Okay, so this is the first time submitting to . I love "The Time Traveler's Wife", but I felt the concept could be explored a little more with little switch-ups using the concept of CDP. What this is going to be is a series of short stories involving people with CDD, and the people who know them. I have plans to do more than this, but I'd like some input first on whether or not to continue them. With that, I hope you enjoy this first chapter, and know that I look forward to words from all of you.
Time Traveler's Wife is the property of Audrey Niffenegger
(Phillip and Abigail: both 7)
"Stop looking at the ground so much." The adults would always tell him. It was hard not to when every boy on the school ground would give him trouble if they thought he was looking at them. As long as he just kept to himself and didn't give them any reason to bother him, he could be safe, in the lightest sense of the word. He still couldn't figure out why they bothered him. Was it because he wasn't interested in their roughhousing? Were they jealous of his pretty brown curls (his mother's words, not his)? Either way, it didn't matter to him; they would've just found another reason to tease him.
He found real safety in his home. It was only a couple blocks away, so he could just walk there after school. Every other kid would be picked up in their parents' cars, and they were excited to get home, so they would be too distracted to bother him. That was quite fine with him; he preferred the quiet of the neighborhood once he was out of distance of the school. The familiar look of the trees in the neighbor's yard was the signal he was almost home. He picked up the pace a little, almost as if he expected the house to run away from him. But it was there, sure enough: The off-yellow spackle-like walls, the big red stairs, and the wooden door. Taking out the keys his parents trusted him with (they both worked, and his sister came home not too soon after to look after him), he walked into the house and closed the door.
His home was definitely his safe haven. It was something reliable, something calming, and something that he knew he could simply go to, and it would all be there: The couch that's seen better days, the dining table that looks way too nice for the house (it was a Christmas present), and the family pictures on top of the TV. He walked calmly through the familiar hallway, past his parent's room, his sister's door, and finally, to his room right next to the bathroom. Walking in, he tossed his backpack to the bed, and closed the door behind him.
At least…he thought he closed the door. He didn't hear it close, so he thought he must not have put enough force into it. He turned around to close it again…only to find it gone, replaced by a wall further away than the door was, and the sight of a roof of another house past it. He was in a backyard! He was definitely surprised at this, and took a step back, feeling grass on his bare feet. Where did my shoes go? He thought, looking down, only to find another surprise. Where are my clothes?
This is not where he expected his day to go. He was indeed lost. He was lost and stark naked in a stranger's backyard. He immediately covered himself with his hands, even though there was no one else around.
Trying to keep calm, he took a look around himself. There was a large tree to his left, and a small garden along the bottom of the wall. It was quiet, and it felt warm enough to be the middle of the day, not that that mattered to him at the moment. Looking behind him, he saw a patio, complete with a wooden table and chairs. Beyond that, he found a sliding glass door. Walking up to the door, as awkwardly as walking while covering your privates would allow, he gripped the handle and pulled, only to find the door locked. Just as he thought what else could happen, he heard something he was afraid he'd hear: The sound of something moving behind him.
He quickly turned around. There was no one there. Now he started to think he was going crazy. Finding yourself in a situation like this can lead one to such a conclusion.
"Hello?" He tried calling out. When no response came, he sighed and thought to himself that it must have been the wind. He did have reason to be scared, but it didn't mean he should be jumping at everything that moves, he told himself. He jumped with a whimper when the sound of movement startled him again. A couple of bushes along the right wall of the yard rustled when the noise was made, so it had to come from there. At best, it was probably a neighbor's cat or an ugly possum at worst. Either way, he felt he couldn't just stand there. While he was frightful, his mother always convinced him to explore things that scared him so that he wouldn't be scared of it anymore. This sparked curiosity in him, which urged him to look into the bushes.
Stepping carefully to avoid making noise, he approached the last bush that moved. He couldn't tell what was in it, forcing him to look closer. He was about to move his hands to push the bushes apart to get a better look, when something came out of them so suddenly, it scared the boy enough to send him on his back.
He sat back up and rubbed his head, shaking the loose grass out of his hair. When his head cleared, he opened his eyes to a curious sight. A girl, appearing to be about his age, was standing over him. She had straight black hair that reached past her shoulders and big green eyes. Curious was that he'd never seen anyone with such bright green eyes. Even more curious was that this girl didn't have a stitch of clothing on her, just like him.
"I'm sorry." She said. "I didn't mean to scare you." Her voice was soft and gentle. She bent down so that her knees were to her chest and she was at eye level with him. "What's your name?"
"Phillip" He said. "My name's Phillip."
"I'm Abigail." She responded.
