The Watch – Part 194:

(Tom’s perspective)

We talked until we ran out of things to talk about. We talked about anything and everything we could just to keep our minds focused on anything but the fact that we’re stuck in two glass boxes.

‘Is Alex alright?’ Amy asked.

‘She’s fine,’ I said.

‘Because she looked surprised when she found out about Sebastian’s secret,’ she pushed, half to keep the conversation going, half because she’s actually concerned.

‘Well, we both were surprised when we found out about everything. You can’t say that you weren’t surprised.’

‘You know what I mean,’ Amy said sternly. ‘Is she alright with you being connected with Sebastian, or did she go away for a couple of days purely because her parents were going away?’

Why was she asking me all these personal questions? What right does she have to dive into my personal life? Am I getting angry because I don’t know how to answer, or because I do know the answer and don’t like it?

‘We talked,’ I began. ‘She said that everything just didn’t make sense. She even asked why I didn’t tell her before. I told her that I didn’t know myself until then.’

‘But she didn’t believe you.’

I sighed, ‘I don’t know. She told me that she needed time to think and that she’ll get back to me when everything’s straight, whenever that is, if not at all. Alex also told me that you should have told her as well. I really didn’t like Sebastian when my relationship was in jeopardy.

‘But you didn’t hate him. That’s why you came back.’

I forgot how complicated that period of time was. ‘You’re right in thinking that I didn’t hate him. He’s my life-long friend, it’s impossible to hate him, but that wasn’t the reason why I came back. Don’t take this the wrong way, but I figured that if I understood more, then I would be able to relay that information to Alex with confidence. And I wanted to understand more so that Sebastian and I could amend our friendship and move on. There’s a chance that it won’t work, and I’m prepared for that.’ I sighed once more. ‘But at least it wasn’t serious.’

‘You can’t say that.’

‘That was our only time we met properly. How do you think she’s going to react when the person that she has liked for many years suddenly turned into a person completely different to what she knows me as? And that her best friend turned out to be the same person? You’ve known her longer than I have, what do you think?’

‘It’s difficult to say,’ Amy admitted. ‘But you’re learning more about everything is the best thing to do to help her understand more. I admire that.’

‘What was your first reaction when you found out about the watch and that he kept the secret from you?’ I asked wanting to know if her answer would help me in anyway. It might be a roundabout way of doing things, but anything to help me win over Alex would be grateful.

‘Well, I wasn’t really in the best of places to have reacted properly,’ Amy said, ‘what with my leg being trapped in the floor of an abandoned railway station that is about to fall down on top of me. I was waiting for the roof to land on me. When it didn’t, and I saw Sebastian holding the roof up with his hands – many times his own weight above his head – I was defiantly relieved, but at the same time I had thought I had died, you know. But, when the shock of nearly being crushed and saved by some superhuman gradually wore off, I started came to the only conclusion that I could find at the time.’ She paused. I wasn’t sure why. Maybe it was just a pause to gain more breath.

‘He saved my life. It was simple as that. He gave me a second chance, and if it weren’t for him having the watch, I wouldn’t have. The least I could do was give him a second chance. I swore to him that I wouldn’t let his secret leave my lips until he was ready.’

‘Can I say something?’ I asked wondering if the thing I wanted to say was the best thing to say.

‘Sure.’

‘Have you ever thought that if it wasn’t for the watch, you wouldn’t have been in there in the first place?’

‘I have,’ Amy said simply. ‘But then I thought that if it wasn’t for the watch, he wouldn’t have been confident enough speak to me.’

‘Ah, but if you remember, I sort of forced that introduction because I was a little tired of Sebastian not doing anything,’ I explained.

‘True,’ Amy admitted again. ‘True,’ she didn’t know what else to say. For the first time since arriving here, she looked tired. She doesn’t want anything more than to go home. ‘And if it wasn’t for the watch, we wouldn’t be here,’ she concluded.

‘But if it wasn’t for the watch, Sebastian wouldn’t have saved all those lives on that runaway train,’ I analysed.

‘Both trains, in fact. Don’t forget the one that was hijacked.’

‘And all those people as well.’

‘And he stopped that person from blowing up the shopping centre,’ Amy said.

‘And that, too.’

‘Is it selfish of us to complain about our problems when there are so many people out there with much worse problems than us?’

‘No,’ I said.

‘Why’s that?’ Amy asked.

I didn’t have a suitable answer to that question, ‘I don’t know,’ I sighed once more. Amy knew that I had planned to say something. On one hand, Sebastian has saved all those people, but on the other, we’re here, and it we wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for that stupid watch. Maybe it isn’t stupid… Oh, I don’t know. We sat in silence, contemplating what we had just discussed, trying to see if we can find that one rational thought, but nothing came.

