Sawyer got up very early the next morning and packed himself a light lunch and a drink. He had some breakfast with his mum, who usually would have left for work by the time he ate. At 7 30 they both left home together and she gave him a lift to the village, dropping him off by the old church. She had sensed his strange mood and had asked him if everything was ok with him, and he had told her that everything was good. The truth really, because today he was going to confront and rid himself of these strange and disruptive fantasies and get back to his usual old stoic stability.
He quickly scooted accross the busy road and onto the village green, walking purposefully towards the pond. This morning there was a low lying mist hugging the ground and completely hiding the pond. Caused no doubt by the overnight rise in temperature and the early hour of the morning. Soon it would dissipate and in all likelyhood turn into a very nice day. As the pond swam into view he was astounded to see Biro standing on the far side of the bank next to the large bamboo that grew there. He waved and extended his hand and saw Biro's face immediately light up as he took hold of it. This time Sawyer wasn't taken by surprise as Biro hoisted it high with his own while all the while holding steady eye contact with him. The mist was all gone now and he could feel the sun warming the tops of his shoulders. "I have been coming here every day hoping that I might find you here" he said to Biro. "Yes I have seen you" the other boy said, an uncharactoristic flash of annoyance welled up inside Sawyer, but he managed to suppress it. After all they had only ever met on one other occasion so really why should Biro feel that he should have to acknowledge him everytime he saw him. All the same he couln't help feeling a bit crushed. Biro caught the brief look on his face and he sat down on the grass, motioning Sawyer to join him. Biro turned to Sawyer and looking strangly conflicted he said, right out of the blue, "do you like me Sawyer?, tell me honestly, I want to know". Feeling very self conscious, because this was the type of situation he had spent his entire life trying to avoid he said, "Biro, it's hard for me to talk this way, but yh, I do like you. I~I don't have many good friends. Biro, I don't have any friends at all. I can't believe I'm talling you this. People my own age th~they don't take to me, and I don't take to them either. With you it is massively different and i don't understand why, and yh, I was really hurt when you said you had seen me every day. You didn't even care enough to bother to say hi" A very grave looking Biro said "Sawyer don't freak out on me, but here is the thing, you and I, well we live in two completely separate worlds occupying more or less the same space, so although I could see you, you couldn't see or hear me". Sawyer leapt to his feet, beyond upset, any minute now he was expecting a bunch of the local lads to materialise, and his life would be over in this little village. "If you are mocking me then you are doing a fucking good job", he screamed, his eyes tearing up. I thought we w~were", He stopped and buried his face in his hands. He felt strong hands gripping his and gently pulling them away from his face. "Shh shh I wasn't Sawyer" Biro said in a hushed voice. I won't ever, believe me". Sawyer raised his eyes and he saw to his amazement that Biro's eyes looked moist. He sat back down and Biro followed suit. "Ok" he said "tell me now, I'm listening now".
"I am not of your world Sawyer, in fact i'm not even sure whose world we are in right now. This is hard for you to understand, I know. You see the grass? well look at it, it's dry and the mist has all cleared away. You are an hour behind me normally, but somehow you have crossed over into my time zone where it is later in the day and it has all dried out". Sawyer could see that this was real, because now that he thought about it one moment he had been walking through damp grass and mist and the next it was like this. "For me now the time is 9 45 wheras for you it would be around 8 45, am I right?. Think of it like this, you go into a big empty room and you bang a tin and it will echo. Well, my world if you can imagine it exists in the echo of yours. Your world is the dominant one, and I think for some reason this is why you Backworlders rarely ever see my world, and why some of us at certain times can see yours. So we are aware of your world and of how it works. We even avail ourselves of your technology where it will benefit us. Like the echo you hear after the sound is still a real sound in it's own right, so are we, existing in the echo of your world but equally real. We are roughly one hour ahead of you, and in fact we have also adopted your practice of moving our clocks forwards and backwards at the same time that you do. I know this is an awful lot for you to take in, but think about it at least".
Sawyers mind was racing. first he had felt that flash of anger as he had thought that this boy had been making a fool of him. Now already he realised that what he had been told must be the truth, however impossible, because it answered all of the questions that had been going round in his head for so long. The grass was dry, the mist was gone, the sun looked too high in the sky for this hour, and Finn, he had claimed to to have been here at the same time that he had been, and yet had said that he had seen no sign of him. Another thought popped into his head. "Am I in your world or are you in mine?" he asked. "I don't know", admitted Biro, "I have a feeling that you are in mine. We were both throwing pebbles at a water lily that was in my world remember?" He did remember and that explained why he had never seen a lily that colour before, and also why Biro had asked him if he could see it properly. It was plain to him now that either everything Biro had told him was true, or he had completely lost his mind. Either option finally explained everything that had been dominating his mind since their first meeting. So our worlds are identical then?" Biro frowned, "no not really, the main features are the same, I mean, it is the same planet we live on. This pond is similar, maybe slightly bigger in my world, but occupying roughly the same space. This grass is part of a large meadow and woodland in mine and so a lot bigger in area , but the geography is more or less the same. A low lying region in my world will be a low lying region in yours also, as will be a desert or an ocean. In a lot of cases you will have artificially altered your landscapes whereas we tend to keep ours in it's natural form. I think this area must have been preserved in it's natural form in your world and that is probably one of the reasons you were able to cross over here. That and the coincidence of you being here on your Waking day, for that is the day when we are at the most sensitive we will ever be in our life. Somehow on that day, maybe because of how upset you were, you saw me and homed in on me, and crossed over from your world into mine. I have long been seeing you, ever since my own Waking day, but on that day although I was able to see into a part of your world you were unable to see into mine. This is the first time since that day that you have seen me again. It's really unusual event. The odd times a backworlder has spoken to one of us has been very rare indeed, and for it to occur with the same person a second time is almost unheard of. I have a feeling that now we have established some strange kind of a link between and I really believe we will see each other more and more easily. At least Sawyer, I hope we will.
YOU ARE READING
Lonely Boy(by dyjonn)
FantasyEverybody see's Sawyer as a committed loner but it's the last thing he really wants to be
