A wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey experience

For Mariann, that was just another day. Nothing new had happened. She woke up early in the morning with the annoying sound of an alarm she always wanted to change, but never did. Then she had breakfast on her own, while her flat mate took ages to leave the bathroom. When she was done, it was already time to go. All Mariann could do is check herself quickly and go.

While walking alone on the street, listening to nothing but the song on her iPod, Mariann liked to imagine what else could exist, beyond anything she knew as existence. She had filled her mind with Science fiction stories and after all the things that happened in the last few years. Everybody seemed to have forgotten, but she never did. She had still clear in her mind the big scary ship and the aliens threatening to invade Earth, then the atmos attacking the cars, and the big ship that looked like Titanic flying too close to the Buckingham Palace. She even had a memory, far back in her mind, of one day with planets all over the sky, but she couldn't say if that was real or a dream.

It was a beautiful day, and she decided to walk to work. She loved to go by a church on the way. It was a beautiful and old building, with statues all over, so perfect they seemed real. She loved to look at them, waiting for them to move. So silly.

So today, she went to the church again, and stopped to look at the statues. There they were, beautiful angels, so proud and ready for battle. "Warriors of God", her mother used to say, "To protect mankind".

But, today, something wasn't right. She noticed all the statues, the five statues in front of the church she knew so well. But the fifth was wrong. It was… hiding its face. Why had they changed the statue? And why was this angel ashamed? What for?

She came closer and closer to the statue, looking for a sign or something to explain its meaning, but there was nothing there. So she stared, deep into the statue's eyes, hidden under its hands, and felt a chill down her spine. A feeling she never had before. A feeling only Isaac Asimov's books used to give her.

A sound distracted her. Sounded like a whisper, a breeze on her ear. She looked away, but no one was paying attention to her. Then, she turned back to the statue.

It wasn't covering its face with its hands anymore. It was there, staring back at her, with its big stone eyes, with no iris, just rock.

Mariann jumped back, and almost fell to the ground. She wanted to scream, but she couldn't. "The statue moved" she thought, frightened. "But it can't move!"

She looked away again, searching for someone that could tell her that the statue was the way it used to be, and she was seeing things. "No, better not, people will think I'm mad" and she looked to the statue again, slowly turning on her feet.

There it was, scary, still but different. It had moved again. Its arms were stretched to the front, as if it was going to hug her. She wanted to look away, but she was scared it would move again. Her eyes were stuck on it, and all she could do was walk backwards, slowly, desperate to run, but too scared to do it.

Suddenly, a warm hand held hers. She was scared, but even so she couldn't look away. A whisper came into her ear.

"Calm down. I'm here to help. When I say, run, you run!"

She didn't know the voice, but she trusted him. His warm hand held hers strongly and she could breath again. She realized he was also staring at the thing, and so she felt secure enough to look away.

She only looked at him for a second; before he screamed 'RUN!' all she could see was his big eyes, behind his floppy hair, with all its attentions turned to the statue. Although she could swear he looked at her before screaming, and she could see his reassuring eyes. Then all she could see was the city, moving faster and faster as she ran.

She only stopped when there was no more of the church to be seen, and the city was going the way it used to. Was it a dream? An illusion? Was she finally going mad? Who was that man? If he ever existed. And why did the statue move?

She sat on the ground, desperate, trying to shake that out of her head. She put her head between her legs and pressed it down, as if that could help her understand. When she looked up again, there he was. Same floppy hair, same reassuring eyes. And a bow tie.

"Hello!" he said, with a smile, as if nothing had happened.

"Who… who are you?"

"I'm the doctor"

"Doctor who?"

"Just the doctor"

"What do you mean, just the doctor? No one can be named The Doctor"

"I can. I'm the Doctor"

"What happened" it came out as a whisper. She was still frightened.

"The statue moved." he said, as if it was as common as crossing the street.

"Statues don't move!" she cried.

