The Time Machine

After dinner, a man says he has been to the future. Nobody believes him. Then he is gone. He comes back with a story the club cannot use: not progress, not empire, not a prize. A world split in two. A beach at the end of the calendar. A machine that will not wait politely in the sitting-room. Wells does not console you. He lets the years do the damage. Wind the thing. The present is already late.