I found myself in a quaint pound shop off the main streets of London, browsing miscellaneous cat items on my last day off on my study abroad trip. Being cooped up in Harlaxton isn't exactly what one would call a drag, but it wasn't a vacation either-- nearly seven days a week spent saying, "Oo, look at that. We saw that in a book yesterday." Don't get me wrong-- I loved it here-- but I was becoming bored with the scenery and I needed to do some last minute shopping for everyone back home.
I stared at the ceramic cats om the shelves, each screaming, "Help me!" from their sad little eyes. No cat, not even a sculpted, baked, painted and glazed cat should have to suffer through wearing outfits that suggest hilarity through irony and personalization. I picked one up and examined it, noticing a chip in the paint on its tail, then tried to gently sit it back down, only to watch it topple in slow motion over the edge of the shelf and shatter on the floor.
"Again, I'm so sorry," I apologized as I left the counter of the shop. The cashier reassured me that everything was okay, but I could feel a deep and prolonged embarrassment setting in that would disappear and reappear in the wee hours of the morning.
As I opened the glass door back into the street, the crisp air of fall hit me. I pulled my black sleeves down over my fingers and zipped my jacket up a little higher. The smell of fried foods beckoned me around the corner to a little vendor on a busy street. I got in line behind an elderly man and rocked back and forth on my heels. The man at the front of the line was chewing the vendor out, holding everything up.
The breeze suddenly picked up, rustling my hair. I tucked a strand behind my ear when I heard a strange noise.
I parted from the crowd and walked down a narrow alleyway. My mind was working like clockwork; I had no idea what was propelling my legs in this direction and why I was consumed by such curiosity. The alleyway forked into a T at the end, with one way going back out onto the street and one a dead end.
I turned towards the dead end and stared, not blinking. Something was drawing my attention, and I couldn't turn away. Suddenly, something began to materialize in front of me, fading and coming, fading and coming. My eyes widened.
In front of me was a blue police call box. The windows seemed to glow, and suddenly, the door opened. My face flushed deep red, burning in my cheeks and ears as I blushed as hard as I've ever blushed before.
The man that emerged from this magically materializing blue box was stunning. A perfect, slender face, melty brown eyes, a perfect nose pointed just slightly, touseled brown hair and a tall, slender body that made me tingle head to toe with thoughts better yet left alone until the upcoming parts of this story.
"Hello," he said, raising one eyebrow at me while I stared like a deer in headlights.
"You have got to be a hallucination from the heavens...." I half-whispered, looking him up and down over and over again. He nearly jumped, becoming as giddy as a schoolgirl, to my surprise. He walked around be energetically.
"American! Brilliant!" he said, grabbing me by the shoulders before spinning on his heels to take a look around.
"Well, that's good I suppose," I muttered, flustered. "Who are you?"
"I'm the Doctor," he said with a smile before hurrying off the opposite way of the dead end. I hurried behind him.
"Interesting, do tell me more." I smiled up at him as we stopped on the sidewalk of a busy street. He looked both ways before looking down at me.
"I'm looking for something that fell from the sky. Big blue glowy thing, couldn't have missed it," he said, still smiling ear to ear. I recalled the meteor shower just a few nights before and talk of mysterious men with military trucks.
"We might want to look at a military base?" I suggested, unsure. He coked his head at me.
"We?"
"I was hoping to... tag.. along," I said, blushing.
He paused, the smiled. "Lovely!"
He grabbed my hand and pulled me left down the street, and I nearly had to run to keep up with his stride. Things had happened so quickly, but something felt right about this. Something big was about to happen to this goth college girl and I was so psyched to find out just what.
