Time Left Over Read online

TIME LEFT OVER

  by Nobo13

  Copyright 2013 Nobo13

  *****

  Time Left Over

  ‘It’s hard to explain’ I told her once again. I had lost count how many times I’ve explained, but perhaps to her, it was her first time hearing it.

  ‘Well, I’m sure one day I’ll get it’ she smiled as she had always done. I didn’t know it yet, but the time I had left over with my Mother was soon gone.

  *****

  My Mother died when I was seven years old. It was around this time that my Father also disappeared. I had no way of finding my Father, but I did have a way to see my Mother again.

  ‘It’s like walking downstairs to the kitchen,’ I explained to her, ‘You simply walk down the stairs to the room you want’

  ‘I see,” she replied, ‘That I get’

  ‘But for dad and me, we can walk to the kitchen, say five days ago, or five days from now. We simply walk down the stairs and go to the room we want’

  ‘Now you’ve lost me’ she smiled

  ‘Well… you remember the holiday we had to Hawaii?’

  ‘Of course, you got sick on shaved ice’

  ‘Right, well, we went by plane, right?’

  ‘Yes’

  ‘Well, if we didn’t go by plane, say we just stayed on the ground. We would have taken weeks to get there. But by plane, we entered another dimension, and we can get there quicker’

  ‘Right’

  ‘Well, it’s sort of like that. Dad and me can simply move through this other dimension, and go to another time. And the further we go, the longer we have to walk’

  ‘Well, I’m sure one day I’ll get it’ she smiled

  I sighed. That was the cue that our time was almost up.

  ‘It’s been nice talking with you, Mum’

  ‘Well, it’s certainty been strange,’ she laughed, ‘After all, I’m not even married to your dad yet’

  ‘Ah, well, I hope I haven’t given away anything’

  ‘Well, we’ll see’ she smiled

  I waved goodbye and walked away back to the present. I say present, but it was the time I should belong to as a human. As a Time Keeper, I didn’t really belong to any time. I could go to whenever, but I kept finding my way to back to my Mother.

  As I turned Fifteen, my visits became less and less. It was only when I was turning into an adult that I started to visit her again.

  ‘Like I said, it’s like walking downstairs to the kitchen’ I sighed

  ‘You’re not making any sense at all’ she smiled

  I was talking now to a woman who hadn’t even met my dad yet. She frowned more and was less like my mother than I knew.

  ‘Well, I’m sure one day I’ll get it’ she smiled

  With that cue, I said goodbye and left. Upset about how little she resembled my mother now, I decided to see her again soon after. It was this ‘walk’ to my mother that made me soon realise how short our time was together.

  ‘You know,’ she smiled, ‘I’ve been meaning to say this for a while now’

  ‘Oh?’ I was pleasantly shocked

  ‘I’ve always wanted to see you grown up’

  ‘Grown up? Like how old?’ I laughed

  ‘Well, some time when you have a wife, you’ve started a family, and maybe even thinking about their future…’

  I waited for her to speak more but she simply looked on in silence, to what I thought was the future. I could understand why she wanted to see her son grown up, especially since I was visiting her in a time where she knew she was dying. I looked up determined to make her wish come true. How little did I know.

  *****

  From that young age, I kept visiting her when I could. Eventually, I decided on living as a human, and got a stable job and stayed in my present time. I became entangled with my human side. I found and lost many loves. With every one, I visited and told my Mother. It was about this time when I realised something.

  When I tried to return to a time I had already visited, I couldn’t go there. I walked down the stairs, but the kitchen never appeared. Just like how you cannot undo going to the kitchen, a Time Keeper cannot undo their visit. I’ve been to the kitchen once already, I cannot undo that, but I can visit the kitchen in another time.

  It was this that made me realise, I had already spent all the time I had left with my Mother. I could not go see her when I was with her as a child, that I cannot undo. The times she was without me were already used up. I could only go further back in time.

  ‘Hello,’ I said to a woman who didn’t recognise me, ‘Excuse me but, this will sound strange’

  ‘Erm, I’m already dating someone, so…’

  I stared mortified as she walked away. She wasn’t even aware of who I was, and why should she? I was older than her.

