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By: Inuki **Ookami**
27
"Significance. How do I spell that
again? Are there two c's or two g's? Great, just great, I can't even remember
how to spell it." It was February. About a week till Valentine's Day.
The boy stood there. He was mumbling things to himself. That was when Kaleb
saw him. Kaleb had felt like he was changing before, when he was in the hospital
room. He went out the door after realizing nobody could see or hear to him.
As he exited he was in a hallway. Suddenly there was a bright flash, and he
was in a room. It looked like the inside of a huge machine. Giant gears and
strange devices he had never seen before twirled in circles, grinding against
one another, and in the middle of the mess was a huge amount of stairs. He
began climbing them, it was a huge task. He began to wonder what kind of a
nut built the place, and how, and how long it would take, when he saw the
boy. The boy was about his age, maybe a year younger, eighteen? The boy was
peculiar because he was apparently either albino, or had his hair dyed white.
If it was bleched then it was a pretty good bleach job. You couldn't quite
say that it wasn't his natural hair color, but how many people have white
hair? The boy looked up slowly.
"How do you spell the
word 'siginificance' again? I can't quite remember. I knew last year. I'm
sure that I knew last year." the boy rambled. The boy seemed to be slightly
hunched over a desk. A feather pen as white as snow sat in his right hand,
and on the table sat a piece of scroll-like paper. Kaleb quietly muttered
the letters of the word as the other boy wrote them out upon the letter with
the pen.
"Thank-you. It seems I always forget these things at the beginning of
every year. I seem to grow up so quick. So much to do, and so little time
to do it in. The first month is always a waste anyways, being a baby isn't
helpful, or a child neither. The last months are just as useless. After eighty
or ninety I find myself too tired. Although then I do get a day rest every
four years. That's helpful. And I get the New Years to rest." the boy
chattered on, talking to himself. Kaleb listened, interested, but more interested
in why he was there.
"What do you mean? Being a baby? Being eighty? Where am I?" asked
Kaleb shyly. Even in such a strange place like this he was shy.
"Why, we're in the chamber of time and fate of course. We are in the
biggest and very first and finest grand-father clock every built. It is so
old that this clock is time itself! I am the Time Master, I keep track of
all things from the past, present, and future. I know why you are here, but
I'm slightly busy right now. I need to write a fake letter to the president
in the year seven thousand three hundred and sixty two." said the boy.
"But I need to get
out of here! What do you mean, you know why I am here?" Kaleb said sounding
much more worried than usual.
"Oh fine, you are here because I have to tell you about your gift. I
knew that this day would have to eventually come. Well, you aren't quite from
the world you think that you are from. You are an alien, in a sense. Mitsuhiro
is the same. Everyone in that world was from your world, but none of them
can return. You and Mitsuhiro have the power to return. Now I am a very busy
man- boy rather. I've got to get this letter done. Please leave." the
boy said, shooing Kaleb away. Kaleb didn't move though. He wanted answers.
"Wait! You still haven't answered any of my questions!" shouted
Kaleb above the racket of the machines, the cogs, and wheels, and spools.
"Yes I did, I told
you where you are. If you must know I am as you would call me "Father
Time" every month I grow nine years older, until at the end I am one
hundred and eight. Although something seems to be wrong this year. I am already
eighteen, yet we haven't even been half-way through the second month. I should
only be twelve or thirteen!" mumbled the white haired boy.
"So as you can see, I have a ton of paper work to do. I need to solve
this, and your little problems won't help me get any of this done. Now leave!"
the albino was turning red in the face. It was an odd site. That was certain.
A red faced, white haired boy rambling on.
"Wait! What gift? You never told me what world we're from!" cried
a frustrated Kaleb. He didn't shout like this very often.
"You are from Earth, just a different plane of it. You'll have to travel
into outer-space to get back to your own Earth though. Your gift is to see
the past, no matter how terrible it is you must always remember to learn from
other's and your own mistakes. The other boy's is to read the future. Remind
him not to jump to conclusions. Finally remember you can also heal others
if you believe in yourself, and tell Mitsuhiro not to get too carried away
in the heat of a battle." suddenly there was a bright flash and everything
was dark. The pen that the boy had been writing with. It was a feather pen.
Just like the feathers that he had seen recently. White as snow. The exact
same color as the albino boy's hair.
Suddenly he was awake. He
blinked. He was in a hospital room. Mitsuhiro stood at a chair infront of
him.
"Hey, you okay?" asked Mitsuhiro. Kaleb forced a smile, and slowly
nodded. After such strange occurances in his mind with that other boy- or
was it all just a strange dream? The boy had certainly been right though.
He could remember the past, and Mitsuhiro could read the future. Like with
the baseball, or the troops in the Learning Institute shooting all those students.
Now an even greater question pressed on him. Before it was how, now it was
why. He could deal with all the little whys in life, he could even fight off
a small group of them by reading science text-books, and theories, or logical
explanations. Unfortunately this one seemed to be far beyond him, beyond textbooks,
theories, and even beyond logical explanations. It seemed that this was like
something straight out of a myth, or legend. Like the Greek's myths. Like
the legendary Titans. Something strange was going to happen with those robots.
There were two of them. Two robots, there were also two boys. Two pilots.
A very dangerous combination. Two top-marking pilots with two killer robots,
fighting the world's largest psychotic company who operated behind the public's
backs. How odd this week was going to be, how odd it had already been. At
least he was safe, for now. That was all that really, truly mattered.
"Kaleb!" exclaimed Mitsuhiro. Mitsuhiro had been standing at the
end of Kaleb's hospital bed, leaning against a wall, his arms crossed. Now
he jumped towards Kaleb's bed. Kaleb had slowly begun to open his eyes. Breathe
filled his chest once more, and he could feel himself breathing. Kaleb gave
a weak smile. He decided it would be better for him to explain everything
to Mitsuhiro when they got back to their room. If a nurse overheard them the
people in the hospital would think he was crazy, and hallucinating, then they
would probably end up locking him up for sure. What had happened to him? He
was asleep one moment, then the next he was awake in this hospital. He was
confused, but Mitsuhiro explained that he hadn't woken up, they found he wasn't
breathing properly or something, a blood clot perhaps? In any case they missed
the day of training, and took it easy that night, and Kaleb told of all that
he had seen, then Mitsuhiro confessed to seeing himself with Kaleb's "future"
girl-friend. Kaleb shrugged, and the two tried desperately to wring some kind
of meaning out of the memories and visions that the two had seen the night
before.
