Ding
Dong. Ding Dong. Ding Dong.
I lifted my head with laziness and barely
opened eyes. I forced myself to get up only so that I could tell the person
behind the door to go away.
“Hey, Sebastian, get up,” came Tom’s voice
through the letterbox. I checked the time on my watch and discovered that it
was half-past nine in the morning. I very rarely sleep in this late. Normally, I’m
up at around seven to half-past, wide awake and ready to seize the day. But,
due to what happened earlier in that Parallel Universe, I was exceptionally
tired. I had to get some more sleep otherwise I would drop to the floor during
the day and I don’t want that, Tom will never stop going on about it for as
long as he will remember it, and he will make sure that it will.
I imputed the necessary commands into the
watch and activated them. Time came to a standstill. Complete silence. It was
bliss. The ringing of the doorbell had stopped, the clock on the wall had
stopped ticking. It was a strange moment, because I was currently the only
person moving right now.
The entire world has come to a standstill.
And that was all that my tired brain could take. I shuffled back over to the
sofa, fell down onto the soft cushions, and closed my eyes. I could sleep for
as long as I needed to and not a single second would pass, and then I would be
wide awake for whatever Tom has planned for today. Knowing that I didn’t have
to worry about time passing, it was a different kind of relaxation. I didn’t
have to worry about being late for anything. I might do this more often.
***
When
I woke, I felt refreshed, relaxed, and wide awake, the complete opposite to
what I felt earlier. I don’t know if “earlier” is the best term for that
considering not a single second has passed.
Anyway, I decided to resume time and go
and open the door. But before I pressed the reset button, I realised that,
despite my feeling refreshed, my clothes didn’t look or smell clean at all. In
fact, I was still wearing the torn, dusty, smelly suit that I wore in that
Parallel Universe. There is no way that I will be going to open the door
looking like this. I had to go and change. I ran upstairs and dived into my
wardrobe, searching through this and that, picking and choosing the other,
until I eventually chose something that I thought would be a good outfit to
wear today… Something from the watch, of course. I have every outfit
imaginable, plus more, stored in the watch’s memory, so I wanted to use that.
Saying that this is new is much better than anything that I could come up with
about my suit. The moment I picked the clothes that I wanted to wear – a simple
red T-shirt and blue jeans – my clothes changed from the manky old suit to a
fresh set of clothes.
I looked at myself in the mirror, and
wondered why I never had these clothes in my wardrobe before now due as I
thought they suited me rather well, not only that but they were very simple,
and I like simple but effective. In certain situations, simplicity is the best
way to go.
Anyway, I’m rambling and I have a front
door to open. As I made my way downstairs, I resumed time and Tom managed to
get in one more ring before I unlocked the door and opened it.
“Dude, where the hell have you been? You’re
never this late answering the door.”
“Sorry,” I said, “I was in the shower.” I
immediately thought of the flaw in what I said. Tom said it before I could
correct myself.
“You don’t look wet.” He looked at me with
suspicious eyes. His expression slowly changed from that of suspicion to that
of a grin telling me he knew something was up. It was that kind of smile that
would tell someone they know what the other person was really up to.
“Alright, I wasn’t in the shower,” I
admitted.
“I have no idea why you would say
something so stupid,” he grinned.
“I don’t know either,” I agreed.
“So what were you doing?”
“Sleeping,” I told the truth, yet he still
didn’t believe me.
“That’s odd for you, if I do say so
myself. You never lie in.”
“Yeah, well, I went to bed quite late last
night,” I could have been more convincing, but it came out as if I was
half-heartedly making anything up.
His expression changed from that of curiosity
to a smile that told me he knew exactly what I was up to. I quickly dismissed
it, which only further confirmed his conclusion.
“That’s going to be your answer from now
own until I tell you the truth, isn’t it?” I stated.
“Yep,” he said.
“Well, just for that, I will stick with my
sleeping excuse and not tell you the truth,” I said.
“I think I can agree with that,” he said,
still smiling.
“Anyway,” I shook my head to help me move
onto a new subject, “so what did you want to talk about?”
“Yes,” he said as if he had momentarily
forgotten. “I know what we’re going to do today.”
“I’m glad one of us do,” I said. I had
completely forgotten that it was my turn to come up with an activity for today.
An incredible amount has happened between yesterday and today that it feels as
if it was weeks since the beginning of summer holidays, even though it has only
been a few hours – probably about 12 to 14. All this travelling between
Universes can really make your body clock go haywire.
“There’s an event happening at the park
right now and none other than Amy is going.”
“So,” I said having a feeling where he was
going with this.
“So,” he said, trying to not believe what
I had just said, “this is your chance to get a decent conversation in.”
“But won’t she be with all her friends? I don’t
want to make myself look like a complete fool,” I said.
“You won’t,” Tom said simply.
“Have we met before,” I said, indicating
that he should know just how bad I am when it comes to talking to Amy, the
person who I have had a massive crush on for years now.
“Just come down to the event with me, and
see how things go. If talking to Amy somehow becomes a natural occurrence, then
so be it, but I’m dragging you down there no matter what you say.”
“Fine,” I said reluctantly. I grabbed my
bag, which was full of money and phone and other necessities, and headed to the
park with Tom. It was hard to believe that only a few hours ago, I was in
another Parallel Universe. I couldn’t believe that I went from doing that to
walking down the road with Tom in a short amount of time. It’s a weird feeling
to describe so the best I can do is compare it to that moment when you’ve had
the best holiday ever and then you find yourself back at work as if you never
went on holiday, except that timeframe of a couple of weeks had passed, whereas
only a few hours have for me.
Today was going to be just another
ordinary day…
TO BE CONTINUED…
Thanks for reading
Antony Hudson
(TonyHadNouns)
My book, Sector 22: Zoey, is now available on Amazon, eBay, and SkyCat Publications' website:
Amazon:
eBay:
SkyCat Publications:
Ask me anything at:
ahudsonpresents@live.co.uk
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