I was nine years old when I met The Doctor. My family and I had just moved to Cardiff from my small town in England, and my aunts and uncles were helping us unload the moving van. Mum had told me not to wander, but I was a very curious child. Before I knew it, I found myself lost in the dark, surrounded by the shadows of an unfamiliar city. I'd sat down on the side of the road and was about to cry when I heard a noise; a sort of whirring noise that got louder by the second. A flash from across the street caught my attention, and I stared in awe as a blue box materialized out of thin air.
As soon as the box had completely solidified, the whirring noise stopped, and everything was still. Wonderstruck, I moved closer to the box. It wasn't like anything I'd ever seen before; it had two doors and a sign reading "Police Public Call Box." I'd seen a telephone box before, but this one was different-it was dark and windowless, without a telephone in sight. Suddenly, the door flew open. Standing in the box was a man, a strange looking man wearing a bowtie.
"Oh, hello," the man said, a smile on his face as he greeted me.
"Mum told me not to talk to strangers," I muttered, keeping my head down.
"I may be strange, but I'm hardly a stranger." He knelt down to my level.
"Who are you?" I asked, studying the man's face. He seemed friendly, but Mum always said to be careful around people I didn't know.
The man grinned. "I'm The Doctor."
"If you're a doctor, why do you have a police box?"
"Excellent question!" The Doctor hopped to his feet, grabbing my hand and pulling me towards the police box. "I'm a different kind of doctor. By the way, what did you say your name was?"
"I didn't. I'm Charlotte, Charlotte Evans."
"Charlotte Evans! Brilliant name, that is. I like it. Charlotte Evans. Do you believe in magic, Charlotte Evans?"
I shook my head. "Mum says it's pretend."
"Excellent, she's right, there's no such thing. I'm telling you this because I want you to know that what you're about to see is one-hundred-percent-not-magical. It's purely science. Do you understand, Charlotte Evans?"
I nodded.
"Excellent. Come along, into the TARDIS."
"TARDIS?"
"Time and Relative Dimensions in Space. It's both a time machine and a spaceship. It malfunctions sometimes, but not often. Any more questions?"
I stared quizzically at the police box. "But…It's just a police box. It's too small to be a spaceship or a time machine, let alone both."
The Doctor grinned, a wild look in his eyes. "See for yourself."
As he opened the door to the TARDIS, I gasped. The inside of what had seemed to be a small police box was at least four times the size of what I'd seen on the outside. In the centre of the room was a large, circular control panel, covered in various levers, switches and buttons.
"It's…bigger on the inside."
The Doctor leaned against the control panel, patting one of the levers. "Basically, yes."
I climbed up a set of stairs, still trying to grasp the concept of a "TARDIS." "If this is a spaceship, where's your crew?"
The Doctor frowned, as if I'd upset him. "Actually, it's just me now."
"Do you ever get lonely, Doctor?"
He shrugged, adjusting his bowtie. "I suppose." He immediately changed the subject. "Is there anywhere you'd like to go, Charlotte Evans?"
"To be completely honest, I'd like to go home." I regretted my answer as soon as it left my mouth. All of space and time at my disposal, and I'd chosen to go back to my new home in Wales?
Although he tried to hide it, The Doctor seemed disappointed. "Alrighty then. Where exactly do you live, Charlotte?"
"Woodville Street," I replied. The Doctor flipped a few switches, quickly moving around the control panel.
"Hold on tight, Charlotte Evans." He flashed a crooked smile as he pulled the final lever. Suddenly, the whirring noise began again as the TARDIS roared to life, and the room began to shake. I grabbed onto a railing, gripping it tightly as the TARDIS travelled. It was less than a minute before it came to a halt.
"Here we are, Woodville Street!" The Doctor sped over to the entrance of the TARDIS, holding open the door. I started towards him, but stopped as I reached the threshold.
"Will I ever see you again, Doctor?"
The Doctor smiled. "Of course! I have to recharge the TARDIS, so I'll most likely be still here tomorrow."
"I want to see the moon. Can you take me?" I asked.
"Tomorrow morning, if that's what you'd like."
"Do you promise?"
"I promise."
"Adults always say that," I muttered, "But they're always lying."
"I promise you, I'll be here when you wake up."
Despite The Doctor's promise, the impossible blue box was nowhere in sight when I awoke. My mother insisted that the man I'd met was simply insane, and kept me indoors for the next week. Soon, I started school, and the friends I made teased me, telling me that The Doctor would never return.
"Adults make promises all the time," one girl had said, "They hardly ever keep them." But I ignored her. I wasn't going to give up on The Doctor, not just yet.
So I waited.
Ten years (and five psychologists) later, I was still waiting. Mum was convinced I'd gone mental, and prayed every night that I wouldn't lose myself in my imagination. I tried as best as I could to please her; I worked every day in a clothing shop across the street from the place the TARDIS had first appeared. I couldn't stop watching and waiting, not for a second.
"He's not real, Charmander," my friend Daniel said, as he walked me to work one morning, "and even if he is, he's not coming back. It's time to move on."
I shook my head. "He promised. He promised he'd come back, he promised he'd show me the moon."
"You have to face reality. There is no Doctor. Besides, it's been ten years. You're an adult now, Charlotte. You have to grow up."
Maybe Daniel was right. I was nineteen-I should have been in university, studying law or something to make my parents proud. I couldn't stay a child forever.
One more day, I thought, I'll give him one more day. If he's not here by the end of tomorrow, I'll give up.
As I was about to fall asleep that night, I heard a strange but familiar noise. At first I wasn't sure what it was, but as soon as I figured it out, my heart pounded against my chest.
The TARDIS.
I'd never gotten out of bed so fast. I threw on my clothes, not caring about the fact that I'd put my trousers on backwards and my shirt inside-out. The Doctor was here. Nothing else mattered.
Grabbing the sack of clothes I'd kept packing and re-packing for years, I ran as fast as a cheetah down the stairs, nearly tripping over the family cat as I ran out of the house. The Doctor emerged from the TARDIS, which was neatly parked on the side of the road, in the exact same spot it was ten years ago. He looked at me confusedly.
"Excuse me, have you seen a little blonde girl about this tall-"he held his hand up to his chest-"who goes by the name of Charlotte Evans? I was meant to pick her up in the morning, but my vehicle sort of…erm…malfunctioned. I'm not even entirely sure this is the right day, to be completely honest. What day is it?"
I laughed. He hadn't forgotten me at all! For him, it had probably been only a few hours since we'd last seen each other. "You're a bit late, Doctor. 3,905 days late."
His eyes narrowed. "Charlotte Evans? You've grown up!"
I smiled. "You haven't aged a day." Unable to control myself, I ran up to The Doctor and hugged him, holding on tight. I was afraid that if I let go, he'd disappear.
"I would take you to the moon, but I'm not exactly sure we'd end up in the right place…"
I shook my head. "I don't care. I want to see the universe. Any part. Take me anywhere."
The Doctor grinned, pushing open the TARDIS door.
"Come along, Charlotte Evans. The universe is waiting."