THIS IS AN INTRODUCTION SONG TO THE STORY
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CHAPTER III
My name is Pondsea and this is a continuation of my account of my journey back into my past with the Transpotime21bus crew.
The little time we spent waiting inside the black wormhole was weird; it was like we were suspended in mid-air, except that was no mid-air and there was no space. The only thing we were conscious of was our consciousness, the consciousness that we existed. Before now, I hadn’t really had a reason to spend too much time pondering what being static in the black wormhole would be like, well we just experienced it, and it was nothing special. It felt exactly the same way it felt whenever we were on the move, except that this time, we had too much time on our hands to think about it. Not like gifted girl and futurist cared anyway, they were too engrossed in their story-telling session to give a crap about what being suspended in a black wormhole felt like.
We got moving, the robots had figured it out, and we were on our journey again, the rescue mission to save me from that horrible experience in the past. This was the first time we had actually travelled in time with an intention to cause a Paradox deliberately. Before the very first trip taken by the Transpotime21bus and its crew, long before I met Roberto TM, Cascrypto and the rest of the crew then, Roberto TM and Cascrypto had expended all the intellectual energy at their disposal on making sure they found a way to prevent a paradox. Now they were deliberately causing one, they were going through all this trouble, risking a negative paradox, all for me, I was grateful. Initially, I protested, there was no way I was going to allow them to risk something so unpredictable and potentially grave on my account, no way! Yea, initially; but I had to come to terms with the truth, and the truth is that I needed it; I couldn’t continue living my life that way. If nothing was done, I would lose my mind at some point and would have to be a permanent residence of a mental institution. I didn’t want that, I wanted to live a normal life; I wanted to be free like the rest of the Transpotime21bus crew. I wanted to love, I wanted to live and not just exist, I wanted everything every normal human being wanted, and this was the only way to get it. Thankfully, despite my attempts at playing the selfless hero, Roberto TM was insistent, he was not going to take no for an answer. Knowing him, I didn’t have a choice, once Roberto set his mind on something, he makes it happen, the man’s a crazy genius! I decided to trust him to make this turn out for the best. He discovered a way around Time Paradox; he is capable of fixing anything that goes wrong, there is no reason to worry, Roberto’s got this!
Sure by now, you would be wondering what happened, what was the incidence that reduced me to the paranoid sad excuse of a man I was then? What could have been so bad that I would have to start seeing a psychiatrist four times a week every day of my life since then? What really happened? Well here it is.
When my EX-girlfriend and I moved to England from abroad, we were looking for a house to rent. We did not have any references, so we lived in a hotel for ten days. Then I saw an ad in the local newspaper for a flat close to the centre of the city. We went to talk to the landlord; he was a well-spoken, easy going and nice Pakistani man. He was very kind to us and did not ask for any reference whatsoever.
It was an exceptionally dark night when we went to see the flat. We looked inside and checked the amenities and decided it was a beautiful place, so we signed the contract for six months. Early in the morning on the next day, we checked out of the hotel, boarded a taxi and asked to be taken to our new home.
When we arrived and alighted, we saw a billboard next to our flat; it reads ''SAUNA''.
We asked the taxi driver what a Sauna was. He laughed and said
''A brothel''
Our English after ten days was not very good. So we asked again to find out what a brothel was. The taxi driver laughed again and said
''A whore house!''
I turned to my girlfriend and asked her if she knew what a whore house was. She said she didn't, so once again we asked the taxi driver. He thought we were pulling his legs and stopped taking us seriously, he requested the fare, kick-started his engine and drove off.
We lived in that flat beside the brothel for a year and a half. I couldn’t count the number of times I had a prostitute follow me inside the entrance to my flat telling me I made a mistake and that the brothel was next door, I would tell her that I lived there, and she would turn back giggling. A few days later when my girlfriend was at work, I decided to go to the newsagent and buy the newspaper. On my return to my flat, I was almost halfway up the stairwell when a voice came from behind greeting me.
''Hey, good morning."