  I walked off, trying to find another time where I could see her, the one I knew who was my Mother. As I tried to travel there, the force of paradox pushed me away. I came to realise that a Time Keeper could not travel onto their own timeline. Even with the ability to travel through time, I could not visit my own future or past self. In the same way you cannot walk through a wall, this rule prevented me from seeing my Mother.

  As I grew older, I simply visited my Mother at younger and younger ages. I never spoke to her again, I simply watched her at a distance before leaving.

  By the time I had somebody in my life, and was starting a family, I had used up all of my time with my Mother. All but a single day.

  *****

  I held my daughter up and smiled to my girlfriend. She nodded and I said to the nurse ‘Katrina.’ It was the name of my Mother. We embraced her and held her for what seemed like forever.

  I was worried about her being the child of a human and half a Time Keeper, but it seemed she had little of my powers. I wept with joy.

  When things settled down, I walked off for my last visit. I walked off into a time where someone important was being born.

  I arrived to a hospital ward some fifty years ago. I looked about the place and soon realised that time was not moving. In the years growing up, I learnt more about my race, and there was a odd phenomena that occurs called ‘dead time.’ It was the exact time when a Time Keeper dies.

  I say when they die, but rather, it is a place where time has been frozen. It is a defence mechanism for our race to prevent death.

  I was scared that my death was coming but I soon felt all my emotions disappear.

  ‘She’s beautiful’ I walked up to the window

  ‘I know,’ the man next to me spoke sadly, “I know’

  ‘This is where you were Dad?’ I said in disbelief

  ‘Yes’ he simply said

  I stood there as we both admired her.

  ‘I’ve become a dad as well, you know’ I turned to him

  He looked at me and smiled but soon turned away. I saw in him a guilt that tore him apart. He abandoned me, so he could visit my Mother, just like I did. And it was here, the last time he could see her, where he choose to die.

  ‘Her name is Katrina’ I said

  He looked up and smiled, ‘I wish I could have seen her’

  I felt guilty for bring it up before crying, ‘Me too, Dad, me too…’

  I was unsure how long I was there for, but soon I walked away. Knowing fully well I would never see my Dad again. Leaving him in that eternal frozen prison, I cried.

  *****

  In the days I had with my daughter, I steeled my resolve to live the rest of my days as a human. The temptation to visit my daughter in the future was strong, but I refused.

  It was around her twelfth birthday that I told her the story of my life, and what I was. Maybe she believed they were fantasy, or maybe she thought I was crazy, but I had to tell her. It wa
s a while afterwards that she asked for a family photo. It was horrible as we just had the second baby, and she was not up for it. I didn’t realise that this would give me some retribution.

  The next day, Katrina approached me and handed me two letters. I stared at her before opening them. I knew right away whose handwriting these were. Tears blurred them out, as I wiped my eyes to confirm it.

  ‘Grandma and Grandpa got to see you grown up. They got to see me as well’

  ‘Since when?’ I leaned back to stop myself crying

  ‘I kind of knew I could, but didn’t want to try it. You said being human was good enough’

  I got down on my knees and hugged her with all I had. We promised to live our lives out as human. Even as a Time keeper, we still wouldn’t know how much time we had left over. So why ruin the ending? I picked her up and enjoyed living day by day my time left over.

  ###

  About the author

  “It’s been a while but here’s something I managed to finish! I hoped you enjoyed reading it? Check out the website as well!”

  For those who are tragically obsessed, Nobo13 was born 1987 in Cambridgeshire. He spent four years doing a Physics degree but spend most of the time doodling and writing. Currently he is training to be a Science Teacher.

  Nobo13’s pen name is derived from using his surname, just look above! His more unusual hobbies are collecting headphones, staring aimlessly out the window (which consumes much of his time) and messing about with musical instruments- at the moment these are ocarinas and ukuleles.

  Please check out my website and my other works, thanks for reading!

  More from this author

  I currently have a poetry book, two short story books- that only use 50 words in each story, and a children’s sci-fi book that are available from the following links:

  Half a Century Alone:

  The Monsoon Season:

  The Other Half:

  The Man in the Desert:

  Lost in the Painting:

  Fixing Broken Promises:

  Finding Words for Love:

  You can also search ‘nobo13’ in the iBooks store!

  Be sure to check my website every now and then for news and updates!

  Connect with me online

  My website: https://www.wix.com/pmasterkim2002/nobo13

  My blog: https://nobo13.wordpress.com/

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