The Watch – Part 102:

The next morning, we woke up after having been asleep for five hours. Mid-morning wasn’t a bad time to wake up, but we knew we could have been asleep for much longer. We just couldn’t sleep because of all what happened yesterday.

‘Are you alright?’ I asked Amy who was laying on her side.

‘My leg feels normal now, but as soon as I move it, I feel the heaviness from the cast. It doesn’t hurt any more, which is a good sign, but it’s not getting better quick enough though. I mean, what am I going to do for the rest of the summer with one leg immobilised.’

‘I’m sorry,’ I felt obligated to say.

‘What are you apologising for. It’s not your fault. The floor below me gave way. It was as simple as that.’

‘But I do feel as if I could have done something more, though.’ I did genuinely feel bad for Amy. I mean, if it weren’t for me trying to keep my secret safe, she wouldn’t have had a broken leg. Amy rolled onto her back and pushed herself up so she was sitting upright and leaned against the headboard.

‘Listen,’ she said sternly to make sure that I wouldn’t interrupt her and that what she was going to say was going to be final, ‘the more you complain about what you didn’t do, the more you will make the conversation we had last night meaningless,’ and that was that.

‘I’m sorry,’ I said this time for blaming myself.

I could see it in her eyes that she had accepted my apology, ‘you can start making it up to me by making me a coffee.’

‘One coffee coming up,’ and I jumped out of bed and went straight over to the kettle, lifting it off its stand and walked into the bathroom where I filled it up, ‘and make it strong otherwise I’m not going to last the entire day,’ she called through. I made the coffee and soon we were sitting in bed, sipping it. The moment I took my first sip, it had an instant affect. I could see Amy’s tiredness floating away the more she drained her cup. When we had both drained our cups and set them to one side, Amy said with a smile.

‘I needed that.’

‘So did I,’ I agreed. ‘My throat was raw.’

‘So what do you want to do today?’ Amy asked.

‘I don’t know, I hadn’t thought this far ahead,’ I said honestly.

‘No, neither did I,’ Amy’s shoulders slumped. ‘But there is one thing I do want to do, though,’ she said.

‘Yeah?’

‘I want to go home. I want to have a break from this place for a while. We’ve figured out the mystery we came here for, and we sorted out a few other stuff as well. We’ve done a lot and so I just want to go home and relax.’

‘I couldn’t agree more,’ I smiled. ‘Do you want help with packing?’ I asked.

‘No, I’ll be alright,’ she said, swinging her legs out from under the duvet and putting her stronger one on the floor first before heaving herself out and up. ‘If I don’t keep moving, it won’t get better as quick.’

‘Well, in that case, I’ll be having a wash. Call me if you any help,’ I said as I was stepping into the bathroom.

‘Will do,’ Amy said, limping towards her bag that sat just in front of the bed. I closed the door, turned on the taps and let the water run before cupping my hands and letting it collect in my palms. I splashed the cold water over my eyes, washing away the sleep and waking me up more than the coffee could ever have been able to do. I looked at my reflection in the mirror, studying myself. The person staring back at me is vastly different to the person who was some time ago. I could see that I’m so much more confident than before – compared to the amount of tension my shoulders used to have in them at any one time, they don’t have any in at all.

I should blame myself for Amy’s injured leg. I could have done a lot more than what I did. I practically just stood by and watched it all happen compared to what I could have done. I’m struggling to believe that Amy is able to understand all of that. I’m not going to insult her intelligence. I know that she fully understands exactly what happened, and why she has chosen to accept that, but I want to know what her thought process was between finding out and acceptance.

No, I can’t do that. That would be invading her privacy. I should be grateful that she has accepted it all. I should be happy and not worry about any of it. If only there is something I can do to show that I am grateful. No matter what she believes I’m doing is enough, I just cannot accept that. I need to do something that will help my conscience rest and put this matter behind me once and for all.

I can mend her broken leg.

