Lost Time

SLEEPOVERS WITH POND

Amelia Pond had always been my best friend, for as long as I could remember. She found me on the playground alone one day and after discovering that I was alone because the other children would call me names, she insisted that we were to be best friends. 

Tonight I was staying at her house, it seemed like I was staying at her house almost every night at this stage, however, that was mainly because she says she doesn't like to be alone in her bedroom. There's a crack in her wall and she said that it scared her. At first, I had laughed it off, calling her silly and insisting that a crack in the wall couldn't be scary. 

And then she showed it to me.

I couldn't describe it, but seeing the crack for the first time, it felt like something inside of me shifted, and I knew that there was something dreadfully wrong with the innocent-looking crack in the wall.

Amelia was currently kneeling at her bed, saying her prayers as she does every night, she prays to Santa for some odd reason. "Dear Santa. Thank you for the dolls and pencils and the fish. It's Easter now, so I hope I didn't wake you, but honestly, it is an emergency. There's a crack in my wall. Aunt Sharon says it's just an ordinary crack, but I know it's not because at night there are voices, so please, please, could you send someone to fix it? Or a policeman. Or a-"

Amelia was cut off but an odd yet familiar sound came from outside, we both quickly ran to the window and saw a blue police call box sitting in her garden that wasn't ever there before. Without even waiting for Amelia, I quickly grabbed a torch and ran out into the garden, cautiously approaching the box, Amelia quickly coming up behind me.

The box was lying on its side and suddenly the doors opened outwards, causing a light to emanate from the box and a grappling hook flew out, a soaking wet man in torn-up clothes climbing out after it. 

He saw the two of us and smiled. "Could I have an apple? All I can think about. Apples. I love apples. Maybe I'm having a craving? That's new. Never had cravings before," the man said and looked puzzled at himself. He sat on the edge of the box and looked inside."Whoa. Look at that."

"Are you okay?" I asked, cautious of the stranger.

The man climbed out fully and stood on the ground in front of us. "Just had a fall. All the way down there, right to the library. Hell of a climb back up."

"You're soaking wet," Amelia stated.

He shrugged slightly. "I was in the swimming pool."

I frowned. "You said you were in the library."

"So was the swimming pool."

Amelia cut in, a hopeful tone in her voice. "Are you a policeman?"

"Why? Did you call a policeman?" He asked her curiously.

"Did you come about the crack in my wall?"

"What crack? Argh!" The man fell to the ground, seemingly in pain.

"Are you all right, mister?" I asked, concerned for this man's well-being.

He sat up again. "No, I'm fine. It's okay. This is all perfectly norm-" A breath of golden energy came out from his mouth.

Regeneration. I felt shocked that the word came to my mind and I had no idea what it meant.

"Who are you?" Amelia asked.

He looked whimsical. "I don't know yet. I'm still cooking. Does it scare you?" He asked, standing up fully and moving closer to Amelia.

"No, it just looks a bit weird."

"No, no, no. The crack in your wall. Does it scare you?"

"Yes."

"Well then, no time to lose. I'm the Doctor. Do everything I tell you, don't ask stupid questions, and don't wander off."

The man, the Doctor, began to walk away and walked straight into a tree. I stifled a laugh and hid from Amelia's disapproving glance.

"Are you all right?" Amelia asked, concerned for the uncoordinated man.

"Early days. Steering's a bit off," the Doctor said, not noticing the confused glances that Amelia and I gave each other.

We made our way into the house, Amelia and I having to help the Doctor to get there, him seemingly not knowing how to move his limbs properly. We all sat down in the kitchen, Amelia grabbing a bright red apple from the bowl in the kitchen.

"If you're a doctor, why does your box say Police?" I ask him, trying to interrogate the man on why he landed in Amelia's backyard.

The Doctor bit into the apple, then spat it out.

"That's disgusting. What is that?" He asked her, ignoring my questioning.

Amelia looked confused. "An apple."

"Apple's rubbish. I hate apples."

"You said you loved them."

"No, no, no. I like yoghurt. Yoghurt's my favourite. Give me yoghurt."

Amelia grabbed him a pot from the fridge. He poured it into his mouth and then spat it out.

"I hate yoghurt. It's just stuff with bits in it," he stated, a look of disgust on his face.

"You said it was your favourite," I stated, beginning to get annoyed with the Doctor eating and spitting out all of Amelia's food.

The Doctor shrugged. "New mouth. New rules. It's like eating after cleaning your teeth. Everything tastes wrong. Argh!" He twitched in pain.

"What is it? What's wrong with you?" I asked, becoming more and more concerned about the situation we were finding ourselves in.

"Wrong with me?" He asked, offended that I even suggested that something might be wrong with him, "It's not my fault. Why can't you give me any decent food?" He looked to Amelia, "You're Scottish. Fry something."

So Amelia got the frying pan out while I grabbed a towel for the Doctor to dry his hair with.

"Ah, bacon!" He said as Amelia sat the plate down in front of him.

The bacon got spat out too.

"Bacon. That's bacon. Are you trying to poison me?" He asked very seriously, narrowing his eyes at the small ginger child. 

I rolled my eyes at the dramatic man and got up from my seat as Amelia also stood up in order to fetch him some more food. The Doctor gave me a strange look as I walked up the stairs when he thought that I couldn't see him. I chalked it up to him just being a strange man and walked into the hall area in order to go into Amelia's bedroom. I stopped for a second and counted the doors. 

Five, just like always. I shook my head, for some reason every time I come into this area, I feel like there is something in the corner of my eye, just out of my line of sight that I'm missing.

I walked into Amelia's room, collapsing onto her bed, my blonde hair splaying out around my head like a halo. I lay in silence, waiting for Amelia and the Doctor to follow me up. I don't know how long I was waiting, but I must have eventually fallen asleep because when I opened my eyes there was sunlight streaming in through the window. I frowned when I noticed that Amelia wasn't in the room with me. 

I got up from the bed and looked towards the crack in the wall out of habit when I realised that it was no longer there. I frowned slightly and walked out of the room and downstairs. Amelia was nowhere to be found within the house so I made my way out into the garden. Just to find the ginger girl laying down ontop of a metal suitcase.

I shook her shoulder slightly, waking her up. "What are you doing out here, Amelia? It's freezing."

Amelia looked around and tears began to fall down her face. "He never came back."