Orville Mouse and the Puzzle of the Clockwork Glowbirds (Orville Wellington Mouse Book 1)

by Tom Hoffman

  “You’re saying only a good mouse is capable of using this power?”

  “Are you a good mouse?”

  “Umm... I hope so. Sometimes my Mum says I dream too much and don’t spend enough time trying to make the world a better place.”

  A green chair rippled into view behind the Thirteenth Monk. He sat down with a long sigh. “Ahhh. That’s better. I’m not as young as I used to be.” This also seemed to greatly amuse him. “Green is a lovely color for comfy chairs, don’t you think?”

  Orville stared at him blankly. Did he know about Proto and the comfy green chair he had chosen? “Well, yes, green is my favorite color.”

  “We shall begin now. Your Mum says you dream too much. Do you happen to remember a dream you once had where you played the part of a woodcutter?”

  Orville’s eyes widened. “Yes, I just had it on the way here. There was a Blue Monk in it. I didn’t know if it was my dream or his.”

  “That was the Fourth Monk you saw. I asked him to orchestrate a particular dream scenario for you. Your woodcutter dream was a test, Orville – a test which you passed with, as they say, flying colors.”

  “A test? What kind of test?”

  The Thirteenth Monk closed his eyes. “Orville, let me ask you a question. In your dream about the woodcutter, who were you?”

  “Oh, I was the woodcutter.”

  “I see. And who was the terrified little mouseling?”

  “I don’t know what you mean. She was just part of the dream.”

  “She was just part of the dream. And tell me again whose dream it was?”

  “Well, it was my dream.”

  “So the mouseling was...”

  “Me? I was the mouseling and the woodcutter?”

  The Thirteenth Monk clapped his paws together and sat up straight in his chair. “Now we’re getting somewhere. Orville, who was the ferocious forest wolf?”

  “I was?”

  “Who was the trees? Who was the sky? Who was the sunlight reflecting off the trees? Who was stars in the night sky? Who was the forest floor? Who was the leaves? Who was the heavy two bladed axe?”

  “I was all those things. I was everything in the dream.”

  “Excellent. You were everything in the dream. You have awakened from that dream now, and you have realized you were everything in the dream. You now clearly see that the apparent separateness of all the elements in your dream was only an illusion. There was only one consciousness in the woodcutter dream, and it was yours, Orville. Now, when you realized the forest wolf meant to harm the helpless little mouseling, your first thought was to save her. You were aware it was a dream, and you realized you could do anything you wanted to. You had access to unlimited power, did you not?”

  “Well, I guess I did. It was just a dream though.”

  “So. In this ‘just a dream’ you flew toward the ferocious wolf with your axe held high, but something happened. Can you tell me what happened?”

  “The mouseling said to stop.”

  “And remind me again who the mouseling was?”

  “It was me. I said stop.”

  “Now we’re really getting somewhere. You said stop. And what happened then?”

  “The wolf lay down next to the mouseling and she scratched the top of his head and then he fell asleep, and the mouseling lay down and rested her head on him.”

  “Do you understand the test now?”

  “I think so. You wanted to see what I would do if I had access to unlimited power. And instead of killing the wolf, part of me stopped and resolved the problem with kindness.”

  “With love, Orville. You resolved the conflict with love.”

  “Well, what does all that mean exactly? I still don’t really know why I’m here.”

  “We will discuss that tomorrow. I would like you to stay here at the monastery for three days. Then I will send you back to Muridaan Falls. For now, I would like you to think about the deeper implications of everything we have discussed today.”

  “Wait, you can send us back to Muridaan Falls? Don’t we have to go through the World Doors?”

  “No, there is no need to cross the Senyph Ocean. I will send you home through a spectral doorway. I will also send you and Sophia back in time so you will arrive the morning after Master Marloh sent you here through his spectral door. If I were you I would run home and get the letter you wrote to your Mum before she reads it. It might simplify matters a great deal if she did not learn just yet you are a Metaphysical Adventurer who travels to other dimensions and does battle with gigantic carnivorous centipedes. You know how Mums tend to worry about that sort of thing.” The Thirteenth Monk gave a hearty laugh, a laugh that filled Orville with the deepest and most profound sense of joy he had ever experienced.