Phillip noticed she wasn't exactly looking at his face. Following the path of her eyes took, she was actually looking lower. He covered himself again quickly when he realized where she was looking. "What are you looking at?"
Abigail's turned her head to face him. "I've never seen a boy naked before. Can I see it again?"
"Why?"
"I want to look at it more. You can look at me if you want it to be fair." She stood up and raised her hands high above her head, still with a smile on her face. "See?"
Phillip turned his flushed face away. "I used to take baths with my sister, so I already know what's there."
"Aww! That's not fair!" Abigail shook her fists. "I really wanted to look." She blinked, as if she got an idea, and then asked, "If I help you inside this house, would you let me see it?"
He was now at her mercy. It was either stay out here while she uses some secret to get into the house that she likely won't share if he refuses, or suffer embarrassment while she looks at him like some weird art exhibit. Of course, this was all going by assumptions and he could be completely wrong, but he learned to be cautious of strangers for as long as other kids have bullied him.
Despite his paranoia, however, looking at her face, with her bright eyes and gentle smile, he couldn't find any kind of ill will in them. Maybe she was just honestly curious. He told himself that he had nothing more to lose and anything was better than staying outside naked. "Fine." He finally answered.
"Yay!" Abigail jumped up in joy while Phillip stood up, still with at least one hand between his legs. "Let me see!" She said, trying to pry his hand away.
"Not until we're inside." Phillip had seen enough movies and shows on television to know how to make a deal.
"Promise?"
"Yes, I promise. Can we go inside now? It's getting hot out here."
Abigail quickly ran over to the sliding glass door with Phillip trailing after her. "This is my aunt's house. She always leaves a key right here." She picked up one of the small potted plants on the back porch, revealing a key for a door. She promptly unlocked the door, and put the key back under the pot. "If you ever end up here again, you can use this."
"What do you mean, 'end up here again'?" Phillip asked as they walked in. "How did I get here in the first place? And why are we naked?" His patience was wearing thin.
"Oh!" Abigail looked like she just realized something. "Oh my gosh! Is this your first time traveling?"
"Time traveling?" He asked, with an air of disbelief. Any explanation might have made sense. A dream. Aliens. Anything. But time travel? That was one he didn't expect.
"Yup. Time traveling." She answered. "We can't really control it, though. So you could be at home or school and then suddenly be somewhere else the next."
"What about my clothes? What happened to them?"
"They're probably right where you left them. Wherever you were before you got here. You weren't outside, were you?"
Phillip shook his head. "I was at my house."
"Oh, good. I'd hate for them to be gone when you get back."
"I can go back? How do I get back from here?"
"It just happens. You could be here for a few minutes or even an hour. It's different every time."
"Great. I'm stuck in a house in the middle of nowhere and I don't even know how long I'm gonna be here…" Phillip sighed.
"Don't be sad. You're here with an expert." Abigail pointed her thumb to her chest. "Now, didn't you promise me something?"
"Okay." Phillip groaned. He was hoping she forgot. Reluctantly, his hands released their hold from between his legs.
"Put your arms up so I know where they are!" She demanded. She knew what she wanted, and she wasn't going to have it any other way.
"Just don't tickle me…" Phillip fell for this trick before with his relatives. She proceeded to examine his waist very intently, comparing his body with her own over and over, like someone looking over a crossword puzzle. Phillip wasn't sure what the big deal was about. He wondered to himself just why she was so interested, when she got extremely close, causing him to blush. Before she could explore any further, he decided he needed to get on a different topic. "If we really did time travel, what year is this?"
"Well, there's a calendar in the kitchen. We can find out there." Abigail took Phillip's hand and began walking deeper into the house. They walked past what looked like a dining room, or at least a table. It was so clean, and the chairs were so nice, he wondered if it was used at all. At the next doorway, Abigail turned, still holding his hand, causing a bit of tugging since Phillip was distracted.
This was the kitchen, and for such a nice looking house, the kitchen was...fairly modest. The wooden floor was noticeably cold on his feet in comparison to the carpeted floors everywhere else in the house. The stove didn't look very state-of-the-art; it had to be at least older than he was. The fridge looked out of place, a sleek and metallic design in the middle of all the old-fashioned tools that adorned the counters. They still looked they had been used many times.
"The calendar's right here." Abigail pointed to the basic calendar attached to the fridge. "Let's see…a-ha! We traveled to June of last year! No wonder it was so hot. It was January when I traveled."
"Really?" That didn't sound right to Phillip. "But this is next year."
"Oh? How old are you?"
"Seven."
She smiled. "Me too! So I guess that makes you older."
"I guess?" Phillip wasn't sure how to respond to the fact that he was older, even though they were the same age here.
