The Watch – Part 136:

‘I know what we can do to occupy your mind a bit, although it does sound a bit contradictory now that I think about it,’ Amy said stepping in through the door the next morning. Before she arrived, the house felt too quiet, empty, and big enough to get lost in. I did feel a lot better after a night’s sleep, but my head was still full of thoughts that I just couldn’t switch off. I’m glad Amy came back so early in the morning since I was wondering how long it would take before I started thinking too much.

Amy had a fresh look about her. She decided to tie her hair up into a bun instead of letting it sit behind her shoulders. She wore a blue checked shirt and ordinary jeans.

‘I liked what you’ve done to your hair,’ I said.

‘Thanks,’ she said. ‘It’s more of an experiment, really. I haven’t tied my hair up like this for years, and so I just what it would look like, and I was pleased to note that it does look good.’ With her being here, my day instantly brightened up. Having company was the one thing I needed at that moment. Amy walked passed me and I closed the door.

‘I have a plan for what we can do today,’ she said enthusiastically, not sitting down from all the energy she had built up inside.

‘Go for it,’ I said, wanting to be more positive, but being forced to stop in my tracks with the thick wall of worry and thoughts.

‘Well,’ she began by pulling out the memory stick containing the video that Oliver took back in Mistley and the one that we need to upload to the Internet at some point in the past so our past-selves can discover it and complete the paradox. ‘I mean, we don’t have to if you don’t want to, but I’m just telling you that we do have to at some point, otherwise the paradox won’t be completed. You look as if you’ve forgotten about the video’ she analysed.

‘It’s been a while since that,’ I explained, my exhaustion telling me just how good a night’s sleep I didn’t get, ‘A lot has happened.’

‘I understand that suggesting using the watch is probably the least expected thing you thought I would say, but it does need to be done, and will keep you occupied on something other than recent events,’ she explained rationally.

‘You do have a point there,’ I said, rubbing my eyes to help wake myself up more.’

‘Thank you,’ she nodded to say that she knew she was right anyway. ‘If you don’t do it now, there’s no telling when you’ll get around to it, and I did think whilst walking over here that we don’t want to risk losing or damaging the memory stick so we can’t upload it, so we have to find another solution which will probably involve some highly complicated plan that could have been prevented if we had just uploaded the video now.’ She breathed in.

I smiled.

‘What?’ she questioned.

‘You got a bit carried away there, didn’t you?’ I said.

She couldn’t deny it and her shoulders slumped slightly, ‘yeah, a bit. I am excited about travelling through time again, there is no feeling like it. Well, I imagine travelling through the Void is similar… actually,’ she paused to get her thoughts straight, ‘from what you’ve told me, it’s entirely different, and so I was right in saying that there is no feeling like travelling through time.’

I didn’t stop smiling. She knew why.

‘Yeah, I know,’ she admitted.

‘OK,’ I said, ‘count me in.’

‘That’s what I like to hear. So, the first thing’s first,’ Amy said excitedly, ‘when do we go?’

‘Well,’ I said thoughtfully. ‘It’ll have to be a few weeks before so that it can gain some popularity.’

‘Good point,’ Amy pointed to indicate that I had a valid suggestion. ‘But what website do we upload it to so that it can gain the popularity it needs. We can’t put it directly on the news website I found it on, they’ll never let us have direct entry.’

‘How about we put it on one of those forums that we were searching through to find as much information as we could about… well, me,’ I said. I couldn’t help but smile at the irony of that situation.

‘I think that is a good idea,’ Amy agreed. ‘And if we put a good story behind it, make up something that they would believe, it would go viral in no time at all.’

‘And then we can sit back and relax, knowing that everyone is going to do the rest of the work for us,’ I said.

‘Exactly, this paradox is practically already completed.’

‘Well, technically it is already complete, because we saw the video, but that video didn’t just manifest out of nowhere, and so it’s up to us to go back into the past, before we discovered the video online, and upload it, therefore, technically completing a paradox that has already been completed.’

‘If you said that to anyone else,’ Amy said, ‘other than me, I doubt they would understand that. That was a highly confusing explanation.’

‘Yeah, it was,’ I admitted, going over what I had said and playing it back in my head. ‘I’m not sure if it does make sense, to be honest.’

‘Come on,’ Amy said ending that moment, ‘let’s get this paradox completed.’ Amy wrapped her arm around mine as I navigated the menus in my watch, choosing the necessary options before entering the date and time we need to travel to.

‘You might want to change the location that we’re going to be travelling to,’ Amy suggested, ‘the last thing we want to happen is for us two to appear out of nowhere in front of our past-selves.’

‘Actually, I would be at college at the time, and mum and dad would be at work, so we can.’

‘Fair enough,’ Amy said. After everything was ready, I asked Amy if she was ready to take another trip through time.

‘Ready whenever you are,’ Amy said. My finger was hovering over the button that would activate the watch, sending Amy and I back in time. I was hesitating because I wanted to gather myself first. I have just been through a difficult time and so I wanted to make sure that I was a hundred percent ready to do this one more time. I took a deep breath, pushing all of my worries to the back of my mind, gearing myself up to concentrate on what needs to be done.

I pressed the button.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson)

(TonyHadNouns)