AN END AND A BEGINNING
When the watch broke, so did everything else.
The watch was an unassuming, benign thing that she had kept near her without really knowing why. Sometimes it appeared in her dreams, but then slipped away once she woke. The watch simply was, it just existed in the background and always had.
When the watch broke, so did everything else.
All she could remember was bright, brilliant golden light tearing through her body, turning her inside out. Everything changing. Memories rent apart with a sound like ripping steel then the pieces melded together with new images, words, ideas that did not seem to be hers. No, they were wrong, all wrong, they belonged to someone else. Someone long dead and forgotten.
When the watch broke, so did everything else.
Jane Smith Parker lived a happy life, and if it hadn't been for the watch, she probably would have died as such too. Jane Parker was married to country doctor, Arnold Parker. They had met at school, Cambridge to be exact. Jane was among the few women who attended the university in the early turn of the century, and Arnold was one of the few men who did not dismiss her immediately as a silly girl who ought to have gotten married or taught primary school. So naturally, they fell in love and married though not until after the Great War which had been without a doubt the most unhappy time of Jane's life. But Arnold lived, even though he lost one of his eyes, he still could managed just fine as a doctor. The couple bought a cottage in Manchester and they never moved. The house was always full of flowers and books, and for a time held the voices and sounds of children who then grew up and found cottages of their own.
Yes, Jane was happy. Her husband was a well respected man in the surrounding hamlets and villages, the two of them had raised four children, and now with white hair and many wrinkles they could sit on their rocking chairs before the fire without a care. It wasn't until a stranger peddler came knocking that anything disturbed this blissful life.
The first time he came it was spring, and Jane bought some scissors. The second time he came was several weeks later, and Jane bought a few sewing needles. This time Arnold was home so she allowed the man to come in for a moment to warm himself from the bone chilling rain. He had seen the watch on the mantle and asked about it.
"An old thing," Jane said, "I've always had it…" In fact, she couldn't recall a time when she hadn't had it. It wasn't important, it was stuck so it couldn't open, but Jane felt a fondness for it so that she kept it nearby. It was small, with a dainty chain and very old fashioned but in a charming way. The peddler had asked if he might buy it from her, or trade it. He had displayed a very pretty silk scarf, and Jane was tempted. But no...the watch...she couldn't part with it.
"Why not, Jane?" Arnold had asked, "You've never even worn it!" Try as she might to rationalize the trade, Jane couldn't do it. She sent the peddler on his way.
Then two days later he was at the door again with several more fine objects, asking again for the watch. Again, Jane had to turn him away, but bought some ribbon to be polite. She told Arnold, and he just shrugged at what an oddly persistent man the peddler was and asked what was for supper.
Finally, that night, Jane heard something downstairs. She quietly rose, slipping on her dressing gown and stole into the parlor. The peddler stood at the mantle, his fingers caressing the patterns on the watch.
"What are you doing?!"
The man simply smiled a horrible smile, as someone who knows a terrible secret. He held up the watch and swung it by the chain.
"Don't worry. You'll be so much happier when this is gone."
"I don't think I shall. I'll call the police!"
"Do as you like."
"Arnold!" She called, "Arnold!"
"You never wondered," the man said a bit incredulous, "Never wondered all those years why the watch didn't open? Never had it repaired? Never? Even when it nagged at the corner of your mind, even when you dreamed of flying faster than time?"
Now Jane was nervous. The man did not appear to be armed but something about his words made her deeply uneasy.
"Sir! Put down the watch and kindly sit on the sofa! Jane, call the police." Arnold emerged from their room armed with his pistol. The peddler laughed.
"You may have been a soldier once, old man, but those days are long gone." He took a step toward Jane.
"I will shoot you if you come any closer to my wife."
"You never wondered, Jane Smith, why all you can remember about your parents are their names and place of birth, but never their laughs or smiles or even their faces?"
"Sir, I order you!"
"You never wondered what it was that made you feel like you had forgotten to do something, forgotten something so very important? You never wondered-"
Bang
The shot had been aimed at his shoulder, non-lethally, but Arnold's hands shook from age.
The shot instead struck the watch, shattering the casing and splintering the quartz face. The odds of the bullet hitting the watch were so small, and really, it should never of happened. But it did.
When the watch broke so did everything else.
As the watch fell to the ground, mangled and broken, it began to glow. The golden light came rushing out of the watch as if it had been anxiously waiting to be freed. It rushed at Jane, who screamed. Above her she heard a cry of concern from Arnold and a shout of rage from the peddler. Suddenly, in her head, were words she had never spoken Gallifrey, Dalek, TARDIS, images of things she had never seen asteroids, a small house, a box so much bigger on the inside, sounds she had never heard whirring, screaming, roaring, and memories of places she had not been The Shadow Proclamation, Skaro, Akhaten.
