Doctor Who: The Time Warp Warrior

Chapter 4: Finding Loopholes

My first major discovery about the time warp was the fact that I brought a small photograph with me through time. Eventually, I collected up shillings, from working at the library daily, and I now have a pocketful of money (about 3 pounds!). I soon started to experiment. I could not bring the whole earth with me, nor even a building three stories high.

I tried to squeeze a carriage through the whole in time, but it would not fit. After trying what seemed like everything, I found that a grandfather clock, just two fingers taller than I and three fingers wider, will fit. So, the following today I measured the grandfather clock and discovered it was five foot, ten inches tall, and two feet, one inch wide. What if that is the limit of the hole? I have to know. My curiosity has proven to be the best entertainment for forgetting that dreadful Doctor.

I went to the carpentry stand the following today and asked for something five foot, eleven inches tall and two feet, two inches wide. The sundown of that today, I held to it tight... No. I tried several variations, five foot eleven inches by two feet one inch. No. After many variations I discovered the grandfather clock was exactly the size for my hole in time.

I later discovered that depth is important too in my hole in time. The depth must be exactly my depth put together with the grandfather clock's depth. I had the carpenter make a five foot, ten inch by two foot one inch box to transport things in, but I completely forgot depth when I did so, and made it ten inches deep, when it could only be eight. So the exact size of my hole was five foot ten inches (just two fingers taller than me) high, two foot one inch (three fingers wider than I) across and eight inches plus the depth of me (8+5= 13) deep in order for it to fit through my hole in time.

I laugh every time I wake up to my mother interrogating me about the foreign object I am currently taking slumber with, but she scolds me all the same: freak or not. I wonder if I am there to attend to her every will tomorrow, or if I suddenly disappear into time. I wonder what becomes of the grandfather clock and what its owner thinks if he can't find it until tomorrow.

I quickly discovered too that my box is much too heavy to carry around. If I am going to transport things through time, I need a cloth bag, not a pure cedar wood box. So, I sold my beautiful box and bought a bag to hold everything I would want to see everyday. I carry my bag around with me everywhere, just in case I forget to grab it at the end of the day.

In my bag I carry many things: The picture I took at the Kodak store (to take to my father's grave every now and then), a photograph I found in the basement of our house which has my father and Grace, his true love, hugging in front of the ocean, a journal to keep notes of every loophole or interesting thing I find in my time warp journeys, a pen and pencil to go with the journal, a change of clothes just in case, my pocketwatch and also all the money I collect (on some days when I can't think of anything new to do, I live the day out like the original one and work at the library, copying the same book over and over).

In my journal I sketch everything odd I can remember about the Doctor: his suit, his screwdriver, his blue and red spectacles, his blue TARDIS, his shoes. I also document if I see any change that might work toward my advantage, if I could find one way to explain to my mother why I am holding a plate of spaghetti in my bedroom, or to Marie why I probably won't be at the dance tomorrow, things like that. If telling Marie I was travelling with my new lover, John, kept her quiet I used it several times. If telling my mother that I wanted to save the spaghetti for her, but forgot to put it in the cupboard works, I use it often as well. I slowly but surely discovered much about my life and the lives of others around me.

One day something else extraordinary happened. I went back to my room right before sundown and sat there. At sundown I didn't go anywhere, but the world around me moved. I didn't have to go through the trouble of waking up, I just sat there a while then got up, beating my mother to my bedroom door. One night, I tried to move while the world around me changed, but I could not. Not until the process of the time warp was over.

Also, I was never tired in the time warp day. I needn't sleep and never required rest, I became worn out after running a mile in petticoats, but did not feel drousy, just exhausted. It was almost like I got sleep without trying and was fully replenished every morning. Perhaps if on the night before the time warp, I had stayed up with Marie at the dance practice she had attended until midnight, I would have felt tired every single today I had ever had. But, I suppose having good rest the night before assisted my case.

I grew hungry during the day, and before I collected money, I usually starved. Like sleep, I felt as replenished as I had the night before. On the night before the time warp I had been without supper and was quite hungry every time I awoke. No matter how much I feasted at sundown yesterday-today, I was always just as hungry on the next today.

That caused me to grow curious.

I wasn't planning on trying it, but, suppose I were to die today. Would I re-awaken in the same miserable state I currently hold? Or, would I fool time and remain in such a cold, hard, dead state of being? I did not have any intention of testing this plan. If the first option were true, I would hate my mind for imagining such. Death would become some kind of joke to me and I would make it a usual habit to die. But if the latter were true, I would be dead... and then what? It hurts my brain to try to think it out. That brainy know it all Doctor would know, I'm sure... That is, if he bothered to remain to his stupid, cruel word.

Eventually, after thinking about sleep, hunger and death, I decided to keep some food in my Time Sachel as I now called it. I need something that wouldn't rot... ROT! I wonder.... If I keep cheese in my bag, will it rot? Good enough to test.

As it comes to, cheese, bread, and other such items will not rot because they are only in there for a day according to time. Milk, cream and some cheeses that would otherwise go bad if not properly kept for more than a few hours, molded before I got through testing my theories, and my bag smelt of sour milk and cheese until after I washed it four times. However, if I am to put cream in my bag (I have tested on cream and it takes 30 or so minutes to sour), then when I awaken the next morning, it remains un-soured. If I were to find something that soured faster than cream, I could see if the time warp occurs suddenly, or if I float through a nothing-ness of time for a while before returning to my world. If only that stupid Doctor were here. He would be able to explain everything...