It was a cold night. It was almost 11:00 p.m. I sat on the bench outside of the movie theatre with Maggie. Our movie ended a while ago, yet our parents were nowhere in sight. In fact, it was quite empty. Quite eerie.
I rubbed my arms together in order to keep warm. A gust of October wind blew again, giving me goose bumps. Not even my jacket could keep me warm now.
"How long have we been out here?" I asked Maggie. She checked her watch. "Almost an hour..." she groaned. I sighed and just looked up at the darkened sky, a few stars here and there. The only thing keeping us company were the neon lights of the theatre.
"Are we seriously the only people here?" I asked Maggie again. She just looked around then nodded. One of the things about living in a small country town: no one stays out past 10:30. This was the last movie of the night. The theatre was closed and there were no cars about anywhere. Quite eerie.
I looked back up at the sky, trying to study the stars. The stars you could see out here, but not in the city, where I was from. These neon lights of the theatre kept me hoping, hoping for a chance to go back to where I belong. But for now I have Maggie and the stars.
A shooting star! I saw it go across the sky. I have never seen a live shooting star before, although I'm told they're common. "See it, Maggie?" I pointed to where it had passed. She squinted her eyes upward, searching, although it was gone by now.
"Yes, yes I do!" she said with a smile, pointing up to it. But how is this possible? It had been gone a while by now. I looked up again. I saw it! But this wasn't a shooting star. No, it was swirling around, going this way and that... In fact, it looked like it was getting bigger!
"Maggie!" I said in a worried tone, standing up. The star was quite large now, zooming towards us. I grabbed Maggie by the wrist and pulled her away from the bench, closer to the theatre. From a safe distance, we watched the glowing ball of light crash into the dirt trench on the side of the road across from the theatre. In the dark, we could see smoke coming up from whatever had just landed.
We just stood and stared, not sure of what to think of it. Then my stupid head got an idea.
"Let's go check it out, Maggie!" I said, starting on my way. She grabbed me by the upper arm suddenly, pulling me back. "No! What are you thinking!? It could be a bomb or, or an alien or something!" she said in a shaky voice. I just smiled at her. "Even better."
She wouldn't let go of me, so I just pulled her across the road to it. The smoke was starting to go away, revealing what it was... I'm not even sure what it was.
It was a box. A rectangular box. Wooden, painted a bright blue, from what I could tell in the dark. The top of it lit up, saying "Police Box" around it. Whatever that was.
"What is it?" Maggie said in a worried tone, standing a few feet behind me, as I examined the box. As far as I could tell, it was sideways, the long part on its side.
"A police box," I answered her, looking closely at one of the sides. It was on its left side, as I figured out which side was the door. I silently examined the door, I wonder what would happen if I just... pulled this handle?
I reached out to touch it when there was some lights coming from one direction of the road. Maggie gasped and pulled me away from the box, across the street, and back towards the bench in front of the movie theatre.
The lights pulled in, revealing the old, beat-up truck that belonged to Maggie's dad. He idled there while Maggie whispered for me to not go near that police box. I lived too far away for her folks to drive me home on the little two lane road. She gave me a hug goodbye, then ran to her dad's truck, who sped away as soon as the door shut.
I stood there under the neon lights, watching the old truck drive way, leaving me alone and unarmed in the dark. I walked towards the movie theatre to see if there was anyone there. No one. Not a soul in sight. I was very cold and very much alone.
Perfect amount of eeriness to go check out a blue police box that fell from the sky.
I ran across the street to where it laid on its side. I landed in the dirt trench and carefully walked up to it. I bent down to where the handle was, gripping my hand onto it. I blinked hard, now scared. But I was here now, might as well-
I pulled the door open and a bright light spilled onto the dirt. I jumped back and nearly screamed when a man rolled out of the box and onto the dirt. I held my hand over my mouth to keep from screaming and circled around him. I didn't want to touch him, in fear of him being dead. But I knew I had to.
After taking a minute to calm myself down again, I went onto my knees, reaching my hand out to touch the man's shoulder and roll him onto his back. I was afraid his face would be mauled, pull an Alfred Hitchcock on me, but that wasn't the case. I rolled him over and just saw the peaceful face of a young man. His eyes were closed and his face was a bit pale. He was actually quite cute.
I placed two fingers on his neck to check his pulse, seeing his red bowtie while doing so. It made me smile. He was wearing a light blue buttoned-up shirt with red suspenders. An odd outfit, I agree, but somehow he looked good in it.
I pulled my hand away in shock as he opened his eyes and yelled. I gasped, falling back on the dirt, trying to crawl away backwards as he jumped up, turning in circles.
