TIME LORDS DON'T CRY
CHAPTER TWO A hand reached out to grab the deck of the console floor. By varying degrees, the Doctor slowly sat up. Blinking his eyes, his freckled boyish face registered bewilderment. He looked around at the arched beams and the huge console resting on its metal decking. “Where am I?” He wondered out loud. The Doctor rubbed the bump on the back of his head, wincing. “Must’ve been some wild party.” Looking around the console room, he raised an eyebrow. “Don’t think much of the décor, though. Must be on the low budget cruise.” The Doctor glanced down and suddenly noticed the clothes he was wearing. He made a distainful face. “Ugh! Look at me! Where have I been?” He muttered aloud. “A fancy dress ball? Wonder if there’s a dry cleaners about? Hate to see what my hair must look like. And, will you look at those shoes? Who dressed me, a blind Cyberman?” He frowned, wrinkling his forehead, deeply puzzled. “What did I say that for? What the hell is a Cyberman?” Slowly rising to his feet, the Doctor grasped his back and groaned. “I could do with a massage. Wonder if there are any pretty girl’s on this cruise?” He hesitated. “I do like girls, don’t I?” Thinking about it, he flashed an affirmative grin. “Yes, I definately like girls, met some very pretty one’s, I seem to recall…I wonder if I still have that Leela’s mobile number?” Still a bit wobbly, the Doctor stepped up onto the metal deck, looking the Tardis control console up and down. “What’s this rather ugly contraption? Some new type of household gadget, quite probably. A combination espresso machine, soup maker and rubbish recycler–or some other sort of new-fangled rubbish.” Staggering as a sudden wave of dizziness washed over him, the Doctor reached out to steady himself, his hands grabbed onto the console. Just then, a look of wonder crossed his face. Staring in complete fascination, he laid his palms on the console absorbing the bio-energy radiating from the Tardis. He stepped back and grinning wildly, threw back his head. “It’s alive!” He yelled exuberantly. Staring off into space, the doctor pondered a new discovery. “Ha!” he said abrutly, “I hate energy drinks!” Then, the Doctor passed out on the floor again. Hours later, the Tardis door cautiously opened. The Doctor had changed out of his crumpled pinstripe suit, and was now wearing crisp new blue jeans and a thick tan fisherman’s sweater. He’d exchanged the sneakers for a pair of green wellies, and had a pearl grey fedora hat on his head. Still a bit wobbly, he walked into the clearing. Reaching into his right jeans pocket, he pulled out an old-fashioned compass that he’d found while exploring one of the Tardis’ store rooms. “Never know when one of these might come in handy.” He said to himself. “Don’t want to get lost. Not that I have any idea where I am–or who I am. Nearly got lost in the wardrobe…” The Doctor looked back at the Tardis. Rubbing his chin, he sighed. “Whoever that chap is, who owns that…whatever it is, he must have one of the biggest clothes fetishes I’ve ever seen. Not sure I want to know who that big wedding dress was for.” Spying a long thick dead branch lying near his feet, the Doctor picked it up. Making a note of the direction of north, he set off to the south, intending to walk down the little river that flowed alongside the meadow. Not knowing where he learned it, he sang an old American college song, keeping time with his makeshift hiking staff as he walked. “John Jacob Jinkleheimer Schmit, his name is my name too…” A short while later he came upon a small pasture containing a handful of forlorn dairy cattle. A scrawny Jersey cow looked over the rusted barbed wire fence at him. “Good morning!” The Doctor said cheerfully, raising his hat in greeting. The cow just stared at him and continued placidly chewing her cud. “I don’t suppose you could tell me where I am?” He asked the cow playfully, not actually expecting any answer. “You’re in Rocky Brook, of course.” Startled, the Doctor stepped back and regarded the cow with a confounded expression on his face. The cow not only spoke english–albeit with an American accent, but sounded just like a young girl. “How very intriguing,” thought the Doctor out loud. “No–mister, I’m up here. In the tree.” the voice giggled lightly. The Doctor looked up into the spreading branches of a nearby maple tree. There above him was a skinny girl in faded work clothes, sitting on an overhanging branch staring at him. She had on a gray wool cap under which seemed to be keeping a mop of unruly brown hair barely in check. Her dark brown eyes regarding him soberly, she asked, “Lost, huh? Well, I guess that’s easy to do, out here. Are you a hiker or a hunter?” Swinging her legs back and forth, she continued, “Where’d you park your car? If you just keep following the river south, you’ll come out to the main highway, eventually. It’s only about five miles from here, I think. So, you’re not really all that lost, I guess.” She squinted down at him, frowning suddenly. “Or are you? Tilting her head, she added, “Somehow, you don’t