Chapter 2

The streets of Mary's neighborhood proved to be every bit as dull as she had suspected. It wasn't a particularly boring neighborhood in itself; it was semi-wooded and there were plenty of hills, and the houses were all sufficiently different, but it was on the whole a lackluster place. In the end, after much zigzagging and weaving through the streets, Mary steered them towards the main part of town, which lay about half a mile from her house.

"If you don't mind me asking, what exactly are we looking for?"

"I don't tend to use the word 'exactly' when describing the things that I look for," The Doctor replied, while waving at a small dog that chased them from the other side of a white fence. "Especially in cases like these. One just has to wait for the adventure to find them."

"Well, good luck. Adventure has yet to find me." Sighed Mary, though she strongly suspected, with growing excitement, that this wasn't true anymore.

"Ah! I see an ice-cream shop ahead!" Cried the Doctor. "We've got to go in. I can't simply pass up an ice-cream shop, can you?"

"It's a Dairy Queen." This was, to Mary, sufficient response. The Doctor, however, remained blank. "It's weird that something so universal in America doesn't mean anything to you. Goes to show, that just because you all speak English in Britain doesn't mean you're the same. You know—"

"I'm not English," Said the Doctor, and opened the door before Mary could question him further.

"Hello, Dairy Queen," He used an odd inflection. It would have made Mary look up if she had been working there, but this was clearly not everyone's response. The cashier was actually reading a magazine at the counter, and no sounds issued from the kitchen.

"Hello!" Mary waved her hands. The cashier looked up briefly, but still didn't respond.

"Oh, no," The Doctor said quietly from the doorway.

"It's fine, people just aren't very into service around here," Mary explained. She walked past the Doctor and up to the counter. "I'd like—"

She was again cut off, but this time it wasn't the Doctor's voice. A very disruptive sound—a cross between warbling buzzing—was issuing from a small stick which the Doctor held. It had a green light on the end, but that quickly faded, along with the sound. Mary found herself, for the first time, slightly annoyed with the Doctor, but that stopped right away when she saw the look of dread on his face.

"Come with me, Mary," He said in a trembling voice. "NOW." Together they fled the Dairy Queen, and proceeded to run down the street; poking a head inside each shop, and waving the device around. It would always start out buzzing, but it only took a few seconds to die. As they went, the Doctor muttered in increasing tones of terror. "Oh no, oh no, why this? Goes to show you—America. Why? No-good thing, why won't you work? I didn't mean it, I'm sorry, please don't die on me…" And so on. At the end of the block he whirled around, nearly causing Mary to run into him.

"I'll need your bike. I can have it back to this afternoon, just meet me—"

"No!" Cried Mary, panicked. Then she stopped and collected herself. "I mean, you can't take my bike. I need it to get back home. Can I come wherever you're going?"

"I really don't think that's a good use of our time. Yours especially. You might get distracted, and people who get distracted around me tend to get hurt." The Doctor spoke very fast, but with a frightened sincerity that almost made her back away. Almost.

"Please. I need to be distracted. I won't get hurt, I promise, just don't leave me."

He considered her for a moment, and then shook his head as if to say, I don't have time for this. "All right then, onto the handlebars."

"What? I'm not going to ride the handlebars of my own bike."

"So then, you'll have me ride on the handlebars? Actually, that would be fun… but you don't know where we're going. Handlebars. Now."

As they awkwardly climbed onto the bike, Mary could hardly believe her luck. Yesterday she would never, ever, have believed that she would soon ride on the handlebars of a bike driven by an odd, handsome Englishman—or not?—as they went on adventures.

She was jarred from her reverie somewhat when they started moving, and she realized that she was in danger of flying off the fast-moving bike.

"Where's a motorcycle when you need one?" The Doctor muttered. Mary couldn't say she agreed. They sped back the way they had come, past Mary's house, and eventually to the dirt path which led into the woods. Here they stopped. "We'll have to go on foot. Geronimo!"

Mary followed as best she could, but there were plenty of branches on the rough path, and the Doctor was really very fast. Just when she was about to call out for him to slow down, or let her rest, they came to a clearing and stopped. It took a moment for Mary to register that something was off about the clearing, and what was off was that there was a large blue telephone box in it; a box that certainly had not been there when Mary was younger and had played in the woods.

"Aaaaand yes, this is it, and can we get along with minimal explanation for now?" He swung the door open and looked to Mary. "You might see that it's—"

"Bigger on the inside…"

"Excellent. In, in, we have things to do!"