Time: Part 2

He stood before the panel making his case:


“I want out of this! These rules make it impossible for Beth to even come close to playing this game successfully!”

The Master of the game, the Dream Weaver, spoke firmly and clearly, “You both agreed to this! There is no turning back once the game has begun! You both knew there would be rules. We never said this would be an easy game to play. In fact, we warned you both that many have lost the game before you, and yet, you still wanted to play!”

“I know, but we didn’t realize all the details involved, and even now, Beth is unclear on all of the rules. You didn’t let Jeremy tell her everything, that’s not fair! How can she make life altering decisions if she doesn’t know all of the rules?”

“Jeremy didn’t have to tell her anymore, the rest of the rules will be found in her heart! She will have to search deep inside of herself to be successful! It is something you both should have done prior to accepting this assignment.”

“But she doesn’t even realize the impact on her life, or her presence if she loses the game.”

“It would be devastating to Beth if she were aware of all of the consequences of losing the game. We don’t tell the players everything because we have tried it that way before. When the players know in advance, one of two things always happen. They either won’t enter into the game at all, or they freeze up the moment the game begins. Either way, they never win! Playing this way makes it much easier on everyone. Beth is falling apart already. If she knew everything, she would never get out of bed again and the game would only end the moment her life did.”

“When do I get to see her again? I have to let her know I love her and that she will be alright, that we will be alright. I have to encourage her!”

“In just under 24 hours, you will be by her side again, but I warn you, you will only have time for 2 statements! Think about it until then. You better make them count! Now it's time for us to inform you of your rules of the game.”

Rule number one: You must never tell Beth your name. It's in her heart, she will have to remember it on her own.

Rule number two: You are forbidden to tell her the consequences of losing the game.

Rule number three: She will never see your face or hear your voice, your words will only be audible to her heart. Therefore, you can not tell her whom you are not either.

“I don’t understand what 'Whom I am not' means.”

“There will be many deceptions. Men that she may think is the man in her dream, but of course is not. You can not tell her in any dream, that the one she is with is not you. Most importantly; in the same manner, when the phase of the game calls for you to walk back into her life, you can not tell her that you are the man in her dream. Beth will have to decide who is real and who is not. She will have to find you, and be certain that it is you. You can not help her with this aspect of the game!”

“But what if I say something I am not supposed to? What happens then?”

“If you make any errors, the game will become profoundly more difficult for Beth to play. You will be told in advance how long you will have and how many statements you can make. You will have ample time to negotiate in your mind what should be said, but if you break a rule, I suspect you will not do it more than once after seeing the severity of the results on Beth."

"I suggest you work very hard at forming your statements to ensure you break no rules!”

“Oh God Beth, what have I done to us?”

“There will be no time for that whiny ass bullshit! You need to focus on the rules and what your two statements will be when you appear to her tonight. Do you completely understand?”

“Yes Dream Weaver, I understand.”

***


Daniel walked back to Beth’s office and peeped his head around the filing cabinet. “Hey, you got a sec?”

Beth froze in her chair, oh no she thought, that was a reference to time. But wait, I didn’t say it, he did.

“What’s up, Daniel?”

“Have you gone loco?“

“Excuse me?”

“Jeremy handed me the schedule and asked me to check it out. He asked if I could find out why you are screwing with everyone’s hours. All the times are jacked up and it doesn’t even make sense. You have two of us here at times and no one here at other times. You know that Naudia can’t work second shift because of her kids, and you know that Jeremy does better on graveyard then first. You have me working nights that you know I have gigs, and Anthony isn’t even on the schedule. What the hell is going on here?”

“You know what, I don’t have t...” Beth caught herself quickly and immediately changed the structure of her thoughts. “Just do the schedule over Daniel, I'm delegating that responsibility to you. You know the way it works and who can do what, so it’s your baby. Please let me get back to work n..." Beth again realizes that saying “now” would be a reference to time as well. Damn this is going to be tough. “Just go Daniel!”

“Alright, but you don’t have to be such a bitch about it.”