‘Are you going to tell Alex about this?’ Amy asked suddenly, backtracking to the beginning of the conversation.

‘I said that I would,’ I said.

‘But you don’t know whether explaining something like this would drive her away even further,’ Amy spoke my mind.

‘How would you react if someone that you liked told you that they were trapped in a parallel world for an unknown period of time with the threat that the only person to rescue you is also trapped and in the hands of some crazed man?’

‘Try answering the question yourself,’ Amy said politely. There goes my plan of asking a rhetorical question and hoping to move on. I was forced to think about it some more; nothing came to mind. I wanted to say that I didn’t know what Alex would think and say, but even I wouldn’t be happy with that answer.

‘I think that she would sit down and listen to what I have to say,’ I said slowly, ‘then…’ That was all that I had. I couldn’t think of anything else to say. Is that bad of me to not know what Alex would think. Well, it’s not necessarily the most common of situations to react to. But still, I should know, shouldn’t I? I slumped down, disappointed in myself that I couldn’t think of anything to say.

‘I would be happy that they opened up,’ Amy said. ‘Then I would ask them if that sort of thing is going to happen on a regular bases and depending on their answer, I would develop a suitable answer that I think would be best for both of us. I think she would react in that way,’ Amy explained.

‘How can you be sure?’ I asked.

‘I don’t,’ she admitted simply, ‘but I believe it is the most rational thing to do giving how complicated everything is.’

‘You think so?’ I wanted Amy to be absolutely sure, even though that would be asking too much.

‘That’s what I believe,’ she said sternly to drive home the message that she simply doesn’t know. I was beginning to wonder whether it was a good idea to start this conversation. But I can’t keep pushing for Amy to answer the question for me. Like she said, I have to answer it myself. I guess I’m not going to find the answer to that until the time is right for me to learn that. We dropped into silence. We had come to a natural end. There was nothing else to add. Where do we go from here? We can’t sit in silence until the end because we don’t know when that will be. We’ve exhausted the questions we had and…

‘What’s the one thing you would bring with you to a desert island?’ Amy said suddenly, putting a new spark on the situation. I started to think about the answer and was relieved that we could move on and relieve some tension that we had built up from sharing some personal information with each other.

‘Um… that would probably be an instruction guide on how to survive living on a desert island,’ I said thinking that was a smart answer. ‘You?’ she won’t be able to top that.

‘A boat,’ she said casually. She then smiled at my ‘of course,’ expression.

‘Ah, but hang on,’ I said trying to regain some ground, ‘how can you be sure that you will be able to make it across the ocean in a boat. What about food, water, and other stuff to keep you alive?’ I’d like to see you answer that one.

‘Who says that the desert island is in the middle of the ocean?’ Amy said.

‘Whoever heard of a desert island not being in the middle the ocean. Where do you think this island is, in the middle of a lake?’ I asked.

‘You never know,’ Amy said trying to get her ground back after her slip up.

‘Oh sure, yeah…’

‘You don’t have anything good to say to that, do you?’ Amy said matter-of-factly.

‘No,’ I admitted

‘Call it a draw,’ I said.

‘OK. A draw it is.’

‘Good.’

‘Good.’

And then the door on the other side of the room opened once more and Zaylor stepped through.

‘Just to let you know that everything’s going according to plan,’ he said skipping up to front of the box. ‘And I admire your attempt at breaking out earlier,’ he said to Amy. ‘But as you quickly realised this glass is very strong. Triple layered, in fact. There’s no way of getting through here, I’m afraid. And I’ve noticed that you have resorted to having a casual chat between yourselves. I’m glad that you’ve come to an agreement on how things work around here and…’

‘What makes you think we’ve agreed to anything?’ I said.

‘Are you ready to answer any questions that I have,’ he finished, ignoring what I had just said.

‘We ready to do nothing,’ Amy said, standing up and walking towards the front.

‘Careful,’ he said, ‘you don’t want that anger of yours to force its way out again. You could do yourself a serious injury and I simply don’t have the time to have to attend to your broken bones at the moment,’ he said.

‘You’re one sick and twisted man,’ Amy spat.

‘Your point being,’ he said.

‘You’re lying about Sebastian,’ I said, ‘you’re just telling us lies to get us to do what you want.’

‘Am I?’ he slid over to where I was. ‘You keep telling yourself that,’ and he turned his back and left the room one more. This was starting to become a tedious cycle.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)