It's just a blue box. That's all it is. I've walked past it every day for as long as I can remember, ever since I started walking to school, with or without my friends. It has always been there; through the long hot summer days and the snowy cold winters nights. It's always been here; unnoticed, a forgotten part of the past that the council haven't carted away yet. A subtle reminder of a bygone age. Maybe the council have forgotten it too. Yet I've only seen it as a flash of blue in the corner of your eye as you walked past. I have questioned it before. But only once, but you've mostly been too busy talking to friends about the latest gossip about that girl I don't like or about my favourite soap star. I've never looked back, I've never had a reason too; until now.
I still think of it as that weird blue box, with it's even weirder legends. People have told me to stay away from it, my aunt tells you it's got bad 'mojo'. But I don't listen to her and her weird stories. I don't listen to any of the stories. I can hear Nathan and Jayne shouting at me to hurry up. They tell me of a war, of good against evil; with metal men in the streets; flying pepper pots in the sky; mass hallucinations, the papers dubbed it. My mother remembers it. I don't, I'm still too young. No one does, not even Nathan and I'm pretty sure he remembers everything. He's pulling on my arm now, telling me not to go to the forgotten blue box. But, I can't get that itch, that urge to go away.
A part of me knows the stories are true. It's in the modern history book at school. Yet I don't think the blue box had anything to do with it, not directly anyway. There's something about the box that isn't bad or evil - its good. On the side of the angels. I can feel it. I can't explain it. Even now you can feel it calling to me, I'm standing on the corner, Nathan pulling me away, and I'm still looking at it. I can hear - feel it - it screaming; I'm here, come take a look! Although I put it down to almost two decades of curiosity and my over active imagination. The curiosity is like a gravitational pull. Drawing me one step… two steps… three steps closer. I've noticed that there's nothing remarkable about the blue box; except maybe the fact that it's still here.
The rational part of myself is telling – yelling at me – me that I'm inventing things, that the blue box is just an invention, a car blasts past you, rushing to get where ever it's going. I ignore it, Nathan's still shouting to me. It's not good for you Evie; it's not good for you. I know the blue box is impossible to be there. That it's just a figment of my imagination – it has to be. But I see it, as plain as day. Standing tall, proud like it had done all those years before I was born. The childish curiosity makes me push another few faltering steps forward. For a moment, I'm unsure of myself, I don't know what to do. The rational side is screaming to turn tail and run away and never stop, to push all thoughts of the box away, and to purge it from my memory; like a bad nightmare. But stupidity and curiosity makes me stay. I have to know. I have to know what it is. I have to know why it's here.
Now.
I reach out. Nathan pulls me back again. Do you know what you're doing? I smile and nod. Jayne looks oddly worried, but I don't pay much attention, I kind of just let it was over me. The curiosity taking over. My hand brushes against the warm wood; even though my hand feels oddly disconnected from my body, it's probably from the cold. The blue paint peels away from the slick wet wood, showing rotten wood beneath. Incessant rain falls over the barely awake city of London. My hand trails down the door of the box; and I can feel something else; something that makes the hair on the back of my neck stands on end – that feeling – I forget the rain. It makes me wonder why I've never seen it before, how I've never noticed it before.
It's not just the grain of the wood I can feel though. No, it's power; pulsing… almost alive. Inside the box. It doesn't scare me; I know it won't hurt me. The power can't hurt me, can't it? But I can't pull myself away, almost like the tantalizing thought of finally knowing is so close. This is the point of no return. I can't walk away now. I have to know. Nathan's hand slips from my shoulder, but he's still following closely behind. Thinking that he can still somehow deter me away from the fantasy of the blue box. But he can't. The point of no return.
My hand hovers above the rusted handle; years of it being out in the cold, in the rain, the snow and the summer heat, the years of autumn winds that it must have seen. The remaining flecks of the silver paint that covered the iron handle still cling to it, even as the harsh winter wind tries to rip them away from their rightful place. I swallow, my mouth is dry with excitement and just the tiniest tinge of fear as my hand curls around the rough rusted iron of the handle. It scrapes gently against my shaking hand; I smile giddily at Nathan, who looks terrified. I wonder how many other hands have opened the door, have seen the power that lies beyond. And then I pull the door. It rattles loudly, but doesn't budge. The wood must have swollen in the rain and age. I sigh and shake the grimy London rain from my dyed dark hair.
"Push!" A voice whispers in my ear - in my mind. I look around yourself, there's only Nathan and Jayne – the other's won't be around for a while, but I - its too cold and dark for anyone who doesn't have a mission to for fill, early winter mornings aren't usually anyone's favourite place to be. The voice repeats its self – more forcefully, more loudly. It wants to be discovered. "PUSH!" I do as I'm told and push hard against the wooden door. For a moment it just looks like it's going to give. But eventually it creaks open, and I fall through. I land heavily on the floor inside. I had half expected to hit my head on the wood panel on the other side. Metal rattles beneath me. And what I see takes my breath away.