  Chapter 30

  Orville’s Dilemma

  Orville leaned back on the stone bench and watched the Red Monks tending their glorious garden. He turned to Sophia and said, “Your Papa was really friends with the Blue Monks?”

  “That’s what the Fourth Monk said. The monastery exists in many worlds simultaneously and Papa knew the Blue Monks on Nirriim, but he never knew the monastery he was looking for on Periculum belonged to the Blue Monks.”

  “Why do you think they hide the building on Periculum but not on Nirriim?”

  “I don’t know, maybe Nirriim is a safer planet. You know, not so many carnivorous centipedes and giant flying scaly worm things jumping out of the ocean.”

  “That makes sense. What did the Thirteenth Monk say to you?”

  “Well, he said my woodcutter dream was a test, and I passed it because I didn’t kill the wolf even though I could have. Oh, and he made a big point of telling me I was everyone and everything in the dream, not just the woodcutter. That the separateness of all the dream elements was just an illusion.”

  “That’s interesting. He wants to talk to you again?”

  “This afternoon. He told me I was supposed to think about all the things he said before he sees me again. I don’t really understand what he’s trying to tell me. It sounds like he thinks I would use power wisely if I had it, but I have no idea how I would ever get it. Maybe he’ll explain it today.”

  “Maybe so. I must say these Blue Monks are pretty mysterious. I know they’re really good mice and they’re wise beyond my understanding, but they’re a little bit unnerving.”

  “I know what you mean. When I’m talking to the Thirteenth Monk I feel like I’m a one year old mouseling learning to tie my shoes.”

  Sophia snickered. “I heard a rumor that your Mum still does tie your shoes.”

  “Unnhh... so beautiful and yet so cruel.”

  “Did you just say I was beautiful?” Sophia raised both her eyebrows.

  “Huh? Well, it’s just kind of an expression... um, you know.”

  “Oh, an expression. Well, if the Thirteenth Monk asked you if your friend Sophia was beautiful, and he said you had to tell him the truth, what would you say?”

  “He’s the Thirteenth Monk, he’s not going to ask me something silly like that.”

  “But if he did ask it and you had to answer it.”

  “Arggh. Okay, I guess you’re sort of beautiful, in a best friend kind of way.”

  Sophia snorted and pounded Orville’s arm. “Ha! I knew I could get you to say it! Orville thinks I’m beeeyooootiful!”

  Orville made a gagging noise. “I wish I’d known how mean you were before I picked you for my best friend.”

  Orville felt a tap on his shoulder and turned to see the Fourth Monk standing behind them. “Good afternoon, Orville. I hope you and your very beautiful friend Sophia are enjoying this lovely day. The Thirteenth Monk would like to speak with you now. If you would please follow me I will open the blue door for you.”

  Sophia was trying not to laugh at Orville’s embarrassment.

  As he was walking away Orville turned back and stuck his tongue out at Sophia, who burst out laughing.

  Five minutes later Orville
stepped through the open doorway into the main building. He’d forgotten how dark and how quiet it was in there. He looked around the huge shadowy room, waiting for his eyes to grow accustomed to the dim light. Finally he spotted a slight movement at the back of the room, then realized all thirteen Blue Monks were standing in a row facing him.

  “Creekers, it’s spooky how they do that.” The Thirteenth Monk stepped forward and made his way across the room. He approached Orville, then stopped and sang five short notes. It was the most beautiful tune Orville had ever heard and for some inexplicable reason made him think of Proto. Two comfy green chairs appeared out of nowhere and the Thirteenth Monk motioned for Orville to take a seat.

  “Did those notes you just sang shape those chairs?”

  “Yes. It’s not as difficult as you might think, although I have been doing this for a very long time.”

