Page & The Tear In Time

Page regained consciousness, but it did not feel like waking up, more like Deja Vu.

She could envision the door about to open, and her mother enter, but the colours of the walls were wrong. At first glance grey, but if you focused on them, the wallpaper turned into green, blue, and red triangles, prisms of colour, and geometric patterns.

When the door opened, instead of her mother, a young nurse pushed an elderly man in a wheelchair to the bed beside her.

The nurse’s uniform caught her attention, something felt unexpected, but when she tried to remember why, she could not place her finger on it.

“I am surprised to see you awake already," The nurse looked at Page with skepticism veiled behind a smile. "Frequtab Therapy usually knocks a person out for 4 hours at least, but lucky you, you can go home sooner!"

Page stared at the nurse.

"Don't worry, I will let your transit know."

The nurse finished fussing about with the old man, who clearly did not want to have the protocol done. "If you're feeling inclined, your things are in the locker beside your bed. Scan your wristband to bypass everything. There is a Nutrient Shop on floor Eight if you're hungry, and apparel on Seven if your clothing was damaged in the incident."

"Incident?" Page tried to remember how she got there. She looked at her wristband, some sort of translucent polymer blend containing microchips and lights.

"Your Gold Personal Plan covers all access and necessities. The Doctor should manage to discharge you in about one hour.”

Page stood up obediently and opened the metal locker by her bed by raising her arm to the lens looking sensor. Her first thought looking inside was to find her phone and call her mother. Where was her phone? She turned to ask except the nurse was gone.

Page looked back at the clothes folded in the locker.

"What are these? Seriously, I do not wear cargo pants!" Page couldn't help laughing.

The old man looked at her cautiously.

"Be a rare mistake for a institution like this to make."

Unzipping the only other item in the locker, a small bag, Page pulled out a black hard cover book, its texture slightly electric. She turned it over in her hands, surprised by the iridescent black M imprinted in the cover.

"That's not your Dock is it?"

"What, this book?” Page stopped still. He had needle in his hand, rolling it slowly over his fingertips.

"Child that is not a 'book', you're holding a Moleskin Dock.” The man looked quickly back to the door behind him. “It has not yet been invented... of course, that could change...”

Page curiously opened the book. Suddenly she felt a sharp pain fill her eyes. It lasted only a split second.

The pages of the book suddenly filled with geometric patterns, sequences of latitude and longitude, and beautiful sketches that remind her of Da Vinci & Quantum physics.

“Don’t lose your place.” The old man warned.

“Lose my place?”

“Look kid, I came here to..." He injected the needle into the air, " you know!... But I know an agent when I see one! And you're not one. Certainly not the one I was told would be here.”

The old man heard footsteps approaching. “My point,” He hurried, “Use that book mark tucked in the spine. If you're lucky, you will find your way home. If I'm lucky, so will I...”

A person in uniform appeared at the doorway and lowered a clipboard from their face.

“I am here to take you to your examination Mr. Jung.”

The old man smiled and gave her a thumbs up as the staff pushed him away.

Page turned to the book, pulling the cover open like a bird stretching its wings. She looked into the spine, there surreptitiously, tucked into the tunnel was a long thin metal book mark. The end of one side was moulded with an imprint, like a finger print. Reflexively, Page’s thumb moved towards the union.

Suddenly she was surrounded in darkness, her head felt like it was popping, like an eardrum from altitude.

Her vision returned in muted colour at first, then saturating alongside the growing feeling of settling into reality.

She found herself in a billowing tent, canvass stretched out against a swaying shell. She was in a bed again, in a field hospital full of wounded soldiers. She quickly realized she was still holding the book, the bookmark set into the pages precisely on the spot she had held it two seconds before, when the impossible happened.

The handwriting beside the bookmark said

Sgt. Maison, saves corporal JC Stanley.

Upon re-entering battle, Maison is hit with an explosive and dies.

“Good, you have regained total consciousness!" A swiss sounding Doctor moved quickly to her bed, his moustache twirled to perfection, his clothes saturated in blood.

"Do you feel any pain?” He started poking her hard in the calf.

“Ouch! No!” Page closed the book instinctively, shoving it in her jacket side pocket.

“No?” The Dr looked at her quizzically.

“No. I mean, I wasn't in any pain, but 'yes'..” Page cleared her throat.

“I felt the pain of you poking me, if that's what you meant?" Was that her voice? It sounded odd..

“Not dizzy or confused?” The Doctor bent forward and looked right into her eyes.

“I guess I am a bit confused. ” Page admitted.

“Help! We need help!” A booming voice called. A tall stocky man burst between the flaps of canvass carrying and unconcious soldier in his arms.

Page jumped up without thinking and motioned him to place his comrade on her bed.

The soldier's arm spilled out red onto the sheets.

Medics pushed Page out their way, strait into the tall man. His name tag directly on level with her eyes, page gasped.

