Imagine a room.
The broken wall clock suddenly chimed ten times.
Neither the Ice Machine nor the dog had heard this
before. Tullabelle’s Spock-like ears perked up,
and the Ice Machine grew colder by the minute.
Something important was going to happen...
Just then the door opened. A whirlwind
of activity blew in. The human named Anna
came in with two armfuls of packages and set them
on the granite counter. Her dog was
making all the familiar Tullabelle sounds. Dogs know
no bounds of joy, she thought. She may as well
have been gone for eternity.
The Ice Machine was happy. And the clock
suddenly stopped chiming.
The man in her dreams
woke up and left to go to the flea market,
looking to replace the tools that had been stolen
with his car. She stayed home and fed the dog
as if nothing had happened in the world outside.
Knowing that this was not so, she heard that familiar
crackling sound. As if warp speed had been reached.
Pallor cast itself over the earth.
Seasons outdid themselves in bare winter
when the white-barked Aspen trees
crossover worlds of make-believe. Though
her own captain and first officer,
her own ship she mutineered, slept with
Captain Jack Sparrow, then went on to conquer
worlds of Khan.
In the green world, nothing was promised
but everything was given. Leaves shook
the wind and the sky wrote white-inked
clouds.
This world is amazing, she thought.
Suddenly she felt herself being pulled
up and out.
Her space vehicle seemed to respond.
She was no longer in suspended animation.
Time had served its purpose.