"That one does. But don't worry, it's been held up. It's safe now. Thank God it was alone"

"Oh… Good!" she said, sarcastically, feeling more afraid of him than the statue.

He smiled, and then just went away.

"Hey!" she ran to him. "Where are you going?"

"I was just checking if you were okay. You are, so, I'm going"

"No! What was it? Did it really move? Why? What happened?" she said the last words slowly. He was surprised.

"Too many questions you don't want to know the answer"

"How do you know that?"

"I know"

"Oh, so you are a Doctor, of God knows what, and you know what I want?"

"You remind me of an old friend who used to ask questions like these" he smiled.

"Well, I'd like her."

"It happens that I really know everything. I even know your name"

"No, you don't."

"Mariann… your name is Mariann."

She was so amazed she forgot to breathe. He took her hand and shook her, and then he said:

"Come here, Mariann… I'll tell you everything you want to know"

They walked to a bench, and sitting there, he began to tell her the most amazing things.

"That statue wasn't a statue. It was a Weeping Angel. It's alien. It can only move when no one's looking. So while you were staring at it, you were safe. But if you looked away to go, it might attack you"

Mariann couldn't speak, but she wanted to hear more. He noticed that from her eyes.

"It was alone, though. Stranded on Earth alone. It couldn't do much. "

"And you sent it away?"

" I neutralized it, yes"

"Okay. You… neutralized it. So…" she took a breath, and couldn't believe she was about to say those words. "Are you… alien too?"

The Doctor smiled his smirk smile again, the one she was actually getting fond of. He looked into her eyes, like no one ever did, and answered "Yes!"

She thought she'd be afraid, but she wasn't. She was amazed. She was happy, in a way. All she ever loved, and ever wanted, right there, in front of her.

"Do you travel around on a space ship?"

"sort of"

"sort of?"

"You wouldn't say it is a ship"

"I'd say it's what?"

He only pointed to a big blue box behind her. It looked totally normal, and people walked by it as if it wasn't even there.

"That's your spaceship?"

"Yes. I call it a TARDIS"

She grunted, as if disappointed. He looked surprised.

"What?"

"Well. I just thought, that if I ever saw a space ship, it would be big and amazing, like an Enterprise or something"

"Oh, really?" He said, and suddenly took her hand. They walked straight to the TARDIS, and he only stopped to unlock the door. Then he turned to her and said, "Walk in"

"So, what will I see? A really small place? What does it look like, Wonkavator?"

She was really excited. All she was saying was to make him show her his wonderful world. She was loving every second of it, and slowly opened the door of the blue box.

She closed her eyes, and took a step in. Then after a long and deep breath, she opened them. And she couldn't believe what she was seeing. The place was huge. A set of controls was in the center, and she could see there were several corridors taking forward. It was like a big spacecraft, all inside a police box.

She turned and looked at the Doctor, who was standing proudly by the door. Somehow, it was like she knew him, all her life. Then, it came to her:

"Wait. How do you know my name? This thing can read minds? Can you read minds?"

"No. I can't. Not like this, just read your mind. I just happened to know you"

"How?"

"It's complicated"

"You know what? I don't want to know."

He smiled, and said, "I knew you wouldn't want to know"

"What are you going to do now?"

"I'm going away"

"Away where?" she asked, completely unaware that she was inside an alien spaceship.

"Everywhere" then he smirked again. "Wanna come?"

All she ever wanted to hear, but now it just struck her as a bolt of lightning. She couldn't just go. She was already late for work, and she had class. What about her friends? And her mom? No, she couldn't go. And even if she could. Who was that man? He was just a weirdo telling strange things, wearing a really strange outfit, wandering in a blue box. No, that was not real life.

"No… thanks"

He just smiled back, as if he knew she'd deny. "Okay then, Mariann. If you please…" and he opened the door for her.

She stepped out, and quickly turned. "Will I ever see you again?"

"Yeah, but I won't."

And the door of the blue box closed, and it disappeared before her eyes.