oncoming_storms Prompt 63
[An Extract from 'The Journal of Impossible Things'.]
She was familiar and yet unfamiliar. Perhaps she is one of the children from the village? Someone I glimpsed once, but never really looked at? I often feel that way when I wake up, as if I’m missing something I can’t quite place. Nurse Redfern believes it is because my dreams are so vivid and I am inclined to believe her. That is the logical explanation, after all.
The girl I dreamt of was little more than a child, really, though I expect she was far older than her physical appearance suggested. Much like the older ‘regenerations’ of the Doctor, when he wears strange pinstriped suits and looks rather a lot like me.
She had a name, once, but it is lost now. Like mine when I am the Doctor. She called herself Susan Foreman, and, strangely enough, it suited her. She was so alien, yet, at the same time, she was so very human. She shared so many of the human ideals that we teach here at the school. She believed in home and family - though she had none herself, apart from the Tardis and the Doctor - and she believed in honour and loyalty and love.
We ... they, I mean, Susan and the Doctor ... were alone for a long time, travelling the stars, but the ship malfunctioned and they were forced to take refuge on Earth. I can’t remember why they were travelling in the first place, now, but it seems fallacious to record their story without recording a beginning. I must speak to Nurse Redfern about it and see if she has any suggestions. She seems to enjoy the Doctor’s adventures as much as he does.
They lived in London - a strange London, with strange sounds in the street - for some months and dear Susan attended a school there. The Doctor couldn’t quite understand her enthusiasm, but I believe I do. It was such an unfamiliar experience for an unearthly child. It allowed her to feel normal for once, as if she actually belonged somewhere.
What a life they both led! It was no life for a child.
They left London and, when they did, there were suddenly others on board the ship. Susan loved the woman dearly, though they were not mother or daughter. No. They were something much more than that.
(The Doctor liked her too, I believe, though he would not admit it. How could he have failed to like her? She was so intelligent and so ... so indomitable!)
Susan loved the man as well. I believe his name was Chatterton, or something similar. It seems an unlikely name for such a hero, but so does John Smith. That is why my subconscious selected ‘the Doctor’, instead.
They shared many adventures together, each one as fantastic and remarkable as the next. And I believe they were happy, all of them. Even the Doctor, who rarely smiles and means it and hides himself behind a very careful mask.
And then Susan left. No. The Doctor ... left her. He loved her, but she’d fallen in love with a human. He wanted her to be happy and experience the life he could never give her. Not for long, of course, since her husband would age as steadily as any of his companions. But for long enough.
Perhaps tomorrow I will dream about the Doctor’s return to his granddaughter.
Prompt: Love
Word Count: 573
She was familiar and yet unfamiliar. Perhaps she is one of the children from the village? Someone I glimpsed once, but never really looked at? I often feel that way when I wake up, as if I’m missing something I can’t quite place. Nurse Redfern believes it is because my dreams are so vivid and I am inclined to believe her. That is the logical explanation, after all.
The girl I dreamt of was little more than a child, really, though I expect she was far older than her physical appearance suggested. Much like the older ‘regenerations’ of the Doctor, when he wears strange pinstriped suits and looks rather a lot like me.
She had a name, once, but it is lost now. Like mine when I am the Doctor. She called herself Susan Foreman, and, strangely enough, it suited her. She was so alien, yet, at the same time, she was so very human. She shared so many of the human ideals that we teach here at the school. She believed in home and family - though she had none herself, apart from the Tardis and the Doctor - and she believed in honour and loyalty and love.
We ... they, I mean, Susan and the Doctor ... were alone for a long time, travelling the stars, but the ship malfunctioned and they were forced to take refuge on Earth. I can’t remember why they were travelling in the first place, now, but it seems fallacious to record their story without recording a beginning. I must speak to Nurse Redfern about it and see if she has any suggestions. She seems to enjoy the Doctor’s adventures as much as he does.
They lived in London - a strange London, with strange sounds in the street - for some months and dear Susan attended a school there. The Doctor couldn’t quite understand her enthusiasm, but I believe I do. It was such an unfamiliar experience for an unearthly child. It allowed her to feel normal for once, as if she actually belonged somewhere.
What a life they both led! It was no life for a child.
They left London and, when they did, there were suddenly others on board the ship. Susan loved the woman dearly, though they were not mother or daughter. No. They were something much more than that.
(The Doctor liked her too, I believe, though he would not admit it. How could he have failed to like her? She was so intelligent and so ... so indomitable!)
Susan loved the man as well. I believe his name was Chatterton, or something similar. It seems an unlikely name for such a hero, but so does John Smith. That is why my subconscious selected ‘the Doctor’, instead.
They shared many adventures together, each one as fantastic and remarkable as the next. And I believe they were happy, all of them. Even the Doctor, who rarely smiles and means it and hides himself behind a very careful mask.
And then Susan left. No. The Doctor ... left her. He loved her, but she’d fallen in love with a human. He wanted her to be happy and experience the life he could never give her. Not for long, of course, since her husband would age as steadily as any of his companions. But for long enough.
Perhaps tomorrow I will dream about the Doctor’s return to his granddaughter.
Prompt: Love
Word Count: 573