Mind Over Matter

Chapter Two

The man walked up and stood in front of me. Up close, I could see his brown hair and brown eyes. He was dressed a little strangely, with suspenders, a tweed jacket, and a bow tie. It made him seem like an old college professor even though he looked fairly young. In his hand was a small object that looked like an ID.

"What?" I quickly wiped my eyes to hide that I had been crying.

"People call me the Doctor. Don't know why. I call me the Doctor too. Still don't know why." He smiled and bounced on his heels. "And who are you?"

"Um, I'm just Julie. No special titles or anything."

"So, Julie, what do you need help with?"

"What?" I stared at him.

"You need help. You said so in your message." He held up the object in his hand and flipped it open for me to see. There, plainly printed on the paper, was my thought from just a minute ago.

I need help.

"How did you get that? And how did you know it was me?" I was starting to get frantic. Crazy man in a magic box who knows my thoughts. Maybe I had just finally lost it.

"I tracked your signal from the TARDIS. Wait, you said you didn't mean to send this?"

I shook my head, eyes wide. The Doctor reached into his pocket and pulled out something long and silver. He pushed a button on the side of it and a strange whirring sound started as a green light flicked on at the end. He used it like a scanner, holding it a few feet away from me and running it up and down the length of my body.

"Interesting. You're human, but your kind usually don't have advanced psychic abilities. How did you get a message to me?"

He seemed to be talking more to himself, but I answered him anyway. "You probably just made a mistake. I don't have any abilities. I'm not special."

The Doctor shook his head and looked up from his scanner. "Nope. The TARDIS doesn't make mistakes. That signal came from you, no doubt about it. And anyone who can send messages through time and space seems pretty special to me."

"Wait, what do you mean through time and space? What is that scanner thing? And what is that?" I pointed at the blue box behind him.

"Not a that," he said. "Her."

Something was off about this guy, and it wasn't that he had my thoughts on paper or that his mode of transportation was apparently a police call box. It was the way he seemed to just know things, the way he said 'through space and time' like it was as normal as 'across the street.' It was the way he called me human like... Like he wasn't.

"Who are you?" I asked again. "And I don't mean your name. Who are you really? What are you really?"

"Time Lord."

"What is that?"

He frowned. "It's... well... Let me show you something." He grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the police box.

"Whoa! Wait a second!" I tried to protest, but he reached the box quickly. Throwing open the door, he pulled me inside.

"Whoa."