I'm ready to start. I fidget as the Doctor gets out some pictures and a small piece of metal, as high- tech as the... TARDIS was it and as long as a toothbrush.
"This is the sonic screwdriver," he says, holding up the metal thing, "It's saved my life many times."
"How can something that small save your life?" I asked, confused, "And how is it a screwdriver?"
"Well... it doesn't really look like a screwdriver does it... should change the name... no, can't do that... Anyways, It can do lots of things," he mumbled.
"Like what?" I asked him innocently, wanting to know more.
"It can unlock locks. And it can also read computers, give medical scans, and control other devices, alien or human. The other thing it can do is send out sonic waves. It's all very confusing, I know. Questions?" he said, surprising me with its uses.
"So you're telling me... that thing can unlock any lock? Like on anything?" I asked.
"It won't work on anything made of wood. Or a deadlock seal. So not really. I have more devices," he said, pulling out a picture. It was of a girl, maybe 19, holding up a red... object. It had lots of bits, piece of a fan here, green phone receiver there.
"What is that? What's it do? Who's the girl?" I asked very quickly. His face darkened for a moment and then he smiled.
"That, Dex, is one of my old companions, Rose. I miss her very much." he said.
"If you miss her so much why don't you visit her? She can't be that far away can she?" I asked, not realizing the obvious answer.
"Rose is stuck in a parallel world with her mother, father, her ex- boyfriend Ricky... I mean Mickey, and a clone of myself," he said sadly, as if it pained him greatly.
He sits up. I can still see the sadness in his face.
"No, no. We can continue," he says tightly, voice straining. "That is the timey wimey detector. The very reason you're here. It goes ding when there's stuff."
"So... what kind of stuff?" I ask, glad we changed the subject.
"Well... timey wimey stuff!" he says, "If there's a breach in time, or other time- travellers, it dings. Hence the 'It goes ding when there's stuff'" He still sounded sad. I hope I didn't bring up the wrong subject.
"That's awesome! So how did you lose it? It looks kinda big to get lost. But I guess that's how time is," I say, not sure if I'm right.
"You catch on fast, don't you," he said proudly, finally cheering up. He's definitely strange.
"I guess... I used to read a lot of sci- fi. And stuff gets lost in time all the time. So yeah," I said.
"So who usually owns the time machine in the books?" he asked, sounding as if he was challenging me.
"The aliens?" I said, hoping that's the right answer.
"Go on," he said with a little smile.
"Wait- time machine... aliens... you have a time machine... You can't be an alien! You're too... human!" I said, confused.
"That depends on your definition of human. You say I'm human enough, and as much as you don't want to believe it, you know I'm an alien. So what does that mean?" He said, confusing me even more. "Come out here."
He stands up, motioning for me to do so as well. He holds the door and sticks out his hand. I go outside and take it. He turns to face the bigger on the inside box and says,
"This blue box contains all of time and space, Beatris. Where would you like to go?"