It's bigger on the inside than it is outside. The doors open out to a room that's bigger. Bigger. I laugh and stand up, embarrassed, and yet I don't know why. I pull Nathan in after me. I hear Jayne sigh and follow us. The colours jump out at me; darkened browns and blues that shine like sapphires. I'm rooted to the spot as I look around. This is why my family think its bad. They must have seen inside the blue box. I don't want to blink, I can hardly breathe. Its like the air has been pulled out of the room. I reach for the rail at the side of me to steady myself. I hardly realize I've done it. My hand curls around the cool metal. Still smooth, not like the handle outside. Finally, I remember how to breathe, and move.
"What is this place?" Nathan asks, I can't answer him. I don't know how to form words yet. I just shake my head as he steps forward. Jayne's stepped back out and is running around the exterior of the blue box. "This is weird. It feels like we shouldn't be here." I nod, Jayne came back inside. Her eyes were wide and she could barely breathe as she looked around the cavernous place that we were standing in. I step forward. Looking at the mushroom shape in front of me. All those switches. All those buttons. I smile at Nathan and Jayne. They look absolutely mystified or terrified. Whichever. "Evie, what is this place?" I grin brighter. I have no idea.
The central column stands with thick wires trailing away to somewhere else and an azure glow. The mushroom like console glows too. Columns seem to hold up the almost circular structure. They were patterned too, you smile as you touch it; it's almost like coral - just as alive as the rest of the room. I walk up to the console, leaving Nathan and Jayne to gape at the wonders of this new place while I have a look around. A part of me wants to flick all the switches and push all the buttons. But the other part is too scared to touch it, scared it might explode or move or something. The door behind me slams shut, as if it has a life of its own. The power is still weak, but now there's no wood in the way it feels stronger, and it keeps getting stronger; pulsing, radiating pure power. I run my hand over the console; making extra attention to the fact that I don't touch anything I shouldn't. The lights flicker on, lighting the dirty browns to a golden sort of colour. I jump slightly, not expecting the sudden brightness of the room.
Lights are hidden in the roundels on the sides; the glow in the console grows to a more intense azure. I step back from the console worried that I might have touched something I most probably shouldn't have. I land hard on the chair behind me; it's battered, the leathers yellowing and cracking - well used. It gives slightly and I hope it isn't going break. I notice the screen; flickering between some sort of alien language and static. But still, it doesn't scare me, I know it should do; but it doesn't. I stand up. I catch sight of another gangway that leads away. I want to see where it goes. I turn back to the console. I think of a million things to do.
"We should go, we should..." I mumbled softly to them as I stood up from the leather chair. My mind still wishing for more time to look around the wondrous place that I had discovered. But Jayne and Nath were already heading for the door, my heart pounding in my chest as I tried to wrestle with the ideas that were coming to my mind – I need to get out of here... but it's just a place... I need to stay close to Nath and Jayne... I need to see more. "We have to go." I say again, hating my cowardice as I look towards my two friends. They are just standing there now. "What?"
"How did you get in?" A voice asks behind me, it makes me jump slightly. Well I guess that's what they were gaping at. I thought that it was just Jayne, Nath and I on our own in this place. I turn slowly and smile gently at the man that's just appeared out of nowhere. I want to run but - something about him makes me stop. I just know he isn't going to hurt us. "What's your name?" For a second, I'm stumped. It's a question that I can usually answer in a second. But I fumble for the words to tell him. He smiles. I notice that he has an amazingly bright smile, and to add to that amazing hair to that list... And eye's, he's got lovely chocolate eyes. Gangly though, bean pole tall. I have that sudden urge just to run my hands through his hair. "Cat got your tongue? I don't like cats, especially humanoid ones. They always want to kill you..." Off he goes on a tangent and to be quite honest I think it's wonderful.
"My names Evie Smith," I whisper, not wanting to stop the man from his rambling. He stops for a second, taking in my name. "That's Jayne and Nathan." I say in the pause, gesturing to my two frozen friends. But then he carries on with his absurd story of talking, human cats and the future. Although it would sound absurd coming from anyone else - they would have probably been hauled away kicking and screaming if they said anything to anyone. But after stepping into the blue box... he just called it a TARDIS... it doesn't seem so silly to be talking about alien cats and the future. I just listen intently and he doesn't seem too bothered about the fact that there are two strange girls' and a boy in his blue box; I assume that it's his blue box anyway. Then I realise why he's telling you all these things - who's going to believe two teenage girls and a boy?