"Yes! Yes! I'M STILL ALIVE!" he yelled in joy to the air... in a British accent! I smiled at his celebration- until he turned at me.
He walked towards me quickly, as I still tried to crawl away, but he was faster. He bent over and pulled me up by my hands, giving me a huge smile, which scared me. He held me by my upper arms, then hugged me. He was only a bit taller than me, which is weird because I'm taller than everyone.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" he said to me in a British accent, then released me and turned around, back to his police box.
I stood where I was, just staring in awe at what just happened. He walked around his box, examining it, then walking around it again, this time holding out a pen-sized stick that had a green light on the end of it and made a weird humming noise as he pointed it at the box.
He stopped at where he started, spun around to find me, which he did, then walked back to me. "Now tell me, how did I get here, who are you, and how did you find me?"
I stood, stunned, unable to speak. "I-I, um," I just shook my head, "please, tell me who you are, and how the hell you got here, and what the hell is that!?" I sorta spazzed out when I pointed at the police box.
"Yes, well, I suppose you should know. That," he said, pointing at the police box, "is the TARDIS: Time And Relative Dimensions In Space, and I believe I fell out of the sky here, and I am The Doctor. Just The Doctor, the one and only." He smiled at me, as if this information would help me at all.
"The Doctor? Doctor who?" I was stopped in the middle of my question as the Doctor put his finger to my lips, stopping the question. "Just... The Doctor."
He just put his finger back down and looked up at me. "Now tell me: where am I?"
I just raised an eyebrow. "Um, Morbidton, USA."
He just nodded. "Am I anywhere near Utah?" he asked.
"Utah? No. No... Same country, but no..." I answered him slowly.
He just nodded. "And you are?" he looked into my eyes, searching for an answer I didn't want to give.
"Julia," I finally said truthfully. "Julia?" he asked, taking out his light up pen, cleaning it with his shirt. "And do you have a last name, Julia?" he asked, looking up at me.
"Johnston," I answered truthfully again. I never told people anything about me, but there was just something about him...
"Julia Johnston..." he said to himself, trying it out. "And how did you find me, Miss Johnston?"
I swallowed and pointed to the movie theatre across the street. "I watched you fall out of the sky, from over there, then I came here because I was... curious..."
"Curious?" The Doctor whispered, walking up to me. I nodded. "Well, you know what they say," he continued, taking out his light up pen again and waving it around at me, distracting and scaring me. "Curiosity killed the Dalek." He turned off his humming, light up pen, putting it into the inside pocket of his tweed coat jacket and spinning around quickly towards the police box.
"Excuse me?" I asked him, walking more quickly now to keep up with him. I was right behind him when he spun around again. "Yes, haven't you heard it before?"
We were face to face now, as I backed up from when he looked right at me. "Um... no, no I haven't." I answered him.
He just stared at me for a few long seconds. I stared back at him, not sure of what was going on. Suddenly, "Yes, well, can you tell me the date?" I jumped when he spoke.
"Um, the date?" I asked, a little behind.
"Yes, the day, year and month." he said. I closed my eyes. "Um, November 2nd, 2004."
"2004, 2004..." he mumbled to himself for a while, pacing back and forth in front of the blue box. Suddenly, he stopped. "Of course!"
He spun around again to face me. "I was sent here to help someone, and you must be that someone! There isn't really anything important about 2004 in America that I can recollect, and I don't detect any alien activity, therefore, you must have been wishing really, really hard about something, were you not?"
I just stared at him, my mouth sort of gaping open. I held my hands behind my back, closing my mouth. "Um, well, yes, I suppose I was..." my voice trailed off as I looked up at the stars.
"Perfect!" he stated loudly, causing me to jump and break out of my trance. I looked over at him as he was looking down at a rectangular piece of paper in a folder-type thing that would hold an ID.
"See here," he said, flipping the ID card thing out once, then back again, too quickly for me to actually see. "This here, this is my psychic paper," he rocked onto his toes and back down again as he explained this to me, "it can show you anything I want it to show you, my credentials, my fake IDs, the sort. It can also take messages, and I believe this is you," he walked up to me to show me the white piece of paper- it was my driver's license.
"How did you get my driver's license?" I said loudly. "I didn't," he said. He folded up the psychic paper and put it inside his jacket pocket. "But now I know it is you I was sent here to help. I have a time machine/space ship, what would you like to do?"
He stood there with his arms behind his back, rocking on his feet, unable to stand still, with a huge smile on his face, waiting for my answer.
All I could manage was a weak, "What?"
