Merry and the Doctor Ch 4

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The Deputy left the room and led them out of the building.  The Doctor was very casual about it as if he had visited this place a hundred times.  Merry felt excited about walking on the ground of an alien planet.  She looked all around as they walked.  Everything was familiar, yet different.  Outside, a vehicle was waiting for them.  To Merry, it looked like an old fashioned carriage, but no horse pulled it.  Merry could feel the motor under her seat as the Doctor helped her in. A Weyk driver took them down the streets of the city.

            “I remember a much busier place the last time I was here,” the Doctor noted.

            “It’s the plague,” Gweri said.  “Many have died and those who are not sick stay indoors now.”

            They came to a stop several minutes later in front of a large stone building.  “This is our school,” Gweri explained, “but recently, it was converted into an orphanage.  Hundreds of children are there, their parents dead.  Killed by the plague.”

            Merry and the Doctor got out of the carriage and followed Gweri into the building.  The sounds of the children filled the building.  Merry heard children crying, laughing and singing.  The Deputy led them down a long corridor.  Merry peeked into the rooms.  She saw children of all sizes and ages in the rooms.  There were few adults.  Maybe one adult per room.  Merry wasn’t too sure.

            Gweri began to explain the situation to the Doctor.  The sick children were in one wing of the school and all the well children were in another.  They were all orphans.  Daily more children arrived at the school after their parents died.  Some arrived sick, some well.  Merry was shocked.

            An adult pushing a cart of food walked past the visitors and into one of the rooms.  The sound of excitement from the children could be heard as the food arrived.  One of the doors on Merry’s left opened and a small child ran out of the room and attached herself to Merry’s leg.  The Doctor and Gweri stopped their walking down the hall and turned to see Merry.  She knelt down to the child.

            “Hello there, what’s your name?” Merry asked.

            The child was silent.  Merry looked into her face.  Her black hair had a small streak of red in it.  Her eyes were violet and her face was wet, like she had been crying.  Merry guessed the child was probably just two years old.

            An adult stepped out of the room where the child had just run out from.  She walked up to Merry and the child.  “I’m so sorry,” the adult said.  “Stjarna keeps trying to run away.  She has only been here for two days and she just doesn’t understand why she can’t go home.”

            “It’s alright,” Merry said.  She knelt down in front of the child again.  “Stjarna, is that your name?  It means ‘star.”

            The tiny child put her arms around Merry’s neck.  Merry hugged the child and picked her up and held her tightly.  She looked over to where the Doctor and Gweri waited.  The Doctor smiled.

            “Can Stjarna come with me for a little while?” Merry asked the caretaker.  “I’m getting a tour of the city with the Mayor’s Deputy, Gweri.  I’ll bring her back later, when my tour is over.”

            The care taker looked concerned.  It would be so much easier for her to care for the other children if she wasn’t constantly keeping an eye on Stjarna, but could she trust the alien stranger?  Alien or not, Stjarna had become quite attached to the stranger. 

            “You don’t have to take her, but if you want to, I think it would be very nice for Stjarna,” the caretaker said.

            Merry smiled.  She looked the child in the face and asked, “Do you want to go with me and ride in a carriage?”

            The child nodded.  Merry held her close.  “We’ll be back later.”  She turned to face the Doctor.  His smile was broad and encouraging.  Merry smiled back.  They followed Gweri through the halls and then back outside.  The Doctor talked with Gweri and got as much information as he could about the situation.  Merry was no longer listening.  She was enjoying the feeling of holding a child in her arms too much.  She knew she missed her children since they had died, but she had not realized how very much her arms had ached for a child to be cradled in them.  She talked quietly to the child.  Stjarna listened to Merry and nodded her head whenever she heard something she liked, but she never spoke.  Merry felt so sad for the child.  She thought how Stjarna must miss her mother and father just as much as Merry missed Liam and Ailish. All of the children in that school were orphans and Merry’s heart ached for them.

            Stjarna enjoyed the ride in the carriage.  The driver took them to another large building.  It looked like a hospital.  Gweri and the Doctor got out of the carriage.  The Doctor lifted Stjarna and held her while Merry got out of the carriage.  Stjarna reached one of her small hands to the curl of hair that hung down over the Doctor’s forehead. She twirled her fingers through the curl with all the interest of a young child.  The Doctor chuckled.  He untangled Stjarna’s fingers from his hair and he passed the child to Merry.

            Merry and the Doctor followed Gweri into the building.  He led them to a room and asked them to wait.  Merry sat on a chair with Stjarna in her lap.  The Doctor paced the room.

            “Doctor?  All the people here have black hair with a color streak in it.  Does the color mean anything?”

            “No.  It’s a genetic thing, like hair color on Earth.  Humans have black, red, brown, blond and white hair.  These people have black hair with a color streak in it.  It’s passed on generation to generation.  When a person with a blue streak mates with a person with a red streak, their children could be red, blue or purple.  Just like humans and their hair colors.”

            Merry smiled and looked at Stjarna.  “Can I ask you another question, Doctor?”

