3: The Plan.

 ....

  “So what do we do then?” Tic asked.

  “Hmmm”, puzzled Tac under his breath.

  All Toe could do was look rather perplexed and just a bit worried.

  The professor pushed his glasses up his nose once again as he rubbed the few graying whiskers on his chin. He looked off in deep thought for a moment.  Leah looked out the window for a moment.  There was total silence in the room. Finally the still was broken as Dot looked at Trimese.

  “Someone has to go outside of Dreamsland and bring someone back that knows how to fix clocks, that knows how to wind them at least,” the professor proclaimed.

  “What?” everyone seemed to exclaim at the same time. Leah turned from the window to look at her father. The brothers looked at one another and then to the Professor.

  “Go outside of Dreamsland?” Toe sort of muttered. “Is that possible?” “Has anyone ever done that before?”.

  Tac was now the one to rub his chin as he pondered the suggestion.

  Looking over at Leah, Tic blurted out “Yeah why not?”

  “Yeah, why not?” said Tac as he looked over at the professor. The professor shot him a very knowing look.

  “Mmmm” Toe sort of grumbled.  “But who?”

  “But who indeed?” the professor said as he looked at all of them now. “Who could we get to go that already knows about the clock, and the clouds and that is not tied up with doing their garden?” “Who is brave enough and has the fortitude and foresight and vision?” he continued.

  “We’re already on board professor.” “You don’t have to sell us”, Tic said.

  “Right” added Tac. He nudged his brother Toe in the side “Right Toe?”

  “Um…right, right… “. He nervously smiled at everyone.

  “So good, it’s agreed then” the professor said as he searched again through his piles of cluttered messed.  “Now where is that map?” He went over to several cylinder rolls that were stacked in one corner, sitting in a canister, and fumbled through them.  Finally he had found the one he was looking for and took it over to the table where he had the books. Pushing them to the side he laid out the map and placed several small books on the corners to keep it from folding up on it self.

  “Hmmm” Dot thought to him self as he once again pushed up the glasses on his nose.

  “Not many people know I have this.” He glanced over at the boys and his daughter and then at the map.

  “What is it professor?” Tic inquired.

  “It’s a map to the outer world” the professor answered him still looking at the map. “Or rather it’s a map on how to get back here from there?”

  “Huh?” Toe muttered. Even Leah was a little confused.

  “How do we do that professor?” Tac asked, a little confused. 

  “Simply turn it upside down and follow it backwards.” The professor answered.

  “Guard it with you life boys cause there’s not another like it in the world.” “And if you intend on getting back here then you’ll need this for sure.“  “The City Elders don’t even know about it.” “They would never approve of such things.” 

  It was true, the City Elders were so stuck in dogma and old ways they would never ever consider anything outside the comfortable confines of the quaint little village. To them, there was nothing outside the city limits, nothing beyond the ‘business as usual, take care of your gardens, mind to your own affairs and try to fit in’. Beyond the hills that surround Dreamsland was a ‘never ever’ land that no one ever visited or even discussed. It just wasn’t brought up.  No one ever left Dreamsland.  No one ever visited.  It had been this way since the very beginning or as long as anyone could remember. You were born here, you lived here, you worked in your garden and you tolled away at it all your life. You lived off the vegetables or the fishes that were caught in the little lake that sat next to the village and the meat from the animals that were raised and kept in people’s back yards (in their little cottage barns) and at the end of it all you simply died here… end of story.

  Dot knew all about the City Elders and the rigid thinking that had been part of life here forever simply because he had been employed by them for many years in dutiful service.

And he knew how to fit in and get along with the system even when he didn’t always agree with it. He simply was a reasonable man, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t look past his own nose or past the borders of this quaint little village. In fact, he could. He knew that there was a big world outside of Dreamsland. He knew that there were several. And beyond those was that terrible ‘never ever’ land that the rest of us would call “reality”.

  The professor wouldn’t answer Trimese’s questions about how he came across the map preferring to let them know that something were best left unsaid. The main thing was that they would need it on their journey.

  They all looked down at the map for sometime and Tac made special mental notes of big landmarks along the way that he might need to know. That would come in handy later on.

