It was a well-decorated room. The wall was painted pink. There was a huge bed in the middle of the room. The girl called Katherine lying on the bed opened her eyes, as the sunlight passed through the window and woke her up. She had to go to school, but she just stared at the view outside, and turned around to hug her huge teddy bear.
She had not left her room for a long time. It was already the end of the school term but nearly no one in her class knew how she looked. She kept locking herself in the room since the day her mother left her and her father, a successful businessman who was busy making business deals every day. She had tried to find her mother but she had no idea about where she had gone. From that day on, she refused to talk to anyone and refused to go to school.
The days went by as usual. Someone suddenly knocked on the door of her room and entered. It was a girl wearing a school uniform. Katherine knew who she was. Her class teacher had given the class photo of her class to her, and introduced everyone’s name to her. The girl named Sally was the monitress of the class.
Sally handed her a big envelope. It was quite heavy. She opened the envelope and turned it over. All worksheets and notes fell onto the bed. She selected one of them randomly and had a glance at it. Both of them didn’t break the silence.
Sally looked around the room, and noticed that there were different photos shown on the computer screen. There were a woman and a little girl in every photo, smiling happily. The photos formed an image of gingham check, a kind of blue and white check pattern.
Katherine glimpsed at the computer, and whispered, “if there were a time machine…”
Sally didn’t see a smile on Katherine’s face.
The next day, when Sally arrived at her classroom, she clapped her hands to get the attention of the classmates, and suggested, “maybe we can make a time machine for Katherine!” She told her classmates the photos she saw on Katherine’s computer, and the things Katherine told her.
“It sounds nice! But…” a girl shouted, “it’s impossible! Time machine? We?”
Sally wanted to say something, but a girl called Sarah interrupted, “it is impossible for us to make a time machine ourselves, but…”
She stopped. Everyone looked at her and waited for her to continue.
“Why don’t we just try to make the scene which is the most important one to her reappear… or just help her to create a new one?”
They started to take action. Sarah, the girl who gave the suggestion and had the best computer skills, started to make a huge projector. Sally and some classmates went to the residential area, where most of the photos on Katherine’s computer were taken, and where Sally thought Katherine lived before. They requested the householders there one by one to hang a cloth with gingham check on their windows and switch on the lights on the first Saturday of the next month, which was Katherine’s birthday. Some of the householders agreed immediately while some of them refused and shut their doors with a bang. They used a lot of time to persuade them to join the activity.
The night came. Katherine was woken up by the sound of the telephone ring. It stopped quickly but Katherine saw a message on the screen of her computer.
“Come to the train station! We are waiting for you! Sarah.”
Katherine moved the cursor towards the red cross on the top right corner of the window, but she stopped when she saw the picture attached to the message. That was a photo of gingham check.
She left her room for the first time, since her mother left. She was brought to the area she used to live in. A big machine was placed there.
Sally looked at her watch and counted,“3, 2, 1!”
The machine started to function. The image of gingham check was projected on the wall of the building, but nothing else happened.
Sally was discouraged. But suddenly, the lights of different apartments were switched on one by one. The image on the wall and the cloth hung on the windows formed a huge picture, which was the same as the one shown on Katherine’s computer.
All of them, including Katherine, laughed happily.
Katherine went back to school. On the day she started her school life again, while she was walking back home with Sally and a few classmates in the evening, she saw a little girl sitting on the swing in the park, playing alone. Other children had left with their parents, but she was still sitting there by herself. Katherine stopped walking and looked at the girl.
“Katherine?” Sally called her.
Katherine looked at the little girl once more but no one was there. It was just her illusion.
She smiled. Using the softest voice she could, she whispered, “goodbye!” Without any hesitation, she ran towards her friends and left with them.