            “Sure,” he said.  He seemed a little agitated, but not at her.  At least she didn’t think it was directed at her.

            “This child’s name means ‘star.’  How do I know that?”

            “I told you,” the Doctor said.  “The TARDIS translates for you.”

            “No, this is different.  They told me the child’s name is Stjarna, but I know the meaning of the word is ‘star’,” Merry said.

            The Doctor stopped his pacing and faced Merry.  His shoulders slumped a bit, “I don’t know.”  He coughed.

            Merry put Stjarna down and went to the Doctor.  “Did you just cough?” she asked him.

            “No.  It was just a tickle in my throat.  That’s all,” the Doctor explained.

            Merry watched the Doctor a moment longer before turning her attention to Stjarna, who was running around the chairs and their legs.  Merry laughed, “She seems happy to be free to run around.  It can’t be fun for her in that orphanage.  Are you sure you’re alright, Doctor?”

            He nodded, but as soon as he did, he coughed again, harder and longer this time.  Merry turned him around and laid her hand on his back.  She couldn’t feel anything through his thick velvet coat.  Then she pressed her ear to his back.  She could hear it, the rattling in his lungs.  It was just like Peter had when he was sick.  She turned him back to face her. “Doctor, you’re sick.”

“No I’m not,” he shot back at her.

            “Yes, you are.  I heard it in your lungs, just like Peter.  We’ve only been here a few hours.  How is it you’ve gotten sick so quickly?”

            The Doctor slumped down into one of the chairs.  He looked very tired.  “My physiology is different.  I’ve got two hearts, to start with.  I guess this illness progresses faster on two hearted species.”

            “You have two hearts?” Merry asked.

            The Doctor nodded.

            “No wonder,” Merry smiled.

            The doctor looked up at her in surprise.  “What do you mean by that?”

            “Two hearts.  No wonder you are so kind.”

            A smile spread across his face before he began coughing again.  The door opened and several men came into the room, including the emerald green haired man Merry had spoken with at the meeting with the Mayor.  When they saw the Doctor coughing, they rushed up to him.  The green haired man pulled out a curious instrument from his pocket and held it to the Doctor’s head.  He looked at its readings.

            “He’s got it, Gweri.  Let’s get him moved to a room.”

            A bed was brought in.  Merry took hold of one of the Doctor’s arms and Gweri took his other arm.  The Doctor stood with their help and was able to get onto the bed.  He couldn’t believe how fast this sickness was attacking him.  He felt weak and by the time they had wheeled the bed out of the room, he had lost consciousness.

            Merry watched in shock as they wheeled him away.  It had happened so quickly.

            The man with the green hair turned to Merry.  “My name is Doru,” he said.  I’m chief healer here.”

            “My name is Merry and this is Stjarna.”

            Doru went to the child and placed a hand on her head.  “Yes, I know Stjarna.  Her mother and I were classmates.  Why do you have her?”

            Merry picked up the child, “She was in the orphanage and she same running to me to be held.”

            “She was in the orphanage?”  Then her family is dead?”  Doru’s eyes lowered to the ground in sorrow.

            “I’m so sorry,” Merry said quietly.

            “This plague is so bad; we can hardly keep track of who has died anymore.  I didn’t know about Stjarna’s family.”  Doru looked up at Merry, “I’m sorry to see the Doctor is sick.  We had hoped he could help us, but now…” his voice trailed off.  “I’m afraid at the speed the plague seems to be spreading through him he won’t live to see the sun set.”

            Merry stared in horror at the healer.  “What can we do?”  she asked.

            “Nothing.  Unless you know where we can get some inciver,” he sadly answered.

Merry’s grip around Stjarna tightened.  “What is this inciver and how do you know it will cure them?”  Merry asked.  She was starting to feel slightly hysterical.

            “We can only guess,” Doru explained.  “We have some old documents of a plague that seems very similar to this one we are experiencing now.  The people were dying, but they discovered inciver cured them.  Apparently the plant was available widely back then.  They left us drawings of the plant and instructions on how to prepare it, but the plant is no longer found on our planet.  That’s why we’ve sent scouts and scientist into space, to see if they could locate the plant.  But, no one has returned with anything or any news.”

            Merry thought about the Doctor.  His life was going so fast.  She couldn’t let him die.  “You said you have a picture of this plant.  Will you show it to me?” she asked.

            “Certainly.  Come with me.”  Doru led them down several halls.  Once in a while he would point out one room or another and explain the things they were researching or experimenting with.  Merry held Stjarna’s hand.  The little girl skipped along down the hall, humming to herself. 

            Doru finally opened a door and they walked into a library.  He pulled down a book and started to flip through the pages.  Stjarna was getting restless.  Merry picked her up and held her close.  After several moments, Doru set the book down in front of her.  He pointed to a picture.  “Here is the inciver plant.”

            Merry looked at the picture.  “Inciver,” she whispered to herself.  The word was familiar.  “Inciver.”  She looked closely at the picture.  “Ginger!” Merry shouted.  Her yell startled Stjarna and Doru.  “This is a ginger root!  No wonder you couldn’t find the plant.  What you’ve been looking for is the root!”