I turned around and replied, good morning. The voice was from a brunette European giant of a man. He coughed a little and asked
"Do you know what time the sauna opens?"
"I don't know....perhaps 10 am?" I responded.
I hurried up towards my apartment, and just when I was ready to open the door, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned around coming face to chest with the same man. Standing right in front of me now, I was even more conscious of his size and facial features, besides his unpleasant looking face, he had yellowed teeth that were already starting to decay. He also had bad breath and him being close to me made my skin crawl; I couldn’t help but think to myself, “why is he so ugly.”
''Hey man, Can I read your newspaper inside your house while the sauna opens?" He bellowed
“Even his voice is ugly,” I thought to myself, but even while I was thinking that my heart was pounding like it was going to jump right out of my chest. I was terrified. My tail at that moment was between my legs.
"No, you can't, sorry," I answered.
He smiled at me and asked again.
"Just till the Sauna opens."
I looked at him and said ''I hope you are kidding.''
He closed his yellow smile and in an aggressive tone, He said
"Do you not trust me? Here, it's the keys to my car so you can believe me."
I thought to myself "This man is nuts. What does he want me to do with his car keys? Kiss them?"
He looked like a bum, but a violent giant bum is just as dangerous as a violent person who is not a bum, I needed to think of something fast because the smile on his face was fading quickly.
So, thinking quickly I said, "My girlfriend is inside the house with my baby."
His smile came back, and in a softer tone he replied "Why didn’t you tell me that earlier?''
Then he said '' Ok give me your newspaper, and I will read it outside the door. When I’m done, I will knock on your door and leave the paper at the door."
I went inside the house. Nobody was home. I had fabricated a story that I had a baby so that I could save myself from whatever this man was up to.
I starting talking to myself very loudly inside the house so that yellow teeth would think I was with somebody else (my non-existent baby and girlfriend).
Five minutes later, I heard someone knock on the door twice. I looked through the keyhole, and he was not there, I thought he was gone, so I decided to pick the newspaper, and just as I opened the door, yellow teeth man sprang out of nowhere and shoved me back into the room and locked the door after us. I was horrified, what was happening? Was I getting robbed? Is this a serial killer? What did he want!?
“I don’t have any money in the house!” I yelled. Well I had a few pounds in my pockets and a few notes lying around somewhere, but that was it really. The only valuable things in the house were my girlfriend’s trinkets and jewellery, and she would kill me if I let someone get them, well that is if yellow teeth didn’t kill me already. So many things were crisscrossing my mind. He just stood there grinning at me. “What do you want?” I screamed at him; then he started unbuckling his belt; what was he doing? Why was he undoing his belt? Then the sudden realisation hit me, No! No way was that going to happen to me; this ugly giant wanted to rape me, a fellow guy! I had heard of and even watched incidences like this happen in movies but never in my wildest nightmares did I imagine it happening to me!
He finished unbuckling his belt and dropped his pants and underpants, and then he looked at me and said: “you know what to do”. “Is he crazy? Do what? I’d rather die”, I started backing away, and before I could take more steps he moved towards me, he was fast, faster than normal for a man his size, but I was not ready to start analysing that now. I wriggled out of his reach, and there started the hide and seek in the house, running around, trying not to get caught by him. After some minutes, I finally put some distance between us and just as I evaded him and tried to make my way out of the apartment, he tripped me, and I fell, then he pinned me down and got on top of me. I fought him with all the strength I had, with punches, my nails, everything but he wouldn’t let go, then in one desperate attempt to free myself, I bit down on his big nose with all my strength, he screamed and released me, holding his bloodied big nose. I didn’t waste any time, I got up and made my way out of the door and ran downstairs, sweaty face and tousled hair and all. I didn’t stop running.
