I watched out my window as more snow fell delicately from the sky. It had been snowing for days and the snow was thick on the ground resting at a little over a foot and a half. I was starting to worry about my food supply that was slowly starting to diminish. I hadn’t actually believed that a snow storm of this magnitude would actually hit, so naturally I skipped the grocery store that was infested with swarming people that acted as if the world were about to end.
I rested my forehead against the cold glass pane of the window and closed my eyes. I had sort of hoped that this would happen, being snowed in, but I was starting to get a hint of cabin fever. I was brought out of my daydream of winter wonderland when a loud beep from the microwave let me know that my tea was ready to drink. I tore my eyes from the falling snow and gathering that had gathered into little puffs outside of my window to the solitude of my hot cinnamon-apple tea.
I was emptying a packet of sugar into my cup when a knock at the door made me nearly knock over my mug. I was confused. Who could possibly be at my door during the worst snow storm in over seventy-five years? With my hot tea in hand I looked through the peep-hole to find a man that I had never seen before in my life. I wasn’t sure what to do. I hadn’t showered yet, my hair was in a loose messy knot at the top of my head and I was wearing the most grandma-ish rob that I could possibly find. I bit my lip perplexed on whether or not I should answer the door. The stranger knocked again, this time with a little more fervor.
“Who is it?” I yelled at the door.
“Please answer, this is urgent.” He said and I could tell he meant it.
“I’m sorry but I don’t know you!” I exclaimed.
“You will,” he shouted back, “please let me in, it’s freezing and this is important!”
My gut agreed, so disregarding the screams in my head to not let a strange adult man into my apartment, I followed my instincts and let him in. He was about average height and looked around the age of twenty-five and had smooth olive skin. His eyes were a deep green framed with thick dark lashes that matched the scruff of hair on his face. He wore a grey stalking cap, a heavy black coat, and tall rubber snow boots.
“Who are you?” I asked him in amazement.
“Stone,” he answered flatly while he shivered and shook off the snow.
“Can I get you something warm to drink?” I offered.
“I’ll be fine, just give me a minute,” he closed eyes and seemed to go in to a state of meditation.
It was one of the strangest things that I had ever seen. I watched him as he fell into a dream like trance. His eyes flitted back and forth behind his closed eyelids like he was in a REM cycle. Almost as quickly as he went in to this meditation he snapped out of it. His eyes popped open and a warm smile touched his lips.
“I’m sorry, that must have been odd for you, but you will understand with time,” he said giving me a slight bow.
“Oh, um, ok,” was all I could manage for a response and gave him an awkward bow in return.
He shredded his coat, hat, and boots to reveal the rest of his body. He was very slender and had a head full of jet black hair that stood at a point. His outfit surprised me the most; it looked like nothing I had ever seen before. He wore a sort of black suit made out of a shiny metallic fabric and a basic black cotton t-shirt underneath that was cut in a low V-neck exposing a portion of his bare chest.
“May we sit?” he questioned motioning to one of my mismatched sofas.
“Of course,” I said taking the opposite couch, I was much too nervous to allow myself close proximity to him.
He sat on the couch that he had motioned to and placed his hands on his knees and he took in his surroundings for the first time. I watched him with alarming interest his odd behavior kept my millions of mounting questions at bay. Like before at the door he snapped to and made eye contact with me. At first my stomach did a flip like I was going fast down a hill, but it quickly settled quietly back in place. Something in Stranger Stone’s stare settled me.
“Who are you?” I questioned again, breaking the forever long silence.
“I am Stone,” he answered automatically.
“I know, but why are you here, Stone?” I asked.
“I bring important news to you,” he answered, “it is alarming and it will take time for you to fully understand, for you see, I am from the future and you are in danger,” he leaned in closer to me never losing the calming eye contact, but now all I saw was a sweltering urgency in his eyes. Then what he said finally sunk in.
“From the future,” I scoffed. Something inside of me knew that something was completely off with this guy, but from the future? No way.
“Yes,” he said like it was a matter of fact, “and you must believe me because as I said before, it is urgent that you do,”
“Oh yeah?” I questioned him sarcastically.
“I can prove it,” he said in response starting to rise from his seat as he unbuttoned his jacket and rummaged inside the jacket pocket pulling out a thick black leather wallet.
