It was a normal day and I was cycling home from school when I saw the blue phone box standing in the middle of the road. Okay, maybe not exactly the middle of the road. It was parked in between two cars, on the side of the street. At first I didn't really notice it, until the door opened. It was winter and already dark, so what really struck me was the light coming from inside. I stopped and turned around to look inside the phone box. I locked my bike and stepped inside the box. What I saw, can't be imagined or said in words. It was beautiful and out of this world.
"It's bigger on the inside" was the first thing that came to my mind. That's when I first heard that little voice in my head.
'Hello Elena' it said.
I looked around, wondering where that voice came from.
'Keep calm, walk towards the consoles in the middle and you will see me. I'm the TARDIS, it stands for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space. I usually travel with someone called the Doctor, but right now he is stuck in 5134. Do as I say and we can get him back.'
I was absolutely stunned. The consoles were too weird to tell, but the TARDIS told me which ones I had to push, pull or turn, and after a minute I was running around the console while trying to stay on my feet as the phone box rocked back and forth violently. After a minute the box stood still.
'Have we landed,' I asked hesitantly.
'Yes, we have landed. Thank you for helping me Elena.'
I walked towards the door and opened it slowly. I saw a man running towards me. He was wearing a brown pinstriped suit with a loosely knotted tie and red converse. He was rather tall and quite slim. He had a friendly yet stern face with the funniest brown hair I had ever seen. It was spiking up all directions. He was moving his arms in a way that I should clear his path. I looked past him for that reason and saw a giant lizard chasing after him. I quickly cleared the way for him and made sure I could close the door as soon as he was through it. The lizard thing had almost caught up with the man when he jumped inside. I immediately closed the door and locked it. The man had gotten to the consoles in the meantime and was straightening his clothes. I coughed, showing was still here.
'Oh, hello, I'm the Doctor, who are you,' he asked with a smile and a little short of breath.
'Uhm, Elena, my name is Elena,' I said.
'Nice to meet you Elena, where should I drop you off?'
'I think I can do that myself, but sure, go ahead. Drop me off in 2012 please.'
'2012, here we come,' he yelled and he started running around the consoles.
I had grabbed the railing before I got thrown into the wall three meters to my left or right. The TARDIS stopped moving violently and I knew we had landed. I walked out the door and stopped dead in my tracks. This was not the street I was in when I left and this was definitely not 2012 when I looked at the cars around me. I walked towards a little bench across the road and picked up the newspaper lying on top of it. I checked the date and place. Lawrence, Kansas it said, but that wasn't what shocked me the most. The date said November 1983.
'Doctor,' I yelled.
'Yes,' he said, popping his head out the door, 'Oh, this is not 2012.'
'No, I know. It's 1983!'
'Sorry, my fault.'
I looked around, checking out the houses. It was a street you would see in one of those TV shows, even though there was no sun shining or cougars flirting with the gardener. The sound of breaking glass shook me out of my dream. I turned to where the sound came from. The flickering light of visible flames were in the upstairs window.
'Call 911,' I yelled to the Doctor as I ran towards the house.
I kicked in the door and after two tries it budged. I ran upstairs where a little boy of about four years just came out of the door nearest to the door. The door on the far end was open and that was where I could see the fire. A man came out of the room with a baby in his arms.
'Get your brother out as fast as you can, and don't look back. Now Dean, go,' he said, while giving the little boy the baby.
He didn't seem to notice me and ran back to the room where the fire was spreading. I ran after him, knowing that if he went back there he would kill himself.
'Mary,' he shouted to the ceiling.
I looked up and saw a woman pinned to the ceiling. She had a huge cut across her abdomen and it seemed as though the fire had started from her body. The man tried to reach her.
'Sir, you have to get out of here,' I shouted to him, 'if you stay here, you will die!'
'No,' he said angrily, 'I'm not leaving without my wife.'
'Sir, we can't save her. I'm sorry but she's gone. It's bad enough your sons have to grow up without a mother, but do you really want them to grow up without their father too?'
I could see that I had struck a chord there. I grabbed his arm and pulled him out of the room towards the stairs. When he was out of the room, he ran downstairs on his own and out of the house.
Outside the fire-fighters and police had gathered and was keeping the crowd on a safe distance. The man ran towards his sons and swooped them both in his arms just as there was a huge explosions inside. I could feel the shockwave hit my back with a lot of force and I almost fell. I looked back at the house, while sending away all policemen, fire-fighters and paramedics that wanted to talk to or take a look at me. The house was now not much more than a burning wreck. Impossible to safe. All that could be done was control the fire and make sure it doesn't spread to the other houses in the neighbourhood.
