Searching for Thyme

Ever since I was a child, I have been different from everyone else. My whole life has been one odd event after the other. Even before I was born, multiple specialists told my mother that it was crazy to continue her pregnancy because there was only a 2 percent chance that I was going to survive. She loves to tell me that story. Some said she was crazy but she knew that I was going to survive because I was a fighter.

The point is, I was not supposed to survive. My life is built on pure luck and chance. Nothing has ever made sense. I was constantly pointed out as “the chosen one” and “the luckiest guy alive”, but I hate being called that. I want to be the same as everyone else, and live a normal life. I guess that is not what fate had in store for me though.

In school, I used to read about a time before us: a time when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, a time when new lands were discovered, times of sadness and extreme joy. Then, the SOLM8.27 was made in the year 2031 by a woman named Guinevere of Cameliard. She was said to be a hopeless romantic and utterly obsessed with love. In my tenth year of schooling, the academy made my class read Guinevere’s diary. This book contained her feelings for her lover, emotions, and poems. However, nobody knows who her lover was, due to the fact that he deserted her and so she scratched out his name in all her records.

The SOLM8.27 is a small glass plate attached to the inside of your wrist the minute after you are born. This small glass plate displays a series of numbers which count down to the exact time that you will meet your soulmate. Then the plate will fall off your wrist, displaying the original time it was set for forever. When the SOLM8.27 was first made, many people grew paranoid and some even tried to cut theirs off; the only problem is that the wires are connected to your nervous system, so you cannot uproot them without immense pain.

When I was born, the doctors planted the SOLM8.27 in my wrist, something was off. Instead of having a large number like “19yr109dy3hr16min7sec”, mine read, “16yr2dy4hr2min16sec”. No one had ever seen a number so small before except in one other child who was born two years after me. Her name was Thyme. However, the doctors had a strict law forbidding them from ever telling anyone who their soulmate was, otherwise they would be punished. However, when I was down to 14yr2yr4hr2min16sec, one doctor risked it all, tracked me down and told me about Thyme. He told me that she was “invisible”, barely noticeable besides her extraordinary beauty. He said that she was more beautiful than any other woman he had ever seen. Finally, before he ran off, he told me that finding her would be the hardest “quest” I would ever have to complete. Later that week, the doctor went missing and was never seen again. At first, I was shocked that he would tell me about Thyme. Why did he tell me? Why was she invisible? Why would it be the hardest “quest” of my life? Where is she?

2 years, 1 day, and 3 hours had passed since my visit with that doctor, and life had been moving pretty fast. I was constantly involved in projects and new experiments at work. I was constantly busy. There was barely a moment when I was not occupied with some activity or something I had to do. But today, I had nothing planned. I had a sense of peace surrounding me as I sat in the large floral armchair in the library. I let out a deep sigh and closed my eyes as I sunk my back deeper into the foam support surrounding me.

“Excuse me, is this seat taken?” I heard a soft voice say just in front of me. As I opened my eyes I saw the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. She had dark brown, almost black, hair and stark blue eyes. She had a sense of elegance and calmness about her. She wasn’t one of the women who demand to be noticed, nor a woman who would coward in the face of attention. She was the kind of woman who would calmly take what life would throw at her and not question it.

“Um, no.” I snapped out of my haze as she gently set down her bags and sat in the armchair across from me. I tried to think of something else to say, but I was at a loss for words. So instead of trying to spark a conversation with the girl, who had started to read her Jane Austen novel across from me, I decided to start reading a book instead. I had not picked out a book yet, so I picked up the closest book on the counter next to me. The book happened to be about time and how you never quite know that you have it, until its gone. Suddenly, I remembered the conversation I had had with the doctor, just a few years before. I looked at my wrist to see how much time I had left: “0yr0dy0hr0min0sec”. I quickly looked up to see who my soulmate was. I scanned the room, looking for someone who looked just as lost as me; someone who was searching for me, but there was no one else in the room. I do not understand? How could this be? I was just about to ask the girl who was sitting across from me what she thought had happened, when I was met with an empty chair and a sticky note attached to it. I quickly got up and read the note. “Sorry I couldn’t stay longer, but I really enjoyed meeting you Milo. Hope to see you soon  :) -Thyme”.