The Big Blue Box of Powell Estate

by Kazzy

Occasionally there was a big blue box that sat in Powell Estate, but it was a mystery, because no one ever really saw it.

Title – The Big Blue Box of Powell Estate
Author – Kazzy
Rating– G/PG
Spoilers – Mild ones through series one and two. Direct references (but small) to events in Aliens of London/World War 3, the Christmas Invasion and School Reunion. No specific timeline; after the eps mentioned, I guess, and sometime into the future.
Summary – Occasionally there was a big blue box that sat in Powell Estate, but it was a mystery, because no one ever really saw it.
Disclaimer – Not mine.
Notes – You'll have to forgive any mistakes on the grounds that I'm a New Zealander and the UK is a very, very long way away.

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Occasionally there was a big blue box that sat in Powell Estate, but it was a mystery, because no one ever really saw it, except the children and Mrs. Jameson (crazy Mrs. Jameson, who was a hundred and fifty years old, and ate live rats). Well, sometimes, after a few down at the pub, some people would say they'd seen, but most of the time people just pretended they didn't know what the children were talking about. No one pretended they didn't know what Mrs. Jameson was talking about, because usually they really didn't know what Mrs. Jameson was talking about.

Most of the children had seen it, appearing down on the street corner for no good reason, and those who hadn't, just pretended they had. Except Sally Wilman, who always believed the adults and never who own eyes (Sally Wilman didn't have any friends, anyway, so it didn't matter). Everyone else knew they were right.

"It was there, we saw it, didn't we, Jimmy?" Bonnie insisted to her mother, as her brother nodded a little uncertainly behind her (Bonnie and Jimmy Randell whose dad sent them expensive things from Japan, but always missed their birthdays and Christmas).

Mrs. Randell lifted the curtains to peer down at the street. "Nonsense," she said, because of course the blue box had already disappeared. "There's nothing there now, and there wasn't anything before."

"But it was," Bonnie tried to say. Her mother only told her not to tell tales and sent her to her room to do her homework. Bonnie was often sent to her room to do her homework, and she'd already learned to go, even if she didn't have any. If her mother was sending her away, then it was no use to keep talking about blue boxes, because she was never going to be believed, but she might just get herself grounded.

Colin Cowley knew all about the big blue box (Colin Cowley, who was going to prison one day – everyone said so), because he'd spray-painted the outside – back on the day that the aliens blew up 10 Downing Street. The man who lived inside had made Colin clean off the outside and warned him never to do it again. Colin hadn't spray-painted anywhere since, and he wouldn't talk about the man at all. Except once, when they'd managed to get a collection of twenty quid from all the children on the estate (except Sally), which made Colin quite cheerful, and he'd talked about eyes of flame and metal claws.

If the adults wouldn't admit that the blue box existed, they were even more adamant that no one lived inside of it. But as everyone knew, Colin had met the man who lived inside, and almost everyone else had seen him getting in and out. Of course no one really knew what he looked like. Some people said he had short hair, big ears and a big nose. Other people said he had messy hair and wore plimsolls with his brown pinstripe suit. Mrs. Jameson said he could change his face and that once he'd had curly hair, big teeth and a scarf, and another time he had a colourful coat, and looked like a clown. But Mrs. Jameson was crazy and no one really believed her. Not even the children.

The man who lived in the box was called the Doctor. Everyone from Colin Cowley to Jimmy Randell knew that. Even Sally Wilman; even if she wouldn't admit it, even when Ben Nichols swore he'd do her in for lying (Ben Nichols who talked mean, but rarely followed through, rarely had to follow through).

Rose Tyler – everyone knew – had run off with a doctor. Run off to see the world. Run off and forgotten to tell her mother. Run off and let everyone think that Mickey Smith had killed her and chopped her into little bits. No one minded talking about Rose Tyler. In fact when the pickings were slim, and no one had been arrested recently, or no one had slept with someone else's man – she was the favourite topic of conversation.

When Rose had disappeared and everyone thought Mickey was a murderer, the topic had gone a long way and was good for just about any situation. At first people had held their tongues when Jackie Tyler was in the room – respect and all that – but soon they learned that Jackie was just as happy to speculate on the dark deeds of Mickey Smith as the rest of them. Back then no one knew about the blue box, except Nick Cowley, but everyone knew what Nick did on that street corner at that time of night (Nick Cowley, Colin's brother, who'd already been to prison, and was now back in prison), so no one had really taken any notice. Well, Mickey had talked about a blue box and a Doctor, but he was a murderer, so who was going to listen to him?

Rose's return had made her slightly less interesting, because being alive just isn't as much of a topic as when you're an unsolved murder. But running off with a doctor twice your age to travel the world did have its high points and everyone had their own opinion on what really happened.

…kidnapping, because isn't there that thing where you fall in love with your kidnapper? Or she fell in love and he talked her into all sorts of inappropriate things – really, men, the way they treat young girls…of course, Rose Tyler's always been a bit flighty – remember Jimmy Stones… at least this one's better looking than Jimmy Stones – and a doctor…well, she is Jackie Tyler's daughter after all…he probably buys her all sorts of expensive gifts…

The children always rolled their eyes at such stories, but didn't bother to speak up with the truth. It's not like anyone believed them about the blue box anyway. They knew that Rose Tyler might have been travelling with a doctor (the Doctor?), but he wasn't rich, because if he was, why didn't he live somewhere proper? And it's not like he bought her heaps of stuff, because if he did, where was it? No way could it fit in the blue box. Bonnie and Jimmy had a whole apartment and that wasn't enough to keep all their stuff in.

But wherever Rose had run off to…she'll come back pregnant and alone – you mark my words…she went straight back there after aliens blew up 10 Downing Street. And she went in the blue box with the Doctor. Yvonne O'Neill saw it, saw Rose getting inside after saying goodbye to her mum and Mickey (Yvonne O'Neill who was going to be a reporter one day and kept sticking her big nose where it didn't belong). What happened next, Yvonne didn't know, because her mother made her go in for tea, and by the time she came out again, there was no box anymore.

The big blue box came and went, and Rose Tyler and the Doctor came and went. Not even the children saw when and how the blue box arrived and left, but they knew it when was there. And the children were all aware to keep on the look out, because the blue box meant aliens. Aliens mean that you could wake up to find yourself on the top of a building looking down and people standing around you starting to scream. Aliens meant that maybe your school could get blown up (no one had seen the blue box then, but after a few weeks they could swear blind that it'd been there). The blue box was chaos and disorder, and the children treated it was deep suspicion, but they all looked out for it to come back, because sometimes chaos and disorder were better than living on the Estate.

One day, the big blue box did come back, but this time no one went in, no one came out, and it stayed where it was. Rose Tyler'd been gone for decades, and people had forgotten the Doctor. Mickey Smith was gone too, but no one had really noticed him go. It became a dare for the children to run up and touch the box's battered door without being caught (caught by whom?).

But still only the children really saw it. And after a while, even they didn't anymore.

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