The Watch – Part 103:

In a split second, we went from our hotel bedroom in Manningtree to my living room 60 miles away. The world popped out of existence for a fraction of a second only to pop back again. Amy was breathing hard and gripping my arm even tighter, giving my hand pins and needles.

‘We’re here,’ I said. She opened her eyes, saw that we were now in my living room and calmed her breathing down and relaxed, her newly restored leg shaking slightly from the shock of teleportation.

‘That’s an experience like no other,’ she said. ‘I would love to know what it feels like to travel through time and to another Universe,’ she said.

‘One step at a time,’ I said standing up. She was a little shaky as I helped her up. Amy sat on the couch, sinking into it, not wanting to get up for some time to come.

‘Can I have a coffee?’ She asked as what just happened caught up with her.

‘Then afterwards, you are going to get yourself washed, changed and we’re going to do something that primarily focus on relaxing. As much as you want to get stuff done, it’s going to be more beneficial to your mind if you take a day to do nothing and resume tomorrow,’ I explained sternly and calmly so that Amy doesn’t try and talk me around.

‘But I don’t want to relax,’ she said.

‘You’ve got no choice in the matter,’ I said ignoring the calmness. ‘You need to and will relax.’

‘You don’t have to take that tone with me,’ she said a little hurt. I sighed for I knew that I should have remained calm.

‘Look,’ I said sitting down beside her and giving her a big, warm hug. ‘I know what you’re going through. Everything that is going through your head went through mine once before, so I completely understand just how incomprehensible it all is. I just think that if you take today off from doing everything, you’re be able to achieve whatever you want to do tomorrow, and the next day after that and the next day after that. Trust me. OK.’

Amy looked at me with eyes filled to the brim with tiredness, confusion, surprise, wonderment, and many ideas that are trying to burst free. It’s a lot to handle all at once. I hugged her again, trying to show that I’m willing to share her feelings and lift some of that weight off her shoulders.

‘That watch hasn’t made you good at knowing what to say by any chance,’ she said hugging me back tightly.

‘I’ve got you to thank for that,’ I said. We stayed hugging until we both felt it was the right time to split. Amy’s stress had gone away a lot. I felt bad for roping Amy into this, but I know that if I mention anything like that to her, she’ll snap my head of for worrying too much. Amy told me that back at the hotel room last night. You see it all the time in films and TV programs that when someone finds out something massive about someone else, it tends to put a lot of stress on that person and inevitably drives the two people apart, but this isn’t one of those situations. In fact, it is the exact opposite. Amy may have been shocked to begin with, but she accepted it immediately afterwards, and that’s trust beyond anything I could ever hope for.

‘Now where’s my coffee,’ Amy said wanting to change the subject.

‘Coming right up.’ I stood up and headed straight towards the kitchen, putting the kettle on and spooning a good teaspoon full of coffee into the cup complete with sugar and milk. As I waited for the kettle to boil, I thought about just how much has happened in such a short space of time. If my future-self came up to me and explained that I would be telling Amy everything, I wouldn’t have believed him – even if he is from the future where he (I) had already told her everything resulting in me eventually telling Amy, and then completing the paradox by going back in time and telling my past-self that I would be telling Amy everything, but that’s not important right now – and may have even laughed as if I was playing a joke on myself, which wouldn’t be that funny in the slightest. Basically, what I’m trying to say here, is nothing is predictable. No, there’re not the right words. I tried so hard to keep Amy out of this and reminded myself over and over again of what will happen if she ever did find out, but in doing so, I made it happen. My worry over what may happened, actually made it happen. Of course, it could have been all a coincidence, but I think that may be stretching it too far.

That was a complete miss-mash of thoughts, even I struggled to understand all of them.

Let’s try this again. What I’m trying to say here is: My life has changed massively over the past few days. I’ve accomplished so much and am happy for it. As much as I tried to predict the future, even with the watch, life is always the dominant force. It will always be the one in control, and no matter what my future-self would have said, there’s no way of truly knowing its authenticity. I think that’s better. Well, I can understand it and I am only talking to myself so I don’t have to worry about if it doesn’t make any sense to anyone else.

The kettle started to whistle, snapping me out of my train of thought. I pulled the kettle off its stand and poured the water into two cups, stirring for the sugar and the coffee grains to absorb properly. Once completed, I picked up the two cups of coffee and walked back into the living room.

I found Amy fast asleep on the couch. I sighed as I said to myself, ‘I should have seen that one coming.’ I set the two cups down and grabbed the blanket that was lying on the back of one of the chairs at the dining room table and draped it over Amy and made sure that it wasn’t twisted.

I sat down on one of the armchairs beside the sofa. Seeing Amy asleep made me realise just how much I need to get. I leaned back and closed my eyes.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)