The time skippers went over to the estate for the mechanism they needed. The two friends stopped in their tracks when they saw that the facade of the condemned mansion presently looked like a haunted house against the ravages of time. Shingles were missing from cone-shaped turrets. Paint cracked and blistered on the dilapidated clapboards crawling with overgrown shrubs.

"Let's not dwell on the past. We have to roll with it. Cauliflower pizza crust. I love za. Have you tried that new Ora's Delivery place? Not as young as I used to be, now I have to be mindful of what I eat. Never felt the need for cauliflower in my life, thought it was a waste product. But like grinding up used tires for the soft base of a playground it works great and doesn't cause any cancer clusters," Zaman reflected as he broke a basement window to crawl into the slipshod fabrication laboratory.

As luck would have it, when the voyagers climbed out with the indispensable device a beat cop walking on patrol, who was also the same man as the young store clerk in the past -- and elderly mansion caretaker of the future shouted, "Grab some sky!"

"I can't get arrested in this town. Here is some new hocus-pocus I've been working on." Making good use of the technology of the day Zaman voice-activated an optical modulator on the rim of his tortoiseshell spectacles that overlaid data onto real life. The focus lenses refracted light wavelengths surrounding the three to a single point rendering them invisible.

After the tall policeman could not find the intruders he stood in the long grass of the unwieldy property blighted by thistles and cockle. With a knitted brow he lifted his hat to scratch his head through his greying-hair while grumbling about the broken window, "No respect for the property of others."