I walked around the house and thought about the wishing stone I wished into a transformation machine. Then I wandered out into the backyard thinking about how my attempt at being more clever than the wish limitations had backfired too. The machine was perfect. It would have allowed transformation back and forth unlike the wishing stone which would have only let me add to my own transformation, making me less and less my original self and with no way back to normal again.
The machine's controls were all in some crazy alien language. That was the wishing stone's way of getting back at me for trying to be so clever.
If only I hadn't pushed that last button and sent the machine off to oblivion.
I wandered over to stand beside a reflection pond under the stars.
Suddenly out of nowhere and with no explanation the machine materialized around me, locking me in once more.
I realized what the "Z" button did now. It placed the machine in some sort of limbo dimension temporarily, allowing me to "move" it someplace else by simply walking there, at which point the machine would return after about ten minutes.
This was an incredible find! I now had a way to hide the machine anywhere I wished. In a closet, in my garage, in the attic. Anywhere I could walk to and stand where there was space - but I had to get there within ten minutes or so. I wondered if ten minutes had passed by and I was in a space smaller than was able to fit the machine, like the front seat of my car. What then? Would the machine wait to materialize somewhere safer or would it try to occupy the same space as my car?
I looked at the panel of buttons again.