“Maison! ” Page shouted, despite the considerably close proximity of their two bodies.

“ You're still alive!?”

The Sergeant tilted his head calmly down and raised his eyebrow, but didnt take his eyes off his comrade.

“For now...” Maison moved to brush her off.

“Wait, you can't go out there!” Page grabbed his arm.

Maison stopped, his mama had raised him polite.

Page searched her brain for a distraction. Shrugging, she pushed onto her toes and kissed him.

He pulled back, surprised, confused... intrigued.

In the strained second of silence, she hears a sound like a hiss of air.

Suddenly Maison threw himself over Page as a blast blew through the side of the tent, sending dust and debris over top of them.

“Are we alive?” Page coughed, her ears ringing.

“For now…” Maison moaned.

“Then I did it! I saved you!” Page scrambled to grab her book.

“I think, you will find, Ma'am," Maison pulled himself up, " that it was me who saved you just then.” He reached his hand towards her.

“No. I saved you! Look!" Page flipped open to the book mark, “You were going to walk into that bomb…” Her excitement trailed off as she realized the words were gone.

“Where did you get that!?”

Out of nowhere the Doctor with the twirled moustache suddenly appeared. He grabbed for the book, tripping on rubble. “Give it to me.” He pulled with death clenched determination.

"Hey!” Maison, who’s mama also raised him to defend a woman from attackers, threw one large fist into the Doctor's face.

A page tore off in his hand as his body slid away towards the floor in slow motion.

Before she could even think of what to do, Page was somewhere else entirely.

She stood outside of a city, on a rain slicked highway road. The dark sky above her started to twinkle with tiny bursts of light. Then a shower of sparks spread as a ball of light appeared in the distance, sliding towards the horizon at speed. It was so beautiful Page had no thoughts or feelings of fear, only wonder.

As it silently smashed into the mountain, its fire lit up the sky. Then, a heartbeat later, came a sound so powerful it threw Page down onto the pavement, and knocked her breath out.

Her ears filled with tone so thick it cancelled out her thoughts. For a while she lay on her back, slowly sucking in air, watching as dust particles settled on top of her.

The Doctor with a twirled moustache appeared standing above her. Another comet grew in the sky, it enveloped him with a devilish glow.

“We can do this the easy way or the hard way.” He pointed at Page's chest with the pen in his hand, it sent beam of light into her. Her heart etched in electric strings of glowing current. Page watched it beat quickening.

“Hand over the Moleskin Dock before we are both blown to dust!”

“Why?" Page mumbled unperturbed.

"I won't be the only one who comes for that book, and I am trying to stop the others from getting it and enslaving humanity!"

"How do I know what you are really going to do with it?".

"I'm going to fix things! If you give it to me, both of us win. I can stop this, and get you back to your original time line.”

The sky waved with the rolling smoke of fires the smell of acrid ash that filled the air.

“Well a third option for mortal peril is, something, I guess…but I’m not exactly convinced.”

“I don't have time to convince you.” The Dr. fired.

A blue pulse lashed Page's thigh. It felt like ice was being shoved into her veins. She tried calling out, but the paralysis was already in her blood.

Page grabbed her leg, opening her eyes wide, but the pain faded almost as instantly as the memory of what was causing it. Page looked around her at the hospital room overwhelmed with feeling Deja Vu. She was alone, the door ajar let sounds from the hallway in, footsteps. Page felt the hair on her arms raise, in stepped her mother. Page Exhaled.

"I'm sorry I'm late sweet heart!" Her purse jangled, with a sound like wind-chimes as she bustled over. A fern of some sort, teetered on top of a package she held to hip. " Traffic was so... well no, I guess it started before that, with the coffee filter, and the cat! I really could have made up the time if your fluffball didn't think that my jacket was the only place fit to have a nap."

Page pulled her mother into a hug. Her mother smiled and pushed Pages thinning hair out of her face, tucking it behind her ear.

"This came for you."

Page eagerly took the donut box.

"Got your appetite back?" Her mother wandered to the window and tried to push it open.

Unperturbed by a dusting of soil from the fern, page hungrily opened the donut box. For a split second of disappointment that would be dispelled from Page's mind forever, Page stared. Meticulously organized rows of 50 & 100 dollar bills transfixed her. Page counted silently, as if looking for a clue. $20,000 exactly, the amount gave her no significant insight to why she had it. She closed the lid in shock.

"Oh blast, I forgot. There is a envelope too. Check my jacket pocket." Page's mom instructed, while trying to stand on a swivel chair and hang her crystals in the window. "Pass me a chocolate one will you sweetie? I didn't even have time for coffee!"

Out of the envelope, Page pulled a square stiff folded note paper. When she opened it up she felt her eyes hurt for a second, and then she read,

“Let's see what you can do with this page.”

The writing seemed to appear out of nowhere, but it was also familiar, as if had been there, always.