In the corner of my eye, I saw a small figure making a move towards the house. It was the oldest boy from the house. He was crying, running towards the house, screaming for his mother. A couple of policemen tried to stop him, but failed. I ran towards the boy, stopped right in front of him, dropped to my knees, slung my arms around him and hugged him tight. I murmured soothing words in his ear and rocked him back and forth. When he had calmed down a bit, I looked him in the eyes. They were a beautiful colour of green and they were filled with sadness.
'Do you know what I always think when I'm sad,' I asked him, although he was only four I could see that he was quite smart.
He shook his head.
'I listen to this song. I'll sing it for you,' and with that I started singing Carry On My Wayward Son by Kansas.
I picked him up when I was almost done with the song and carried him back to his father. He was sitting in the back of an ambulance with baby Sammy in his arms, tears making their way down his face silently. He called one of the paramedics and handed the baby to him. I set down the boy on my arm and walked after him when he motioned me to follow him. We walked a little from the little boys, far enough for the boys to not overhear the conversation, but close enough to be within earshot when something would happen.
'Thank you for making sure that my boys wouldn't lose two parents tonight,' he said.
'It's alright. I do what I can,' I said, not really knowing how to respond to that.
'I'll give you my number, you know, just in case you ever need me,' he said.
'Oh no, really that isn't necessary,' I protested, but he wouldn't hear it, so I pulled out my phone.
'Yeah, I've got connections,' I said when I saw him looking at my phone, 'it won't be out for another twenty-five years. It's a prototype. So what's your number?'
He gave me the number and told me his name, John Winchester. After that we walked back to his sons.
'Elena, can we leave,' the Doctor said as he sneaked up on us.
I jumped a little and turned to him.
'Yes, sure.'
'No, don't leave,' the oldest, Dean as I had learned, said and he grabbed my leg, 'who else is going to sooth me with the song if you won't?'
I looked at the Doctor.
'Do you have a phone with Bluetooth,' I asked.
He shook his head. I thought for a minute and then made a decision. I took out my phone, made sure all the numbers were on the SIM-card and took it out. I turned the phone back on and showed it to Dean.
'See, here is the music on this phone and this is the song I sang to you. I put one number in it, but you can't call it before the 27th of November 2012. It says so in the name. Good luck Dean,' I ended and gave Dean the adapter that went with the phone.
I was glad that it was in my backpack for this one instance.
'You might want to get a converter for that adapter,' I told John, while giving him two kisses, 'and the best of luck.'
I ruffled Dean's hair and walked back to the TARDIS, where the Doctor was waiting for me. He opened his mouth to say something.
'Don't say anything,' I said, my voice breaking.
'I was merely going to ask if you were alright,' he said honestly.
'I'm fine,' I retorted, but tears were glistening in my eyes.
The Doctor closed the TARDIS door and hugged me tight.
'I know it's hard,' he said, planting a kiss on my hair.
I calmed a bit down and the Doctor let go.
'You can fix yourself down the hall, third door on the right,' he said pointing at the hallway.
I nodded and gave him a weak smile. I walked to the room he pointed me and found myself in a large wardrobe full of clothes. I took of my shirt and saw that it was full of little burn spots on my back. I figured the shockwave of the explosion must have caused that. I looked through the racks of clothes for a shirt in my size. I found a simple deep red top and a black leather jacket. Afterwards, I looked for a pair of jeans because I thought that those were probably ruined too. I checked if the pockets were empty before taking it off. In my right pocket I felt something and took out a silver charm bracelet that I didn't recognize. I felt the pocket again and found a little piece of paper.
Thank you for helping – John
I smiled and put the bracelet on. I took off my jeans and put on a new clean pair and tucked the piece of paper and my SIM-card in one of the pockets. My old clothes lay discarded on the floor and I threw them in the bin that was located in a corner of the room.
I walked back to the control area where the Doctor was waiting. He smiled when he saw me walking in.
'Look at you, you look beautiful.'
'Thank you Doctor, for letting me have these clothes and for something that I will never ever forget.'
'You're more than welcome to come back to the TARDIS. If you ever need me, don't hesitate to call.'
'I won't Doctor, I won't,' I laughed and I gave him one last hug before stepping outside.
I checked my watch and saw that only five minutes had past. I looked back at the TARDIS as she vanished with her familiar sound. I gave one last wave and then returned to my bike. While cycling home I thought back to all the things that had happened. The wild appearance of a spaceship, flying it to 5134 AD and then going back to 1983 and have a whole different experience there. It was something I was never going to forget.