            Merry laughed.  She quickly reached into her pocket and pulled out a small, thin, black box.  She put it on the tabled in front of her and opened it.  It was an herbal medicine kit that she carried around with her.  Inside were 10 tiny vials with various colored powders. Quickly she started to lift up the vials, one by one and look at them.  She was sure one of them was ginger.  When she finally found it, she held up the tiny vial and examined it.  There wasn’t much in there, but there was a small amount of the yellow powder.

            Merry looked at Doru triumphantly.  She noticed the window behind him.  The light outside was changing.

            “Is that sunset?” Merry asked.

            “Yes it is,” Doru answered.

            “Where’s the Doctor?  Take me to him, quickly!”  Merry jumped up.  She stuck the black box into her pocket.  She held the tiny vial of ginger in one hand and grabbed Stjarna with the other.  She hoisted the child on her hip and ran out the door.  Doru ran down several halls.  Merry was very aware of the changing color in the hallway due to the setting sun.  She ran faster.  She had to get to the Doctor right away.  Finally Doru pushed open some large doors.

            “Where’s the Doctor?” Doru asked as he walked in.  The room attendant pointed to a bed in a corner.

            The Doctor lay on the bed.  He looked deathly white.  His breathing was shallow and labored and growing slower by the moment.  Merry set Stjarna down.  She went to the Doctor’s bedside.  She popped the lid off the vial and stuck her little finger into the yellow powder.  Then she gently put her finger, which was covered in the ginger powder, into the Doctor’s mouth. 

            He suckled her finger for a moment and then swallowed.  Merry laid her ear to his chest.  Already his breathing seemed less labored.  She listened for several moments to his double hearts beating.  The only time she had ever heard anything similar to the Doctor’s double heart beats was when she was pregnant with the twins and could hear their two hearts beating.  She sat back up and looked at him.  His face had some color again.  The ginger was working.

            Doru was staring in amazement.  He walked up to the Doctor and pulled out his scanner from his pocket.  He placed the scanner on the Doctor’s head again.  “It can’t be!  He is getting better.  This is impossible!”

            Merry turned back to look at the Doctor. “He loves the impossible,” she smiled. 

            “What did you give him?” Doru asked.

            “Ginger root powder.  Inciver is ginger.  That is why the name was so familiar to me.  Back on Earth, I’m a nurse, but I’ve studied some herbal medicine and remedies, too.  Ginger is an ancient plant had has long been used as a spice and a cure.  ‘Inci Ver’ is an ancient name for ginger root.”

            Next to her, the Doctor stirred, but he didn’t wake up.  Merry put a hand on his head and began to stroke his head through the curls of hair.  She leaned in close to his face.  “Just rest Doctor.  You are going to be just fine.”  She kissed his forehead and then stood up.  “Come on Doru, we need to talk.”

CHAPTER 5

Merry and the Doctor Ch 3

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They walked together to the blue police box.  Merry could feel the spring in his step as he walked.  It seemed he was on a grand adventure and Merry began to capture his infectious enthusiasm.   As they approached the box, the Doctor stuck his left hand into a pocket and pulled out an odd shaped key.  He stuck it into the lock, turned they key with a click and pushed open the door.

Merry stepped inside and stopped in her tracks.  She had seen many movies about space ships, but nothing she had seen or could have ever dreamed could have prepared her for what she saw inside that police box.  In the center of a very large room was a hexagonal control panel.  In the center of the control panel was a tall glass tube that went up into the ceiling.  It emitted a blue glow.  Everything had an old fashioned steam-punkish feel to it, but with a futuristic twist. Merry wasn’t sure what to think or do.  She felt a hand on her back.  It gently pushed her further inside the box.

“It takes some getting used to,” the Doctor said.  He closed the door behind him and bounced down the steps.  He went to the hexagonal console and began to turn knobs and flip switches.

Merry felt a slight movement, as if someone on the outside had just shoved the box.  Two glass panels inside the large central glass tube began to go up and down and a sound unlike anything Merry had ever heard began to hum.  It was rhythmic and rather hypnotic.

            Merry slowly approached the center of the room.

            “It’s alright.  Come on over,” the Doctor held out his hand.  Merry went closer.  He took her by the elbow and brought her right up to the controls.  “See here, this is the navigation controls, here is the accelerator, the regulator, compass, and the emergency brake.  This thing is the time rotor and here’s a clock, in case you want to know the local time, and well, there’s a bunch of other knobs and switches that do stuff.”

            Merry looked over the console in amusement as she watched the Doctor walk around flipping more switches and turning more knobs.  She took a moment to look around the rest of the room.  It was filled with candles, book shelves, dark mahogany drawers, several globes, a coat rack, a large collection of ticking clocks, a couple of unusual ferns and a piano.

            “You have a piano in your spaceship?”  she asked.

            The Doctor looked over in the direction of the piano.  “Yes,” he said, “I like good music.  Do you play?”

            “No,” Merry chuckled.  “Do you?”