   They knew they would need to get together some food for the trip. From the best they could figure out it would be a day’s trip or more there and back. And he would need some food along the way.  One thing that Trimese liked, and that was to eat. That, at least, was one of the things he did have in common with the rest of the folks of Dreamsland.

  How ironic, he thought to himself as he made his way home to get his stuff together, that the one person that was so shunned and ignored and made fun of would be the one person who would be needed to save the day.  Trimese never ever envisioned him self as anything like a ‘hero’, he just knew he was different simply because no one else would ever let him forget that fact. His desire was simply to be accepted by everyone else (and more than just by Leah and her father). He just wanted to ‘be’.  But at the same time he had grown use to the way he was treated because this was all he ever knew. He had always been like this and they had always been the way they were as long as he could remember. 

  Yeah, being a hero was the furthest thing in his mind. It was simply a manner of someone had to do this and he was the only candidate.

   “Um, lets not forget to take some sweet breads” Toe added, “you know how we love those”.

  “You mean YOU love them.” Tic retorted. “I could care less.” “You know I’m a salt kind of guy”.

  “Well in any case we’ll need some water too.” Tac added. “We’ve got to keep the liquids in our bodies.” “It’s gonna be an interesting little trip for sure and who knows what we’ll encounter along the way.”

  Toe stopped packing his backpack for a moment, “What do you think we’ll encounter?”

  “ I have no idea Toe” but one things for sure, it will be interesting and like nothing we’ve ever done before”.

  “Like nothing no one has done before” Tic added. “We’re trailblazers boys. Just remember that. “

  “Right now I don’t much feel like a trailblazer” Toe looked over at him. “Right now I feel sort of sick.”

  “Hit him for me will you?” Tic nodded to Tac and Tac gently tapped Toe in the stomach.

  “Toe, you got nothing to worry about. We’re gonna be right there with you the whole way.” Tac said to his brother reassuringly.

  “It’s not you I’m worried about”, Toe glanced over at them sort of nervous like.

  “Here eat this” Tic said and picked up some sweet bread and handed it in his direction.

  “Mmmm, sweet bread…my favorite” and with that Toe stuffed his mouth and felt better.

 ....

   Meanwhile back at the professors’ cottage Dot and Leah were busy on their own getting together their own little care package for the boys. There was an uneasy silence between the two because they both knew how important this trip was and what was at stake for everyone. Dot could tell how nervous Leah was as she tried to busy herself and she was talking to herself (a habit she only did when she was nervous or scared).

   “They’ll be okay” she seemed to mutter under their breath. “They’ll be okay”

   “Yes they will” Dot said as he reached a hand and put it reassuringly on her shoulder.

  “They will be okay, wont they?” Leah said as she looked up at her father and tried to smile to reassure him as much as herself. 

  About that time Trimese had made it back to their cottage and was once again at their front door.  Leah hugged them as they opened the door and for a brief moment there was a moment of silence as no one said anything.

  “Um, guys, if it’s okay with you, I’m gonna stay right here” Toe said as he looked down at Leah who had her arms tightly around the guys. They all laughed for a moment. 

  “Yeah right.” Tic added.

  It was then that they all noticed it together standing on the front porch of the professor’s cottage. It sent a chill down all their spines and made them stop and look around them. Time was definitely running out. They would have to leave right away. No long goodbyes, no tearful departures. They would have to leave and leave right now. 

 ....

  From where they were standing they could see the tiny birds sitting in the trees at the edge of the yard, they could see other birds sitting in on some of the bushes across the walk way (the track) in the central garden.  But nowhere could they see any birds flying in the sky.

 ....

What was worse was that there was complete silence. None of the birds were singing, none of them, and THIS had never happened before…EVER!

Part two in the continuing story of "The Dream".  (All characters, places, ideas are copy righted by me)

                                2:  The Professor and his daughter

 ....

 ....

   Professor Dot was a learned man of many interests. Besides his amazing garden of many different exotic plants and flowers (botany was one of his many interests) he was one of the few citizens of Dreamsland that would actually talk to Trimese and knew many things because he had read so much. He was probably the smartest person in Dreamsland but had the ability to fit in simply because he had learned to grow an extremely nice garden and on outside appearances appeared to be a normal.  On the inside of his cottage and on the inside of the Professor it was quite different. He was anything but normal.

