Deviation Actions
Literature Text
"Hi Dad, you're home early," he said lightly trying to pretend nothing was wrong.
"My trip was cut short when I received a phone call from your mother absolutely frantic. It seems she had called to check on the house since we were both away and she had asked to speak to you and the twins. Demelza and Darwin both spoke to her but you were nowhere to be found. You had said you were at a friend's but none of your friends have seen you in weeks apparently. So I left the conference early to help search for you and what do I find when I get home? One of the machines gone. I don't even want to know how many times you've gone back or to where. Go to your room. Now."
Wilbur hung his head and took the stairs to his room to avoid accidentally running into anyone. He closed his bedroom door and swore as he slumped to the floor. He was busted, he'd be lucky if he'd be allowed to leave his room for days let alone go anywhere near the machine again for a couple months. He thought of Violet, he had promised to see her the next day and now he'd probably have to wait months before he saw her again. Feeling sick he crawled over to his bed and pulled out the box of photos. Eventually, exhausted, he fell asleep surrounded in Violet.
He awoke the next morning to the smell of fire. He wasn't worried, more curious on what could be burning. He looked out his bedroom window and saw his dad doing a small bonfire; he wondered why but decided he'd better not ask because he was still in trouble. A little while later his father came in and gave him a list of chores to do as punishment before he headed back to the meetings he was supposed to be attending. Wilbur scanned the list and had planned to do the worst chores first, brushing Ty- Rex's teeth, but then he saw that one of them was cleaning the garage and everything in it. Starting with the machines. He smiled, as if he was being allowed to go near them so soon, as he made his way downstairs he didn't see any of his family or even Carl or Lefty. It was odd considering he was supposed to be getting punished. He swore he was just going to go back quickly to tell Violet he was grounded so he wouldn't be able to see her for a bit.
Getting inside one of the machine he went to enter the date into the key pad when he realized it wasn't there. Frantic he got out and checked under the machine. His father had taken out the data input screen and removed the flux capacitor. Quickly he scrambled over to the second machine and he saw the same thing, both data input and flux capacitor were gone. He swore loudly, using phrases he'd never say in front of his mother for fear of getting beaten, and kicked the machine he was next to. Without the data input and flux capacitor they machines were no different than regular flying cars. He started doing the chore of cleaning the garage when he realized something. He had been able to recognize right away what was missing and he had used the machines so often he knew them pretty well. He may not be Cornelius Robinson but he was his son and pretty darn good at mechanics. If he could find the pieces, or even figure out how to build his own based off his father's notes he'd be able to see Violet again.
With energy he didn't even know he had he cleaned the entire garage searching for the notes, after that he slowly and methodically worked through every other room in the entire house, even the ones he knew they probably wouldn't be just in case his dad had decided to hide them.
But he found nothing. He searched for days, even took a trip to his dad's office and scanned the hard drives of all of his computers and asked Carl if he had them to no avail. Then he remembered the bonfire.
Wilbur wasn't eating or sleeping well. It had been a week and he still hadn't thought of anything he could do to go and see Violet. Finally he decided he'd have to do it the old fashioned way. In his spare time he attended his father's lectures about quantum mechanics and anything that might prove useful to fixing the machines. If Cornelius and Franny knew what their son was up to they said nothing. And after each lecture, trip to the library to read books Cornelius had written and visits to his work to search the files in case he missed even some small clue that may lead to figuring out the machines he would go to the garage and work until he was exhausted.
This went on for a year.
For 365 days Wilbur tried everything he could do to fix the machine but nothing worked. As much as he hated to admit it, it was time to give up.
He'd never get to see Violet in her time again, but it didn't limit him to trying to find her in his. He was sure he'd be able to find her, he doubted she'd get married when she must know he'd come find her. He searched all of the public data bases trying to find Violet Parr. But he never did, it was as though after 2016 she just disappeared.
Filled with hopelessness and depression Wilbur gave up for good in a way. He couldn't find a trace of her in his time and until he could fix the machines he couldn't see her in hers either. He decided to focus all of his energy on school, hoping that he'd eventually learn the secrets to the flux capacitor.
For five years it continued, his family worried about him but there was nothing they could do. At time Cornelius and Franny thought that perhaps they'd done the wrong thing by taking away the only thing he wanted but Cornelius remained firm in the belief that the time stream could've been greatly affected by his blatant disregard, though he took to staying up late at night researching something that no one knew about.
His friends meanwhile drifted off, they slowly stopped inviting him to things and calling him until Wilbur was alone with only a box beneath his bed to keep him company.<p>