“Daniel please, watch your mouth! Just make a new schedule, I have to get back to work.”

“Fine, but what ever is going on with you, I hope it's over soon or you're going to lose your whole crew! We care about you Beth, but that could change if your mood doesn’t!”

“I’m sorry, really I am, I'm just so tired.”

“That’s cool, but I suggest you get some rest. I will fix the schedule up. Go ahead and do your paperwork, I’ll try to keep everyone out of your hair for a few days.”

“Thanks, you're a big help!”

“No prob, see ya later.”

“Yea Daniel, OK.”

Everything is flying through Beth’s mind. I can’t say "see ya later", can’t say "I have to have this done by", or "your late", or... Beth tearfully whispers, "God how am I going to be able to make it through this TIME...?"

OK, she thinks to herself, I am just going to count the money and go to the bank. Maybe I can leave after that and get some rest.

As Beth sits in the line at the bank, she realizes her clock has never changed, it read the same time now as it had this morning. Actually, now she is unable to recall the last time she saw it change. It read 8:30, was that 8:30 am or pm? When had she had the first dream? It was Friday night? Suddenly she realizes the second dream; was that Saturday? The man in my dream said that time would hang in the balance until the test is done.

Damn him, who in the hell is he anyway? How did I get into this? Because I am pretty sure I wouldn’t have signed up for this asinine “game” or what ever they want to call it; and who the hell are “they” anyway? Who makes up this shit?

Beth takes a deep breath and closes her eyes.

I must calm down, she thinks to herself...

OK, let me look at these rules again: I can’t make any reference to time. Well that alone is proving to be more difficult then I first anticipated! It is obvious that the world is motivated by time, yet mine is hanging in the balance. GREAT!

I must figure out who the man in my dream is. Yea, so I can hang him!

Oh, but I can’t speak of him either, can’t forget that part. And I have to get it right when I think I know who he is. I can live with that, don’t want to hang the wrong man!

What else was there? Oh yea, can’t let anyone know about this. Well that should be easy enough, I wouldn’t want to let anyone know what I am going through! The little men with the long sleeved white jackets might show up before I get a chance to hang the man in my dream.

And then the whole deception thing. Yea, this will just be a blast! Beth began to laugh, but soon tears slowly began flowing down her cheeks. What have I done? How will I make it through this? Oh man of my dreams please make it stop. In her heart, she knew that he couldn’t. In her heart she also knew that there was more. But she will have to work hard to figure it all out, and she will have to be very careful in doing so.

Without another thought, the words "I love you" flowed from her lips. She stopped crying and took a deep breath. She had no idea why the words flowed out of her as they had. She considered that she may be in the dark on some things, but for whatever reason, she felt as though she truly did love the man in her dream. She needed to know who he was, where he was. What is his part in this game anyway? She wondered.

Beth couldn’t shake the nagging feeling of the unknown. She was certain there was more that she needed to find out. Some things still didn’t make sense. Not that a lot of things did make sense right now, but she felt there was also more that Jeremy hadn’t told her. She knew that it was going to be difficult to find out more information without him. But the information window had been sealed and Jeremy was no longer able to guide her through the rules. But still, she held hope that somehow, if she listened to everything that came from his mouth, there may be more clues. She prayed there would be anyway.

I can do this, Beth thought, I have to do this!

She heard someone honk. Beth quickly opened her eyes and realized it was her turn to pull forward. She gave a wave of apology to the person behind her and proceeded to the window.

“Good Morning Beth.” Thank goodness Liz was working the window today, she would be on her way quickly, Beth thought to herself.

“Hey Liz.” Beth was fairly certain by saying Good Morning, she would be breaking the "no reference to time" rule.

“I’ll have this right out for you.”

“Thanks.”

When Liz returned with the deposit slip and change order, she looked at Beth again. “Are you ok?”

“Fine, just a bit tired I guess. Why, did I do something wrong?”

“No, everything was done correctly, but you don’t seem yourself today. Where's that smile that we're all so used to seeing?”

“Sorry.” She wanted to say she would try to do better tomorrow, but she knew she couldn’t, so she just left it at sorry.

