The Clubhouse and the Meteor – Part 2 of 2

“And why should we believe you?” asked Grandpa Joe.
“I knew you would ask that,” said Future Grandpa Joe. “So I made sure to turn my machine off when I landed here—that is, if landed is the right word—so that I could give you the proof that you require.” Future Grandpa Joe used his walking cane to start hobbling his way to the front entrance of the clubhouse. After taking four or five steps, he stopped his hobbling, shuffled his feet and faced Henry, Jack and Grandpa Joe, who were not moving a muscle. “Well, come on!” he yelled, beckoning them with his cane. “You may think we have all day, but that meteor is getting closer by the second, and it’s got a one-way ticket to the roof of your clubhouse!”
Henry, Jack and Grandpa Joe looked at each other and Jack shrugged, signalling that they had nothing to lose. So, with Grandpa Joe leading the way, the three of them followed Future Grandpa Joe into the clubhouse.

The walls and floors of the clubhouse were just as they had left them and the smell of freshly cut pine still lingered by the windows they had sawn earlier that afternoon. What was strange, however, was the enormous, glowing orb sitting in the centre of the clubhouse, its pulsating light projecting a sense of calm around its interior.
Jack was so fixated on the orb he missed the first part of the next conversation.
“Can we take the dog?” asked Henry.
“Can you what?” asked Future Grandpa Joe with his face creased as if he had just smelt something terrible.
“Our dog… Alfie. Can we take him with us if we choose to come with you?”
Future Grandpa Joe did not answer at first. He blinked several times during the silence. “Yes,” he said. “But you need to understand the choice. My machine had enough power for one journey into the past. From here, it can only go forward. It can carry the clubhouse—and anyone inside it—beyond the meteor, but none of you could return to the life you have now.”
“Never mind about the dog,” interrupted Grandpa Joe. “What we should be doing is trying to decide if this… this… character from the future is telling the truth or not.”
Jack felt a little left behind in the conversation but was gradually piecing it together. “I say we stay.”
Everyone turned to look at Jack, with Future Grandpa Joe having to shuffle his way out from behind the orb to make sure he could stare at Jack without obstruction.

Future Grandpa Joe spent the next several minutes trying to prove that he was who he said he was, as well as explaining to the three builders what he believed would be the consequence of their choice, specifically mentioning the hard work and effort they had put into the clubhouse several times. But the three of them didn’t mind. They decided that, if they had built it together, then they could watch it be destroyed together. They nodded at each other and then headed back outside of the clubhouse, Grandpa Joe ducking as they exited into the garden.

The sky was dark now, and the three of them walked with Alfie to a safe distance down the road before turning to watch the incredible glow coming out of the clubhouse windows. Following some grumbling they couldn’t understand, the glow from inside the clubhouse suddenly vanished. The three of them held hands, looking at the clubhouse in silence, when they heard an explosion in the sky. They looked up and saw the meteor heading towards the clubhouse. They smiled at each other as the light grew brighter and the dogs in the neighbourhood started barking.