Timeless

x.

"Of course," he assured me before he got up and held out his hand. "We can give it a go, even though I don't think anything has changed since before."

"I know.." I took his hand and pulled myself up. "But I just want to keep looking... you know?"

"I understand, don't worry." He followed me into the bedroom where we both continued to search every inch of his bedroom for the small but so important rectangular device.

I was close to despairing because it simply seemed to have disappeared. Of course I wasn't going to say that it was impossible because life had proven to me that impossibilities didn't exist, but I didn't want to accept that my only possibility of possibly getting in touch with my time, with the future, was gone.

"Wait," Brian suddenly exclaimed. "Hang on, hang on, I think I found it." He was kneeling beside the bed, his long arm was underneath the mattress. "I have no idea how it got there, but ... here you go." He smiled at me and held out the desperately wanted item out for me.

"Oh!" I exclaimed with a big smile and took the phone from his hand. "You're a genius, why haven't I looked there before? Thank you." I hugged him quickly before I looked at his phone and pressed the button that would hopefully make the screen light up. And it did, and the relief was beyond words.

"I wouldn't call myself a genius, but thank you very much. Now I want to see though how you as a professional handle that thing," he teased, standing beside me.

"Okay, let's see. This is an iPhone and I have an Android so that poses a bit of a problem because I'm not good with Apple products but it'll be fine." I glanced at Brian but only to find him looking at me with wide eyes.

"Whatever you say, Mira, I'm sure you're right."

"Sorry," I apologised amused. "iPhones and Android phones have different operating systems, so even though they mostly do the same things you have to do different things to get to the same result... does that make sense? It's a bit like the phones speak a different dialect of the same language and it takes a bit to get used to the other dialect before there are no misunderstandings anymore..."

"That I can understand a little better. It doesn't entirely make sense but I somewhat see your point, I think." He nodded a little, his eyes curiously watching what my fingers were doing on the little screen. "You're so fast with this though. In the beginning I couldn't figure this out at all, it was confusing me so much."

"I can imagine. I've had years to practise this basically, so you should be proud of yourself for catching on so quickly." I smiled at him before I sat on the bed, crossing my legs.

"Well, I've had a wonderful teacher," he told me and sat beside me, his eyes still watching what I was doing. "What do you want to do with this though?"

"I'm going to send myself a message because I know that it's going to be sent, but then I'm going to try to send Jo a message as well."

Brian nodded. "Jo as in Josephine?"

"Yes, exactly," I confirmed. It was a good thing that she had made me remember her number. It had been a weird phase of her where she had watched a lot of crime shows and was convinced that if I remembered her number it wouldn't be so bad if I got kidnapped because after all I would be able to call her and let her know where I was. I thought it was a bit ridiculous how she'd call me at random times - in the middle of the night, I'm not lying - and made me recite her number over and over again. Now, of course, I was thankful for her efforts.

When I had put in Josephine's number, however, I started at the screen, the cursor blinking away, waiting for me to come up with something to say. That wasn't so easy though. What would I say? In the end I decided to just type whatever my fingers would.

Hey Jo, it's me, Mira. This might come completely surprising, or you might be waiting for a message from me, I don't know. In any case I don't want you to worry. I know that I'm not there at the moment, but I'm safe and happy, I promise. I don't know when I'll be back, if I'll be back, but I'm fine. Please let me know if you get that message! (also, thank you for forcing me to remember your number)

I stared at the phone, trying to control my emotions. If I'll be back. It was true, but it was only when I typed that that the true meaning of that statement hit me. I might not ever see her again, my best friend, any of my friends. And I hadn't even gotten a chance to say goodbye, who knew if she would ever read that message?

Brian gently placed his hand on my back. "That message looks fine," he said softly.

"Mh," was all I managed to reply. I read over the message again before I pressed sent. I closed my eyes for a moment, sending a prayer to whoever was responsible for my situation would make sure that this message found Josephine. When felt someone okay again I returned to the main screen of the messaging app where there were only two conversations. One called 'Jo' and one called 'Mira!' followed by a couple of smiley faces. Even though I wasn't entirely happy in that moment, when I saw that I couldn't help but smile. It was simply so sweet, and so genuine, it told me that Brian most likely enjoyed talking to me quite a lot. And in turn, that was something I really needed in that moment.

I glanced at Brian quickly before I opened his conversation with me, my smile turning a little more genuine. I had a friend and even though I'd been pulled out of my life it could be so much worse. The cursor was blinking away again, but this time I came up with something to say much faster.

To whoever reads this message. This is Mira, the owner of the phone you're holding. If you're looking for me, then don't worry. I'm fine, I'm perfectly fine and I'm safe. If you need to know more, if you want more information then please talk to Josephine. Thank you, Mira.

I nodded a little to myself before I turned off the screen and placed the phone on Brian's nightstand before I looked at him. "Alright... thanks for finding it."

"Of course. Do you feel a little better now?" He asked, his hand still on my back.

"A little," I replied, shrugging. "I'm just... I may never see or talk to my friends, my family again. That's kind of a mood killer."

"I know, and I'm sorry. But you can't change it, you know? Try to make the best of it. You may never see them again, but you could also be back with them this time tomorrow, which would leave us with very limited time, and... I may sound selfish but I would like to make use of that time as much as possible. It might be the only chance we have."

I watched him closely and nodded a little. "You're right... you're right. You know what, I sent the messages, now I can focus on other things. And there's one thing that I would like to remind you of something you said."

Brian smiled a little and looked at me curiously. "What is that?"

"On the phone you said that if I was there with you, you'd want to be stargazing with me, just you and me under a blanket to keep warm... I want to do that if you're up for it. After all, this might be our only night..." Watching his smile grow wider brought a similar expression back onto my face.

"I would love to do that. Yes. I love that idea. We will do that," he assured me before he pulled me closer into a gentle hug.