The Watch – Part 209:

(Tom’s perspective)

For the first time since arriving here, I felt fine. I wasn’t perfect. I still felt lonely, nervous and scared, but other than that I was plainly and simply, fine.

My head is a lot clearer now. I can relax whilst walking because I have no more pain in my stomach or my throat. I can focus on things much better than before, yet I’m afraid to. I want to sit down and think about things properly, yet I just know that I’ll only end up repeating myself, and all of those thoughts are slowly becoming meaningless. The best thing I can do is keep moving forwards.

This world may look the same, but it is vastly different from the world I came from. My mind, despite being starved of energy, was trying to adjust, trying to contemplate as much as it could with what it had, and now that I’m feeling fine, it can do that a lot easier. Sure, it’s still mind-blowing to say the least that I’m actually proving the existence of parallel worlds. I am confirming, 100%, that parallel universes aren’t just a theory. And no one knows. All these people, not knowing who I am or where I came from, that’s the weirdest part about all of this. They simply do not know. Can you imagine what it would be like if they did? How sudden certain perspectives and theories and beliefs would go out of the window – change in an instant.

Is this what Sebastian first thought of when he first visited a parallel universe? Another thing that’s weird is all the time I was sitting at home, playing on my computer, lying in bed, Sebastian was somewhere out there, roaming, exploring, discovering new worlds, new universes and now I’m doing just that. And what is even weirder is that all the times we were in college, or walking down the street, or watching a film together, he was out there. For all I know, went back in time and visited his younger-self, maybe even met me… No, I would have remembered that, but my point still stands.  Except he was able to do that without worrying about getting trapped there. He had the watch. But that doesn’t stop me from roaming, exploring and discovering. I should treat this as if it’s a gift. How many people can say that they’ve visited a parallel universe? 3 people: Sebastian, Amy, and I.

So, is the conclusion to this that it’s a gift that I’m here, but at the same time it’s a curse because I have no way back until Sebastian comes and gets me? In the meantime, I’m stuck here, having to fend for myself, do whatever I can to keep going. This scenario reminds me of a game that I used to play back in high school. Sebastian and I still occasionally play it whenever we get a decent scenario. We used to play Would You Rather?

Would You Rather is a game where one of us pitches a scenario that starts off with one of us receiving an awesome gift of some sort, whether it’s a life-time supply of pizza, a million pounds, or some sort of superpowers. But there’s always a catch. There’s always something that must happen or something that we must do, or something that must change in order for us to receive said gift. For example, Sebastian and I were playing GT 5 one night, waiting for his parents to come home after a long two-week business trip, and completely out of the blue, Sebastian says.

‘Would you rather: You are a genius and do extremely well in all your tests and exams and any and every assignment you are given, but you can’t start studying for it until three-AM the night before no matter how big the assignment/project is.’ There was no context to it, just a random question that he plucked out of the air. So, I do what we always do when we are asked these sorts of questions, and that is get some certain clarifications.

‘If I’m a genius, would it matter if I didn’t study if I’m going to do really well anyway?’ I thought that was a valid question. Sebastian went silent for a minute or two as he thought about how best to respond to this and he said.

‘Alright, fair enough, you don’t have to study because you’re going to do really well anyway, but when you get an assignment, or an essay to write, or,’ he shrugged, ‘I don’t know; something to build, maybe – that still stands.’

‘So I can be a genius, but I can’t start any assignment or project, not matter how big, until three-AM the night before?’ I asked to make sure that I understood what he was saying.

‘Yep,’ he said simply as he skidded his car around a sharp corner and overtaking me just before the final straight. He slammed on the accelerator and the car sped ahead. I was forced to slow down so that I wouldn’t get hit by his car as he did so and knock me off the track. I’m right behind him, but when it’s on the final straight, I might as well be on the other side of the track, but I can at least try to close the gap some more. We both crossed the line with milliseconds to spare.

‘I would accept that.’

‘You would? How come?’ he said, curiously.

‘Well, if I’m a genius, then I would know what I’m doing, so I wouldn’t be wasting my time trying to rush and understand it. Instead, I can take my time and complete it.’

‘I can see that,’ he said, thoughtfully, ‘but you are aware that it won’t matter how big the assignment or project is, right?’ he asked, just to make sure that I wanted to be final with my answer.

‘I am.’

‘Ok, then.’

And that was the end of that question. It’s a little thing we do to pass the time if we have nothing to do, or whenever we feel like it. And I’m in one of those scenarios.

It’s as if someone asked me, ‘would you rather: Travel to a parallel universe, but the universe is randomly chosen and you won’t have a way back until someone comes and gets you at any point in time?’ I probably would have said no, to begin with because of all the reasons of being detached from everybody and having no money bla, bla, bla.

Now, I’m not saying that this is all just a game to me, because it isn’t. But I’m here because of certain circumstances that can be comparable. Much like the question, it’s just a harmless question that obviously won’t come true any time soon, but because it has, it’s still harmless. No one has tried to get on the wrong side of me, and I haven’t tried to get on the wrong side of them – except when I took those six chocolate bars and that apple juice, but it’s safe to say that I am hidden by the fact that I shouldn’t be here… do I really have to keep repeating myself – so all in all, I should just embrace the fact that I’m here, enjoy that I am actually here in the first place, and just wait it out. Sebastian will come for me, but in the meantime, I’m just going to get on with it.

I refuse to say ‘what’s the worst thing that can happen?’

TO BE CONTINUED…

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)