San Francisco. 1967. The Doctor is an eco activist known to chain himself to whatever is necessary out of protest. Clara is a young woman from a rich entrepreneur family that she is trying to escape, so she decides to move into a commune. And she chooses the man that would annoy her parents the most – but can their love last longer than the summer?
The Summer of Love
Chapter 1
Clara wasn't exactly sure if she was reading the map right because according to that she had found the house she had been looking for but when she looked up she spotted a mansion. That couldn't be right. Not for the price of the room she wanted to rent. Unless of course half a mansion in America came at the price of a small room in the UK. This house however was as big as her parents' home and Clara had a vague idea about what that must have cost.
"Hey, are you Clara Oswald or are you just impressed with the building?" a male voice with a Scottish accent said and it sounded familiar to her. That was the man she had corresponded with, the Doctor.
She searched the garden for him and eventually spotted him kneeling in front of a vegetable patch in the front yard. A vegetable patch in the front yard? That seemed odd.
"Yes, that's me, Clara Oswald," she introduced herself.
"Come on in," the Doctor told her, "The gate is unlocked."
Reluctantly she stepped through the gate and into the garden, a shy smile on her lips as she approached the man. She knew nothing about him except that he had a room to rent and he had come here from Scotland about 10 years ago and now that she looked at him she wasn't exactly sure if he would be the right flatmate for her after all. He was in his 50s, had an absolute mess of grey curls on top of his head and a beard that she would have loved to take a razor to. And he also wasn't wearing shoes.
"I suppose you want to see the inside of the house and your room, right?" he rose from out of the dirty patch of ground and dusted himself off although that hardly did any good at all.
"Doctor!" suddenly Clara turned around to see a young girl race across the lawn. She must have been around 5 or 6 years old, "Doctor! The arm came off again!"
The girl stopped in front of the Doctor and held a doll in his direction. Clara could immediately see what the problem was when the girl also handed him the detached arm.
"Ohhhh, poor thing," the Doctor replied and swept the girl up in his arms, "I'll fix it in a moment, okay? I want to show Clara her room first. She's thinking about moving in with us."
The girl turned her head towards Clara as they started walking in the direction of the house and smiled. "You're pretty!"
"Thank you," Clara giggled softly, "You are very pretty, too."
Suddenly the Doctor began to laugh. "And what about me, Melody? Am I pretty, too?"
Clara guessed that behind the beard he wasn't bad, even if a little eccentric looking but the girl obviously didn't agree.
"Men can't be pretty," she argued.
"That's the spirit, sweetheart," he laughed.
Then Clara turned to face the Doctor. "You didn't mention on the phone that you had a daughter."
"I don't. This little sweetheart is Amy's and Rory's daughter Melody. If you've got a bit of time you can meet them. They should get home from work in about an hour," the Doctor explained.
"Wait," she felt a little confused, "They live here, too?"
"Of course," the Doctor replied with a smile as if it should have been obvious, "We're sort of a commune. Didn't I mention that on the phone?"
"A commune?"
Clara had heard of those. There was a famous one in Berlin constantly making the news at the moment and the thought about it almost made her turn around and run in the opposite direction. She wanted to distance herself from her parents and find her own way through life, but she wasn't keen on trouble like that.
"Don't worry," the Doctor said, "We're not freaks like those in Berlin. Well, not all of us anyway. We bought this house together before they could sell it to a company that had planned to tear it down and build a shopping centre in this area. They would have paved the entire thing, along with the lake, the fields and the forest behind this house. Now they can't."
"So, you're all eco activists?" Clara asked. She had to admit her initial thought had been worse but what the Doctor was telling her actually didn't sound too bad. At least they were doing something for the environment. As long as they weren't too radical.
"Sort of," the Doctor smiled at her, "We've been living together in this house for almost 10 years now and it's become a bit like a family. We share the living room, kitchen and the bathrooms but you'd have your own room and if you don't bother us we won't bother you. We don't expect you to decide right away. Check out your room, meet everyone, think about it."
When Clara stepped inside she knew she kind of wanted to move in on the spot. It had a cosy hippie vibe to it that was absolutely modern and fresh and the whole place seemed to smell like incense. And the best thing about it: her parents would lose it if they found out she was living with hippies and if it was truly as familiar as the Doctor made it sound she had definitely come to the right place. She had moved to America only recently, or fled more like it, leaving behind everything and everyone for a fresh start. And this was looking like a pretty nice place for a new beginning.