"... I'm the Doctor, by the way." He says. I nod; I want him to continue with his story. That childish curious part of me wants to believe that it isn't a just a story, that it's a real life retelling of something that really happened to him. But he isn't telling his story anymore. He's looking at the broken alien screen. Again I only assumed it was broken. Maybe it isn't. Or maybe it is and the Doctor's going to fix it. I don't know. He muttered something, and then turns back to you. He looks a little annoyed. "Did you touch anything?" He asks. I don't think I touched anything important. But as I think about it - everything looks so important! He flicks a few of the switches and grabs a mallet. A thought of shit maybe he will hurt me runs through my head and I want to run now, but I'm in too deep. With out warning the Doctor bashes the console heavily with the mallet, because I touched something I shouldn't. He looks at em and grimaces a silent apology. The screen stops flickering. He grins at me. I can't help yourself; I grin back.
Then the TARDIS lurches to one side, I'm flung backwards back into the half battered chair. Nath and Jayne are holding on to the rails by the doors. Jayne looks like she's about to be sick and Nath just look terrified. I grab hold of the head rest and hold on for dear life, over the sound of the engines grinding - it sounds like a giant's last breath, I can hear someone screaming. It takes me a few minutes to realise that it's actually me. I clamp my mouth shut quickly and watch the Doctor run around the TARDIS's console, laughing manically as he hits console with the mallet, muttering to me about how it's been acting up and how he's been meaning to get it fixed; stuck for almost twenty years in a London suburb without a Chameleon Circuit. He says it as if it's a bad thing. I don't think my home is all that bad. It's very quiet, yes. But it isn't like the roaring life of the big city. Yet I daren't argue with him.
With a sort of clunking noise - the TARDIS stopped. He looks over at me from where he's stood. I look from him to Nath and Jayne who are now collecting themselves from the TARDIS' movement. I'm still holding on to the head rest of the chair. He raises an eyebrow at me, and again I feel embarrassed. I let go and stand up, smiling back at the Doctor, his smiles in his eyes too. He runs to the screen and checks it. His face dropped, I run to his side. Not really thinking about it, it felt natural to me. I see the image on the screen. It's changed, no longer the alien language that I couldn't understand. It looks like prehistoric times with velociraptors and T-Rex's roaming a jungle ridden land. I read what it says in the bottom left of the flickering screen, I'm shocked to see the date, it can't be right... It say's London 65,000,000 BC or as the Doctor put it; in evolutionary terms - next Monday. I couldn't stop the laugh that escaped me. It was too much for poor Jayne though as she hit the metal deck.
"This is a joke," I comment, the little blue box that was bigger on the inside couldn't have moved. "That's impossible. It's gotta be a video or something." I say, remembering that TV show from years ago, but you can't remember the name. "We can't have moved." I tell him. He just smiles and chuckles, I soon realise that it's not the first time that someone has said that to him. I push away from the Doctor's side and run to the doors, hopping over Nath and the unconscious Jayne. I think that I'm going to see a damp suburban London street; with cars screaming past and their drivers trying to get to work on time, school kids dodging the rain as they run to school. I look down on myself, still wearing school uniform. I grab the door handle and throw open the doors; the images that were on the screen were reflected outside the doors. That I was not expecting. I stumble backwards back into the console room, the doors close as I let go of them, taking the scene away. Jayne and Nath had finally moved so I had a clear path from the door to the column.
The Doctor explains about time travel and what TARDIS actually means; Time and Relative Dimension in Space. He says that his race, the Time Lords, invented machines that can travel between worlds, to the distant future, and times that have past and I've only seen in history books... I stare at him, wide eyed, confused, disbelieving. He can't be an alien, he looks normal - human. He explains that he has two hearts and can regenerate in a heartbeat, he can never age either. Again, I can't help myself but stare at him. He's off his rocker, totally mental, gone in the head; a mad man with a little blue box that travels in through space, it's the best way I can think to describe him. He stops and stares at the door intently; the same irresistible pull of curiosity that pulled me to his TARDIS was pulling him to the world outside. It's the first time that I've noticed the phone on the door.
"Is it real?" I ask, he shakes his head and tells you its fake - for authenticity. I nod. The Doctor smiles and pulls on a great long coat over his brown pin stripe suit. "There are dinosaurs out there." He smiles again, this time a full on maniacal grin (it makes me smile too), he nods and races to the door before you can create another question to ask. I sigh, and think that you should add cosmic nine years old to your list of ways to describe the Doctor. I turn to follow him out of the door. Three seventeen year olds in prehistoric times with an alien from the planet zog. It's almost enough to write a book on, or a long running BBC TV show. I push all those silly, silly ideas out of your head. This is too incredible to rationalise, it's probably the best thing that could ever happen to me and – for a few moment's – I can barely believe it is happening to me.
The Doctor's at the door now, standing there with his hands on the handles and lock. Looking at me. His grin is there; almost begging me to accompany him out there in to the impossible world outside. I look to Jayne and Nath; Jayne is beginning to look more like she's curious while Nath is genuinely just wanting to get out of the TARDIS. I can't stop myself anymore. I rush forward to join the Doctor at the door and he takes my hand, pausing for a second. "Ready?" He asks me.
"As I'm ever gonna be!"