“Wow, I would have never guessed that was in there,” I commented upon the wallets appearance.
“I know,” he said looking at me with a knowing look and half of a grin. I suppressed the girlish giggle that the look gave me, “here,” he handed me a card. The card turned out to be a sort of license dated around one hundred years from now. The license was see-through and Stone’s picture was a sort of holographic image that stared back at me. The picture turned to show its profile and then turned back to face me again. The stranger’s full name read ‘Stone Hendrix McSwain’, his picture turned again to show his profile. I stared at the card with astonishment. This was some amazing handiwork.
“How did you make this?” I asked with excitement flipping it over and over again in my hands trying to figure out how it worked.
“What do you mean?” He questioned back, “it is real and that is me,”
I gave him an incredulous look. Could he really be from the future? I seriously doubted the possibility, but part of me wanted to believe and a tiny sliver actually did believe. Just look at him I thought his clothes, his behavior, and this thing I looked back down at the image that turned ever so often to show the profile of the man before me.
“With time you’ll see,” he spoke as if to read my mind. He had re-taken his seat on the sofa and was staring at me with interest. I looked up to meet his gaze and again I felt that squirmy and uncomfortable feeling in the pit of my stomach. He had stretched his arm out to take back his license and I dropped it reluctantly back into his hand. He quickly stuffed it back into the thick wallet and made it disappear within his coat pocket.
“Now, about the urgent news that I must bring to you,” he started, “I am here because your mother is in trouble and you are the only one that can help,”
“What?” I asked dubiously, “what in the hell are you talking about?”
“Your mother, she is in trouble,” he repeated.
“I heard you before,” I snapped, my temper had slowly started to rise, “who are you to come here and talk to me about my mother?”
“I am Stone and I am from the future,” he re-told me, “I told you that,“
“I know!” I yelled. He was increasingly starting to irritate me with his cool manner and his obliviousness, “I heard you THAT time too! Anyway, I know you’re lying, I just talked to my mom this morning and she’s completely fine! I think it’s time you leave!” I had gotten to my feet and was heading to open the front door to usher this crazy guy out of my apartment when his hand caught my arm.
“Let go!” I shouted at him as I yanked my arm hard out of his hand.
“Please, please, Mandi! You must listen to what I have to say!” his deep green eyes were full of fear and urgency.
“How do you know my name?” I questioned as I turned to face him, “I never told you my name.”
“I know,” he answered. His hands were clasped tightly as if he were about to drop to his knees and break-out into a prayer or to beg, “I know many, many things about you and I am here to request that you come with me to help your mother and to help save the world as we both know it,”
I stared at him and then I quietly took my seat on the couch that I had just abandoned. I would listen to his crazy speech and then I would politely ask him to leave. As much as I didn’t believe any of the garbage he was spewing a part of me made me sit back down and listen.
“Go on then,” I said through pursed lips.
“Thank you,” he said and bowed his head towards me in obvious gratitude. He took his seat of the sofa for a third time, took a deep breath and plunged into his story, “your mother is what we call a ‘life-keeper’, she protects the secrets of life for human-kind, and she keeps the balance. There is only one life-keeper per generation, you see, and your mother is the one for hers,”
“Oh yeah?” I asked him sarcastically.
“Yes. Have you not noticed this weather?” he motioned towards my open window and the blizzard that raged outside of it, “it’s a bit odd for here isn’t it?”
As he said it I knew that he was right, “well, maybe. So what though, it’s Winter,”
“It’s the same in my time though,” he said, “the sky is shrouded with black clouds and it’s always snowing. Things are different, they are bad and it’s because of your mother’s abduction. An evil alliance came here and took her back to my time. They are making demands and they will kill her. If they kill her, Mandi, before she can tell you –“
“Wait
“The secrets of life, her essence, everything she knows,” he said in a flourish, “do you not see? Do you not understand?”
“What? No!” I spouted in frustration, “I have no freaking idea of what you’re talking about!”
“You’re the next life-keeper, Mandi!” he exclaimed, “today is the day she was to tell you everything, today was the day she passed the secrets on to you!”
