Words with Enemies
Chapter One: The Perfect Day
By Caroline Miniscule
Date: 23 November 2017
Location: I.M. Foreman's Junkyard, 76 Totter's Lane, Shoreditch, London, England, Earth, Orion Arm, Milky Way, Local Group, Virgo Supercluster, Laniakea
In a far corner of a cluttered junkyard, a TARDIS in the shape of a large blue police box stood.
Within, inside the control room, there were two entities.
One was a male, tall and slender with silver hair, dressed entirely in black. The other, a woman, was clad in more cheerful colors – a bright red sweatshirt over black slacks, with the straps of a bright blue backpack slung over her shoulders.
The male sat on a chair in front of a computer screen, while on the screen newspapers flashed by, smears of black print on a white screen. The woman stood behind the man, watching, but she could make no sense of most of what she saw – newspapers in different languages – she recognized French, Spanish, German…then the papers changed to non-Roman alphabets, was that Hebrew…and that, Cyrillic?
"Good morning, Doctor" said the woman.
The Doctor looked up from the computer screen.
"Is it morning already?"
"Yes."
"Oh!"
As had happened a hundred mornings before, the Doctor quickly paused the computer screen, then jumped to his feet and went to the TARDIS controls. He pressed a couple of buttons, the TARDIS whoop-whooped a couple of times, and then stopped.
Date: 22 November 2017
Location: I.M. Foreman's Junkyard, 76 Totter's Lane, Shoreditch, London, England, Earth, Orion Arm, Milky Way, Local Group, Virgo Supercluster, Laniakea
"Much better," said the Doctor.
He returned to his chair and the computer screen.
"I'm going out, Doctor," the woman said.
He reached out a hand immediately to freeze the screen and glanced up at her.
"Have a good time, Amelia."
Amelia paused a few seconds.
"Won't you come with me? You haven't been out of the TARDIS in…in…in a long time."
"I'm conducting research, important research," the Doctor pointed out. "You go along without me. Bring back some fish-and-chips, why don't you?"
Amelia continued to stare at him. Concern and worry were etched on her face.
"I've been out on my own every day for a hundred days," she said. "You haven't stepped foot outside the TARDIS in a hundred days. We haven't gone anywhere in a hundred days. Every day it's the same. You tell the TARDIS to go back exactly one day in time. We've been reliving the same day over and over for the past year."
"A lot can happen in a single day," the Doctor said. "And London is huge. Have you had the same experience twice, while you've been exploring the city?"
"I've perfected my piano playing, I can tell you that," Amelia said. "And I've decided to take up Scrabble®."
"Scrabble®?" said the Doctor, his attention momentarily diverted.
"Scrabble®," she said. "Did you know, Doctor, that the first word in the Scrabble® Dictionary – the North American version, anyway – is AA? That's Hawaiian for lava. I wouldn't mind seeing Hawaii…why don't we…"
"Why the North American Scrabble® Dictionary?" asked the Doctor. "This is England."
"Most of the words in both those dictionaries aren't proper words," Amelia pointed out. "But the North American version is more manageable. Though If we're going to stay here much longer I'll probably have time to memorize that one as well."
The Doctor's eyes straying back to the computer screen.
Amelia could stand it no longer.
"Doctor, what are you looking for?"
The Doctor sighed. A heart-breaking sigh. He smiled…a heart-breaking smile.
"I'm looking for the perfect day."
Her forehead creased in puzzlement.
"Today is a perfect day. It's lovely outside. Just the right temperature. It doesn't rain all day. No snow. There are some fantastic plays in the West End. There's a lovely concert. There's a new chef at the Rascala. It's his first day, actually. His food is to die for… Please, Doctor, come out and enjoy it."
He shook his head.
"No, my dear. This is not the perfect day. Well…it's a perfect day for me, yes. Nice and quiet and I can get some work done. But this is not the perfect day."
She sighed.
"Okay, Doctor, I'll bring back some fish-and-chips."
"Thank you."
Amelia checked one of the monitor screens that revealed everything around the TARDIS within a 100-meter radius. There was no one around, no movement, not a cat, not even a rat. There never had been – not in the hundred days that she'd been performing that action.
She walked out of the TARDIS, closing the door tightly behind her.
In all her time with the Doctor, he had never behaved like this. 100 days, of going back to the same day, and not doing anything…just sitting there….going through newspapers from around the world…
Looking for a perfect day? The perfect day?
What was a perfect day, if it wasn't one where the sun was shining and the weather was just right?
And what was he going to do when he found it?
She glanced back once at the TARDIS. Then, shaking her head with foreboding, she walked out into the city.