            “I can,” he said.  The Doctor flipped one final switch on the console and then he walked over to the piano.  “Would you like to hear?”

            “Yes, please,” Merry said.  She stood beside the piano.  The Doctor lifted the lid and began to play.  The notes were sweet and clear as a bell.  The piano was a beautifully made instrument and the TARDIS provided perfect acoustics.  The song was soft and slow and slightly melancholy. 

            “That was beautiful, Doctor,” Merry said when he had finished.

            “Thank you.  It’s an old Gallifreyan lullaby.”

            “Gallifreyan?”  Merry asked.

            “That is where I’m from, Gallifrey.  I used to sing it to,” the Doctor abruptly cut himself off.  “Well, here we are!”  He hopped off the piano bench and bounced back to the center console.  The humming machinery had stopped and everything was quite still.  “We’ve made it to Weyk.”

            Merry quietly closed the piano lid.  She walked up and stood alongside the Doctor.  He was watching a stream of information on the monitor overhead.

            “Doctor,” Merry said quietly, “as a parent who just lost her children, I recognize the look in your eyes just now.  You’ve had children and lost them, haven’t you?”  Merry watched a tear fall down the Doctor’s cheek.  She took his arm in both of her hands.  “I’m so very sorry.”

            “Thank you,” he whispered.  “It happened a long, long time ago.  Most of the time, I don’t think about it.  Time is wonderful like that.  It does heal.  Oh, the pain never really goes away, but it does get easier.  You’ll find this out too, one day.  I’m afraid your story has hit me rather close to my hearts and that is why I want to help you find peace.”

            Did he just say hearts, she wondered.

            Merry couldn’t help herself.  She flung her arms around the Doctor and hugged him.  The gesture surprised him at first and then he hugged her back.  He smelled just like his handkerchief and immediately, Merry felt calm.

            “Thank you,” she whispered into his shoulder.  They released each other and looked into each other’s face.  His smile grew wide.

            “Shall we go?” he asked.

            Merry returned the smile and nodded.  He took her by the hand and led her to the door.  He pulled the door open and Merry stepped out.

            Merry was starting to get use to the stream of surprises that one seemed to encounter with this Doctor, but somehow, she figured when the doors of the TARDIS opened, she would see her tree lined street.  But, this was not her street.  They were inside a building; a large, finely decorated building.

            The Doctor stepped out behind Merry and closed the door to the TARDIS.  He quickly surveyed the environment and decided which direction to head.  Merry followed him.  It wasn’t long before they arrived at what Merry guessed would be a reception desk in an office building.  Behind the desk sat a humanoid creature.  It was just like Peter had described – larger head, lightly greenish tint, and eight fingers.

            “Good afternoon,” the Weyk said as the Doctor and Merry approached the desk.

            “Good afternoon,” the Doctor replied.  “I would like to meet with your mayor.”

            “I’m afraid he is rather busy and in a meeting right now.  May I have your name please?” the receptionist asked.

            “I’m the Doctor and this is Merry,” he answered.

            “The Doctor? Are you really?”  The receptionist stood up, “Wait right here, please.”  The Weyk walked out.

            The Doctor began to rock on his heels and whistle.  Merry was amused by the complete casualness he displayed.  She, on the other hand, was feeling slightly overwhelmed.  She was standing in an alien building and had just seen and heard an alien speak.

            “Wait just a moment Doctor,” Merry said after a sudden thought.  “What kind of trick are you playing on me?”

            The Doctor looked shocked and hurt, “What do you mean?”

            “When Peter saw these Weyks in the back yard, he said they spoke another language that he could not understand.  He had me memorize the words, which I could not understand.  Well, until now.  When I think about it, a few of those words are slightly familiar,” Merry trailed off in thought for a moment before she remembered the trick the Doctor was playing on her.  “I understood the receptionist when she spoke.  She spoke English.”

            “No, no,” the Doctor smiled, “you are only hearing English.  It’s the TARDIS; it translates languages for you, in your head.  You are hearing them speak English and they will hear you speaking Weykver.  That is what their language is called.  I would never trick you like that.”

            The door the receptionist had passed through opened and a man stepped through it.  He quickly walked up to the Doctor, put his fist on his chest and bowed.  The Doctor did this also.

            “You are the Doctor?” the man asked.  “You don’t look a thing like I expected.”

            “Well, it’s probably the shoes.  I changed them quite recently,” the Doctor answered.

            “No sir, I mean, well, forgive me, but my father met you years ago.  He described you very differently.  I suppose you are not the same person.”  The man looked a little disappointed.

            “Your father, he was Mayor Drem, right?” the Doctor quietly asked.

            “Yes,” the Mayor was surprised.

            “Oh yes, I remember meeting him.  He was a good man,” the Doctor said.

            “Indeed sir.  You are the same man then?” the man asked.

            “I am.  I changed clothes.  Got rid of the scarf.”  The Doctor grinned.

            Merry was puzzled, but she was getting used to that as well.  Everything about this Doctor puzzled her.