 On the outside though he was somewhat still handsome, although he was now middle aged. He had a slight pudgy belly and wore glasses that he was constantly pushing back up the bridge of his nose. It was almost a nervous tick about him but had become a habit from years of practice.  He was a contradiction in terms because of his brilliant mind and everything about him was ordered and cluttered at the same time and somehow managed to share the same space.

  He was named Heratio Dobson, but at a very young age had been nicknamed “Dot” and it had stuck and now everyone call him that, except the official at City Hall and the University where he use to teach.  He was semi-retired now spending most of his time still doing his odd little research and private studies in and around his home. But would make the occasional jaunt up to the “big house”. 

  Besides, there was the care of his young daughter Leah, who lived with him. Truth was Leah (who was now growing into a fine young lady) was taking care of him. Leah was a sweet young woman who was one of the only other people in Dreamsland that gave Trimese the time of day and learned at an early age not to judge people by their appearances or their gardens.  Everyone was the same in her eyes.  She had learned that from her father, the professor. Not only was he her dad but he was also her teacher.                 Professor Dot had lost his wonderful wife years ago and the tragedy was never mentioned any more, but she too was a upstanding citizen of Dreamsland before she passed away, and was known all over the parts as a “fine lady” who knew how to raise a beautiful garden and had some of the most wonderful vegetables in the whole area. People were amazed by her skills of growing things.

  “Yeah, the professor will know what to do”, said Toe as Trimese made his way down the steps of the Great Blue Hill.

  “I’m sure of it”, agreed Tac.

  “Yep” chirped in Tic.

 ....

  As they finally made it down to the bottom they headed up the track to the other side of the oval walkway where the Professor’s cottage was. As Trimese approached he noted that the Professors cottage was slightly different from all the other cottages by the strange apparatus that were on top of his roof and the other unusual items placed through out his yard.  Wind socks and sunray catchers and all kinds of other wonderful things that the normal citizens would never mess with. But to the Professor they were important in helping him continue his studies. He some how managed to keep a fine little garden though, and even managed to produce some unusual vegetables.

  His neighbors put up with his eccentric behavior simply because he was a learned man, and was respected for his many years of service in the employment of  the City Elders. And besides he had taught many of the citizens’ children along with his own daughter.

  Trimese didn’t see him or his daughter in the yard as they approached and went through the front gate and up the sidewalk to his front door.  On his front door there was a welcome sign hanging on a nail underneath the tiny window and a brass knocker below that.

  Tac reached up and tapped the brass knocker on the door. “Tap, tap, tap”, it went.

  After a moment the Professor appeared at the window and looked out at them and immediately smiled.

  He opened the door and held out his hands “Welcome Trimese”, the professor said, “So good to see you”. 

  “And what do I have the honor of this visit?” he continued.  “Come in, come in…”

  With that Trimese went inside. It took him a moment to adjust his eyes from the brightness of the midday’s sun to the darker quarters inside. As he step from the entrance way into the front room his eyes began to notice all kinds of interesting gadgets, books, strange collectibles, rolls of paper and other bundles all over the place. The best you could describe it was that there was an ordered chaos to the mess. Somehow everything had a place and everything seem to fit even though it all seemed random to the outside eye.  About that time Leah came in from another room to greet Trimese.

   Trimese forgot how beautiful Leah was.  He secretly had a crush on her and had had one for many years. She was about his age, maybe a year or two younger and they both had grown up in private studies together.  She was always so kind to Trimese. They had spent many a wonderful time in playing and running around and pretending to be other people. Trimese too had long lost his parents just as Leah had lost her mother and so there was that bond between them. She found all three of the brothers charming and had learned a long time ago to over look his unusualness.  In fact she felt that made him unique and special. He certainly felt that around her.  He almost blushed when she came into the room.

   Toe blurted out “Why Leah, I certainly look beautiful today” when she approached which made everyone in the room laugh.

  “You certainly do Toe” Leah agreed without missing a beat.

 “Oh brother” Tic said as he rolled his eyes. As he did Tac remembered himself and reached his hand out to shake hers as he looked at her intently and smiled. She looked back at him and smiled back. She had such a nice smile. Toe blushed even more.

  “So fellows” the Professor finally spoke up, “what brings you here?”

