Kippy went out of the hole and found the strangest place she had ever seen. There were hundreds of small marble columns all around a gigantic pyramid made of white solid stone blocks.
She saw the white rabbit walking quickly.
‘Who are you?’ shouted Kippy running after him.
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| The whimsical rabbit |
But the rabbit didn’t stop. He started to run.
Other pyramids spotted the place and surprisingly many white rabbits were running in all directions.
It was absolutely crazy!
‘Who are you!’ shouted Kippy again running after him.
The rabbit stopped and faced Kippy breathing fast.
‘I’m the whimsical rabbit! I can teach you the future.’
He darted off again.
‘The future? What do you know about the future?’ asked Kippy running after him again.
‘I know everything.’ said the rabbit running even faster. ‘Follow me!’
They entered the pyramid to a room with a misterious machine in the middle.
‘What’s this?’ asked Kippy.
The rabbit sighed.
‘There’s past present and future!’ said the whimsical rabbit. ‘You already know about the present and the past. Now it’s time to know how to work with the future!’
‘How do you know I’ve studied the past?’ asked Kippy.
‘I know everything you’ve done!’ said the rabbit. ‘I’ve been in many places, in many different periods of history. I’ve seen the beginning of Earth, but also the first steps of life. I know all the beauty that you
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can find in the Universe, but at the same time, I’ve seen the horror, the worst destruction!’
Kippy was impressed by the words of the rabbit. No other animal had talked to her like that.
‘And who are all those rabbits outside?’ asked Kippy.
‘They are just another version of me in the space-time continuum.’ said the rabbit. ‘Everytime you travel in space-time, there’s a paradox, which means that other versions of you keep on living in parallel realities. Have you ever heard of parallel universes?’
‘No!’ answered Kippy.
‘It’s very difficult to understand but very easy to experience.’ said the rabbit and then he whistled.
The scruffy bear emerged from behind a corner.
‘Hi Kippy!’ said the bear smiling. ‘Remember I told you that you were going to meet a white rabbit?’
Kippy was completely stunned.
‘What are you doing here?’ said Kippy.
‘You see that machine?’ said the bear pointing to a sort of car covered in gold and with strange mechanisms.
‘What’s that?’ said Kippy.
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| Kippy |
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‘It’s a space-time machine!’ said the bear.
‘I’ll show you now.’ said the rabbit. ‘But before, let me explain the future! Sit down there.’
The bear shrugged his shoulders.
Kippy sat down next to the scruffy bear and paid attention to the rabbit who sat on the big throne. He had a remote control and a digital board lit up showing all the information he was talking about.
‘Some years ago, I discovered the hole that took me to this place. I found out that the easiest way of making the future was with the auxiliary verb will plus the infinitive.’ said the rabbit excitedly.
‘Can you tell me an example?’ said Kippy.
‘Yes, there are many examples! I will help you learn English or I think you will find this lesson interesting!’ said the rabbit.
‘It’s very easy!’ cried the scruffy bear. ‘You just have to use the form will and the infinitive! Like I will go to London.’
Kippy smiled at his friend. The rabbit jumped off the golden throne. He was really nervous and excited.
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‘This was a great discovery!’ said the rabbit. ‘Knowing how to make the future, I could manage the space-time car and travel to the future!’
‘You mean you can really travel to the future?’ cried Kippy astonished.
‘With that command I could travel to the future but the problem was that I couldn’t come back! But then I discovered a second way of making the future!’ said the rabbit delighted and jumping from one place to the other. ‘Using be going to plus the infinitive. An example would be, it’s going to rain!’
‘Another example could be, I am going to help my parents on Saturday!’ said the bear. ‘Do you understand?’
‘I think so!’ said Kippy.
‘You can also use the present continuous, but you already know that.’ said the rabbit. ‘The sloth bear told you!’
‘Yes he did!’ said Kippy.
‘Well, the present continuous doesn’t work in this machine!’ said the rabbit.
‘That’s right!’ added the bear.
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‘So, using be going to plus the infinitive gave me the key to travel back!’ said the rabbit. ‘Which means that I could also travel to the past!’
‘The only thing you had to say was it’s going to rain!’ said the bear. ‘Or something similar.’
‘As easy as that?’ asked Kippy.
‘Yes!’ cried the rabbit. ‘I could go to any place, any time!’
‘And what happens with all the other versions of you?’ said Kippy looking from the balcony to the hundreds of other rabbits that were running from one place to another.
‘You shouldn’t bother too much about them.’ said the rabbit. ‘The moment you make a decision about your future they will all dissapear!’
‘As easy as that?’ replied Kippy.
‘Yes!’ said the rabbit.
Kippy had another long look at all the rabbits that were outside running. Then she had an idea.
‘Could you take me back to the anthill?’ cried Kippy excited. ‘The soldiers have ended the revolution and now there’s an ant called A that is going to be executed!’
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| The scruffy bear |
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‘We could go there’ said the rabbit. ‘But we shouldn’t meddle in their problems.’
‘It’s about grammar’ said Kippy. ‘It can affect all of us. The resistance defends the use of grammar and believes that it should be studied everywhere in order to learn the language!’
‘I think Kippy is right!’ said the scruffy bear. ‘If you don’t learn the grammar you’re lost!’
‘Alright then!’ said the rabbit. ‘Let’s get into the car and go to the past!’
‘Hurray!’ said Kippy jumping.
Kippy looked out of the balcony. Suddenly there were no more rabbits running.
‘What’s happened?’ asked Kippy.
‘I told you!’ said the rabbit. ‘The moment I take a decision about the future all the other versions of me dissapear. It’s called quantum mechanics, you can read about it here!’
The rabbit pointed to a shelf full of thick books with all types of weird names that Kippy couldn’t understand.
‘I think I’ll leave it for another time!’ said Kippy politely.
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‘Let’s go then!’ said the bear.
They all got into the space-time car. The rabbit sat in the front and Kippy on the right seat. The bear was sitting in the back but he could hardly fit there as he was very big.
‘When exactly shall we travel?’ asked the rabbit.
‘Let me think…’ said Kippy. ‘This happened yesterday at noon, so if we go just one hour before, I think I could warn A and then we can fight the soldiers. The perfect hour would be eleven o’clock!’
‘And where?’ asked the rabbit handling some controls on the car board.
‘We shall go to the SVO gallery’ said Kippy.
‘The SVO gallery?’ said the bear. ‘What’s that?’
‘It means subject, verb and object.’ answered Kippy. ‘It’s the word order in a sentence.’
The rabbit had everything set.
‘Do you want to say the magic words?’ said to Kippy.
‘Yes!’ said Kippy excited. ‘Let’s go to the future!’
But nothing happened.
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‘You must use the future!’ cried the rabbit. ‘I didn’t tell you but you must use three sentences not only one!’
‘Sorry! We will go to the future!’ said Kippy.
‘No! No!’ said the rabbit. ‘we’re going to the past so you must use the form be going to plus the infinitive!’
‘Alright then!’ answered Kippy and she thought for a moment what to say.
‘This year is going to be a very interesting year.’
‘I’m going to visit the anthill and rescue A from the soldiers.’
Kippy concentrated and finally said the third sentence with a smile.
‘We’re going to spend the winter in England with my dad!’
The space-time car started to move and shake rapidly and very violently. Some kind of fog appeared and everything dissapeared from their vision.
Kippy felt dizzy. All she could remember was the artifact spinning around at an incredible speed.
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"Kippy, the fascinating little skunk"
Whimsical: caprichoso
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