I don't remember seeing him again until much, much later. Since I was five, I'd forgotten about seeing the blue box in kindergarten. I had brushed it off as a weird dream instead. Since I was in high school now, I had outgrown the possibilities of stuff like that happening.

It was almost my fifteenth birthday. I was walking home from the library when I saw the blue box again, just sitting there, on the corner, a block away. It was on the sidewalk in front of our lawn. I saw it through the parking lot across the street, because most of the cars had left now, since people were headed home for the day. The few pedestrians left just walked past it, without noticing the misplaced landmark. I stared at it. It had to be a trick. It was just some people playing a trick, it had to be. April fool's day was coming up in a few weeks, maybe people chose to prank someone prematurely. I started towards the box, pausing as I crossed the street, then running through the parking lot. I jumped over the parking blocks, heading into a full-on sprint towards the box. As I crossed the street again, the door to the box opened, and a man jumped out excitedly. He whirled around, supposedly taking in all his surroundings, before turning to face me. He wore an outdated tweed outfit with a bow tie. His face looked like a young man's, but his clothing choice was somewhat odd. His eyes, too. They didn't look like a young person's. Instead, they were much, much older. I saw the pain he must have experienced, and I felt sorry for him before he'd even spoken.

"Hello there!" The man boisterously crowed, "You must be Sam." I stopped on the edge of my sidewalk. How did he know my name? I was a nobody.

"…hello?" I said back cautiously. "Who are you? Is this some kind of joke?"

The man's eyebrows furrowed. "Joke? What do you mean? I never play jokes, unless they're funny. In this case, a joke wouldn't be funny at all." I was startled. He sounded sort of familiar, but he was so different at the same time. I didn't trust him.

"Okay, I'm going inside now," I said. I moved towards my front door as quickly as I could, grabbing my key out from my backpack. "Goodbye, crazy guy. See ya again, hopefully never."

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait! Where do you think you're going?" He rushed towards me, grabbing my wrist, which was about to put my key in the lock. I pulled it back instinctively, passing the key to my other hand so he wouldn't be able to grab it and get into my house.

"I'm going inside and locking the door! Let go of me!"

He let go. I regained my composure.

"But you can't go inside," he said. I turned to look at him. He looked at me with eyes like a sad puppy. But with their age, it made them look more like a sad old dog's.

"Why not? Who are you? What are you doing here? Is this some kind of prank?"

He looked at me quizzically. "Of course I'm not a prank, why would I be? I'm the real deal, the real Doctor!" He twirled around as he said "Doctor," his tweed coat tailing him all the way around. He bent down on his knees and grinned. "Don't you recognize me?"

"No, I don't. You're a stranger." I remembered my mom's rules. Stranger danger. I shook my head. I didn't know whom he was talking about. I didn't know who "the Doctor" was.

"All right, maybe this will jog your memory," he said. He cleared his throat. "When you were five years old, my friend helped you wash your hands."

I was stunned. As he said it, the memory came flooding back. The almost bald guy, the blond girl, and the other one, in the hallway at school. The blue box. The Doctor.

"But…but…that was just a dream. It's not real. How can you know what I dreamt about?"

"I know, because it wasn't a dream. I was really there. Well, a different me, but it's the same me. Well, not really, but I'm sure you know what I mean." I burst out laughing, against my brain's warning. He just acted so funny, I had to.

"Doctor!" a voice from inside the box called. It sounded like a woman's voice.

"Yes, Amy, come out here! There's someone I want you to meet. Bring Rory too." A redheaded girl stepped out of the box, pulling along with a sandy haired man with her. She looked at me in astonishment.

"Who are you?" she asked. She had an accent like the Doctor, but it was different than his.

"I'm Sam," I said. "I live here." I gestured to my house. She looked up at it, then nodded.

"Nice house," the man, probably Rory, commented.

"Yes, well, I suppose," the Doctor intervened. "Now then, we have things to do. Sam, come with me."

What? What did he mean, "come with him?" This was too weird.

"I'm not going with you. I don't even know you. Goodbye." I walked back into my house, ready to put this weird interaction all behind me.

"Samantha, please. Come with us." I turned around. It was the other man, the one with the sandy hair, who had spoken. He looked at me pleadingly.

"But you do know me, Sam. Remember Disneyland? And the escaped dogs?" Images came flooding back again.

I was in Disneyland the summer after kindergarten. I had gotten lost, and a nice man in a suit with a friend named Donna had helped me find my parents again. My parents had been mad, not at me, but at the stranger, and forbade me from leaving them again.

Then there was the time where I forgot to lock the dogs' kennel, and they came rushing out past me. I had fallen down, and a man, the man standing in front of me, had helped me get them back inside. I don't know how he got into my backyard, but he left just as suddenly as he had come—without warning. I looked at the Doctor. He wore the same clothes, and he looked generally the same. His bowtie was a different color, but that was about it.

"So you're actually the Doctor?"

"Yep! Now come along."

I walked into the box. It huge on the inside. It was colorful, too, with lights all around the center of the room, which I figured was the control board or something like that. Amy and Rory followed me in, closing the door behind me. The Doctor jumped up past the stairs to twirl around the center, flipping what looked like random buttons as he babbled to himself.

"Yes! Come along, Sam! No, that doesn't flow as well. Hmm…Come along, Samantha?" He pulled down a large lever and the box shook. "No. Hang on, your last name. It's…something to do with 'ond,' isn't it? Pond, ond, frond, what is it?" Next to me, Amy suddenly burst into a coughing fit that sounded suspiciously like a laugh. Rory nudged me.

"Bertrand?" I said reluctantly, almost yelling to be heard over the moving box, feeling that I would probably regret telling him that later.

"Right! Bertrand! I knew that. Silly me, forgetful sometimes. I blame the…the…" he flailed his hands around, searching for the right word. "I blame the whatchamacallits. No, those are actually real, on planet Whodunit. Lovely creatures. Too much sugar in your tea, though, you've got to watch out. But you know what I mean, right?" I nodded, not really knowing what was going on. "Well then! I'm taking you someplace special! Geronimooooo!" He yelled as he pulled another lever, causing the box to shake even more.

I looked over at Amy and Rory. "Is he always hyper like this?"

"Nah," Rory replied, shaking his head in a non-convincing way, "just when he's excited about something. It's definitely not you." He smiled at me.

I grinned and grabbed hold of the railing. This was going to be fun.