seem like most of the people I see up here. Where are you from–if it’s okay to ask, I mean?” Leaning on his improvised walking stick, the Doctor gave the girl a rueful smile. “I Wish I could tell you, young lady,” he replied gently, “but I seem to have had a bit of an accident…can’t remember who I am or where I come from–or why I’m even here in—Rocky Brook? Where’s that, anyhow?.” “It’s in the southern Adirondack mountains.” Seeing his blank look, she amended, “Northern New York State? You gotta’ be some kind of tourist. How could you not know what state you’re in?” She shook her head sadly. “It’s an awful state I’m in, I’m afraid…er, metaphorically speaking.” The Doctor shrugged. “Geez—that accident of yours must’ve been one heck of a real doozy.” Marie said sympathetically. “Anyway Mister, our farm is on land that is part of what they call the Adirondack State Park.” Something jarred the Doctor’s memory. It was almost as if a ping and a light bulb had suddenly gone off in his brain. “Ah. yes. I do seem to remember something.” The Doctor cocked his head, bewildered, as suddenly a virtual cataglog of information ran through his mind. Out loud, he mentally ticked off some of what he absorbed; “Ah, yes. Three million acre state park? Two thousand mountains, Fort Ticonderoga, Queen of the American Lakes, lumberjacks, amusement parks, hoardes of tourists, acid rain and an Elvis festival?” His eyes brightened with glee at the thought, and the Doctor rocked on his heels with delight. “Oooh, I’d like to see that, wouldn’t you? An entire town crawling with Elvis impersonators. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a mob of Elvi.” With hardly a pause, he looked up at the girl. “By the way, what is your name–and what are you doing up in that tree? And do you know you ask a lot of questions?” Marie jumped down blithely and stood in front of the Doctor. Smiling broadly, he held out his hand and she shook it. “I’m Marie. I live just down the way,” She pointed in the general direction of the other side of the pasture, “at Sage Hill Farm…well,” she admitted, looking down and scratching at the dirt with the toe of her boot, “it’s not really all that much of a farm, anymore.” The Doctor raised his eyebrows at her. “That still doesn’t answer the question of why you were up in that tree.” He asked gently. Marie merely gave a lame shrug and looked at the floor. “Felt like it, that’s all.” Sensing that that wasn’t “all,” the Doctor decided to be a bit more probing. “Really?” Squatting down, he looked up at her and asked gently, “That’s surely not the only reason, is it?” The Doctor noted that Marie seemed a bit taken aback by his posture and tone. She hesitated a long moment before answering. Suddenly, she seemed like a very shy–and lonely–thirteen year old. “Well…I like to watch the cows and birds and listen to the wind. Sometimes the deer come down here, and there’s rabbits and hawks and stuff to see…” She trailed off as if afraid she’d spoken too much. The Doctor nodded and gave her a reassuring smile. “I love nature, myself. There’s nothing like just sitting in the woods, listening to the wind and watching the life around you, the sights, the sounds, the colors. I seem to remember a very wise man named Ralph once said to me that, “In the presence of nature, a wild delight runs through the man, in spite of real sorrows.” I like being outdoors…always something new to see, isn’t there? No two days are ever exactly the same, are they, Marie?” Marie stared at him with a sense of new-found wonder. “That’s right!” the girl said eagerly. “Just like snowflakes, and autumn leaves and the sky.” She looked at the Doctor with sudden respect. “I never knew anyone who felt like that, too, before. I thought I was the only one.” Marie looked down at the ground, a deep sadness etched in her expression. The Doctor reached out and touched her arm. “It must be hard, being alone so much. Where’s your parents?” “They died,” she mumbled, “in a car wreck. Mommy and daddy were fighting, and dad wasn’t looking where he was going and drove into the back of a truck. I was the only one who lived. They passed me around with all different aunts and uncles and such, but none of them wanted me. Said I was too different. Or a freak,” she added with a touch of bitterness too old for her years. “Finally, only old Uncle Tobias said he would take me in…he needed someone to tend to the farm, I guess.” She smiled thinly, “He doesn’t have to pay me, see?” The Doctor asked quietly, “Why would anyone possibly want to call you a freak? You seem like a perfectly nice, normal young lady to me.” Marie looked away abruptly. “It’s because of the way I am, I’m not like everyone else.” The Doctor looked into the depths of her pensive eyes. There was something different about his girl. He could feel it. When he looked at her, some intangible sense of familiarity drifted through his sub-consciousness like a stray snowflake, only to melt away into nothingness when he tried to bring it to towards the light.
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