The Watch - Part 12

When I woke up a good few hours later, the sun was shining through the window. I felt refreshed and awake as I climbed out of bed. The time on the clock on the wall above my head said that it was half past three. I never recorded the time when I arrived, so I wasn’t sure how long I had actually been asleep, all I know is that it must have been a little while, considering how normal I felt.

I felt like I was me again. I stood up and smiled at how my legs could take my weight once more without struggling. I lifted my arms up above my head and stretched as far as I could, letting the blood flow through my body. I breathed in deep, then out. It felt like any other ordinary day.

But today couldn’t be further away from being ordinary. It may feel and look ordinary and my body may have accepted that, but I know that this day is something special. I am standing in a spare bedroom, which is in a house, which is in a street, which is in a country, which is in a world, which is in a Parallel Universe. I am standing in a Universe that is far away from my own. It took a couple of seconds for my brain to truly understand and comprehend the size of my situation. And, to add to the situation, downstairs is Amy, who lives in this house. Of course, the Amy downstairs isn’t the Amy back home. She may look and sound exactly the same, but in reality, she is only a Parallel representation of the one I know in the Universe I am from.

My head started to ache from trying to understand everything, and not wanting to wear myself out again, I pushed the thoughts to be back of my mind where I knew they would try to push themselves back into the foreground, and headed downstairs.

I took a step forward and noticed my reflection in the long mirror on the wall beside me. I stopped and had a look, noticing that I was still wearing the suit that I picked out from the clothes menu in the watch. I also noticed that my hair was standing a bit on end. My appearance contradicted my feeling of being refreshed, and not wanting to go downstairs looking like this, I decided to use the bathroom, which was just down the hall to change my clothes and wash my face and hair. After all, as much as I like wearing suits, I don’t think it would be right if I’m not going to any fancy office or a dinner or somewhere else that requires you to wear a very expensive looking, well-fitting suit.

In the bathroom, I splashed some water over my face, washing away the sleep in my eyes and flattening my hair. I hoped Amy wouldn’t mind if I used one of her towels to dry off with. Once I was dry, I focused my attention on my clothes, wondering what I should wear. I remembered that I never actually changed from one to another by physically undressing and dressing again, but I selected what I wanted to wear and my clothes magically changed from one to the other. I was hoping I would be able to go back. I opened up the clothes menu, and scrolled down until I found the sub-menu called ‘Previously Warn’.

‘Does that mean what I think it means?’ I asked myself, remembering what Interface said about the watch storing what you previously worn.

‘That’s handy,’ I said, opening the menu and finding my everyday clothes on there. I selected the outfit and my clothes started to change once more. I will have to get used to the sight of my clothes magically changing from one set to another. My suit’s jacket and shirt along with the tie disappeared and was replaced by an ordinary white T-shirt, and my trousers changed to ordinary jeans.

‘I am never going to get used to that,’ I said comically as the change was complete, ‘but that was cool nonetheless.’ I pressed the home button and the watch went back to simply displaying the time once more. I checked that I had left everything how I found it and once I was satisfied, I headed downstairs. As I was descending, I smelt bacon.

I found Amy in the kitchen where she was dishing up two plates of fried lunches.

‘Morning,’ she said with a smile that made me smile the same. Her golden hair looked that much more golden today, and her smile illuminated the entire house. ‘Or should I say afternoon,’ she corrected herself after looking at the clock on the stove.

‘How long have I been asleep?’ I asked.

‘Oh, about…’ she worked out the hours, ‘nine hours exactly,’ she said. ‘To be honest, from the way you looked, I thought you were going to be out for a lot longer than that. ‘I was cooking myself some dinner when I heard the water pipes going so I chucked in a couple of eggs and strips of bacon in the pan.’

‘I hope you don’t mind, but I used one of your towels,’ I said.

‘Don’t be silly,’ she said picking up the two plates, one in each hand, ‘that’s what they’re there for. Now, I want you to eat this then we can head out somewhere. And since you are the visitor, I think it is only fair that you get to choose where to go.’

***

‘That was some of the best eggs and bacon I have ever had,’ I said feeling full.

‘I’m glad you like it,’ Amy said taking the plates back and putting them into the dishwasher. ‘Eggs and bacon is pretty much the only foods I can cook perfectly,’ she said.

‘I’m sure you can do more,’ I said as she came back in and sat back down at the dining room table.

‘Well, if you class burning everything else cooking, then I can cook anything,’ she said.

‘What do you mean,’ I said, ‘that only gives it an extra taste.’

‘You mean the only taste. I don’t want my burgers to taste like charcoal, thank you very much.’ There was a slight pause before we started to laugh. It wasn’t the thing that anyone would class as being funny, but we found ourselves laughing for a full minute anyway. After we had calmed down, Amy stood up and said.

‘Anyway, where do you want to go?’

‘What is there to do?’ I answered with a question.

‘Plenty of things. We can have a casual stroll through the market, which doesn’t close for another couple of hours, and with it being the middle of the afternoon, there won’t be that many people there so we can take it even more casually; or we can have a look around the shops, again there won’t be that many people about; or we could do something a bit more thrilling like bowling.’

‘Um…’ I thought. Here I was, going to go out with Amy. Not the same Amy I know back home, but it was Amy nonetheless, and she is offering to go out with me. Obviously it wasn’t a date, just a casual, friendly get together, but I couldn’t help but feel weird that I was about to go out with Amy. I mean, if it was a simple as this back home, I would have asked Amy out ages ago. But there’s the problem: The asking part. This Amy is asking me out, but back at home, I have to ask Amy out, and that is a completely different ball game altogether.

A though came into my mind, making me have an epiphany (sort of). Here I am, sitting in a Parallel Universe, but I don’t have to be nervous or that guy that doesn’t get out more. I don’t have to be that guy that I’m known for back at home. It’s going to take a bit of getting used to, but I think I can nail it over time. I feel nervous about the idea of not acting nervous, but what are you going to do. Nevertheless, I can just have a bit of fun and enjoy myself. I internally smiled at that thought.

‘By the time you’ve made up your mind,’ Amy said putting her hands on her hips, ‘everything would be shut.’

‘How about we just take a casual stroll through the market place,’ I suggested.

‘Then that’s exactly what we are going to do. There’s no need for a coat, it’s boiling hot out there.’

TO BE CONTINUED…

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)