Blink {Featured}

Chapter Four

John walked into the class late.

'You're late Finnie,' Mrs Anderson said.

'Yeah, soz miss. Got kept back by the Head again.'

Mrs Anderson tutted and shook her head. Marty was sitting near the back of the class with an amused look in his eyes, and John strolled over to him. As soon as he'd sat he leaned over, whispering, 'Got two months' report. Utter dog shit man.'

'Better than being expelled,' Marty whispered back. 'Acko has it in for you.'

John smirked. 'I hear you there bro.' They fist bumped. 'What we on, Miss?'

'Page thirty-two Finnie, "A Day in the Trenches".' Mrs Anderson pushed her glasses up.

John opened his book, flipping through the pages. Good, lots of photos. Books were tricky. It had taken John over a year to figure out how to Blink photos in books. Going into the picture was easy, but finding it was sometimes a pain, especially if the photo was old. What worked best was if the book was flat. Once he'd tried to Blink the book when it was bowed in his hands. The whole experience of the distorted world knocked him sick. When he Blinked out, he was disorientated and puked almost non-stop for the rest of the day. It'd been a horrid experience.

John had once used a stopwatch to time the Blinks.

(10y) MARCH 1998, 17.27

Click! The stopwatch's milliseconds rolled and ticked. For ten seconds John waited, then he Blinked into a photo. Gauging time was near impossible when in the Blink, he'd found. After a good long time had passed, he Blinked out and clicked the stop button. Eleven seconds was on the display. At least twenty minutes had passed in the Blink, he felt sure. Click, tack-a-tack, click, his fingers sounded on the keyboard as he entered this latest data into the research on his laptop.

'Time stops when I am in the Blink.'

This was one of the many tests he did on the Blink, trying to understand how it worked. He had tried to video the experience, but the camera came back blank. John's body also did not leave reality when he entered a Blink. John had hoped that somehow his whole body entered the Blink but was disappointed and disgusted when one of his tests proved this wasn't the case. This didn't take away from his belief in its realness that was for sure. That had been another test--the stories behind each picture always matched up with what he saw.

Once when Mam was feeling down, John had come down on the morning for his breakfast and found her on the sofa. A few bottles of wine had lain on their sides on the floor next to their photo album. The album had been open at his parents' wedding day photos. John had crept over and looked down--Mam had been crying.

He'd decided to leave her where she was. Before he'd left, he'd kicked the bottle.

'Is that you John?' Mam had croaked, dehydrated by the wine.

'Yeah ma, it's me. You okay?'

'I miss him John. I still miss him so much.' The ache in her voice had been almost too much for John to bear. John had looked around nervously; he hated it when Mam was like this. Nothing he'd done up to that point had helped, and he felt useless. An idea had come to him then. He called it the 'do you remember when' game. He would Blink each photo for her. It eased Mam's grief a little, but he really wished he could bring her with him. He had sat down beside her, picked up the album, and Blinked a photo. He'd pointed at a photo and began.

'Hey Mam, do you remember when...'

By the time he'd finished Mam had been asleep, and he'd stroked her hair, hoping she dreamed of Dad--her own personal little Blink.