  With that it brought back the seriousness of their visit and why they were there.

 “Please, have a seat” Leah motioned them to sit on the couch.  They all found chairs and moved the various books and other papers that were in their way and sat down. For a moment there was a silence as Trimese looked at both the Professor and Leah and then at each other.

  “Well…” Dot said.

 “Professor, have you ever noticed clouds in the sky?” Tac finally asked.

 “In Dreamsland…never. Not to my knowledge.” “ Why no, why do you ask?” he replied. One of his eyebrows rose up slightly in deep thought. “Hmmm” he pondered.

 “Well what about The Wisdom Clock?” Tic said, looking at the professor intently. “How much do you know about it?”

 “Yeah” blurted in Toe. “Have you noticed anything strange about it lately?”

 “What’s wrong with the clock?” Leah leaned forward. Her eyes got bigger. 

 The professor looked over at his daughter for a moment and then looked at Trimese.

 “Yes, what is wrong with the clock?” “What are you going on about?” he asked.

 “You better had go look at it professor” Tac replied.

 With that the professor grabbed a pair of binoculars that he had invented that he often used to watch birds with and stepped outside to go take a quick look.  They all piled out the door behind him as he walked down his sidewalk to his gate and pointed his binoculars towards the direction of the clock. The rest of them looked off in that direction too. After adjusting them in his hands the professor finally focus them to his satisfaction and stared in amazement and horror at what he saw through the lens. The Clock was slightly leaning over and looked tired. He knew right away that this was a bad sign.

Then he noticed the clouds and pointed his binoculars in that direction as well and readjusted them to take a closer looked. After a few moments he lowered them and ran past everyone back into his cottage. And everyone quickly followed.

  There was a barrage of questions from everyone as they all made it into the living room again. The professor was not paying any attention to them though as he fumbled through everything, through all the stacks of books lying about everywhere.  He was looking for a certain book, a book on the history of the clock.

  “I know it’s here somewhere”, he mumbled to himself. “Where is that darn book at?”

 “What professor?” “What does it mean?” “What’s up with the clouds?” “Can you fix it?” the questions came on top of one another as they all watched the professor fumbling about.

  “Ah…” he finally said, “here it is”. He reached down and found a very old book with an interesting leather type cover buried in one stack.   He quickly propped it on a table and flung it open and turned through the pages until he found the place he was looking for.

 “Let’s see”, he sort of mumbled to himself as he read the text, turning page after page. After a moment he was off, looking for another book and again went through the same process of flinging it down on the table and looking through it until he found what he was looking for. This went on for several minutes.

 The rest of them stood in anticipation waiting to see what he would tell them when he finished.

 “Well?” they all sort of exclaimed.

 The professor finally closed the last book and stared off into the distance as if in deep thought.  There was a moment of silence as they all stood and stared at the professor.

 ....

  “It appears, from everything that I’ve read, everything that is known…” he trailed off for a moment still in deep thought.

 “Yes?” they all seem to say in unison as they all leaned forward for the rest of it.

 “It appears that the Clock is running down”, he said as he looked back at them. “In fact, from what I can tell the clock is supposed to be rewound once a decade”.

 “And?” Trimese and Leah both piped in.

 “Best that I can gather from my information” the professor continued, “ is that the weather, the storm that is quickly approaching is somehow related to the clock”.  “To it’s running down”.

  They all looked at the floor for a moment, deep in thought.

 “But that’s not the worst of it”, the professor said as he pushed up the glasses on his nose.  They all looked back at him.

  “Apparently the clock must be rewound every 10 years to keep it going.” “And according to my documents it has been 9 years, and 11 and a half months since the last known time that it was wound up.”

  “Well, then lets go get the guy who does that and get him to wind the clock up again.” Tic said suddenly. Toe scratched his head as he thought about it.

  “It’s not that simple Tic”, replied the professor. “This is not an ordinary clock, you must understand”, the professor continued. “You can’t just rewind it like you could your alarm clock”. “You have to be specially trained for this sort of thing.” “That clock is magical and messing with it and doing the wrong thing, turning the wrong pin could end in disaster”. “The guy that did that, the last trained person who knows how to fix clocks, and specifically, how to rewind THE CLOCK was Conner O’Conner.”

