//------------------------------// // Act 2 // Story: Affections Touching Across Time // by Alcatraz //------------------------------// It was a bit too much to take in at once. After I finished drying the colt we went into the lounge to sit and talk while Mum had her shower. He told me that he came here in his TARDIS, which stood for Time and Relative Dimension In Space. A time machine, as he had to blatantly put it. One that can travel anywhere in time, and space too. Kinda of like an extremely long ranged teleport. But for some incomprehensible reason, doesn't know how or why, he can't find it. Apparently he lost the key that both unlocked the front door and somehow "called" it. All of what he was telling me went right over the top of my head so I just sat there and nodded, figuring that I would understand it in the future. "So what's this thing I found you with?" I asked while holding up the device I got from his mouth. Doctor jumped up on me and snatched it back with his teeth. "Careful with that, there's no telling what you could accidentally do!" He then started twisting it this way and that, making it buzz and glow blue. "It's my sonic screwdriver, it lets me fix anything." he said rather proudly. I eyed up the device with one of my eyes that isn't looking off into the distance, giving it a curious look. "What can't it fix?" I asked. The Doctor snickered under his breath and spoke with his ever so cute child-like English voice. "Why, what do you want to have fixed?" "A broken heart." I said, turning my head to the side. His demeanour immediately softened with an expression that encompassed a sense of empathy. I could tell that look meant otherwise. "Time heals all wounds, right?" I added, turning my head to look at him with a hopeful expression This time his ears flattened against the sides of his head and this time it's his turn to look away, but the way he did it, it's like he's trying to hide something the way he did it. "One could only wish for that to be the case." Doctor stated, rather flatly. I heard Mum open the bathroom door and go into her room across the hall, presumably to change. After a few minutes she came into the lounge idly drying the last of her hair with the towel, where the Doctor and I had just finished talking. "I heard voices, were you talking to someone?" she queried. I defensively shook my head. "No, I was just talking to our new guest here, saying how much he'll like staying here. Because even animals need friends too, right?" "Too right. Anyway, what do you want for dinner?" Takeouts are a good depression dampener. "Uhm, how about fish and chips?" I say, with a somewhat pleading look in my eyes. "Chicken schnitzel with chips and tartare!" Mum gave a humored giggle-snort before answering. "And what about your new friend here?" she said loosely, gesturing to the chestnut brown pony looking up at her with those cartoon-esque eyes. "Do you want to pick up something for him in town while we're there?" An idea crossed my mind and I grinned at the thought of it. "So little buddy, what do you want to eat tonight?" I lean down with my head covering his muzzle from Mum as he whispered his answer into my ear. "Uh huh. OK. He says he wants hay fries." He nudged my hand. "Oh yeah, extra salt." The look on Jill's face is priceless. "Did you just... How did you..." This time it's my turn to laugh, and I did so with gusto. "Seriously Mum, do you really think I could talk to an animal?" I took a breath to calm my laughing. "We can just put him outside while we go into town so he can get his fill of grass and flowers, is that alright little buddy?" Doctor simply nodded his head and hopped off the couch, trotting over to the door. The funny thing is, given his stature and even if he stood up on his hind legs he still wouldn't be tall enough to reach to door handle, but that didn't stop him from trying. It was cute as hell to watch though. Despite my pleas, Mum insisted that we tie Doctor to the tree in the middle of the yard so he "won't get into anything that she shouldn't". He wasn't happy about it, but I offered to make things better when I got home. Mum and I placed our order at the fish'n'chip shop and I suggested we go to the pet store to see if I can get a large bed for Doctor. "Doctor?" Mum asked, while we were looking through a few of the beds at the store. It's a decent sized one, got cages set in against the far wall opposite the main entrance that have puppies and kittens in them, for viewing pleasure and so the little kids can pet and pick one out to take home. "Yeah, he told me it's his name." I pulled out a circular bed from underneath a stack of smaller ones, and it popped up. Well I'll be damned. Handy little feature, having a pop-up bed. "Ok Mel, if you say so." The tone from her voice was clearly sarcastic, but in a humored kinda way. After all, we all have pets that we pretend we can talk to. I walk out of the store after fifteen minutes with a medium-sized pet bed in my arms, about fifty to sixty centimeters in diameter, and a nice night-blue blanket to boot. We collect our order from the takeaway bar and drive home to find Doctor curled up under the tree in the warm sun sleeping. A sight like that makes ones heart skip a beat. I decide to leave him be for the moment to sleep, god knows how much time travel messes up his sleeping patterns, and set up the bed and blanket in my room. Mum and I eat dinner with idle conversation of what we're going to do about this pony, while I savor the delicious taste of the greasy food filling in the cracks of my recently broken heart. They say that, one day, someone will hug you so tight that all of your broken pieces will stick back together. I've had a weird way of dealing with these things over the years. Most of the time it's just walking them off after the realization sinks in