The Crimes of Professor Crankshaft

The Royal Family Bee Farm honey stand was abandoned, except for one jar of honey. The old man picked up the honey and pulled out his wallet, looked around, and put it back. He walked away.

Professor Crankshaft was an inventor. “The smartest person in the world,” he’d tell you, whether you asked or not, but he failed in time management. His inventions would be useless.

He dipped a cracker into the glowing honey and brought it to his mouth. The honey dripped onto his time travel stopwatch. “Fuck,” he picked it up and with a loud BOOM he was gone.

Crankshaft woke up naked in a field. He donned a scarecrow’s rags, clutched the stopwatch, and made his way to town. It didn’t take long for him to discover he had travelled 50 years into the past and unaged 50 years in the process.

His mind began to fracture, completing snapping when he inadvertently ran into himself. “Excuse me,” he ducked and ran.

He went to Royals where he found Mrs. Royal, “I need the honey. The glowing honey.”

“You were just here. You are not Mr. Crankshaft,” Mrs. Royal ran into the forest with Crankshaft hot on her heels.

“My inventions,” he yelled, “I must have the glowing honey for my inventions.”

Mrs. Royal hit Crankshaft in the head with a shovel and buried him in the forest. He clutched his stopwatch, broken and stopping time in a small bubble, moments before he would have died. A ring of glowing blue mushrooms surrounded his body where he lay for 50 years.

The slightest shift in pressure and the stopwatch sprung to life. Professor Crankshaft pushed his way through the soft forest floor.

He vowed revenge.