  “Why did it make me think of Proto?”

  “The song was about comfy green chairs.”

  “So you can make me think of something just by singing notes like that?”

  “Think of it as a foreign language. If someone is speaking to you in Muroidian, you might have no idea what the words mean, but you can tell if they’re angry or happy or sad by the tone of their voice. It’s a little like that. It helps if you’re very intuitive, as you are.”

  “Oh. Could you sing something else for me?”

  “Very well.” The Thirteenth Monk thought for a moment then sang a short wordless song. The power of the song swept through Orville like a hurricane, whirling his thoughts into what felt like long brightly colored threads, carrying them far away. He felt his body evaporating, the atoms and molecules spreading out across the universe, becoming infinitesimal specks of ancient stardust. He was in his kitchen back in Muridaan Falls. He was sitting at the breakfast table. Mum was putting a plate of warm snapberry flapcakes on the table when Papa walked into the room and put his arm around Mum, kissing her on the cheek. “I’ll be back in three days.” He kissed Orville on the top of his head. “Be good for your Mum. Remember I love you always.”

  Orville was back in the comfy green chair, tears streaming down his face. “I saw Papa. I was a mouseling. It was the day he left and didn’t come back.”

  The Thirteenth Monk nodded. “It is a song that draws on your mouseling memories. Sometimes they are happy memories, sometimes they are impossibly sad ones.”

  “I didn’t mean to cry like that.”

  “There is no need to apologize, Orville. In the center of dark and overwhelming grief lies a radiant star of pure love. Your tears have proven to me we were not mistaken about you. You are true, and that is all that can be asked of any mouse.”

  The Thirteenth Monk waited silently until Orville was ready, then continued. “Orville, I would like to talk more about your woodcutter dream. Would that be all right?”

  “Sure. It was kind of a weird dream.”

  “Let me ask you this. Suppose in the dream, besides being awake, you were also fully aware that everyone and everything in the dream was you. Suppose when you saw the wolf getting ready to snap at the helpless little mouseling you held up your paw and told the wolf to stop. You told the wolf that he was not separate from the mouseling, he was not separate from you. He was not separate from the trees and sky and the stars, that this separateness was only an illusion, that you were really all one consciousness named Orville. If he bit the mouseling he would really be biting himself. What do you think he would have said to you?”

  “Umm... I think he’d say, ‘All this talk is giving me a headache. I’m going to eat both of you.”

  The Thirteenth Monk gave a great laugh. “You might be right, Orville. All right, suppose I were to say to you right now that the separateness you feel as Orville Wellington Mouse is only an illusion. You and I and Sophia and all the Blue Monks, the trees, the stars, and the galaxies are all part of a great consciousness and in reality are all one mind, just as they all were in your dream about the woodcutter.”

  Orville’s head was spinning, but he tried to answer. “Well, Sophia is always saying all things are connected, and things happen for a reason even if we don’t know what that reason is. But this world is real, it’s not just a dream. Dreams are different, they’re all in your head.”

  “These are simply things for you to think about, Orville. You are the one who will decide the deeper truth to be found within them. No one else can do it for you. All I ask is that you think about them. Tomorrow will be your last day here. Tomorrow I will tell you the secret to limitless power, the power to change the universe in any way you choose.”

  Orville felt a rush of fear wash through him. “I’m not sure I want to know that. I might do something wrong or make things worse.”

  The Thirteenth Monk rose to his feet and stepped over to Orville. He placed his paw on Orville’s arm. “The mouse who does not seek power is the one who should wield it. You are much more than you think you are, Orville, and far, far older than you think you are.”

  “What?”

  “I will see you tomorrow.” The Thirteenth Monk turned and walked toward the back of the room. Orville kept his eyes on him until he realized he was staring at empty space. The Thirteenth Monk had faded away into the darkness. Orville sat alone in the silence of the monastery for almost an hour thinking about his conversation with the Thirteenth Monk. He had a feeling everything he needed to know was there, but he couldn’t quite put all the parts together in the proper order. What would he do if he did have unlimited power? What would he change? He sighed. Maybe Sophia would have some good ideas.

