate of the original front door key. Its work done, the motorized grinder automatically turns itself off. [ Your score just went up by 5 points. ] >full In a total of 1047 turns, you have achieved a score of 149 points out of a possible 151, which means you are almost there -- keep going! You have earned the following: 5 points for finding the armrest compartment 4 points for climbing onto the roof the first time 10 points for getting to the end of the junk in the garage 5 points for stepping onto the platform the first time 5 points for arriving in the far past the first time 5 points for arriving in the past the first time 5 points for arriving in the future the first time 4 points for giving the bad shingle to the architect 3 points for cleaning out the drainpipe 4 points for making it through the maze to the stream 6 points for planting the acorn in the hole 2 points for fixing the wheel with the screwdriver 3 points for pouring a second jug of miracle-gro 5 points for pouring a fifth jug of miracle-gro 10 points for leaping to the attic 5 points for giving a piping hot sandwich to the architect 5 points for entering the secret passage the first time 7 points for opening a new bank account 4 points for installing the lightning rod 5 points for buying DibbleBits stock 10 points for giving Laura the sealed envelope 5 points for arriving in the new far future for the first time 5 points for grinding a duplicate front door key 20 points for finding various items >get original Taken. >drop it Dropped. >unplug grinder You unplug the motorized grinder from the socket. >get it Taken. >i You are carrying: a package a Herring detector an old pillowcase a car key a garage door opener a crowbar a can of WD-40 a shovel a divining rod