I was dumbstruck, but he didn’t seem to notice that I had fallen silent with that last bit of news because he then went on in a flurry, “Mandi, and we need your help we cannot do this without you,”
“Well, what if I still don’t believe you?” was the only thing that I could say.
“Then I will do whatever it takes to make you believe,” he said, “you can call your mother’s phone, she will not answer,”
The solution was simple. I would call my mom and I would have a conversation with her to prove this freak wrong. I grabbed my cell phone and dialed her number. Her picture smiled sweetly back at me while the phone rang, rang, and rang. No answer. Panic started to rise as I frantically hit redial and called again, still there was no answer. I continued to call her until I couldn’t see my phone due to the tears that blurred my vision.
I felt a firm warm hand on my shoulder and turned around to see that Stone had silently come to my side, “No answer?” he asked, but it sounded like more of a statement rather than a question.
“No answer,” I repeated, “she could just be out you know,” I was trying to justify her silence, but I knew better, she always answered her phone.
“No, she has been taken and we must make haste to the command center,” he said resting his other hand on my opposite shoulder.
“How do I know if I can trust you?” I asked him, knowing that I actually somehow indeed did trust this stranger. There was something real about him.
“You just have to,” was all he said, “I will give you time to grab a few essentials. Things you would need for, say, the weekend.”
He lowered his head in a kind of salute and took his seat on the couch looking at the surroundings. I stared at the back of his head for only a minute before I went to my bedroom and started packing a few things in my overnight bag. The clothes might have not matched, but I was not worried about that. What if mom really was hurt? I bet she’s so scared. The thoughts kept playing over and over again in my head. I changed my clothes and brushed my teeth. I threw the last few final things unceremoniously in my bag, zipped it up, threw it over my shoulder and walked to the living room.
“I’m ready,” I said as I walked in. Stone had risen from the couch and was looking at all my pictures kept safe behind glass in pretty wooden frames.
“Then we must leave now,” he said turning to face me. He put on his winter gear and I followed suit. He had put on his thick gloves when he finally spoke again, “hand me your bag, I will carry that for you,” he reached out for my bag and I handed it over. I looked around at my snug little apartment as he opened the door for us to leave. I didn’t know when I would be back or if I ever even would be back. With a sigh I shut my front door and locked it up tight.
It was still snowing heavily outside and the sky was a deep gray, the sun was nowhere to be seen. A comment that Stone had made early resurfaced in my brain ‘The days are shrouded with black clouds and it is always snowing’. I couldn’t help but to compare the two, could this really be the reason for this terrible snow storm? Surely not, it was impossible. In fact, this whole thing was impossible. But, if I thought the idea of Stone being from the future was so farfetched, why did I pack my bag and why did I follow him out into the blizzard? I knew the answer in my heart. I knew it deep down in my soul. I knew that Stone really was from the future and my mom really was in trouble. That was the reason that I packed my bag and followed him out here. My mom and I have a close relationship; I love her and would walk through walls to save her. If she really was in trouble, which I could feel in my soul that she really was, I had to do anything it took to return her home safely.
Stone stood next to the passenger side of a fancy dark colored car that’s lights shone bluish-bright through the thick shower of snow. Upon coming closer to the car I noticed that it was like nothing I had ever seen before. Don’t get me wrong, it looked like a regular car, but it was not a kind of car that you would ever see anywhere around here. It was slick and was a deep sparkly blue. Bright blue lights lined around the bottom of the car and the windows were as dark as night itself. The car looked fast, like something you might see flying down a freeway in southern California. I didn’t know how he was driving that car through this weather.
Stone opened my car door and ushered me into the car and closed it with a quiet snap. My jaw dropped as I looked around the car. I sat in a deep bucket seat upholstered in flat black leather. His seat was the same but at his feet were four chrome pedals to drive with. Behind the seats lay my bag and another small square bag which I assumed to be Stone’s, but beyond that there was a contraption that blinked blue and green wildly at me. The snap of Stone’s door brought my attention back to the front of the car. More blue and green lights blinked from the dashboard, but they belonged to an assortment of different buttons that I assumed you pushed to operate the vehicle.
“Are you ready then?” he asked buckling up. I did the same and shook my head in agreement.
“Then lets ride,” he flashed me a wide thrill seeking smile.
