by Tom Hoffman
He dashed through the back door of his house. “Proto, you’re never going to guess what just–“ Orville stopped in his tracks. His mum and papa were standing at the kitchen table holding a large colorfully wrapped package. “What’s that?”
“A present for you. Your papa thought it was time you had one.”
“What is it?”
His Papa grinned. “Open it and find out.”
Orville stepped over to the kitchen table and took the package from his papa. “It’s heavy.” He set it down on the table and tore the wrapping paper off. His eyes grew wide. In front of him was a large leather bound volume with gold lettering on the front cover reading:
ORVILLE WELLINGTON MOUSE
His Journal of Adventuring
“Whoa, my own journal? I have my own journal of adventuring? Wait, what about Sophia?”
“We have one for her and one for Proto, all courtesy of Master Marloh.”
“I’d better get busy, I have to write about the clockwork glowbirds, the shattered Abacus and the capricious shadows.”
“Capricious?”
Orville grinned. “What? I know a lot of big words.”
Chapter 39
Every Word
“I should have been a king. What do you think?” Orville leaned back in the ornate wooden throne, raising one eyebrow, trying to look as regal as he could.
“I don’t think you’d like it. Being a king is more than just having your subjects fetch your slippers and bring you trays of tasty little cakes.”
“How hard could it be? I’d just sit here and tell everyone what to do. I’d be good at that.”
Sophia’s eyes wandered around Castle Caligari’s throne room, absently trying to decipher the symbols on the tattered threadbare banners hanging from the ceiling.
“There’s a little game I like to play called ‘what if’. It goes like this. What if, one of your friends was chosen to be the King of Muridaan Falls?”
“We don’t have a king.”
“That’s not how you play. What if, we did have a king, and your friend was crowned King of Muridaan Falls. What if his first act as King was to command you to fetch his slippers and a tray of tasty little cakes.”
“He wouldn’t do that because I’m his friend.”
“He’s King, he can do anything he wants.”
“I wouldn’t do it. I’d tell him to get his own slippers and tasty little cakes.”
“They’d put you in chains and toss you into the dungeon for disobeying the King’s order.”
“That’s not fair. I’d tell my other friends to clobber him.”
“What if half of your friends thought you should bring the King his slippers and tasty little cakes, and the other half didn’t think you should, and they wanted you to help them clobber the King? Do see where I’m going with this?”
“I guess so. I’d have to treat my subjects nicely so they wouldn’t clobber me or get into a big fight.”
“Exactly. It’s not easy to be a good king.”
“You’re right. Besides, if I was king I couldn’t go on adventures with you and Proto. I’d have to sit on this throne all day long signing important papers. So boring.”
“Why do you think you’re dreaming about Castle Caligari again?”
“I don’t know. I like mysterious old castles, especially when they don’t have creepy dark wizards living in them.”
Sophia snorted. “You were so wrong about Mendacium being a dark wizard. So wrong. I hope you learned your lesson about dreams. Hey, let’s go check the Machine Room and see if the Distortion Thruster is still running.”
“Haukesworth shut it off.”
“This is a dream, not the real world. It might still be running in your dream. Who knows, maybe someone opened a pastry shop in the meadow.”
“We should check.” Orville hopped down from the throne and the two best friends made their way down the spiral staircase to the first sub level.
Sophia stopped in her tracks, her eyes wide. She grabbed Orville’s arm. “Orville! Did you hear that? It sounded like a ghost moaning!”
“A ghost?? Are you serious? You heard a ghost moaning?”
Sophia burst out laughing. “Woooooo wooooo! I’m coming to get Orville!!”
“That’s not even funny. Besides, ghosts don’t scare me anymore, not since my visit to the world of the Others.”
“If you say so, Orville the Brave. Hey, there’s the Machine Room.” Sophia strolled through the wall into the room.
“How do you walk through walls like that? It’s like you’re a ghost. It’s spooky.” Orville pushed the door open and entered the huge room.
“It’s not spooky at all. Think about it, we’re in a dream, so there’s no laws of physics, no laws of motion, no physical matter, no gravity. The wall and my body don’t really exist, they’re just thoughts in your dream. Our mind creates a thought image of the body we have in the real world. When I saw Mum and Papa in the world of the Others, they told me they appeared the way I remembered them so I’d feel comfortable talking to them. I think Master Osterous did the same thing for you.”
“So did the Chief Master Engineer. What do you think they really look like?”
“They look like the Others. That’s what everyone looks like in the world of the Others.”
“It’s a little spooky. I mean, I know they’re still your mum and papa, but…”
“Whatever you’re used to is normal. If we grew up in the world of shiny blue creatures with four arms, that would seem normal to us. If we grew up in the world of the Others, then the ghosty white cloud form would seem normal.”
“Normal and spooky.”
“The engine is off and the meadow is gone. It’s just these old stone floors. I was kind of hoping the meadow would still be here.”
Orville took Sophia’s paw in his. He knew why Sophia was hoping the meadow would still be there.
Sophia’s gaze traveled up the front of the towering silver engine. “Orville, look!” She pointed to the words scrawled across the side of the engine.
HAUKESWORTH MOUSE
WAS HERE
“That’s weird, why would that be in my dream?”
“I don’t know, but I have a feeling if we went back to the real Castle Caligari we’d find those same words written on the engine. Remember how Master Marloh said dreams are a mix of the real world and messages from our inner self? The hard part is telling which is which.”
“Did your mum and papa say anything about you and me? You said they can see what’s going to happen in the future.”
“We talked about you a lot. They were really glad we found each other. They said they knew we would, that we always do.”
“We always do?”
“They said this wasn’t the first time you and I have gone swimming together in the river of time. They said we’re old friends, eternal friends.”
“I do feel like I’ve known you forever, and I love you more than anyone else. What else did they say?”
“They said we would marry and have two mouselings.”
“That will be nice. Hey, I just realized something.”
“What?”
“I’m going to remember this dream when I wake up.”
“So am I. Every word.”
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Capricious Shadows
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p; Best wishes until we meet again.
Tom Hoffman
