Time after time

Dorothy sighed as she put down the TV remote and slowly got to her feet. What a Godsend those contraptions were for the arthritic “And the lazy!” she chuckled to herself; having to struggle over to the television every time she wanted to change channel had long since meant far too much pain and effort, so she’d either had to tolerate watching a load of rubbish that she really didn’t want to see, or to turn the dratted thing off altogether. But her grandchildren had clubbed together and bought her a very swish, up-to-date model with all the latest ‘must-have’ features, a remote control thingy being the most important. Now she had the opportunity to make those smug, arrogant know-alls on Question Time dance to her tune – do they realise how silly they look, ranting away with the sound off? she wondered. She really should get around to discovering what the all the other buttons do. Maybe tomorrow though. Not tonight.

Slowly she made her way into the kitchen, putting up the fireguard and turning out the sitting-room light as she left the room. A nice cup of Horlicks would be just the thing to sip in bed as she read a few more chapters of her library book. It wasn’t a very good story – absolute twaddle, if truth be told – but it was entertaining twaddle, and helped pass the time.

She took a bottle of milk from the fridge and poured some into a mug. A minute in the microwave, stir in a spoonful of Horlicks from the jar and it was ready. So much easier than having to make sure the milk didn’t boil over in the pan, and then having to wash the pan afterwards before the leftover milk welded itself to the inside. Taken as a whole, she thought, the changes she’d seen over her life had generally been improvements over ‘the good old days’. What couldn’t she have done in her life if she’d had today’s opportunities when she was a girl?

She turned off the kitchen light and took her drink upstairs to bed, taking care not to slop any on the carpet – now that her hands were so arthritic it was difficult to hold a cup steadily. With the mug safely, and unspilled, on her bedside table she got herself ready for bed. It was a bit disappointing to have to put some teeth in water at night, but as she ran her tongue over the gummy gaps between her teeth, she consoled herself that she still had more of her own teeth than most people her age. The hearing aid has come as a bit of a shock too; at first she’d thought people were just mumbling and talking quietly, but when it became obvious that nobody else seemed to have any trouble keeping up with conversations she’d visited the doctor who’d got her sorted out and back in the world of the hearing once more. It did have the advantage that she could turn it off at any time and have a bit of peace and quiet – like now, as she took it out of her ear and settled down with her book and started to read.

Gracious! It was two o’clock already. Although she hadn’t slept well for years she usually tried to turn the light out before it got too far into the next morning. It’d start getting light soon, which always disturbed her sleep, and she still liked to hear the birds in the bushes outside her window starting to twitter in the grey light before dawn. It was more trouble now that she had to put the aid back in her ears to enjoy their chorus, but usually it was worth it – especially if the blackbird was around. So carefully she put the marker in her book and put it on the bedside table. She had a sip of water from her glass, switched off the lamp and settled down to sleep.
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Dorothy had always loved the floaty feeling that happens when a person’s between sleeping and waking; she imagined it was like those ‘out-of-body’ experiences she’d read about where people could travel freely through space and time. Just recently she’d thought she was starting to be able to control where her thoughts drifted without being jerked back to wakefulness by the realisation of what was happening.

She opened her eyes and found herself floating through swirling coloured clouds, rather like those extraordinary photos taken by the Hubble telescope of infinitely distant places like the Swan nebula, with towering mountains of gas lit by innumerable suns. This was a very strange feeling – Dorothy was sure she was moving, and moving very fast at that, but there was no sensation of wind on her skin. And if she rolled over she still felt as though she was the right way up. She stretched her limbs and luxuriated in the absence of pain. This was marvellous! The freedom of movement reminded her of when she was a young girl! She could roll and tumble like a dolphin, without having to worry about coming up for air.

Air. That was a strange thing. She couldn’t remember when she last took a breath, but it didn’t seem to matter at the moment. This was a wonderful dream! It would be a shame to wake up.

However, gradually she started to become aware of the passage of time. Her surroundings were changing. She felt … different, somehow. Less free, more … confined. Now she could feel her skin again, and the rolling became more of an effort. There was definitely an up and a down now, too. There were strange noises, too – but how could that be when she wasn’t wearing her … whatever she used to have in her … ear, that was it … oh never mind. She kicked out a bit, and now her feet met soft resistance. It was odd how she now didn’t seem able to stretch out as she wanted to, and she started to fidget, but it didn’t seem to help any more. She frowned, curled up a bit tighter and ran her tongue over her gums. Somehow it didn’t seem to matter that there were no teeth there.

It was nearly time to be born.