A Lease on Wonderland

Dreaming of Waking

Woozily Haddler pried his eyes open to a dizzying whirl of golden brown. He closed his eyes again and moaned. Then he tried again. This time when he opened his eyes he saw that the golden brown remained like the beautiful haze of late afternoon just as it was beginning to dip into evening. It seemed a little off at first despite the familiarity he had with the ceiling. It was his ceiling to his bedroom.

It was only the realization that he was not used to lying in his bed at such a time as late tea time as the sun suggested. He knew that low and comfortable seated-position of the sun anywhere.

He blinked a little more and realized that he was lying flat on his bed in his clothes and without his covers. His mind was still foggy and almost sedated in the golden gleam pouring through the open curtains of his window like sun tea over him, and whatever else was unhindered by long sleepy shadows. He suddenly looked up.

On the mantelpiece of his little fireplace he saw that his clock was not moving. He had just been about to recall where he had had sun tea too so recently, but it was all forgotten now as he sat up quite suddenly to look at that clock reading five forty-seven.

It was then that he noticed the silence. The stillness.

Bolt upright, he leapt from his bed and threw open the window.

The sun was like the burning glow from an Olympian hearth just beginning to go dim for quiet conversation. Low but clear it stretched ethereally upon the smoothly crisp city of Heartland as far as he could see it, which was much further than usual for there was no steam. Looking straight down he could see through pipes, spokes, beams, and other metal parts deep, deep, down to the twinkling of the world below where the sea was surely still boiling.

Or... wasn't it?

A sinking feeling suddenly lunged like a tiger out from beneath the brush of unmoving wheels and gears, and the thought that attacked with dagger teeth was that the whole of Heartland could at any moment fall into the endless sea. His own heart was beating rather fast, and he decided also quite normally considering the situation, and that was when he recalled himself.

That horrible nightmare had not made any sense, but that trek into the heart of things with Lise was a little easier to sort.

She was responsible. She had to be. Was she really only an object that had been on a self-destructive mission of some sort to destroy Heartland? Was a malfunction the cause, or was it something far more diabolical?

Haddler paused suddenly as he stared out at the endless pipes before him. The stillness was so thick that he could barely hear himself think over such distracting silence. For it was not altogether true silence.

There was a wind somewhere though nothing blew. There was clanking that had no real rhythm to it as it was a very aimless air. His heart was thump, thump, thumping and it was not even to any tick or any tock.

Hastily he reached into his pocket for his watch. It was ticking!

He heaved a sigh of relief as he looked until he realized that it was the middle of the night.

Pulling the watch away he looked out into the blood-golden sun. It was a dazzling thing that seemed to be quite pleased with itself in a cocky way. It was taking time that should be the moon's, and had Haddler himself stared at its harshly mocking face, his vision would have been reduced to billow into a single blinding white forever. He turned sharply blinking the pain away. Then he tapped his chin in time to his watch's ticking for a few seconds before leaping back into the room. He slammed the window shut behind.

A better question than where Lise was, certainly was how he had come to be in his room. If time had stopped Lise could very likely be where he had left, but though Time only stopped for High Tea, he was lying in bed going on as though he could go on anytime to anywhere.