“Oh, Ok Beth, hope you get some rest.”

“Yea me too.”

“See you tomorrow?”

“Sure, I’ll be here t...” This is just so difficult Beth thought, as again, she had to re-think her response. “See ya Liz.”

Beth returned to work and finished what she had to. She then pulled the time clock up on the monitor and started to clock out, but looked again and realized that, truly, without a doubt, time was indeed hanging in the balance. The clock “in” time, and the clock “out” time, were exactly the same, both showed 8:30pm, so there it was. She was stuck in the time of 8:30pm Friday night.

Beth mused at the idea that she really didn’t have to come back to work until the game was over. Why should I? It would be easier if I just stayed at home! But then she realized, by doing that, the man in her dream would have to come and knock on her door. Yea, like that'll ever happen! Beth laughed at the thought.

Besides the fact, Jeremy told her that she would go through her daily activities, but he didn’t say she HAD to. HHMMM something to think about. Maybe it would be easier if I didn’t come back to work until this is over.

When Beth got home, total exhaustion consumed her. She just wanted sleep, and a lot of it! She hoped it would be pleasant, un-interrupted, totally restful sleep, but she somehow knew that that was not likely. She knew that he would be there, and deep inside her heart, she knew she needed him to be there.

Beth glanced at her alarm clock. It had reverted back to 8:30pm as well. This is just insane! She softly sighed.

***

The Dream Weaver pulled everyone together and replayed her thoughts of not returning to work.

He glared at the man in the dream and insisted that one of the statements instruct Beth to continue working!

“But you said I could only make two statements, and now you're telling me what one of those must be?”

“That's correct! She must continue to go to work or the game will never end!”

“But why? You never said that was a rule. She doesn’t know it is. Why should I have to waste one of my statements when I only have two to begin with?”

“YOU are the one that's supposed to help her through this.”

“Yes, that's true, but you are the maker of the rules, and you should have let Jeremy tell her all of them! Why did you stop him?”

“I'll do this one time and one time only! I will let Jeremy tell her one last rule. After that, if she thinks of doing something that'll cause time to hang in the balance forever for her, the message will have to come from you! Do you understand?”

“Yes Dream Weaver, I understand.”

“I have one other thing to say.”

“Yes, Dream Weaver?”

“Don’t ever question the way I lead the game again! Put that in your rule list! Your best bet is to always remember that I am the maker and breaker of this game! Don’t ever forget my importance!”

“Yes Dream Weaver, I understand.”

***

The phone rings and awakes Beth from a very deep, restful sleep. She is unsure where she left the cordless. She scrambles to find it, locates it on the third ring and almost screams “hello” into the receiver.

“Beth?”

“Yes.”

“Its Jeremy.”

“Jeremy? You don’t sound like yourself. What’s up”

“I forgot to tell ya, you must come to work everyday, it's one of the rules!”

Click. Jeremy was gone again.

Great, Beth thought, guess I was dumb to think I could get off that easy. But hey, that just shows me that I do need to listen to everything he says. There may still be more to come from him. “Thanks Jeremy!” Beth said aloud as she went back to sleep.

“Baby wake up....Beth its me. Honey please wake up!”

“It's you, oh thank God. What is going on? How are WE doing?”

“Beth, I love you, never forget that!”

Immediately, he was gone!

Beth was beside herself. “What the hell happened?” She screamed, "That was so fast!"

***

He went directly to see the Dream Weaver. “What the hell was that? You said I could make two statements!”

“And you did! You said “I love you” And you said “Never forget that.”

“That was one statement!”

“Perhaps to you, but I clearly heard two statements. Your time was up! Maybe you will be more careful of how you play the game now! And maybe, just maybe, when I tell you that you must tell her something, you will do it the next time without questioning me!”

The Dream Weaver walked away leaving him dumbfounded, as Beth cried herself back to sleep.

This concludes part 2. I hope you are enjoying the story. If you are, part three is available to read as well.

Time: Part 3  (13+) The tests begin... #786986 by Zaring