horrified to see it studying him in an almost contemplative manner, head cocked to one side. “What is it doing?”
There was no response but the old scholar’s distressingly panicky attempts to awaken the Master. Marcus tried to turn and help, but he was transfixed by the curious gaze of the figure, and stood frozen on the spot as it drifted closer. That dark face suddenly broke into a wide, jigsaw grin, and without further warning the figure swung its staff up over its head, rotated it a few times, then bought it down pointing squarely at them and blasted forth white light from its end. Marcus barely had time to think ‘not again, ’ before the shockwave hit, passed through him onto Eustace and Eira, and blew them all apart into fragments of dreams.
5
“Do you remember our first date?” Alice asked, as they lay in the snow, waiting for day’s light to fade.
“Of course,” Marcus answered, gently extricating his arm from under her and attempting to massage some life back into it. “You told me that you’d never actually been on a proper date before. I didn’t realise at the time how transparent of a hint it was, but it certainly worked.”
“Well, you’d have sat there on your end of the computer and been content to IM me forever if I hadn’t done something about it. I got tired of waiting.” Marcus could barely make out her expression, so well was she wrapped up, but in the little gap between scarf and woolly hat he caught a glimpse of her smile. Alice had a full complement of attractive smiles, but this one was one of his favourites, a crooked grin that put him in the mind of a cat that had been caught eating the gerbil and regretted nothing.
“I’m still claiming that one,” Marcus said. “You can have the second date. That was all you.”
“Oh yes. We went to the movies. What did we go see?”
“I have no idea,” Marcus confessed, and lay back down with a soft crunch. A westerly wind had swept the storm into the city with little warning, and the snow had been coming down with aplomb for most of the day, but within the hour the worst had passed. The blizzard had lessened to a gentle caress of fallen flakes on a whitewashed world, and they’d decided to go to the park.
“You were the perfect gentleman, that first night,” Alice murmured after a moment. “Paid for the taxi, seated me, paid for everything, walked me home. We were at my front door, and you gave me a hug and ran away. I felt like a princess. A rather chaste princess, but a princess nonetheless.”
“For what it’s worth,” Marcus said wistfully, “I did want to kiss you.” He did so then.
“Let’s never leave this place,” Alice said later. “Let’s live on this hill forever. Let’s live in the hill.”
“We don’t have any supplies,” Marcus pointed out. “Ow,” he added.
“Don’t say that,” Alice said, punching him in the side again. “That unwavering dedication to practical rationality will ruin you, Marcus. You should dream a little more freely sometimes.”
Marcus hesitated at her words, stricken suddenly by a strange feeling that some far-off iteration of himself had seen her words come to life, her casual prophecy come true. He shivered, his sense of whimsy dispelled. “Do you really think so?” he found himself asking.
“I do,” Alice said solemnly, twisting to look into his eyes. “Sometimes it seems like you’re moving through life in a daze, interacting with but never quite touching the world. Poor Marcus, at once removed from his own life. I worry, sometimes, that one day you might be like that with me. I worry that you’ll come to prefer the world in your head to the real one, and disappear into it.”
I think I have, Marcus thought sadly, in tandem with his past self. Then anew: Why did I have to relive that one? No answer was forthcoming, and he could only watch as the memory began to dissolve back into its rightful place in his mind, and the world of the present
There was no response but the old scholar’s distressingly panicky attempts to awaken the Master. Marcus tried to turn and help, but he was transfixed by the curious gaze of the figure, and stood frozen on the spot as it drifted closer. That dark face suddenly broke into a wide, jigsaw grin, and without further warning the figure swung its staff up over its head, rotated it a few times, then bought it down pointing squarely at them and blasted forth white light from its end. Marcus barely had time to think ‘not again, ’ before the shockwave hit, passed through him onto Eustace and Eira, and blew them all apart into fragments of dreams.
5
“Do you remember our first date?” Alice asked, as they lay in the snow, waiting for day’s light to fade.
“Of course,” Marcus answered, gently extricating his arm from under her and attempting to massage some life back into it. “You told me that you’d never actually been on a proper date before. I didn’t realise at the time how transparent of a hint it was, but it certainly worked.”
“Well, you’d have sat there on your end of the computer and been content to IM me forever if I hadn’t done something about it. I got tired of waiting.” Marcus could barely make out her expression, so well was she wrapped up, but in the little gap between scarf and woolly hat he caught a glimpse of her smile. Alice had a full complement of attractive smiles, but this one was one of his favourites, a crooked grin that put him in the mind of a cat that had been caught eating the gerbil and regretted nothing.
“I’m still claiming that one,” Marcus said. “You can have the second date. That was all you.”
“Oh yes. We went to the movies. What did we go see?”
“I have no idea,” Marcus confessed, and lay back down with a soft crunch. A westerly wind had swept the storm into the city with little warning, and the snow had been coming down with aplomb for most of the day, but within the hour the worst had passed. The blizzard had lessened to a gentle caress of fallen flakes on a whitewashed world, and they’d decided to go to the park.
“You were the perfect gentleman, that first night,” Alice murmured after a moment. “Paid for the taxi, seated me, paid for everything, walked me home. We were at my front door, and you gave me a hug and ran away. I felt like a princess. A rather chaste princess, but a princess nonetheless.”
“For what it’s worth,” Marcus said wistfully, “I did want to kiss you.” He did so then.
“Let’s never leave this place,” Alice said later. “Let’s live on this hill forever. Let’s live in the hill.”
“We don’t have any supplies,” Marcus pointed out. “Ow,” he added.
“Don’t say that,” Alice said, punching him in the side again. “That unwavering dedication to practical rationality will ruin you, Marcus. You should dream a little more freely sometimes.”
Marcus hesitated at her words, stricken suddenly by a strange feeling that some far-off iteration of himself had seen her words come to life, her casual prophecy come true. He shivered, his sense of whimsy dispelled. “Do you really think so?” he found himself asking.
“I do,” Alice said solemnly, twisting to look into his eyes. “Sometimes it seems like you’re moving through life in a daze, interacting with but never quite touching the world. Poor Marcus, at once removed from his own life. I worry, sometimes, that one day you might be like that with me. I worry that you’ll come to prefer the world in your head to the real one, and disappear into it.”
I think I have, Marcus thought sadly, in tandem with his past self. Then anew: Why did I have to relive that one? No answer was forthcoming, and he could only watch as the memory began to dissolve back into its rightful place in his mind, and the world of the present
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