The Weighbridge

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The Weighbridge  

by Paul McCann

 

It was a cold winters night and the fog came down and the traffic on the freeway was moved slowly past the weighbridge .When Jack arrived to clean the weighbridge office there was no there but himself  . It only took thirty minutes to remove the rubbish and wipe down the surfaces . As he started working he noticed an old truck pulling into the weighbridge .It caught his attention because he hadn’t seen a truck like that before . In fact it looked like a relic from some distant time . After the truck came to a stop  Jack noticed that the driver never came out of the truck . It just sat there with the engine running which seemed strange .

Jack went over to check if the driver was ok .

There was no driver there , he looked around but never saw anyone . Then he heard a noise coming from the back of the truck and went to have a look . The driver had opened up the seal at the back of the container and slowly lots of people started to climb out from the truck . Jack called out to them bur no one answered so he shouted over to the driver .

‘What’s going on ? “

Again there was no reply .

Jack stood on the side of the weighbridge , the driver just walked past him and got back into the drivers seat and drove off .

Jack returned to the office inside the weighbridge and to his surprize there were four men sitting there playing cards .

“where did you guys come from ?”

Jack asked but no one replied .

Suddenly he heard someone tooting a horn . As Jack went back outside he saw an old farm truck pulling up at the weighbridge .

Then from out nowhere , some of the people who had previously got off the other truck climbed up into the back of the farm truck .

The driver did a head count and got back inside and drove off just before a third truck pulled into the weighbridge .

As soon as it came to a stop the driver took off a side rail and on both sides of the weighbridge some people emerged and climbed into the back of the truck .

Jack was stunned at the goings on . Next thing there was man with a horse and cart that came into the weighbridge .

On the back of the cart he had boxes of apples and other fruit .

He unloaded most of the load onto the side of the weighbridge .

“’Who is all this the fruit for ?”

Jack asked but there was no answer .

The man just got back up on the seat and took the reins up and made his way out of the weighbridge .

Jack went back inside the weighbridge office and the men who had been playing cards were gone . Another man was standing in there holding a clock in his hand . He looked at Jack and said ,

“Excuse me for intruding but you must be Jack the weighbridge cleaner “

“That’s right . How can I help ?

Jack replied .

“Actually I am here to help you Jack . My name is Zorum . I am the guardian of time and you must be wondering what is going on “.

Jack had a puzzled look on his face and replied ,   

“ Tell me something Zorum , have I gone mad for I am really confused at the moment  .“

Zorum answered ,

‘No you haven’t gone mad Jack.. I’ll try to explain exactly what is happening . You have managed to slip through a time tunnel that opened up very briefly due to a shift of cosmic energy in the fourth dimension . The result of that has transported you back about fifty years in time . Everything you have seen actually happened a fifty years ago . Even though you saw lots of people they never seen you .“

“You mean the truck and the horse and cart and those guys playing cards ?”

Jack asked and Zorum replied .

“I have come to rebalance the time sequence in order that you can return to you time .“

“Who were all those people getting on and off trucks Zorum .“

‘Well its really very simple Jack . In those early days , there were farmers who needed people to work on their properties and a labour hire company in the city often sent workers on trucks to farms in the area . This weighbridge was kind of a meeting place for other trucks to come and pick people up and  take them back to farms where they would have a few months work .

 

“Was that legal ?”

Jack asked .

“Well lets say it was just part of life back then Jack ; “

“So everything I saw actually happened fifty years ago ?”

 

“That’s correct . Now lets get you back into your proper place in time <

Said Zoran who pushed a few buttons on the clock in his hand .

Suddenly a mist descended down all around Jack and after the mist had cleared Jack was standing in the weighbridge with all his cleaning products around him .

Zorum was also standing next to Jack and he said  .

‘Well Jack you are back in the 21^st Century again . The experience you have just had is a very rare event . One that may never happen again .

Jack replied ,

“  What if I tell people what happened ?”

Zorum said ,

“ Jack to be honest no one would believe you and in fact they might think you have gone mad . So I think its best to just keep this to yourself . “

“I suppose you’re right Zorum . No one would believe me “

Zorum smiled and said .

“Nice to meet you Jack . I have to return now to the fourth dimension . So goodbye now and good luck . “

Zorum walked out of the office on the weighbridge and at that very moment the scales at the end of the weighbridge indicated there was something there that weighed 29 tons but Jack saw nothing  there . For a split second a strange vehicle appeared on the weighbridge and right in frond of Jack eyes  a door of this very strange vehicle opened up and Zorum  stepped inside .Then in an instant it was gone and there was no more reading on the weighbridge scales .   

Jack put away all of his cleaning products and then locked up the office in the weighbridge and drove away with an experience he would never forget .

 

 

The End

 

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