Chapter 3

Chelsea arrived home at around five o'clock. Her mother came downstairs to greet her. "Hello darling, how was the library?" She asked. "It was good." Chelsea said, then she walked past her mum and went up to her room. Chelsea had checked out seven books from the library for her investigation. She got a book that contained pictures of every type of tree known to mankind, a book about robotics, a book about deserts, a book about wars, two books about nightmares, and a book about illnesses. For almost ten minutes, Chelsea poured over her books without interruption until her mum payed her a visit. She opened the door and popped her head in. "Lauren Cooper is on the telly, dear." She said. Chelsea didn't even turn around. "I know you love her. Want to come watch?" Her mum asked. "No thank you Mum." Chelsea huffed. Her mother left without responding.

The smell of chips wafted into Chelsea's room from under her door. Her mouth watered and her stomach growled. After a few moments she heard her mum call her and her dad to dinner. Chelsea slipped a bookmark into the book she was reading and closed it. When she got to the table her mom was just setting down a bowl of chips. Chelsea's dad served her some and cut her a piece of steak. After eating in an awkward silence for many moments, Chelsea spoke up. "What can you tell me about my biological parents?" She asked. Her father dropped his fork upon hearing her question and it clattered to the wood floor. "Why do you ask?" Her mother inquired. "Well," Chelsea explained. "I just thought that maybe, since I can't see a doctor for some reason, that I'd try to self-diagnose." "So what do your birth mum and dad have to do with it?" Asked her mum. "Maybe one of them had some sort of health issue." Chelsea said. "I'm sure your parents were perfectly healthy." Her father said firmly. He was sweating again and he loosened his tie a bit.

Late that night Chelsea lay in her bed staring at the ceiling. She was to afraid to go to sleep for the fear that she'd run into the robot again. Something about it spooked her. Her throat began to feel scratchy and dry so she kicked her covers off and got out of bed. When she opened her bedroom door the hallway was pitch dark. She noticed light filtering out into the hall from beneath her parent's door. Slowly and quietly, Chelsea tiptoed across the creaky wood floor to her parent's door. She placed her ear to the door and listened.

"Eve what are we going to do?"

"I don't know Richard."

"We ought to tell her where she comes from."

"But we don't even know where that is."

"All this strangeness, do you think it has to do with it?"

"Without a doubt."

"Is there a specialist we can consult? Perhaps someone in London?"

"We can't tell a soul Richard. They'll take Chelsea away and experiment on her."

"There's got to be something we can do, at least to ease her pain and suffering."

"Any doctor worth two quid will notice her heart right away."

Chelsea took her ear away from the door and stared into the mirror that hung on wall. She looked at herself. Tears bubbled up in her eyes and slid down her cheeks. They told me I came from Wales. She thought. My own mum and dad lied to me. Chelsea walked back into her room, completely forgetting about her dry throat. She unplugged her phone from the wall and turned it on. When it started up she sent a text to her cousin Ellie who was studying to be a nurse. The text read:

Meet me tomorrow at Roger's Diner. Please bring a stethoscope.

Chelsea had never noticed anything strange about her heart before, but perhaps, she thought, some medical equipment would help.

Sleep did come to Chelsea that night and she had dreamed of the robot again. When she woke up, she dressed and went downstairs where her parents were eating breakfast. Her father was reading the Sunday paper. The front page headline caught Chelsea's eye. "David Coven, 36, Has Breakdown and Destroys Library". Chelsea ignored her parents when they said good morning and she turned down the toast and jam her mother offered her. "I'm going into town to meet cousin Ellie." Chelsea said. Her mother opened her mouth but before she could get any words out, Chelsea spoke again. "Don't worry I'm not going to ask her for an examination. I'm telling the truth. I don't keep secrets from my family." She said icily. Her father watched her intently as she left.

When Chelsea arrived at Roger's Diner her cousin wasn't there yet. She sat down at a booth and ordered some tea. She ducked her head down when her friend Sammy came into the diner with her grandparents. Chelsea didn't duck in time because Sammy saw her. "Chelly-baby!" She cried. Chelsea waved to her and stood up. Sammy gave her a huge hug and kissed her on both cheeks. Every since she visited France last summer, Sammy had been greeting people with double kisses. Much to Chelsea relief, the diner was out of free tables so Sammy and her grandparents had to leave. Chelsea was sipping her tea when Ellie walked into the diner. Ellie spotted Chelsea and joined her in the booth. "Hello Lovlie!" She said. Chelsea smiled and they hugged across the table. Ellie reached into her purse and pulled out a stethoscope. She handed it to Chelsea. "You can keep that dear, I've got a load of them." She said. Chelsea placed the stethoscope on the seat next to her and thanked Ellie. The two girls ate their breakfast and chatted about the queen and sports and what's new on the telly.

