Who's Who

Chapter The First: The Mystery Man

July 2021
United States of America, Earth

Jan Leer rarely was bored. Or rather she rarely admitted to it. Books occupied her hands most of the time. Besides the book she would have a pencil or camera. Jan would walk about her small home town writing, clicking, singing. Her room walls were plastered with pictures and drawings. She had never gone to collage. Quite by choice surprisingly, since she had been offered countless scholarships. She earned pay at a bookstore on a side street corner. She funded her hobbies by selling pictures and poems to strangers. Every one who thought they knew her saw her as a laid back, loopy, artist. Every one who saw her knew her as the town's Rose. She was stunningly beautiful, but so terribly hard to reach.

Jan was content with her life... most of the time. Every once in a while she would wish for something more. She would tire of the normal flow of her days, and become terribly depressed. All flow of creativity would come to a hault. She would moop about the bookstore dreading her life. These seasons would only last a couple of days, then she would continue to be her normal self.

One of those seasons were upon her in the July of 2021, when an odd looking man came into the bookstore. He was dressed in a long dusty overcoat, a pair of worn blue jeans, a strange T-shirt, and huge black and white converse (at any rate he had large feet). His hair looked almost black in the dim bookstore, but was in fact a dark brown. It was ruffled and looked as if all hope of it's appearance had been abandoned days ago. What caught Jan's attention however, was his eyes. They were a glistening blue, and looked as if they held some secret. They were so full of bizzare mystery.

"Excuse me, but do you repair books?"

Jan shook her head to loose the trance.

"Oh, well in that case..."

"Oh!," Jan stuttered, "No, I... I mean yes, erm, yeah we repair books."

"Stellar. Hmm, I mean fantastic." He looked confused for a moment than shook his head. He dashed out of the store. Jan's moopy season came to a hault, as she chased offer the strange man.

He ran past a couple of stores before turning into an alley. Jan hesitated a moment then peaked around the corner. She saw the tail of the man's coat slip into an old blue police box. Jan pinched herself. This had to be a dream. There were no boxes of any sort like this here, or at least there shouldn't be.

The man could be heard from the alley. He couldn't find the books.

"How could he loose books in place small as that?!" thought Jan. "Nevertheless, I'd better get back to the bookstore before he comes out."

Jan waited about ten minutes before the man showed up with a stack of old paperbacks. He put them on the counter sending up a cloud of dust.

"I've two more stacks the same size and condition," He said. "How long will it take?"

Jan picked up a book coughing. She quickly examined it and the next one. They were copies of part of the Harry Potter series. British editions that looked way older than the should have. Both books had left their covers and we're completely ragged. Jan grimaced.

"I don't know," she started carefully, "even if I only fix the spines it'll take a while."

He frowned. "Of course," he muttered, "I just had to come at the wrong time."

"Actually," Jan retorted, "you had perfect timing. There's a book signing here next week, so -"

The man cut her off, "That's great. I'm gonna go get the other books. Oh! How much will this all cost?"

Extra for rudeness, Jan wanted to say. "Well the new covers will-"

"No, I don't want new covers." He said. "If I wanted new covers I'd just buy new books. But these are all specially signed, and that would defeat the purpose."

"Right," Jan started, "so, um, probably charge about four fifty."

"Really? Only four dollars and fifty cents?" He started to mumble to himself, " I'd expect that for four thousand twenty one, but two thousand..."

"Four hundred fifty dollars. And I'll need a name and number."

"Ah, there we go. Let me go get the other books, then we can figure out the rest."

"Would you like to to help with a stack?"

The man smiled, then frowned. He shook his head, "No I'll take care of it," and dashed back out.

Jan sat back in her chair. She pulled out a notebook and began jotting down notes about the strange man. By the time she was ready to begin a sketch, he burst through the door. He had a wagon with twice the amount of books he had brought the first time.

"I couldn't find the wagon at first, but I went back and there it was!" he said. "I'll leave it here for now, if you don't mind,"

"Not at all," said Jan. "So, name and number?"

The man nodded. "You can call me The Doctor," he reached into his coat and pulled out an old flip phone. "And you'll need this. I'm on speed dial."

He stood there holding out the flip phone, wearing a ridiculous grin. Jan cautiously reached for the phone.

"Ok...," she said, "I'll call you when I'm finished. It'll probably be late tomorrow. I won't have a specific price 'till then, so that's when you can pay."

"Perfe- erm, Fantastic!" The Doctor turned and left.

Jan dashed to the door. She waited untill he had turned into the alleyway, then exited the shop. She locked it before dashing after The Doctor. She skidded to a hault upon entering the alley. Jan pinched herself again. She checked to make sure this was the same spot as before, but couldn't believe her eyes. The police box was gone!