“And?” Tac said.

“Conner O’Conner died 5 years ago,” the professor looked at them all very seriously. “He died before he had a chance to pass along that knowledge to someone else.” “There IS no one else in Dreamsland that knows how to fix clocks or how to rewind them, not even myself.”

 ....

 ....

 ....

 ....

 ....

                                                     The Dream…

 ....

                                                  1: The Discovery

 ....

  “That’s strange!” Tic said, puzzled like.

  “What?” Tac asked, looking over towards him.

  “That!” Tic said, and pointed off towards the horizon.

  “hmmm” Toe rubbed his chin as he too looked off to the horizon.

  Sure enough, off on the horizon several little puffs of clouds had appeared.  For most places that wouldn’t draw anyone’s alarm, but this was Dreamsland where the sky was always blue and there were NEVER ever a cloud in the sky (much less several little ones!)  In fact, if you asked anyone in Dreamsland, they would tell you that the weather was always beautiful…always. The sky was always blue, the sun always shown down, and there was always a nice little breeze…always. But then most people wouldn’t notice a small thing like little clouds on the horizon. In Dreamsland, everyone had their heads buried in their gardens. Gardens were the life- blood of Dreamsland.  And everyone was judged upon how well kept their garden was, or how many beautiful flowers their garden had, or maybe what exotic plants they could grow.  If you were anyone you had a garden. If not, well…. you just didn’t fit in.

   “Trimese Twins” (or Tic, Tac, Toe to you) was exactly like that. He didn’t care about gardens or competing with everyone else. He didn’t even care if he fit it.  He ALWAYS knew he was different, simply because he was Trimese.

  “Strange indeed” Tic muzzled to himself. “We had better go tell someone”.

  “Yes, people need to know”, Tac added.

  They started off and had to jerk Toe by the shoulder because he was still looking.        Trimese of course was three different brothers attached at the shoulders, but they had learned very early on how to walk in unison. Even though all three look similar in appearances, each had a distinct personality.  Tic was usually in charge (or so he thought) and made most of their decisions. He was brash most of the time and was prone to being head strong, but he had no fear. Toe (to his left) was more thoughtful and would observe things before saying anything. He was a thinker. He was usually more polite and knew how to get people to agree with him. Tac had the ability to make Tic think he was making the decisions, when (in truth) he was actually making them. And finally there was Toe (to Tac’s left), the sweetest, most caring of the three. He was always a little nervous, a little insecure and would make a lot of jokes to hide that fact, although he generally had a great heart and wanted to please people and make them laugh.

 ....

    Most people ignored Trimese simply because they were ‘those lazy brothers who didn’t grow a garden’ but to others they were quite the sight, seeing the three of them all walking down the road that surrounded the central garden and separated it from all the citizens quaint little cottages.

   Dreamsland was quite the sight too but in a different way.  It was quite beautiful actually. There was the “Central Garden” in the very center of the little village. That was the huge beautiful garden run by the “City Elders” (or the local government). It was oval in shape and full of all kinds of beautiful flowers, plants and such. There were always birds flying to and fro above the garden and they filled the air with music just as the flowers below filled the air with sweet smelling scents.

  Outside of that was “The Track”. It was the walkway that went all the way around it and connected everyone together. All the citizens little cottages sat on the land outside the track surrounding it.  If you wanted to visit a neighbor, you simple walked down your own sidewalk past your garden to your front gate and then to the track until you reached your destination. Some would take walks on the track in the evenings to enjoy the spring like air or the setting sun, which was always beautiful.

  Of course, at one end of the oval shape track was the “Building of the City Elders”, in a big building on top of a hill. It was an impressive building with tall pillars in front that held the city library, the city records, the city courthouse and the offices of the City Elders.  The builders of the city felt that only on such a hill could they (the leaders) earn the respect of the fine citizens and besides, it was a great place to over see everything.