Chelsea's cab came to a stop in front of the dirt road leading to her house. She paid the cabbie and hopped out. The walk home took about eight minutes and a light drizzle had started to fall when Chelsea reached her driveway. The front door was unlocked when she tried the knob so she opened the door and went inside. All of the lights were off and she didn't hear her parents. They've probably gone out to work the farm. She thought, but when she looked out the kitchen window she didn't see anyone in the fields.

Chelsea went into the bathroom with the stethoscope that Ellie gave her. She took her phone out of her pocket and played audio of a normal, healthy heartbeat. She listened to the heartbeat many times to ensure that she had committed the sound to memory. Finally, she took a deep breath and put the stethoscope into her ears. She lifted the piece on the end and placed it on the left side of her chest. The heartbeat she heard was echo-y and strange. She played the audio of the healthy heartbeat again then she listened to her own for comparison. There was no doubt, something was definitely different. I have to get to an x-Ray machine somehow. She thought. But how do I do that without seeing a doctor? I can't ask Ellie again. She'd get suspicious. Chelsea knew she needed a plan. At the empty kitchen table, she began researching hospitals, clinics, and research facilities. She made a list of all the places that had an x-Ray machine within 50 miles of her house. Once she had her list done she folded it up and slipped it into her school bag, then she turned on the TV and tried to do something normal for the first time in over a week.

At some point during the show, Chelsea dozed off and had a new, more concerning dream.

Chelsea stood on a hill overlooking the smouldering ruins of a city. It wasn't a normal city though, from the crumbled remains she could see pieces of a giant sphere. The building-looking ruins were inside the mangled sphere like a snow globe. Chelsea started delicately picking her way down the rocky hillside. She made sure to test for stability before she took each step. Her father had taught her to do that when they took walks on the rocky seaside when she was a little girl. From atop the hill, Chelsea could see patches of silver in the landscape. She decided to steer clear of the forests for now.

When she finally reached the battered and smoking city, Chelsea had to pull her shirt up over her mouth and nose to avoid breathing in the ash and smoke that clogged the air. She heard a crunch from underfoot and when she looked down to see what had caused the sound she screamed and jumped back. A jawbone was on the ground, cracked in half. Chelsea squatted down and gingerly picked up the bone. She didn't know how, but she knew that it was human, or at least, that it looked human. Chelsea heard footsteps heading towards her so she crawled underneath a piece of collapsed wall. From her hiding spot she had a perfect view of whatever made the footsteps. A young man ran down the road and stopped near Chelsea's hiding spot. He bent over and tried to catch his breath. His eyes were red and puffy and when he breathed it sounded shaky. The sound of a machine started quietly then began to grow louder. The man froze and turned around slowly to face the direction of the sound. A robot, like the one Chelsea had met in the forest, turned the corner and came face to face with the man. He stood up straight and looked at the machine defiantly. "The Time Lords will be EXTERMINATED!" Screamed the machine. The man laughed at the machine. "Explain your amusement!" Cried the machine. The man stopped laughing. "The Daleks won't kill THIS Time Lord!" He said joyfully. The machine started to shake and grow frustrated. "EXPLAIN, EXPLAIN, EXPLAIN!" It cried. The man stopped smiling as he reached into his pocket. He pulled a knife out and, before Chelsea or the Dalek could react, sliced his own throat. His body tumbled to the ground and the Dalek's blue eye moved to look at him. Chelsea put a hand over her mouth to keep her cries inside. She had felt a kinship with this man and she had just watched him take his own life. Whatever a "Time Lord" was, that man was one too, and now, for the first time, Chelsea felt truly alone.

Sunday morning sunlight seeped into the living room and pulled her gently from her sleep. She rubbed her eyes and yawned. Chelsea had been there the day her grandpa died, she watched the light leave his eyes, and now Chelsea felt the same wave of grief she felt then, only this time it was over someone she wasn't even sure existed. Her mother walked into the living room. "Glad to see you're getting some sleep now." She said. According to the grandfather clock by the TV it was 6:00 am. "Did I sleep here since yesterday afternoon?" Chelsea asked. Her father came into the room. "You sure did. You slept all day yesterday! But who can blame you?" He said. Chelsea nodded and stood up. Her parents gave her bright smiles as she left the living room. Chelsea smiled back at them, but not because she was happy about getting sleep, because she had found more than a few pieces of the puzzle last night.

Chelsea waited outside the living room entrance for a moment to see if her parents had anymore valuable information that they weren't sharing with her. Surely enough, they did.

"Richard I don't know what to do anymore."

"What do you mean?"

"Maybe you're right, maybe we should tell her."

"We can do better than that. Eve we can SHOW her."

"If your talking about what I think you are then that's out of the question Richard."

"Telling her will make her just as upset though."

"Maybe not."

"You know it will."

"I know."

"So do you want her to know?"

"No."