of what happened, like going into shock for the most part. There's been other times where I've cried for days on end, like when nana died. I used it as an excuse to let out a flood of other emotions that I was bottling up over the years, and you know what? It felt good. Everyone needs to cry now and then, even if you're a great big heavy-set guy who is into wrestling and watches cartoons in his off time. After dinner, all the washing up that needed doing was screwing up the paper the chips came in and toss it into the boiler's furnace. No sense to toss it into the rubbish bin where it'll end up going into landfill. I saw Doctor had woken up and is now poking at the grass with a hoof, so I go out to the tree, untie and carry the cutie inside and into my room to show him his new bed. "Is this my bed?" he asks. "With blanket to go with it. If Mum had her way she'd make you stay outside, but lucky for you I convinced her otherwise, so you're going to be sleeping in here with me." Doctor then proceeds to get in the plush bed, and treads circles around in it a few times and then lays down in it. "I suppose, it is comfortable after all." The rest of the evening drew to a close. Doctor slept in his new bed while I watched TV well into the night and I didn't get to bed until about 11 o'clock because the following day I got the afternoon shift at work delivering mail and some of the few smaller packages. I woke up at 10am the following morning. Doctor is still asleep so I just quietly get up and leave the room to make myself brunch. Trying to keep Mum placid about having a horse living with us won't be too easy, so I thought it would be a good idea to have some nice hot pancakes ready for when she wakes up. On principal, doing that bit extra here and there might help the cause too. Half way through mixing the flour, eggs, and milk together, I hear a loud bump come from my room. Well, that probably means Doctor is awake. I take the skillet off the heat [but leave the element on] and go down the hall to see what happened. Cracking the door open I see the colt sitting on his haunches rubbing his forehead. "You alright there sleepyhead?" I ask with a giggle. "How did that door get in my way?" he replies groggily. Clueless, half-asleep kids are adorable. "You silly filly, you walked into the door!" "I am not a filly!" he retorts, huffing up his chest and standing confidently. I swear, kids trying to look macho and tough simply do everyone the favour if giving them heart palpitations from the cuteness. I just leave the door open for him and walk back into the kitchen to finish mixing the batter, adding the vanilla essence, sugar and melted butter to the mix. Not exactly healthy, but damn delicious. "Do you want pancakes?" I call back to Doctor down the hall as he tiredly trots down the hall. "That sounds amazing! Maple syrup too?" comes a reply. Not from the Doctor, but from Mum. Well, looks like getting a verbal answer from Doctor went out the window. The pan I'm using isn't all that big, only about six inches across. It's great for large pancakes. Just pour the batter to the edges and when it cooks it will puff up to over half an inch. Flipping it is the hard part though. Normally what I'd do is get the spatula under the pancake, lift it out, tilt the pan on its side and carefully slide it back in. Otherwise if I flipped it upside down from the start batter will splatter everywhere. Mum gets out two plates, knives and forks and sets them on the table across from one another. "Two please!" she asks with enthusiasm. The way I like to have pancakes is when the first one comes out nice and hot is to spread butter on it and let that melt while the second one cooks. After that's done, I put it on top of the first and drench with maple syrup. I make two lots of these for Mum and I and sit down at the table. "So." Mum begins. "What are your plans with this pony of yours?" I knew this would be coming sooner or later. "Right now I just want to take care of the little guy and see where things go from here." I stuff a large portion of the mushy, syrup-drenched bread into my mouth. I'm not much of a cook, but my god these are amazing. "It's been a while since we had a pet anyway." "A pet?" Mum said with a raised eyebrow. "Why would you want a pony for a pet?" "You know, company and whatnot." Mum swallowed her mouthful before replying. "What about your boyfriend?" she said with that friendly, albeit teasing undertone. That kind of hit a sore spot, but I managed to stuff another mouthful of pancakes into my mouth before she finished her question which would give me time to swallow and thus get rid of the hurt rising in my throat. "This is a different kind of company. The kind that you can give and get fluffy hugs from, and who will always be happy to see you when you get home." Uh oh, that last sentence came out subconsciously. "Why wouldn't Mike be happy to see you?" Mum quizzically asked. Oh shit, oh shit, don't talk about that! Steer clear of him! "That's besides the point. Anyway, you can be sure I'll take care of him." "You sure, sweet?" "Promise." I felt a nudge on my leg and look down. "Looks like your little friend wants something to eat. What have you got for him?" Doctor turns his back to me and looks up at the bowl with a small amount of pancake mix in it, then back to me. Back to the bowl. Then back to me. "I think... He wants pancakes?" Doctor only nods, implying he understood. Mum looked puzzled. "Why would he want pancakes? I thought ponies are supposed to eat grass, hay and the like." "Well they do, but that doesn't mean you wouldn't cook something for a dog instead of buying him canned food and dog biscuits would you? Besides, when I go to work he can explore the yard and eat grass to his hearts content!" I get up from the table with my breakfast only half eaten to