On ANGKOR WAT

March 9th, 2009

Today’s game ended in failure, and I drew a sad face on my hangman.

On ANGKOR WAT

“David Davis,” said David Davis to his Busy Bee Time Travel machine.
“NAME REGISTERED” flashed on the display. The lucky thing for David Davis was, this time machine was about as easy to use as an average photocopier. This meant that things easily and frequently went horribly wrong, but at the same time, he could figure things out eventually. As long as it never shut down entirely, which hadn’t happened yet. Come to think of it, it was a lot easier to use than a photocopier, because it didn’t break. It was about the size and shape of a photocopier though. That was what had inspired the comparison in his mind. He shouted “1150” into what he had discovered was the microphone part, and there was a swirling flash, and they travelled in time.
Reggie looked at him in awe. “You did it again, you crazy bastard!” he said, drawing the attention of the Cambodians around him, who were finishing construction on Angkor Wat. Reggie laughed loudly and slapped David on the back.
“Well, I am very qualified,” David lied. He was not at all qualified, and was pretending to be another David Davis of the same name, who had either invented or knew a lot about time travel. Whoever had pioneered time travel, (secretly, because David was pretty sure he would have remembered if someone had invented time travel. It would have been front page news! Of course, David didn’t read the paper, so maybe it had passed him by), he had made it very easy to use this time travel machine, so easy that the fake David Davis had been able to scam his way through what would otherwise be a very embarrassing situation.
After a brief and confusing interview in a sushi restaurant, David had boarded a plane to China, travelled back in time, and with the help of Reggie (annoying), Gus (gruff), Angela (very pretty) and two scholars of ancient China from Bei Jing, they had travelled back in time, after some false starts, to when the Great Wall of China was being built and gathered some information about how the whole thing came about. They interviewed dozens of people, with the aid of their Ancient Chinese translators, from labourers to the emperor of China in 1456.
As far as David could tell, Busy Bee Enterprises was in the business of historical inquiry. But he suspected, based purely on his poor regard of human nature, that there was something else afoot. No movie or TV show that David had ever seen depicted time travel being used for strictly academic purposes, and although TV and movies were not always right about everything, David felt confident that TV and movies was right about time travel and the nefarious purposes it would inevitably be put towards. So David was on his guard for things to go horribly wrong. Especially with that shifty Gus. Gus wore a lot of camouflage, and that sort of wardrobe always made David suspicious. Gus also always had a 5 o’clock shadow, which David could not grow. David hadn’t figured out what Gus’s job was yet.
David was also suspicious of Angela, because she complimented him way more than he deserved. Angela was stunningly beautiful, short with short curly brown hair and huge eyes and big pouty pink lips. Angela was the prime historian on the expedition, and seemed to be in charge on that side of things. Reggie was in charge of the business side of things, keeping everyone on schedule, etc. David trusted Reggie, even though he didn’t like him, because Reggie said every thought he had ever had out loud.
They had two new Cambodian scholars from Phnom Penh, who were very professional, and David felt bad that he hadn’t really got to know them yet. Mostly David tried to stay out of the way while everyone else did their jobs, and when he was called upon, he yelled a year into the machine and there they went. And that’s how they had got to Angkor Wat in 1150, right before the death of King Survayarman II.