‘Interface,’ I said quietly so that Amy wouldn’t be able to hear me in the other room. He appeared in front of me, standing in his usual way, wearing his usual suit, and smiling. He seemed to just know that I wanted to keep things quiet and so greeted me without being too loud.

‘Is it possible to fix Amy’s leg?’ I asked.

‘Yes,’ he nodded.

‘Sweet. Where is that option on here?’ I said knowing that it probably wasn’t the best piece of information. ‘I mean, could you find where that power – or whatever it is – is in the watch because I don’t have a lot of time.

‘Certainly, Sebastian,’ he nodded before the watch’s screen flashed on and automatically searched through a series of menus at high speed before stopping at the option called, “Healing”.

‘All I have to do is press that button and I’ll have the power to heel Amy’s broken leg.’

‘Yes, you will,’ he said.

‘Awesome.’ And then I realised that I hadn’t told anything about this. It would be hard to explain if I just walked up to her and just cured her leg. I opened the door and stepped back out into the main room where I found Amy sitting on the edge of the bed, her injured leg stretched out in front of her, her bag on her lap and her clothes beside her as she packed them in.

‘You look perkier,’ she said after taking one look at me.

‘Um… Amy,’ I said. I had not a clue what to say so I just said it.

‘I know what you said about not blaming me or anything like that…’

‘Where is this going?’ she had to ask and it was a valid question.

‘I do have a reason for bringing this up,’ I stood my ground. She stopped packing to focus on me, which actually made me a more nervous, but I carried on regardless. ‘I feel as if I could have done more, and it just occurred to me in the bathroom that I can do more. You don’t want to suffer with that leg, and so… well, I can heel it, if you want.’ She went silent as she processed that. Seconds felt as if they were minutes the more she just sat there, not saying anything. Why isn’t she saying anything?

‘Will it hurt?’

‘I don’t know,’ I said honestly and truthfully.

‘Will it be quick.’

‘Yes,’ I was confident of that part.

‘And then my leg will be perfectly fine afterwards,’ she had to be absolutely sure of this. She may trust me, but it’s still a complicated thing to think about.

‘You will be able to do whatever you want, bearing in mind you don’t explore any abandoned buildings,’ she chuckled at that.

‘OK,’ she said simply. ‘Do I need to brace myself.’

‘I would probably want to if I were you,’ I said.

‘So what do I do?’ she asked.

‘Just sit there and brace yourself. I’ll touch your leg and heel it, then we can take that cast off. Or do you want me to take the cast off before heeling the leg.’

‘No, you heel it before taking the cast off. I don’t care how logical or illogical it is, I am not going to be feeling any pain,’ she said strongly, to which I said.

‘Fair enough, then let’s get to work.’ I knelt down in front of her leg. Her toes were still sticking out of the end, and the cast extended right up to her knee where her trouser leg was rolled all the way up to as it couldn’t fit over the cast. I made sure to rub my fingers together so they wouldn’t feel cold to the touch and, in the small gab between her cast and trouser leg, I lightly touched her leg. Nothing happened. Silence.

‘Did It work?’ I asked

‘I can feel that my leg is better. I don’t know what you did, and I don’t want to know because I want this cast off.’ She lifted her leg up without hassle. I stood up and watched as she was fiddling around with the cast.

‘Hang on,’ I said, pressing a few buttons on my watch and activating a power.

‘What are you going to do now?’

I grabbed her cast and it snapped off as if it was a piece of brittle balsawood. Amy watched and then stared at me holding the two pieces of cast in each hand.

‘Thank you,’ she said, mesmerised by what just happened.

‘No problem,’ I smiled at how successful it was. It took a while before she calmed down for that. She flexed her muscles in her leg, bent it backwards and forwards, and started to put some pressure on her leg. She was worried at first, and so gently and slowly stood up. Most of her weight was on her other leg, but she gingerly switched the weight over to her other leg. I could see that she had strong determination in her eyes. As soon as she found herself standing upright on both legs, she smiled broadly and flung her arms around me.

