THE INVENTION
Theodore Crabtree had been working at the local sawmill for seven years and he was about as tired of it as he could be. His pushy boss made sure daily that his underlings knew that he was the boss and nothing but the boss. Theodore hated that blubber-bellied little fart of a man and he began to make plans to find some other way to make a living. He painted houses for a while, he mowed lawns for a while, and he washed dishes for a while at a local seafood restaurant. After he had had his fill of leftover fish , lobster, and crab mixed in with gobs of tarter and seafood sauce, he quit and moved back into his bedroom at his parent’s home.
After watching many hours of reruns on his parents old TV, he was up late one night and saw a commercial come across the screen. The commercial was about helping inventors with their ideas. Theodore sat up, grabbed a piece of paper and a pen that were laying on the old coffee table next to him. He wrote the information number down and went back to watching the monster movie that he had been watching.
He didn’t remember writing that number down until two days later when he happened to see the paper and pen lying on the floor next to where he had been sitting when he scribbled the information number down. He picked them up and after putting the pen back on the table, he picked up his parent’s telephone and called the number. The person on the other end of the phone call had a pushy attitude and though he did answer all of Theodore’s questions, he seemed more interested in getting Theodore to sign up for a program that Theodore wasn’t so sure that he needed then or ever.
For several days, he mulled the idea over in his head. “If Alexander Graham Bell could invent a telephone, then I surely ought to be able to invent something.” he said aloud to himself when no one else was around to hear what he said. And he went to the local library and checked out some books about inventing. After going over some of the information in the books, he decided that he would try to come up with something that would change the world.
He started by taking a few pieces of sheet metal and cutting them in a certain fashion. Then he drilled holes for screws and rods and wires to go into. When he finally had put his invention together, he went out into the back yard and sat the contraption on the ground next to a an old tree stump. He sat on the stump and looked at his invention for a moment. “Well, here goes nothing.” he said, as he flipped on the machine. The machine jerked forward and in two seconds was going so fast that Theodore couldn’t catch it. It ran across the yard, jumped a ditch, and was headed across the highway with Theodore just a couple feet behind it. A trucker traveling down the highway saw the invention and jerked the steering wheel on his rig but he over-corrected trying to not wreck but he did wreck the truck and the long trailer he was pulling went careening out of control and hit a house across the street. The occupants of the house came running out of the house like mad ants whenever someone had just stepped on the ant bed. Theodore stopped in his tracks. Did an about face, and went back into his parent’s house. “Well, Theo, how did your creation work? his mother asked. He shook his head and said, “It worked pretty good until the truck ran over it.” You mean you caused all that mess?” Theodore looked at his mom and shrugged. “Well no, I didn’t, but my invention did.” His mother looked worried.”I think you better find some other way to make money than inventing things.” Theodore looked at his mom and said, “Well, there’s a million things that I could invent that wouldn’t cause such stuff to happen.” And his mother shook her head and walked out the door to see what was going on with the neighbors and the truck across the street. And Theodore was already working over an idea in his head about an invention that would solve a problem in the world that needed to be solved.
