Unexpected Encounter

A Discussion About Dominic's Car

Words in BOLD in between "quotation marks" represent thoughts of characters.
___________________________________

Dominic woke up to nurses bringing a woman into his room on a bed. He tried asking them what was going on after he told them that his room was private but did not have much luck.

"I'm sorry, sir, but there aren't enough rooms for everyone at the moment. There was an incident earlier today and now we have a bunch of people coming in. Maybe you've seen it in the news already."

They managed to fit two other beds in his room, one with a man who was placed at the foot of his bed horizontal to his, and the other bed was that of a woman's next to his. After the nurses left, Alex made her way into the room with quite a worried look on her face.

"Hey, luv! To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Hey, Dom... I'm... That's my mother."

"Ah... Sorry to hear. What's uh... What's wrong with her?"

Alex stopped to for a minute to remember what the doctor said.

"Uhmm.. I think the doctor said that she was grazed by a bullet. It's good to see that you don't need a notebook to communicate anymore haha, just realized that."

Dominic did his best to attempt a shrug but couldn't make one obvious enough for Alex to notice. They talked a bit about some things, Crissy, Alex's mom and dad, James, Eva, they didn't seem to run out of things to talk about.

"God, haha I've spent so much time with James that I haven't been able to get to know you all that well! Hmm... Here's a question! How do you get from one place to another in such a short amount of time? James said something about magic?"

"Ah, that's been buggin' you, ain't it?"

Alex nodded her head with a small smile, expecting him to give the same response he did the first time she asked.

"It ain't got nothin' to do with bloody magic haha! As far as I know, there's no such thing! It's all got to do with the car."

"So, what is it? Does the car teleport or something? Haha"

"Eh... Something like that."

"Wait, seriously?!"

Alex looked very confused and excited. She was dumbfounded to think of the existence of a teleporting car. Dominic laughed at the look on her face, he did most times he told people about his car.

"It don't teleport exactly. It's more of a temporal manipulation."

"So... You're a time traveler?"

"Eh... Sort of!"

Alex was a little annoyed with the answer. She was ready to believe in magical, teleporting, and flying cars but for some reason, the fact that Dominic had a time traveling car just didn't seem realistic enough to her.

"Honestly, Dom... I don't know... Are you sure you didn't get hit too hard in the head?"

"If you're thinkin' 'bout travelin' back in time, you can forget it, that's impossible. As far as I know at least."

That caught a bit more of her attention. Putting a limit to a machine like that, for some reason, made it feel more acceptable for her. Even Alex's mother who was quietly listening from her bed was slightly interested now that she was awake... Even if she thought Dominic was mental.

"Time can only be compressed and stretched. There ain't no goin' back in time, and changin' past events! That, luv, would go against the natural order of things."