The Poison Seas

BENNY: You know, just when you think life might be turning a corner; just when you think things might be getting better, wham! another curveball. I've been through a hell of a lot, you know. If I stopped and told you the story of my life, we'd just be hitting the age of ten when that bomb goes off. 'Oh, she's a fighter,' that's what people say about me, but they're wrong. I'm not a fighter. I'm a liar and a coward. Ha, the things I've done. The universe calls me a professor but the only things I'm qualified to profess are the vitues of hiding at the bottom of a whiskey tumbler, or running so far away from life that even time couldn't catch up with me.

I could do it all again, you know. Run away. Hidden in a dusty shoebox, tucked away at the back of my wardrobe, I have a pair of Time Rings. Open tickets to anywhere and anywhen. They're my escape route; my way out. Any time, I could just slip one on and disappear forever. Tiptoe away from my life. Run and run and run until everything is less than a speck in the distance: Jason, Brax, Bev, Adrian. Even dear little Peter. I could just say goodbye to it all, this bonkers like the universe has thrown at me. But I don't. Ah, I think about it now and again, but if I left... Well, who would fight the monsters, hm? Who would be left to believe in the angels? I choose to stay here.

So, the Time Rings stay in the wardrobe, out of temptation's reach, and this life is the life I choose for myself. Archaeologist. Mother. Secret agent, freedom fighter. The good guy. And what's more, I'm glad. I'm glad that one of those bloody curveballs landed me here. I've got everything I ever wanted: friends; a family, almost; a lover... well, sometimes. A child. A home. It's worth fighting for. You talk about believing in bigger things. Well, a home is the biggest thing in the world.