The Sisters

This tale is based on a song by The Police called ‘Tea In The Sahara’ that I’ve always found sad, strange and especially cruel. Long before I began writing these stories I always suspected the young man in the song was a time traveler for who else could do such a terrible thing..?

A young time traveler, as of yet unused to and therefore unable to fully comprehend the complexity of unrestrained movement in the fourth dimension, once visited a planet.

It is a strange and isolating thing to exist outside of time and can lead to a certain hubris that far exceeds normal human capacity.

The planet had kind, gorgeous skies in shades of green and sparkling desert dunes of diamonds dust. Upon it, he met two sisters.

Similar in age and lonely and bored he was novel, new, exciting and fun. He would occasionally appear at times in their life when they needed him most or when it was nice.

He made some of their birthdays and when one of them had kids but he never looked older he just knew more clever tricks.

On one of his visits he appeared in a machine the likes of which the sisters never had seen.

It could fly in the air and this delighted them so, they developed a desire, knowing he’d say yes, came to him with their bizarre request.

What they wanted to do was go out to the dunes and have a picnic of sorts on the shining diamond sands by the light of their world’s two moons.

So one night they flew out together in his plane and picnicked and danced, had tea and played games.

Since his travels began he never had so much fun so he made a promise to them when their party was done that he would return once every year and they go back to the dunes to celebrate.

On the first anniversary of their night on the sand they went out to await his approach over the land with such anticipation and anxious glee they felt as young as they were when they had first been seen by their, wonderous, unusual friend.

After some time when he had not yet arrived they went further out to find him at the place they had dined that singular, amazing night.

They waited until the sun became high in the beautiful green of their world’s friendly sky. But as it grew dark and he had not yet appeared the sisters grew worried and began to fear. Where was the man and why hadn’t he come? He had promised he would but he’d never return and that was not good.

The traveler’s mind was not yet adept at keeping track of all the people he’d met. Traveling through time was like reading many books at once.

Returning to chapters and picking up where one left off was all well and good for the reader but for the others involved time still goes on and this is where the young time traveler had gone horribly wrong.

For he never again picked up this particular book and on the dunes of their world left the sisters to die. Crying, wondering and asking him why...