🕰️ The Time Machine – Chapter XII: The End of the Story

The Time Traveller looked around the room. The firelight danced in his eyes.

“That’s my story,” he said quietly. “That is where I’ve been, and what I’ve seen.”

We were silent. No one spoke for a few moments. The story was too strange, too big, to understand right away.

The Medical Man stood up. “Do you expect us to believe all that?”

The Time Traveller smiled. “I don’t expect anything. But everything I told you is true.”

He pulled something out of his pocket. It looked like a small flower, white and pressed flat. He placed it gently on the table.

“I found this in my pocket when I returned,” he said. “Weena must have placed it there.”

We leaned closer to look. It was not like any flower we had ever seen. Its shape and texture were strange and delicate.

“That’s from the future?” someone whispered.

The Time Traveller nodded.

The next day, I returned to visit him again. I was curious, and honestly, I wanted to ask more questions.

His housekeeper let me in. “He’s in the laboratory,” she said. “He went in there an hour ago.”

I waited, but he didn’t come out.

Finally, I opened the lab door. The Time Machine was gone.

There were marks on the floor where it had stood, and the same air of heat and dust.

He had left—again.

Days passed. Weeks. He never returned.

I often wonder where he went. Did he travel to the far future once more? Did he find peace, or danger? Did he go back to find Weena?

I do not know.

But whenever I think of time, or the stars, or distant futures, I remember him. The man who built a machine—not just to move through space, but through the years.

And perhaps, somewhere, he is still travelling.

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📖 Glossary

Word/Phrase	Meaning
Pressed	Flattened carefully, usually between two surfaces
Delicate	Fragile, soft, or easily broken
Texture	The feel or surface of something
Housekeeper	A person who takes care of a house
Marks	Signs or lines left behind
Curious	Wanting to know more
Peace	Calm, quiet, or safety

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❓ Comprehension Questions

1. How do the guests react to the Time Traveller’s story?

2. What item does the Time Traveller show them as proof?

3. Where did the flower come from?

4. What happens the next day when the narrator visits?

5. What does the narrator find in the laboratory?

6. What does the narrator wonder at the end?

7. How does the story end?

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✅ Answers

1. They are silent and unsure whether to believe him.

2. He shows them a white flower pressed flat.

3. It was placed in his pocket by Weena, in the future.

4. The Time Traveller is not there—he is in the lab.

5. The Time Machine is gone. He has left again.

6. He wonders where the Time Traveller went, and if he will return.

7. The story ends with the narrator imagining the Time Traveller still exploring time.