I was inside. I was reading. It was a simple book, one about Queen Juana the Mad. That however is irrelevant.
On the rare occasion that the memory surfaced, I remembered it all. I remembered the sudden sound that filled the air. The sound that held darkness, light, and such weight to it. I looked towards my sister and brother whom I was visiting and who were watching TV.
"Do you hear that?" I asked. They simply looked at me oddly. They couldn't hear it. The sound was beautiful, haunting, and fading with every passing second. I looked out the big window where the sky had darkened with the threat of a storm.
Across the street was a blue box. The bluest blue I had ever seen. It was almost intimidating, yet impelling. Even at one small glance I could tell that it was the source of the spectacular noise. It was strange though; I had never seen that type of box before except in books about the 1950s. It was a police public call box. Odd.
I started towards the door of my father's small house, in a trance, almost sleepwalking. My younger siblings stared at me, no doubt wondering what was going on, what was wrong with me. I didn't even know what was going on with me.
I told them I was simply going out for a walk and ran outside before they could point out the impending storm.
Across the street, in front of the entrancing box, was a strange looking figure. Later I was to find out he was a strange man inside and out. He had a bowtie and suspenders on. His perfectly manicured hair had a bit of a curl in the front and, when you looked closely, it was easy to see that he had a less than average amount of eyebrow hair.
His stance showed a tad bit of awkwardness with a more than human amount of knowledge thrown into the mix. He also wore an awful tweed jacket and some kind of weird hat. He had a fashion sense that was clearly lacking and yet he seemed so confident in all his ways. His weird hat was bright red, round, with a tassel on top.
He stared seriously at me, I at him. He lifted one finger, his gaze never wavering from my own and beckoned me with a slight crooked movement. I couldn't tell if he was angry or puzzled. If he was upset or delighted. He hid his feelings very well for such a mortal-looking being.
I obeyed his command to come forward without even thinking and walked towards him faster. Even though I had never seen him before, I trusted him and knew he would never hurt me. That he could never hurt me. Being nineteen, I knew the dangers of an abnormal man across the street but I still went. Faster and faster until I was almost running.
I tried to slow my pace, to show that I was normal which is a complete lie. My auburn hair was getting into a tangled mess because of the roaring wind. I did not check the road for cars as my mother taught me to oh so long ago. In whatever case, there weren't any. As I approached, the man started looking more and more serious and anguished, more scared and joyful. His brilliant, sad, simply astounding eyes seemed to almost grow older as I walked towards him, scared and yet not.
This strange man that seemed to know me, that seemed to know something about me, about a lot of things, waited for me. He knew everything. I could see it.
He knew all about the universe and more. I could tell from simply his gaze. The gaze powerful enough to search the bottom of my very soul. The gaze that could and did send everything whirling away.
I stepped up onto the curb, towards him, searching his eyes for information. Information about anything and everything. Rain started pouring down; I pulled my jean jacket closer, feeling my blue jeans and grey t-shirt getting soaked. I did not care. Nothing more mattered. Nothing more existed but him and me.
The man looked me straight in my boring brown eyes surrounded by freckles and said a single word, a word that would send the world into turmoil, a word that burned into my soul. A word that would change my life and the whole universe forever.
"Run" he whispered as the storm surrounding us sent itself into the biggest fury that little town ever had and ever will have seen.
"Run" he whispered to me as I leaped into his world, willingly and eagerly.
"Run" he whispered as the universe crashed down into itself.
"Run."