Clockwork

An incomplete story about time travel. This is only the first bit. What do you think? :)

His black coat glistened as he rose above the gray waters. Water precariously slid down his curved spine as he did so smoothly. He seemed to make no effort to come back to the surface for a breath of air and instead seemed to be careless with his life--as if he could toss it away whenever he wanted to. The suns rays enhanced his amber colored eyes and made them shine like diamonds.

"Johnny," I said. "Come here, doggy." I held out my arms as support so that he could walk toward me. He padded his way along the mushy sand toward me. As he did so, his paws left behind prints that could stay there forever if he'd wanted them too.

"Johnny, you're a good boy." I said to him. Although he could not respond to me with words, I felt through his passionate kisses that he had heard me.

"Want to play a game?" I asked while holding up a tennis ball. He barked in accord with me. I tossed it toward the ocean, and without any perceived thought, he ran straight into the water from where he had just emerged. Predictably, he brought it back to my opened hand.

"You're such a loyal dog." I said and I tossed the ball back toward the sea. As Johnny fetched the ball, I thought about how peaceful the scene had been. I was at a beach, playing toss with my dog, and there was no one else there but he and I. I looked at the pink sky above me and noticed that the sun was starting to set and gray clouds were moving in. This is how I want to live my life. I thought. Peacefully with my dog. I won't let myself get into anymore trouble.

I closed my eyes and sat there in the cooling sand, and I let that statement replay about three times in my head until I could really believe it. But the silence was broken when a young voice behind me interrupted my thoughts.

“Excuse me, mister?” it said. I realized that it was the voice of a young woman. Before turning around, I exhaled sharply through my nose, annoyed because the woman had interrupted my thoughts.

“Excuse me?” I looked over my shoulder without saying anything to give her to give her the impression that I did not want to be bothered. It was rude, yes, but I wasn’t in the mood to answer questions. Apparently she’d gotten the message, because grumpily trotted in the sand to the front of me. I squinted at her.

“Excuse me for being a nuisance, but if you didn’t want to be bothered you could have simply said so.” she said with a hand on her hip. She was barefooted, but ill-dressed for the beachy weather. She had worn a large sun hat, that had a flamboyant pink flower on it. She had on a burgundy overcoat and she wore khakis. And it looked like she was wearing about a thousand scarves.

“Can I help you?” I said with a tinge of irritation in my voice. I had really wanted her to leave.

“Yes. My car broke down a few miles back. I’ve been walking for two hours--”

“Bare-footed, like that?” I interrupted. I was suddenly interested in what she had to say. Her eyebrows furrowed and she had suddenly gotten really angry again.

“Listen, mister.” she said. “I don’t like asking strangers for help just as much as the next person, but if you don’t want to help me, then I’d be perfectly fine with walking another two hours than to be disrespected by you!” Suddenly, it was quiet again save for the sounds of the ocean washing upon the shores. Peaceful it was. While she stood there fuming, I pinched a bit of sand and rolled it between my fingers. A harsh gale ran between us. It only ruffled my shirt but it almost blew off her hat. I watched her struggle with keeping it upon her head. I almost laughed at the sight.

“Hmpf.” She began. “I guess I’ll just walk a few more hours then. Good day.” And she trotted back to where she had came, struggling with keeping her scarves round her neck and her obnoxious hat on her head.

Johnny finally ran back to me, soaking wet, and dropped the tennis ball on the sand. He barked because he was happy to see me. I ruffled his fur but couldn’t help thinking about how hopeless that woman was. I looked around for her and saw that she hadn’t gotten very far. Lex, I hope you’re not thinking what I think you’re thinking. But I was. I was unfortunately a good samaritan, and my caring senses had kicked in and I walked quickly to catch up with the woman who was still struggling to make it through the sand.

“Miss, wait up!” I called out to her while trying to catch up with her. I got close enough to touch her shoulder but it was a mistake. When I touched her shoulder, she shrieked, and fell in the sand.

“What do you want?!” she screamed.

“I can offer you a ride back if you like.” I said. She glared at me and proceeded and got back up and continued to walk without saying anything to me. She stormed off, even angrier than before.

“Really!” I tried again. “It’s getting dark, and you don’t have any shoes!” We were getting farther away from the water, so there were more trees around. I had to yell because another strong wind had blown between us, and the trees were loudly blowing in the wind.

At that, she swiveled around to face my direction, and walked toward me with the same anger in her steps as she’d had before.

“Fine,” she said as she got within speaking distance of me. “You’ll drive me back, but I swear if you do one funny thing I’m jumping out of the car and I’m calling the police!” and she turned around and kept walking in the direction she had been going before. I rolled my eyes and mocked her in my head. I walked ahead of her and walked left. Johnny followed.