turn the element back on and pour the rest of the batter into the pan, using a spoon to get it all. It will only make one about two-thirds the size of one of ours. Mum watches with an amused face as I put the hot cake onto a smaller plate and put it on the floor for the colt. Much to our surprise, he dives right in and eagerly eats it. "Well I'll be damned. I just saw a horse eat a pancake. Now I've seen everything." Mum and I finished eating in silence for the next few minutes, after which she got up and put her plate in the dishwasher then went off for her morning shower. I took the time to sit on the couch with Doctor, turn on the mid-morning cartoons and let him watch with me. I tune into one of my all-time favourites; Courage the Cowardly Dog. I always liked that show, Courage especially. He's a hero to me. Well, not a hero that someone would look up to but as far as the show goes, a hero none-the-less. Being a hero is being afraid, and doing what's right anyway. During the ad break Doctor speaks up. "I've seen too many broken hearts to know that something happened between you and this other guy. Besides, you asked my if my screwdriver could fix a broken heart. You can talk to me, you know I'm not going to tell anyone else!" He's right, so I decide to. "Well little dude, it's..." Me voice trailed off. "Well..." Uh oh, here come the feeling welling up in my throat. Eventually I managed to say something. "He cheated." "He did what!?" Mum screamed behind me, from across the room. She must have walked in on my stammering and overheard me talking to the Doctor. My gut dropped, and I could see Doctor's ears flatten against the side of his head. He and I both knew that I'm going to have to explain what happened on that day. "Mel, do you want to talk about it?" she asked with deep sympathy in her voice. I only shook my head. "Could you at least tell me what happened?" Mum pleaded. Doctor nudged me with his hoof and gave a little nod, and mum sat down next to me on the couch. "I finished work the other day and I thought I'd surprise Mike by going around to his place to watch the re-run of Fridays movie. I got a couple sandwiches from the bakery for he and I, and went over. After I got there and knocked on the door, he answered wearing his shorts and was breathing heavily as if he just ran a marathon." "Oh sweetie, I can see where this is going." mum commented, putting an arm around me. I took a breath before continuing, and Doctor just sat and listened too. He knew what happened but not the whole story. Now he was going to find out without having to ask. "I heard noises upstairs and asked who else was up there, then she came to the top of the stairs wearing one of his shirts. You know, like you see women do on TV and in movies after a booty-call." That exerted a half-hearted snicker from mum and I couldn't help but join in. "What happened then?" she asked. "She... called me a retard, mum. Because of my eyes." Mum wrapped her arms around me and pulled me into a hug, and Doctor nuzzled up against me too. "Sticks and stoned honey, sticks and stones." she said, idly stroking my hair to try and comfort me. "Don't you dare say that!" I snapped. "What's the matter?" mum asked in bewilderment. "Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me. Don't you remember that from school?" "Oh I remember alright." I replied. "But do you know what? We grew up surrounded by that rhyme; "Sticks and stones my break my bones but words will never hurt me." As if sticks and stones hurt more than the names we got called, and we got called them all. So we grew up not believing no one would ever fall in love with us, that we'd be lonely forever. Bullies calling us worthless, misunderstood kids getting told by teachers that they're not going to amount to anything because they don't meet their standards." I stood up from the couch and turned to face mum and the Doctor. "We were expected to define ourselves at an early age and if we didn't others would do it for us. Geek. Fat. Skank. Fag. Retard." I placed heavy emphasis on the last word. "That's what we were told when we were kids. Stand up for yourself. That's hard to do when bullies were always beating down on you. Sometime I'd get altitude sickness from standing up for myself I just got so used to it. Mum, he cheated on me. He only went out with me to begin with to try and work his way into my pants. When that didn't work he turned his attention elsewhere. Broken bones and bruises heal, but emotional trauma leaves mental scars that one might not always get over. DO NOT tell me that hurts less than a broken bone" I finished saying, raising my voice to an assertive yell. Mum just stood there dumbfounded, and Doctor just looked at me with a sense of awe in his eyes. "There's seven billion people on this planet, Julianne. This planet doesn't need me, what do I have to offer, huh? HUH?" This must have triggered something in the Doctor because next thing I knew is he was screaming at me from his position on the couch. "Over nine hundred years, Mel. Over nine hundred years I've been alive and not once in my entire life have I met anybody that wasn't important." realizing he just spoke, Doctor clapped a hoof over his mouth and turned to look at mum with an expression mixed with unknown horror of what was going to happen because a pony could talk, and fear at what her reaction could be. Mum shot looks between me and Doctor, mouth hung agape. She slowly got up, facing the Doctor as she slowly backed away only managing a few words. "You... and he... you said he..." My demeanor softened as I sighed in defeat. "Yeah." I said somberly. "He talks. To be fair, I did say he told me what his name was." "Oh come on I didn't think you were being serious!" Mum countered. "Oh yeah? Do you believe me now?" "Mel, you and I have got some talking to do."