‘Thank you,’ she said excitedly.

‘You’re welcome,’ I said struggling to stand upright myself as she put most of her weight on me. I hugged her back with the same enthusiasm. When Amy had disconnected herself from me, she immediately set about packing faster and with more energy.

‘We had better get back before we miss the train out. I don’t particularly want to wait around.’

‘Actually,’ two ideas came to mind at the same time. She stopped packing and waited for me to speak.

‘What?’ she said, putting me on the spot.

‘I’ve got something to show you, or rather I have someone to show you,’ I said correcting myself. Interface made me a piece of software, but he does look like an ordinary human being, so he should be addressed appropriately.

She looked at me with intent curiosity, ‘who?’

I lifted my arm and showed her the watch once more. ‘Interface, can you show yourself to Amy, please?’ I asked, and he appeared in front of me the moment I called him. Amy jumped up and nearly fell over forwards. She masked that potential falling over by sitting down on the bed. Her eyes were wide with surprise.

‘Hello, Sebastian,’ he said.

‘Who is he?’ Amy asked.

‘You’ll introduce yourself better than I will,’ I said to Interface.

‘Certainly,’ he nodded before turning towards Amy to explain to her who he is.

‘I am the A.I. inside the watch. I am designed to communicate and help the owner out with any problem they have or any queries they wish to resolve. Sebastian has given me a name by which I will go by from now on until told otherwise. My name is Interface.’

‘Woah,’ she said standing up to get a better look at this man who appeared in front of her.

‘The thing that I want to ask you is,’ I started to say my second idea that came to me just now, ‘will I be able to include Amy in with everything. Such as, teleportation, traveling through time, to another parallel universe?’

‘As long as you remain in physical contact with the person you wish to be with on your adventures, you are able to do that. The watch will accommodate them when travelling through the Void and the Space-Time Vortex. Although, I must warn you that they will feel the side-effects after travelling through the Space-Time Vortex and the Void just the same as you did during your first time. However, they, too, will become immune to the side-effects,’ he explained.

‘Makes sense,’ I said. ‘But I just want to perform a simple teleportation procedure, and that doesn’t drain hardly any energy when compared to travelling through time or to another Universe,’ I explained.

‘Correct,’ Interface said nodding his head.

‘Thanks. That is all that I wanted to say. Thanks for the help.’

‘Any time,’ he said before disappearing. Amy just stood there, both intrigue and confused at the same time.

‘That is one advanced piece of technology,’ she said before something clicked into place inside her mind. ‘Hang on, he just explained about what would happen if I were to accompany you during a simple teleportation procedure. I don’t understand what you mean by that.’

‘I thought we could, essentially, take a short cut. Instead of taking the train, we could just teleport home.

‘Oh,’ she said, her eyes widening with shock and her smile increasing with excitement. ‘I’ve never felt so much all at once. What did he mean by side-effects?’ she had to ask.

‘You won’t feel anything when you teleport except maybe disorientation, but that will quickly disappear and soon you’ll be back to normal again,’ I said as if I had been explaining it to people for ages now. ‘Are you ready, then?’ I asked.

‘Give me a minute,’ she said. She tried to act normal, but her hands were shaking with nerves. This was a big deal for her. First I repair her leg, now she’s going to teleport from one place to another.

Instead of taking care when packing her belongings, she stuffed them into her bag in a hurry, just so to not stall. After struggling to zip up the bag, she flung it around her shoulder and said. ‘I’m ready whenever you are,’

I imputed the necessary commands into the watch, navigating through the menu to reach the teleportation menu, then set the destination that I wanted us to go to and said that I was ready.

‘Just grab my arm and I’ll press this button. Then, be prepared for an amazingness like nothing you’ve ever experienced before.’ She grabbed my arm tightly so to not let go. Her grip was very tight indeed, hurting my arm, but I didn’t want to say anything for I knew that, that was all because of nerves.

‘OK.’ I said. ‘On three. One. Two. Three.

I pressed the button.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)