The Doctor set Melody down, who immediately darted off and up the stairs, and led her through a simple corridor and started pointing at several doors leading away from it.
"This is the downstairs bathroom, the bigger one with a bathtub. We don't have a schedule for it since we all have a different routine and there has never been any problem. There's another, small bathroom upstairs and one next to my office if it's an emergency," he explained.
"Your office?" Clara asked him, intrigued as to what his work was.
"I have a medical practice in the other wing of the house, just through the side entrance. I work with natural remedies only," he said, turning back around to face her and he seemed startled by the distrustful look on her face, "I'm not a charlatan. I believe that a lot of simple illnesses can be cured using herbs and other remedies provided by nature. Not all, of course. If I know I can't help them, I send them straight to the hospital. I have a medical degree if you want to see it."
Suddenly Clara started to laugh. "It's okay. You don't have to justify what you do."
"Really?" the Doctor raised an eyebrow, "Cause I'm getting the feeling that you're judging me."
"I'm not," she replied with a smile, "It's just. . . new to me. That's all. Let's continue the tour."
The Doctor cleared his throat and moved along, pointing at another door leading away from the corridor. He told her that a woman called Martha lived in there. Martha had lost her husband in Vietnam a few years ago and had moved in with them right afterwards, having given her son away to be raised by her parents while she pursued a medical career, which she was now able to do after the Civil Rights Act had been passed three years ago.
He opened the doors to a wide living room that Clara wanted to settle in immediately. It was filled with plants and books and the large sofas and carpets gave it a really cosy, homely atmosphere. There was a small fireplace that looked just as inviting to her and the Doctor explained that they often gathered here after work to chat or an occasional game night. In her head she was already making herself comfortable on the carpet in front of the fire with a cup of tea and a good book.
When the Doctor moved on she followed him into the next room that was clearly used both as kitchen and dining room. It was clean and Clara would have enough space to make her beloved soufflés.
The Doctor placed the kettle on the oven and looked at her expectantly. "What do you think so far?"
She smiled. "I think your house is amazing. Where would my room be?"
"Follow me," he told her and headed all the way back to the corridor before leading her up the stairs and once they had reached the upper floor she noticed two corridors leading away from where she was standing.
"The corridor to your left is where Amy and Rory live with Melody. They probably won't mind showing you once they're at home. We gave them some more room for their family business. This is the second bathroom I was telling you about," he pointed at another door which he passed in his stride, "And this would be yours."
He opened to door to a large, bright room and Clara was instantly taken, like she had been with the rest of the house. Like the downstairs living room the floor was lined with all sorts of different carpets and one wall was entirely covered in a painting of a huge mandala. There was a large bed, a desk, some shelves and a spacious wardrobe, everything she needed.
"You can redecorate it any way you like," the Doctor told her while she made her way to the window, "And if you need any kind of handiwork done I can help you with it."
"I love it," Clara replied excitedly and looked out, realizing that what she saw were probably the gardens and behind them a lake. Then something else caught her eye. "Are those chickens?!"
The Doctor chuckled. "Yeah, I forgot to mention. You don't have to worry about them but you'll always have fresh eggs. When it comes to the rest of the groceries we write a list and take turns every week."
Clara turned around, smiling at him. She had made up her mind. This was definitely a place she wanted to live in if the others proved to be as nice as the Doctor.
"Do you want to see the library?"
She cocked her eyebrows at him, her smiling turning into beaming. "The library?"
As it turned out the library was another room the size of the living room and it was filled with books to the brim – and it was right across the hall from her room. The centre of it was taken up by a comfortable looking arrangement of chairs, sofas and a coffee table. And enough books to read for a lifetime.
Apparently the Doctor had been able to read the look on her face because he soon smiled at her.
"When do you want to get your things?" he asked, "I could help with the move and Rory probably wouldn't mind either."
As lovely as the thought of moving in immediately sounded to her, suddenly a surge of doubt rose up inside her. Clara wanted this. She wanted to move in. It seemed almost too good to be true. But would the others think the same? They were hippies, free spirits, adventurers and she was anything but. Clara came from a very rich family, had been pampered all of her life and there was more than enough money in her trust fund to buy this entire house at least three times. Her parents had paid for everything she had wanted and more, all of her belongings, her education, . . . her wedding. Would these people ever want her to move in if they knew?
"Clara?" the Doctor's voice tore her from her thoughts and she looked up at him, smiling sheepishly.
"Shouldn't I meet the others first?"
The Doctor smiled back. "Of course."