She was dying, she knew it. The vortex of memories, words, cries, and time, so much time, all of time. It swirled in her mind, before her eyes, and it burned her. She felt the burning rise from her stomach, and reach up everywhere. She tried to clamp down on the sensation, keep it inside before it erupted.
She was dying.
Screaming in pain, she finally let go. Brilliant gold light streamed everywhere, it burned and seared, and she felt everything in her changing. Old memories and new splintered and fragmented then melded together becoming twisted and confused. She looked up desperately for Arnold but then suddenly realized that she didn't know who the man trying to reach her was.
Finally, the light stopped and she heard the man ask in an anguished voice,
"Who are you?"
"The Phoenix. I'm the Phoenix. And I've finally risen."
As she collapsed, a puff of gold escaped her lips.
Jesse Redmond watched from his bus stop as a little girl with big, curly red hair scratched the ears of one of the alley cats across the street. He was waiting for his usual ride from Chissick to London which he did once a week to his favorite bakery, without fail, despite any weather. He liked watching the people who passed. Despite the chilly day, the girl wore a short-sleeved white blouse with a Peter Pan collar and a blue pleated skirt that fell to her knees. She seemed to be talking to the cat, and scratched it under the chin. She looked up from the animal and her eyes met Jesse's and in that moment he caught the edge of something wonderful and new.
The girl looked back down at the cat, gave it a final rub on the head and skipped through the rain puddles toward him.
"Hello. Do you know what day it is? And what year? Actually, for that matter, where am I? Cats don't pay much attention, and she couldn't tell me much."
"Good morning, young lassie. It is March 23, 2010. You are in Chissick, England." He smiled.
"Oh! You actually answered! See, I've been asking people and they just laugh and say I'm very amusing and then don't answer! So I asked the cats, and of course they're no help, and the pigeons are even worse. Thank you! That helps me so much! What is your name?"
"Jesse. And what might yours be, you curious little lady?"
"I'm the Phoenix. It's nice to meet you, Jesse."
"The Phoenix. Not just any old Phoenix, I see." He smiled and patted the seat next to him on the bench. "Now, Miss Phoenix, where are your parents? Do you live nearby?"
The girl scuffed the edge of her white patent leather Mary Jane against the pavement, "I got to be honest, I don't know, Mr. Jesse. See, the watch messed everything up. It's like I know all these things, I mean I know my name is the Phoenix, and I know that I'm a Time Lord, II know a broken watch scrambled my memory, and I know how to fly a TARDIS, well I mean I can sort of fly her. Not very well… but I know all those things, and so many on top of that but I can't for the life of me remember my parents, or if I've got brothers and sisters, or friends, or aunts or uncles, or even where I came from. I hardly know what a time lord is!"
Jesse had hardly followed this childish prattle, and asked again where her parents were.
"But can't you see! I don't know where they are! I just don't know!"
"Alright, alright, it's ok, how about we find them?" He soothed.
"Well where do we start?"
"We can go talk to the police but you'll have to give them your real name, dear."
"The Phoenix is my real name! And I don't think the police can help me, my mummy and daddy are awfully far away. I'll ask the TARDIS, I suppose."
"The who?" Jesse was really lost now.
"The TARDIS. She takes care of me." Jesse was getting a little worried. He could see the bus coming but he made no move to catch it. Another bus would be along. He wondered if he should call Child Services.
"So this TARDIS...is she your aunt? Your grandmother?"
"No!" the child laughed, "How about I show you?"
"I don't know…"
"She's close by." The girl took his hand in hers and pulled him across the street. "Come on!" She was impatient at how slow he walked and tugged his hand. They went down the alleyway and behind a building and there in the center was the strangest thing he'd ever seen. If it had been in the middle of a public square or on a main street, he'd have thought it some sort of modern art but in the back lot full of dumpsters and graffiti…
It was a sort of box, about as big as a telephone box but he'd never seen anything look less like a telephone box. The walls appeared to be a mosaic made of opaque stained glass with no particular design save one that looked like a pair of flaming wings across the front.
"Isn't she lovely?" The girl beamed, "She usually blends in but because we were so out of the way, I just let her stay like that. She likes that form." Jesse was too confused to say anything. Phoenix ran up to the box and hugged it as far as her arms would reach. She then pulled from under her shirt a long red string threaded through a key. "Want to come inside?" She put the key into a carefully disguised keyhole and opened the entire front panel. Jesse watched as she disappeared inside. Scratching his head, he stepped closer and peered in through the panel.
He stepped back, astonished.
"Isn't it brilliant?" Beamed the girl, sticking her head back out, "I wish I knew how it worked! But maybe that's the fun part! You can come in if you like." Jesse continued to back up, completely shocked.
"But...but it's- it's-"
"Bigger on the inside!"
"Who are you?"
"I'm the Phoenix, I'm ninety years old and this is my TARDIS. We travel anywhere we like at any time we like and all I'm missing is a companion. I don't really know what companions do, but I remember they are very, very important." Phoenix smiled and flung open the panel door wide. "Care to come?"