"It's kind of funny." Abigail giggled. "You're the older one, but I'm the one teaching you."
"How do you know so much about this time travel stuff? Have you done it before?"
"Yup! I've done this about three or four times." She answered. "Older me taught me a lot more, though."
Phillip blinked. "Did you just say older you?"
"Yeah. If we can time travel, then that means the older ones of us can go to the past to see us." She answered as if it was the simplest thing.
"Oh. Okay." Phillip just decided to accept that idea. "What do we do now?"
"Well, it doesn't look like anyone's home, so we can just hang out in my cousin's room. Come on." She motioned for Phillip to follow him, and off they went again, this time walking towards the back of the house, turning to a small hallway Phillip didn't notice the first time. There were only a couple of rooms in this hall, and Phillip could see that one of them was the bathroom, the other door closed. She kept walking towards a staircase at the other end of the hall. "It's just up here."
Phillip followed closely, holding onto the rail, as the only light being let in was a window at the top of the stairs. Abigail hurried up the steps, taking two steps at a time for some strides. Phillip had no choice but to quicken his pace just to keep up.
Finally, they reached the top and into a room that looked like it belonged to a teenage boy. The bed was big, and sports memorabilia adorned the walls. At one of the walls was a large wooden dresser, on top of which were displayed a couple of trophies for baseball, indicating he was a part of a team at his school.
"What do we do here?" Phillip asked.
"We can play with his game system, and he's got big shirts we can wear." She opened the bottom drawer and tossed a shirt to Phillip. Putting it on quickly, Phillip found it big enough to cover everything important. He looked up to see Abigail in a shirt that was just as big.
"So, you said you met yourself from the future?" He asked.
A smile graced her face again. "Mm-hmm. She's traveled to my time once or twice. She's really pretty."
"I don't know how you're more pretty in the future..." Phillip said and quickly regretted, putting his hand over his mouth.
For the first time, Abigail blushed. Being butt naked with a boy didn't make her blush, but this did? Phillip thought. "You think I'm pretty?" She asked after a moment of silence.
"Well...yeah." He couldn't lie to save his life (his mother saw to that), and there certainly wasn't much he could do at this point. "A lot of girls at school just look at me and start giggling. I don't get it, but I know it's nothing good."
"Why not?"
"Well, don't you laugh at someone when you're making fun of them?" Phillip's only other experience was with the other boys laughing at him.
"Maybe, or maybe they think you're cute."
It was Phillip's turn to blush. "Cute?!" He soured his face. "You're just making fun of me."
"I am not." Abigail insisted. "I never thought I was pretty. My mom says it all the time, but she's my mom. She's supposed to do that." She looked down at her feet. "Pretty is nice hair and nice clothes. The girls at school all have their hair done up in knots or pigtails or braids, and they have such nice dresses. I used to have my hair up like that, but one time I traveled, and lost my mom's favorite pin. After that, she thought it would be better if I just had my hair combed, and I only get old shirts and pants from my other cousins, because it's okay if those get dirty when they fall on the floor." She said that last part as if she was quoting her mother. She stepped up close to Phillip. "But not only have I met someone who can time travel like me, you think I'm pretty."
"You didn't laugh at me, even though I was naked and looking like a total dummy." Phillip responded. "Mom calls me cute too, and she thinks the other boys push me around because they're jealous. I hope this doesn't happen in front of them. I'd have to move if that ever happened." He looked down, took a breath, and looked back up. "Thanks...for helping me."
Abigail shook her head. "I oughta thank you. In fact..." She moved forward quicker than Phillip could react and gave him a kiss straight on his lips. A tingly feeling was felt all over Phillip's body as he reeled and fell backwards...right on top of his bed.
Feeling the springs of his mattress, Phillip shot upright. His head darted back and forth, seeing the familiar walls of his room. Realizing where he was, he started breathing again. Was all that a dream? He wondered, but two signs told him otherwise. The first was that he was completely naked again, and he could see where he was standing when he traveled, shown by his clothes in a heap near the closed bedroom door. The second was the feeling of the girl's lips on his, still lingering in his memory as if it happened a long time ago. Replaying everything in his head, he put his clothes back on, and proceeded to do his homework, albeit quite distracted.
That night at dinner, his mother couldn't help but notice that her son looked a little more active than he had been in the past few days, quickly stepping up to get his food rather than slowly dragging his feet. "Somebody looks like they had a good day." She said. "Did we make a friend today?"
Not being able to lie, and with a big smile on his face, Phillip only answered, "Yeah."
Something cute to start us off. What do you think? R&R and I'll see you later!