   And on other end was “The Great Blue Hill”. The Hill was called that because of the bluish tint grass that grew on it. [Much like the hill at the other end that held the city offices, this hill was also impressive so that the rest of the town sat sort of in a valley between the two].  And on top of it (up a long flight of steps) was the “The Great Wisdom Clock” that ran everything. It was the clock that truly ran everything. While the City Elders made up rules that were meant to keep order in Dreamsland, it was the Clock that actually produce it.  It gave Dreamsland its magical quality and kept the weather constantly beautiful and everything ran smoothly because of it. It was basically a huge Father Clock with a face of a wise old man on it, and a pendulum below that constantly swung back and forth.  It had always been in Dreamsland and had stood so long that people forgot where it came from or who created it or anything. Fact was it was sort of taken for granted now, and ignored. It was simply there…end of story.

   Once upon a time the town had hired someone to run it, keep it running smoothly and to make sure all it’s parts were in working order and that position was passed on to other people for generations. And at first that was a position of honor.   But eventually people lost interest in taking care of it.

   ‘The clock will always be there, running things’ they would say. ‘Why bother with it’.

So after a time it became neglected.  Much like everything else, if it wasn’t about gardens or gardening, then it soon lost the interest and attention of the fine citizens of Dreamsland.

 ....

   “There’s someone” Toe blurted, as they reached a neighbor.  Of course none of his neighbors like Trimese, much less paid any attention to them. And when they did it was usually rude.

 ....

  “Excuse me sir…” Tic started to say.

  “Hump” the neighbor grunted as he looked up and purposely turned his back to them, never even bothering to find out what they wanted.

  “Well, that certainly went well didn’t it?” Toe said.

  “Not!” Tic said. “Let’s leave him to his garden.”

   They continued down the track to the next neighbor.  This time as they approached, the neighbor ran inside his cottage when he saw them coming and shut the door behind him.

  ‘Click’ went the latch on his door!  Again and again they met the same kind of reception from their fine neighbors.  It was frustrating, to say the least. Each time they approached peoples’ gates and each time they were ignored or sneered at.  Halfway around the track they went and no one wanted to talk to them or give them any attention.

   About that time they reached the bottom of “The Great Blue Hill”.  Trimese looked up at the clock. He always found it fascinating and thought about it often. He had a lot of time to think of things, since he wasn’t busy gardening and had always wondered about the clock and how it worked, and who created it and why. He thought of a lot of things actually, that others would never bother with. Today he thought about the strange appearance of the clouds on the horizon and now something else was drawing his attention…

   “Is it possible?” Tac said as they all stood there looking at the clock intently.

   The clock looked different today. It seemed sort of tired. Of course they were at the bottom of the hill but even from this distance it did look different.

  “Yeah, is it leaning just a bit?” Tic added. They all tilted their heads slightly.

  “Oh my!” added Toe as he placed his hand to his mouth.

  They all looked at one another for a moment and then agreed to go take a closer look. It took the three brothers some time to negotiate the many steps that led up to the Clock at the top. They had to catch their breath for a moment at the very last step and then examined the face of the Clock.

  It was impressive. The Clock was almost twice the height of Trimese and made of some exotic wood that he had never seen before.  It had intricate carvings on the surface of it in the front that seem to tell some sort of story. He had never noticed those from below, at the base of the steps or on the track. Maybe, he speculated, it even told the story of the history of Dreamsland itself.  Who knew he wondered? Trimese studied these carvings for a while because he had never been this close to it before. In fact, as he was standing there he realized he couldn’t ever remember anyone ever standing before it or looking at it. People just didn’t do that in Dreamsland.  Trimese stopped for a moment to watch the pendulum swing slowly back and forth. It seem to labor just a bit as it did. Then he looked up at the face of the old man in the clock above the pendulum. He couldn’t help notice how sad the face of the old man sort of looked, how tired he seemed.  And yes, the clock was indeed leaning forward just a bit.

  “Come on lets go.” “I know who to talk to” said Tac.

  “The professor right?” Toe looked over at him.

  “Yep, I’m glad I thought of it” said Tic, taking credit for the idea.

  As Trimese finally turned away from the clock he couldn’t help notice what an amazing view it was to see the entire little village laid out before him. The central garden was beautiful in the middle with its rainbow of colors and such and all the other little cottages that surrounded it with their own little gardens. Everywhere he could see the fine citizens working very hard, tolling away as each had his or her head buried in their endless efforts to produce the very best. 

  It was then that Trimese noticed two things that made the hairs on the back of his head stand to attention and the pit of his stomach to turn just a bit.