A Matter of Time Read online

talk to you, I’m acknowledging that there’s a wooden elephant, talking to me.”

  “You do realize, that you just spoke to me?” the elephant’s voice was gentle and calm, much like his posture, characteristics elephants are not known for. “Allow me to introduce myself, or shall I say, reintroduce? My name is Hawking.” she said as she lifted her foot. Nathan did not even bother to look away from the mangrove where several monkeys were playing. “You haven’t understood yet, have you?”

  “Understand? There’s nothing to understand, I have either gone completely crazy or I’m sleeping and this is all a dream.” Nathan decided that he would not lose anything by talking to the elephant either way, so he figured that he was going to be there for a while. “But anyway, enlighten me, please.”

  “I’m not the one who’s supposed to tell you. But I can give you some clues.” Hawking walked a few steps in order to look Nathan in the eyes before speaking again. “We have plenty of time so let us talk properly for a bit.” The elephant had her eyes fixed on Nathan’s. “Do you believe in god?”

  This was not the sort of question Nathan was expecting. He puffed the rest of the cigarette and threw it away and replied with a cold negative nod towards the elephant that was standing right in front of him.

  “And why is that?” Hawking asked, with a sad tone in her voice, for a change.

  “Oh we’re going down that road?” the boy had been in enough conversations like this one, whenever he went out with his friends and they ended up in an abnormal state of sobriety, they would engage in the widest range of serious conversations. Politics, religion, drug legalization, racism, were the usual topics of the sort of conversation Nathan and his friends had. The kind of debates only people who watched the news and had half a brain, were able to entertain. "For starters, I simply can’t believe in anything I can’t see, or touch, or feel. I don’t allow myself to believe in something there’s no proof of simply because society has been asking people to do so for thousands of years.” Hawking gave him a condescending nod. “Also, I can’t accept that I’m not acting of my own free will. I’m a free spirit and I do whatever I please, not because some geezer, watching everyone from the top of a comfortable cloud, wrote it on his journal, commonly known as ‘god’s plan’.” His face did not change expression the whole time he spoke; he was a cold and emotionless boy at that moment.

  “All this time, you’ve been held here against your will. Am I right?” Nathan got the cue that it was a rhetorical question. “If you’re not here because you want to, how can you call yourself a ‘free spirit’?”

  “Oh, sorry, I thought I was being a good guest, entertaining a conversation and whatnot, I really just wanted to get to school in time…” Nathan stopped talking.

  “Have you figured it out by now?” asked Hawking. Nathan did not reply, he reached for his pocket and took out his cellphone.

  “What the…” Nathan was muted by Hawking’s snout. “How much time have I been here?” Nathan asked, with a horrified look on his face.

  “How much time do you think has passed since your arrival?” asked the wooden elephant in return.

  “It says that I still have six minutes until two.” Nathan was shocked. Then, one question filled his mind. “Did time… stop?” Nathan thought he had been away for hours, and then he remembered that he was in a hurry.

  “Why, why were you in such a hurry to get to school, young lad?” Hawking’s voice was back to its original gracious tone. “Why were you in such a hurry that you bumped against a traffic sign?” Hawking was now decreasing in size, like the rest of the timber that composed that tropical scenery. “Well, it turns out we’re out of time, after all…”

  The floor was cracking. Nathan saw the tiles of wood that composed the floor beneath his feet fall into an infinite darkness. Hawking, the gigantic elephant, had been absorbed into the wooden tiles on the ground.

  As he fell through the rips of lumber, falling beneath himself, Nathan had a vision. It was him and his friends John and Paul, eating something.

  “Alright, the acid should kick in about an hour. Hurry and be back in time, will you?” Paul was talking to him.

  “Mate, if it starts doing its thing and you’re not with us, call us and we’ll pick you up.” warned John. “And be sure to be always aware that you’re hallucinating and nothing’s real.” Nathan saw himself walking away from his mates as John shouted these words in a volume that would make anyone who possessed a fair amount of illegal drugs, like Paul did, quiver. Nathan saw Paul punch John on the shoulder and the vision faded into darkness.

  Nathan knew he was back in the dark room where he met Frank. His own blood stains filled the floor. This time Nathan was standing up when Frank appeared out of nowhere. This time, he did not say a word while walking all the way up to Nathan.

  “I’m aware now ‘ya twat. I haven’t gone mental, I’ve been tripping balls all this time” Nathan shouted at Frank, who kept silently walking towards him. “You can’t pull any of that crazy shit, and make me think I’ve gone loony, anymore.” Nathan was getting truly scared, for the first time since he bumped into the traffic sign, as Frank kept walking in his direction, silently. “You’re merely a figment of my imagination!” Nathan kept shouting, as his face started to look like he was about to have a panic attack. “You’re a fucking product of my subconscious!” The dark rabbit was now only mere centimeters away from the boy’s face.

  “There’s always that third option…” Frank’s silver faceplate was now starting to look terrifying. “Engage the possibility that you have not bumped into a traffic sign.”

  “Wait, am I…” Frank did not let Nathan finish, he reached the boy’s face with his dark, hairy, paws.

  “Goodbye mate!” Frank bid farewell to Nathan and a flash of light filled the dark room, almost like the sunlight that blinded him earlier, before he had lunch.

  Nathan woke up to the delicious smell of omelet. He was again in his grandparents’ living room, lying on that old, uncomfortable couch. He took out his cellphone and realized that he was going to have to hurry if he wanted to be in time. He remembered his dream, and knew that if was not back in school, with his mates acting as sitters, in time, he could be in serious danger. He rushed to the bathroom and washed his hands. He felt an extra beat in his cardiac rhythm as he looked up, to meet his face in the mirror with his eyes. “Bloody hell!” he thought to himself. He dried his hands and rushed to get his jacket. “Sod it, I’ll eat something from the vending machine.”

  His grandmother’s shouts, begging him to eat something, were being totally ignored, as Nathan rushed out of the house and sprinted through the stairwell. He pulled out and lit a cigarette as fast as he could, and decided it could be better if he walked calmly, in order to avoid bumping into any traffic signs along the way. All of a sudden, Nathan felt a chill down his spine, and looked back. “Probably the acid working its magic.” he thought. As he turned back to his front, a strange man in a black rabbit costume was right in front of him. Nathan jumped back as he looked closely into the familiar figure’s face. This time, the odd, silver, facial armor was gone. A male face, had replaced it. The face had blood all over it and one eye was white and the other black.

  “I don’t understand. I thought I was sleeping that whole time.” Nathan’s confident face was gone, he was now horrified by that man’s presence, and his face displayed that horror to its full extent.

  “Oh mate, but you’re right, you were sleeping. You just didn’t wake up yet.” The man’s voice was different from Frank’s. The man laughed out loud before reaching Nathan’s head with his costume’s paws. And they disappeared from the middle of Madryn Street.

  About David Morais

  David Morais is a young, independent, writer from Portugal. At the moment he is taking a college degree on Languages, Literatures and Cultures, with a major in English and Spanish studies. Currently on his third college year, David’s area of expertise resides in English linguistics and culture.