            The man turned to Merry, “Welcome Human.  It has been a long time since one of your species visited us.  I’m Mayor Dremkers.” He bowed to Merry.

            “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mayor,” Merry said. "My name is Merry."

            “Now, if you would both follow me please,” the Mayor said, turning to the door and passing through it.  The Doctor and Merry followed.  They went through a series of long halls before the Mayor opened another door and led them into a large room.  It was a conference room like one would find in any office building on Earth.  It had a long table, chairs, glasses and water on the table, and several landscape paintings on the walls.  The biggest difference between this conference room and one on Earth were the Weyks who were sitting around the table.  They all rose from their seats when the Doctor and Merry walked in.  The Mayor walked to the head of the table and sat down.  The Doctor held out a chair for Merry.  She sat down in it.  The Doctor sat next to her and finally all the others in the room sat back down into their seats.”

            “Fellows,” the Mayor addressed the room, “This is the Doctor, whom you all heard my father, Mayor Drem speak of, and his assistant, Merry.”

            Everyone in the room looked at the strangers and nodded their heads.  The Doctor, who seemed quite use to this kind of thing smiled and waved a hand.  Merry felt her cheeks go red at all these aliens looking at her.  She smiled.

            “Doctor, we are meeting today to discuss the terrible plague that has overcome our people and is quickly killing them.  We have had many such meetings and so far and have come to no avail.”  The Mayor was grave.  “We have done everything we can think of.  We sent troops of our best men and scientists into the furthest reaches of space, hoping to find a cure.  Every one of them, who have returned, has come back empty handed.”

            The people around the tabled nodded their heads again.  “Quite frankly,” the Mayor said dismayed, “we have exhausted all of our ideas and resources.”

            “Excuse me, if I may,” Merry spoke.  She was terribly nervous addressing the council of people that sat around the table.  She didn’t know their protocol or if aliens were allowed to speak at all.  When no one objected to her speaking she continued, “I would like to know, what is inciver?”

            The group around the table looked astonished and began to whisper to each other.

            “How do you know of inciver, Human?” another man at the tabled asked.

            This man was smaller than the Mayor and his hair was blacker.  Merry was amused that each head of black hair she saw sitting at the table each had a single streak of a bright color in it.  The Mayor’s was a turquoise blue and the man who had just spoken to her had a streak of emerald green.  She wondered if they dyed their hair according to their rank or office in society.

            “One of your ships came to Earth and my husband spoke to your people,” Merry explained.

            One of the other men in the room stood up.  “Earth?  I went to Earth.  I’ve actually been there twice.” He reached into a pocket and pulled something out in his fist.  He opened his fist in front of Merry.  She laughed and cried at the same time when she saw in his hand, a small white button.

            “Peter’s button!”  she said.  “You were the one who met Peter when he was a child and then returned several months ago, but more than 20 years later.”

            “Yes, that was me.  He was such an eager child.  I was so happy to find him again all those years later.  He remembered me, I believe,” the man was quite excited.

            “He most certainly did.  He was thrilled at having seen you,” Merry laughed.

            “Did you bring him here with you?” the man asked.

            “No, I’m afraid he died.  Caught your sickness, I believe.”  Merry’s voice lowered.  “Still, I know that he was very, very happy at having seen you again.”

            The man’s head hung low, “I’m sorry.  He was my favorite encounter with an alien in all of my space travels.”

            “Excuse me, Human.” The green streaked haired man said.  “I’m sorry to hear of your husband’s death.  He told you about the inciver?”

            “Well.  It’s rather difficult to explain.  Your ship came and they spoke with each other,” she motioned to the man who was holding Peter’s button in his hand, “and you said the word ‘inciver’ several times.”

            The man nodded sadly.  The Doctor watched the interactions between Merry and the Weyks with great interest.  As much as he loved humans, they were always a little funny when it came to space travel and aliens from other worlds.  He knew that when they Mayor first spoke to her, she was nervous and afraid, but now she was holding emotional and complex conversation with them.  He was very impressed with her.

            “What is inciver?” Merry asked.

            The green streaked man sat back into his chair.  “Inciver is a plant.  We believe it is the cure we seek.  Sadly though, no one can find the plant.  It is not to be found here and we have found it nowhere else in our travels.”

            An alien plant.  Merry was disappointed.  She knew about a few herbs and plants back on Earth, but even then, she only knew a few.  There was no way she could know about an alien plant.  The meeting didn’t last much longer.  Everyone had run out of ideas and no one had new information to discuss.

            “Doctor,” the Mayor approached him and Merry.  “This is Gweri, my Deputy.  He will show you around.  Thank you for coming here, although I’m not sure what you can do for us.”

            The Mayor turned and left.  Merry noticed that Gweri had a streak of orange in his black hair. Gweri bowed slightly and said, “Follow me, please.” 

CHAPTER 4

Merry and the Doctor Ch 2

If you are just finding this site and would like to start at the beginning of the story, see sidebar for links to chapters 1 - 8.
     
          “My husband, his name was Peter, received a telescope for his 10^th birthday.  Every night he was outside looking through it.  He learned all the constellations and planets; he saw comets and meteor showers.  He was fascinated by all things extra-terrestrial and dreamt of seeing a spaceship.