I had just gone through the worst experience of my life, and I was going to put as much distance as I could between myself and the yellow teeth man. That night, I slept on a park bench, exhausted from all the running. I kept having nightmares all through the night, I kept waking up and eventually I gave up at some point and just sat there till daybreak. Later that morning, I worked up the courage and took a bus home; when I got there, I just stood at the foot of the stairwell and looked up, afraid to climb. Then I saw my girl coming out of my apartment, immediately she saw me, she screamed my name and rushed down to meet me; apparently she had seen all the blood, and because she couldn’t locate me, she was frantic with worry. Now she was glad that I was ok. The only problem was that I really wasn’t. That was the worst day of my life, and that was the beginning of my terrible life.
The Transpotime21bus had stopped, and everyone was disembarking, I got up too, we parked in an underground garage, hidden away from prying curious eyes, some members of the crew had spent some time developing a stealth mode for the bus, a technology that made the bus invisible when activated. Gifted girl and futurist stayed behind while the rest of us left. We all came out and started stopping taxis. When we had stopped enough to take all of us; we left for my apartment. We got there just in time to see my other past self walking up the stairs; then we saw the yellow teeth man, he had apparently been reading a newspaper nearby and saw my past self enter my apartment; then he decided to follow. We watched him go after my past self to the apartment, and then the eighteen of us including myself went in after him. When we entered, he was terribly shocked, even more so by the sight of a second me, and just before he made any moves or sound, Roberto TM shot him with a stun gun, he went down in a heap. I wanted to kill him; this bastard has caused me so much misery over the years and if not for the Transpotime21bus crew, I would be eternally in trouble. The rest of the crew members restrained me; we may be willing to allow a positive paradox, but one resulting from killing someone would definitely be negative. We went inside the apartment and shot the second me with a tranquillizer; we didn’t have time to waste explaining anything to him. Two of us draped his arms over our shoulders and carried him downstairs, the newspaper man saw us and asked why we were taking him out and why he was unconscious; I replied that he was my twin brother; he passed out, and we were taking him to the hospital. He looked at both our faces and decided that I was telling the truth. We stopped some taxis, boarded and went back to the Transpotime21bus for the journey back to the future.
Now that the (still) mentally healthy Pondsea is with us in the present unaware of anything that happened in the building, I decided it was time to end my pain and suffering. It was time to leave this world and let my other healthy self enjoy the benefits of being a transpotimer, I decided to take my life, the rest of the crew would not have it. What was I thinking!? No way they were going to allow that! I looked at Roberto, and I could see in his eyes that he understood. He told the others to quiet down and then said “Pondsea, I will not stop you now, because I know that you will not really die, but it will erase the sufferings you are going through. The new Pondsea will be a happier more optimistic person that will be able to sleep at night without waking up terrified due to bad dreams”. None of my fellow Transpotime21bus crew members agreed to help, besides the fact that they didn't support my decision, they also didn't want to commit murder. Only Roberto understood, but even he would not even consider it, let alone do it. Then someone told me about a guy named Yassinnxt, a professional assassin who was only known to people with links to the Amsterdam underworld. Yassinnxt was known as “killer smile”, he had a surprisingly beautiful smile with dark hair and beard, a reptile tattoo on his neck that flexed whenever he talked, and an earring in his right ear. We met up in a bar, and I explained what I wanted, a peaceful, painless death in my room lying on my bed, no form of violence. He laughed, it was the first time he had gotten a request like that in his professional assassin career, but it was no problem. Yassinnxt told me how much money he wanted for the job, and I said I would pay him the same day he would do the job. I picked the next day, a chilly Wednesday evening, there was nothing significant about the day, I just loved the weather. Yassinnxt had suggested using carbon monoxide, it was painless, and I would die in my sleep without any incidence. The day came, and Yassinnxt arrived, my fellow crew members were in a solemn mood outside the building. I went inside my room with my sleeping robe, laid on the bed and waited for Yassinnxt to do his job, after a few minutes, my eyes grew heavy, and I started having a headache, in a moment...I was asleep.
When I finally woke up from the strong tranquillizer I was given, the transpotimers gathered and told me everything that happened and how my other self decided to end his life so that I could enjoy the benefits of being a transpotimer. I was grateful, even though I knew it was still me, so I decided to tell this story like it happened to me in memory of my other self. After all, it really did happen to me.