  Twenty minutes later he was sitting next to Sophia beneath the gigantic tree with the round blue leaves. “Orville, I asked the Fourth Monk about this tree and he said it was here when the monastery was built, almost two thousand years ago. I got the feeling he knew more about it but he didn’t want to tell me.”

  “They sure have a lot of secrets. Maybe it’s some kind of magic tree or something.”

  “Magic? Really?”

  “Well, maybe it has some weird shaping powers or something that we don’t understand.”

  “Or it could just be a really big old tree.”

  “Sophia, if you had the power to change anything in the universe, what would you change? If the Thirteenth Monk is going to give me the secret to unlimited power I need to think about that.”

  “Well, you could make yourself a little taller and really handsome. Maybe make your ears just a little bit smaller.”

  “Sophia!”

  “Oh, I don’t know. Papa always said the universe is perfect the way it is even though it’s not always how we want it to be. We might not like giant carnivorous centipedes, but they teach us valuable lessons, like how to overcome our fears.”

  “Hmmm... that’s kind of what I was thinking. What about mice like Draken? If I had unlimited power I could just make him vanish and we’d be done with him.”

  “You could, but that doesn’t seem right to me. He’s greedy and horribly evil and only cares about power, and he killed Papa, but in the end he’s still a mouse who used to be a little mouseling. There’s always a chance he could change, even after the horrible, unforgivable things he’s done, and if you killed him you would take away that chance.”

  “You’re right. Mum says every mouse is here for a reason. I can’t just go around picking out ones I don’t like and making them vanish because they did something I don’t agree with. Creekers, I don’t even know why the Thirteenth Monk wants to give me this dumb power.”

  “Let’s go walk through the orange grove. It’s a beautiful sunny day, and those orange blossoms smell sooo good.”

  “Good idea, I’m tired of thinking about limitless power.” Orville got to his feet and looked up at the gigantic tree. “Look at those leaves. I wouldn’t want to be the one who had to rake up all the–” Orville stopped, looking at the ground around the tree. “Does it seem odd to you that there’s not a single blue leaf on the ground anywhere?”

>   Sophia studied the ground beneath the tree. “You’re right, that’s very odd indeed. I don’t think we should pick any more leaves off the tree. You really are the best at finding puzzles.”

  “I wish I was as good at solving them. I have a whole notebook filled with unsolved puzzles back in Muridaan Falls. I guess I’ll just add this tree to my list.”

  Chapter 31

  The Secret

  Orville had a hard time falling asleep that night. He couldn’t stop wondering about the secret to unlimited power, and wasn’t even sure he wanted to know what it was. He liked things the way they were and he didn’t want to turn into some kind of scary powerful mouse everyone was afraid of. Finally he drifted off to sleep. It seemed like only moments later when he was awakened by a gentle rapping on his door.

  He heard the voice of the Fourth Monk. “Orville, the Thirteenth Monk is ready to see you.”

  “Okay.” Orville jumped out of bed and threw on his clothes. Ten minutes later he was standing in front of the blue door with the Fourth Monk, and then he was sitting in his comfy green chair facing the Thirteenth Monk.

  “You seem nervous, Orville. Are you worried about something?”

  “Well, I’m kind of worried that my friends might be afraid of me if I have so much power. Maybe Sophia won’t want to be my best friend any more.”

  “Ahh, I see. I assure you that all your friends will still like you, Orville. If I thought differently you would not be sitting here in front of me. I am going to tell you the secret to unlimited power, but it may not become clear until later on exactly how this secret allows you to access that power. What I say may not make sense to you right now, but the time will come when it does make sense. When you need it most is when you will understand.” The Thirteenth Monk leaned forward in his chair and whispered, “Every dream is real until you wake up.”

  Orville stared at him blankly. “What?”

  “Repeat it, please.”

  “Every dream is real until you wake up.”