“When he was eleven or twelve, his dream came true.  He said he saw a bright light in the sky that moved about quickly and freely.  It wasn’t in orbit like a satellite and it wasn’t a plane.  He watched it as it came close and closer to him.  It passed by him, quite close and he saw the unusual shape.  It flew past him and was soon out of sight.  He was quite thrilled at what he had seen, but he was even more amazed when it came back into view and flew directly towards him.  He said the craft landed right in his yard, the door opened and a humanoid creature stepped out.

“Peter described it as looking much like a human except its head was slightly larger, it had four fingers on each hand and appeared to have a greenish tint to his skin, although, Peter said that it could have been the light from the ship reflecting off the grass that made him look green.  Peter spoke to it, welcoming it.  It spoke back to him, obviously in its own language.  After several minutes, when they realized they could not communicate, the alien turned to leave.  Peter said he called out to him.  He tore a button off his night shirt and gave it to the alien.  The alien put a fist over his chest and gave a slight bow.  Peter followed his example and then watched as the craft closed, lifted up and flew away into the night.”

Merry paused.  She looked at the Doctor.  He was calmly sipping his tea, but his eyes were bright with interest.  Merry took a sip of her own tea.  Ginger tea, her favorite.

“Shall I go on?” Merry asked.

“Please do,” the Doctor said.  “I do love a good alien story.”  He picked up the cookie from his plate and took a bite.

“Alright,” Merry said.  She took another sip of her tea before continuing.  “Fast forward 20 or so years.  Although life never allowed Peter to follow his dream of becoming an astronaut, he never lost his love for gazing into the night sky.  He had never seen another alien spaceship, until about three months ago.

“I had gone to bed and Peter was outside with his telescope, as he was every night.  There was nothing at all unusual about the evening. About two in the morning, I woke up and realized that Peter wasn’t in bed. That was unusual.  I got up and went outside to look for him.  I practically fell over him because he was passed out in the grass.  Three months ago it was still very cold out at night.  He was wet with icy dew. 

I was able to wake him and lead him into the house.  He was shivering and hypothermic.  I’m a nurse and knew what to do for him.  He finally warmed up enough that he was able to talk to me.  He told me that his aliens had returned.  There were two that came out of the ship this time.  One of them pulled something out of a pocket and showed it to Peter.  It was the button from his childhood night shirt.  Peter put his fist to his chest and bowed.  He said the aliens seemed happy to see him.

“It seems they tried to talk, but could not understand each other.  Peter said they repeated three phrases over and over.  Peter repeated them back and they nodded, but it was obvious that Peter didn’t understand.  In their own ways, they said their good-byes and the aliens left.  Peter said he pulled out his log book and immediately began to write the words and draw pictures of the aliens and their space craft.  Cold over took him and he passed out in the grass.

“I was quite upset with him for staying out so long in the icy night air and told him he was going to have a nasty cold.  He asked me to go and get his book out of the grass.  I did and he went to bed.

“The next morning, as to be expected, he was sick.  We did all the usual cold remedies, but nothing helped.  After a week and not being any better, he went to see his doctor.  They gave him antibiotics, but it didn’t help.  In fact, he seemed to get worse.  He had a terrible hacking cough.  He went back to the doctor.  They tried a number of different treatments, but nothing helped.  A month after he had seen his aliens and gotten sick, he was admitted into the hospital.  They could not figure out what was causing the illness nor how combat it.  He was worse than ever.  Less than a week later, he died.”

Merry choked on the tears.  The Doctor sat up and leaned forward in his chair.  His eyes were sympathetic and full of concern.  Merry quickly picked up her tea cup and drained the rest of the ginger tea down her throat.  She pulled a tissue out of her pocket and wiped her eyes and face.

The Doctor leaned in closer.  “Peter’s log book,” he said. “Do you have it?

Merry nodded her head.  She didn’t trust herself to speak.  She went into the house and disappeared down the hall.  The Doctor followed her into the house, but he stopped at the thresh-hold. He looked around at the clean house and noticed a number of pictures on the wall.

Merry’s footsteps distracted him from the photos.  Her eyes were teary, but she was quite composed as she handed the Doctor a blue spiral notebook.

“Thank you,” he said and he turned around and went back outside.  Merry sat down again and poured herself another cup of ginger tea.  She watched the Doctor as he flipped through the pages of the book.  He stopped at the last few pages and read them carefully.

            “Merry, I’m quite good at languages, but I don’t understand this.”  He pointed to a string of words at the end of the final page of the book.

            Merry looked.  It was Peter’s handwriting and she felt the tears well up again, but she kept her composure.  “That’s because it is phonetic.  You see, Peter didn’t understand what the aliens were saying, but he wanted to write down what they had said to him.  He didn’t know how it would be written in their language, so he wrote the phrase phonetically.”

            “Can you read it?” he asked, holding the book to her.

            Merry didn’t need to see the book.  Peter had insisted that she learn the phrases by memory. She had thought it incredibly silly, but she had wanted to honor Peter’s wishes.  It was so important to him that she learn it.

            “Jodhei tam medodiks. Nsme pyutk aigros. Nsme nkejo inciver,” Merry recited.

            The Doctor’s eyes were wide.  He turned the page of the notebook back one page.  Peter had drawn some rough sketches of the aliens and their spaceship.  The Doctor held out the book to her.  “Is this them?” he asked.

            “Yes,” Merry answered.

            The Doctor sat back in his chair and looked at the sketches again.  He quietly repeated the words Merry had recited.  One word he repeated several times as he seemed to consider its meaning.  After several moments, his gaze returned to her.  “Merry, you haven’t told me the entire story, have you?”

Merry was surprised.  She wondered how he could have possibly known that.

“Have you?” the Doctor repeated.

Merry shook her head.  “No,” she squeaked out.  She was on the verge of crying again.

The Doctor was kneeling in front of her in one quick motion.  He took her hands in his.  They were surprisingly cool, but it was a soothing kind of coolness.  She looked into his eyes and felt she could tell him the entire story.  She had never told the entire thing to anyone.

“We had children,” Merry’s voice whispered.  “We had two beautiful children.  Twins.  A boy and a girl, Liam and Ailish.  They were only 18 months old.”  Merry’s voice quivered, but she went on.  She had the strongest need to tell someone the entire story.  Why this stranger, she wondered?  “The children got sick, too, about a week after Peter got sick.  To tell the truth, I wasn’t surprised.  In a family, when one person catches a cold, so does everyone else.  But, like Peter, no medicine helped.  They got sicker and sicker until they too, finally died.  About three days after Peter.  First Liam and then Ailish.”

Tears were flowing freely down her face and splashed onto the Doctor’s hands which were still holding hers.  Her voice, however, grew stronger.  “They were just babies and so innocent of what happened to them!  Doctors and the police questioned me.  Why had my husband and children died within days of each other and I didn’t even get sick?  I had no answers to their questions and in the end, they could find nothing to prove that I had somehow killed them and they left me alone.

“I don’t know why them and not me?  If I could have traded places with them, I would have.  I would have gladly given my life if it could have spared them theirs.  My life ended that week, Doctor.  It ended.  Since the funeral, no one has spoken to me.  No one knows what to say, but it doesn’t matter because I’ve not wanted to talk to anyone either.”  Merry’s cry turned into a deep sob.

The Doctor pulled his hands away from hers.  He reached into a chest pocket on the inside of his velvet coat and produced a beautiful handkerchief.   He handed it to her.  She buried her face in it and cried.  The handkerchief was soft and smooth and had a very pleasant, but unfamiliar odor to it.  She held it against her face for several minutes, inhaling the calming smell and finally regaining her composure.

When she lifted her face from the handkerchief, she saw the Doctor sitting in the chair opposite her.  His hands were dry of her tears and he sat quite still. She noticed his eyes were moist with tears.

“Do you know what I think?” Merry asked.  Her voice was quite calm now.

The Doctor shook his head.

“I think the aliens got him sick.”

The Doctor leaned back in his chair.  “Did you tell this to the doctors or police?” he asked.

“No, I couldn’t.  Things were difficult enough, but if I had told them about aliens, they would have locked me away in a mental institution,” Merry chuckled darkly.

The Doctor smiled a little half smile and nodded his head.  Without warning, the Doctor bounced out of his chair and began to pace.  His hand stroked his chin.

“I think you are quite right Merry,” he said.  He paced a few more times before turning back to face her.  “Would you like to know the meaning of the message left by Peter’s aliens?”

“Do you know what it means?” Merry asked.

“Most of it.  I told you, I’m quite good at languages.  Once you spoke the words to me, I understood.  Well, all except for one word.”  He looked straight into her eyes and took a deep breath, “Where is the healer?  We are sick.  We need inciver.”

Merry stared at him, “The healer?  As in ‘The Doctor’?  Were they looking for you?”

The Doctor nodded.

“And what about inciver?  What does that mean?”  Merry asked.

“I don’t know,” he replied. “Most likely, it is a name for something or someone and has no translation.”

Merry repeated the word several times.  Why did it seem familiar to her?  Suddenly a thought struck her.  “Wait a moment.  How do you know what that says?” she asked.

The Doctor smiled, “I told you, I’m good at languages.”

Merry stood up, “No wait.  I’ve got a cousin, Tim, who speaks 12 languages, but he never could have figured this out.  This came from an alien with eight fingers and flies around in a spaceship.”

“So do I.  Well, I fly around in a spaceship, but I have 10 fingers, like you.”  The Doctor looked down at his hands.  He seemed rather amused by them.

“Wait, wait, wait.  You have a spaceship?”  Merry asked.  She couldn’t believe what she was hearing him say.

“Of course.  That is how I came to be in your neighborhood.”

“That is impossible,” Merry said.

The Doctor smiled an impish half smile.  He leaned towards her and said, “I love the impossible.”

“I didn’t hear any spaceship land in the neighborhood.  And if there was a spaceship parked along the street somewhere, the neighbors would be all over it.  There would be a huge commotion and I would have noticed that.”

“Well,” the Doctor smiled, “my ship is small and unassuming on the outside.  Most people don’t notice it at all.”

Merry ran to the fence and threw open the gate she and the Doctor had come through when he first arrived.  She looked up and down the street.  It took her a few moments before she noticed the only different thing on her street.  Two houses away, sitting on the sidewalk was a blue police phone box.  She had seen them in old movies, but never in person and never on her street.  Why hadn’t she noticed it right away?  Merry watched as two people walked right passed it.

“How do they not notice it?” she asked.

The Doctor was standing by her side, smiling.  “It’s got a perception filter on it.  It is there and anyone can see it, but only if they want to.  If you know to look for it, it is there, but to anyone else, while it is there, they just don’t notice it.  It’s quite a handy trick, really.”

“So that police box is your spaceship?”  Merry looked at it doubtfully.

“Yes.  It’s called a TARDIS.  She’s an old girl, but a good one.”

Merry smiled.  “Perhaps I’m not the one that should be taken off to a mental institution.”

The Doctor laughed.  Merry turned to look at this strange man.  Everything about him was so unusual.  His clothes, his way of speaking, and his ease with discussing extra-terrestrial material.  Her mind told her this man was completely crazy, but she had the oddest feeling to trust him.  Perhaps it was the eyes – happiness and sadness, age and youth all rolled into one.

“So, are you ready?” he asked.

“Ready for what?”
            “Ready to go help the Weyk’s?”

“What is the Weyk’s?” Merry asked.

The Doctor smiled, “Not a what, but a who.  The Weyks are Peter’s aliens.”

Merry looked skeptically at the Doctor, “What?  You mean they’re real?”

“Well of course they are real.  And, if their message is true, they are sick and need our help.”

Merry walked back to the porch and began gathering the tea things, putting them back onto the tray.  Her mind was in a whirl.  “How do we go help them?” she asked.

“I take you there in the TARDIS of course,” he answered.

Merry picked up the tray.  “You mean in that police box?  It’s a little small isn’t it?”

“Only on the outside, but the inside is the gateway to the universe.”  His eyes glanced up at the sky.  Merry followed his gaze.  She saw a bright blue sky, fluffy clouds and birds flying overhead.  She hadn’t properly looked at the sky in a very long time.  She smiled.  To really go up into the sky… Peter would have loved this.  Her musings were interrupted by the sound of her back door being opened.  The Doctor held the door open and Merry carried the tea tray into the house.  She set it down on the counter and began to unload its contents.  Her mind was spinning – spaceships, aliens, and this man who called himself the Doctor.

“Do you know, I’ve been to Earth many times and drunk many cups of tea, but with the exception of being in the company of royalty or high ranking Lords, I’ve never had so formal a tea served by a common everyday human, in such an informal a place as an everyday backyard,” the Doctor said.

Merry chuckled. “My grandmother was from England.  When I got married, she insisted I have proper tea things.  I’ve hardly ever used them.  Peter never cared much for tea, but, I don’t know, you seemed a person who would appreciate a tea served.  Maybe it was the clothes or your foreign accent, but I wanted to put my best foot forward and serve my company a proper tea.”

“I thank you for your thoughtfulness,” the Doctor said.  He walked to the wall and looked at the pictures that hung there.  One picture in particular held his gaze.  It was Merry, in obviously happier times.  Her eyes were bright and her smile broad.  In her lap sat a little girl with dark, curly hair.  Next to them was a smiling man holding a little boy.  “Your family?”

Merry stood beside the Doctor and looked at the picture.  “Yes.  This was taken at the twin’s birthday.  I’m holding Ailish and Peter is holding Liam.”

“Ailish looks a lot like you,” he said.

Merry nodded.  “That is what everyone said.  She was a doll.  They both were.  I miss them so much.  I miss their voices, the sound of their feet running across the wooden floor, their laugh and the way their little arms hugged me when they woke up in the morning.”  Merry turned away.  She pulled the Doctor’s handkerchief out of her pocket and buried her face into it.  It seemed to have magical properties.  From the moment it touched her face and she inhaled its fragrance, she felt calmer. 

The Doctor laid a hand on her shoulder.  “It’s alright to cry and mourn for those we’ve loved and have lost.  I’m going to help you, Merry.  I’m going to help you find peace and closure.”

“I don’t think that is possible Doctor.  However, if these Weyks are truly sick and you can help them, then I want to come and help you,” Merry said.

“Are you ready, then?” the Doctor asked.

“What?  Now?”  Merry was surprised.

“Of course.  No time like the present,” he said.  He turned and went out the back door.  Merry felt a bit like a rat following the Pied Piper.  She couldn’t explain herself, but she just had to follow him.  A quick thought came to her and she grabbed a small black box off her coffee table and stuck it into her pocket.  She turned and followed the Doctor out the door.

He was waiting for her at the gate.  He held out his elbow to her and she took it. 

CHAPTER 3