Fugue in Uncommon Time

When Theodore awoke, all he knew was that this was definitely not home. But while this thought was unsettling and whelmed up in him a most tremulous fear, he was at the same time mystified by the place in which he found himself.
He was in a park not unlike the one back home, with verdant trees stretching and spreading their trunks, branches, twigs, tines and leaves into the brilliant sun overhead - for it was daytime here - as if grasping for and receiving life from the sky. The trees were just dense enough to obscure any obvious exit, so one felt as if the park might be unbounded in its largeness.

A few unusual sights drew Theodore's attention away from the gentle rustling of the trees: a bubbling spring which flowed under a broad, white bridge; an enormous fountain that seemed to be cast of gold with two marble dolphins perched atop it, spitting water into the basin below; and a gaunt figure dressed all in black, standing near the bridge.

The man seemed to exist outside of time itself. His narrow top hat was kinked about midway up, like a stovepipe bent to make its way out of a tight spot among trusses. His coattails were extravagant, coming to two obscenely sharp points a few feet behind his tattered black leather boots. His hair was cropped above his ears and was white as platinum, and his eyes were dark pools of lavender squinting in the itinerant light of the glade. He could have been eighty years old. He could have been eight thousand years old.

His mouth was as slender as a shim, but when he spoke, his voice seemed to fill Theodore with its mellow baritone timbre.

"Gustave," he introduced himself as he approached, seeming not to have a gait as much as a glide. His eyes remained fixed, curious but not impetuous, and he waited patiently for Theodore to absorb these new surroundings. "Welcome to the Kingdom."

Theodore remembered the onset of sudden illness what could have been moments or ages ago, and contrasted it with his present nervousness and wonder. Deciding he preferred the latter, and being insatiably curious, he decided he'd best on with introductions so that he might learn more about his new acquaintance.

"Theodore," he replied. "But what is the kingdom?"

"The kingdom is everything you can see, and much that you can not. In every direction, there is unified dominion, though, let's not get too ahead of ourselves. How do you suppose you came to this particular spot at this particular time?"
Theodore immediately cued on an unspoken suggestion that Gustave might know a great deal more about just how Theodore had come here, but he decided to make his best attempt at explaining himself.

"The last thing I recall is arriving home..."

"But did you in fact arrive at home," asked Gustave, "or did you find your arrival cut short, blended as it were into another arrival, and a simultaneous departure?"

"I can't say I'd thought of all that, but I suppose that's how it must be, since we can't very well get anywhere without leaving everywhere else behind."

"An important realization, and one that will serve you well in your time here, however long you stay."

Theodore had not until this moment considered just how long he would stay in this "kingdom," had, in fact, no idea how he might leave, escape, turn this very arrival into another departure. This was likely because it was somewhat frightful to think that it might be the case that he was not capable of leaving, for it certainly seemed he had not exercised any of his willpower to get here. His eyes darted, torn between haunting newness and the instinct to seek the familiar. The trees were not so green and outgoing as they had seemed just a few minutes ago. In fact, they had developed a distinct shade of blue about their edges, seeping inward on each leaf until the trees nearest the conversing pair had begun to sag with a full midnight blue of desperation and confusion.

Seeing this vexation creep over Theodore, not to mention the trees, Gustave made an effort to ease these concerns by showing just what the area had to offer to Theodore's appetite for amusement and edification.

"I've got someone I'd very much like you to meet," he said. I think he'll be able to further your knowledge, maybe even put your mind at ease. Theodore felt that he would be better off at least learning about his surroundings, and so agreed to go along with little hesitation. The trees around Theodore had already begun to return to their healthy, vibrant, skyward mood, shaking off their navy blues and unfurling to their full heights.

"The trees..." said Theodore.

"Yes, I should have mentioned how sensitive they are. You see, this forest you have found yourself in is called the Forest of Emotion because the trees take on the overwhelming emotions of certain kinds of people."

"What kinds of people?"

"Special kinds. You'll know much more very shortly."

They had walked some distance in the forested park when Gustave began slowing his pace, as if expecting to soon encounter something along their path. He was drifting along at a mere adagio, Theodore at his side having to take a couple of long steps to each of Gustave's strides, when around a bend, the trees seemed to clear somewhat, and a rather horrific thing came into view.

Dozens of feet long, ungainly, coiled upon itself so that it may well not have had a beginning or an end, was the largest, and most oddly-colored snake Theodore had ever seen. Garden snakes were not uncommon in the city park, but the girth and bulk of this monstrosity sent chills down Theodore's spine. The pair came to a halt. Theodore shrank behind Gustave's coattails. Peering back over his shoulder into the thicker forest, Theodore saw the trees at the perimeter taking on an aubergine tint, mirroring the coldness of his fear.

"Don't fear...," said a voice that seemed to come from inside Theodore's head. The voice was a whisper, or rather, the voice was myriad whispers, all superimposed into a single voice that could have belonged to Time itself. A single voice resolved from the legion and spoke with a high-pitched tremolo. It was less frightening than the cacophonous league of voices, but retained an air of otherworldliness, and Theodore cringed from the words that seemed to ooze coldly inside his brain. "You are," it intoned, "for the moment, safe."

Theodore mustered the courage to take another glimpse around Gustave at the creature and saw that rather than scales, this snake's skin was made up of interlocking Paisley droplets, mostly of shades of red, blue, and violet. What seemed to be its head turned toward Theodore, and two massive emerald eyes appeared from the swirling pattern of its scales. It rested its gaze on Theodore and Gustave for a moment before speaking. This time, it addressed them both, and the voices danced through the sparse trees and back again, creating the illusion that they were being spoken to from all around.

"Time is now, time is never. Time is fleeting, is forever. Time will change and time remains. Time binds and...time breaks our chains." The emerald eyes danced with the sparkling sunlight, and Theodore thought for a moment a verdant flame rose up just behind their surface, but the thought quickly subsided as he pondered the words of the giant snake.

When it seemed he would not speak again until addressed, Theodore asked, "What is this place?"

The snake spoke, "This, my friend, is... the Kingdom, unbounded dominion of Tsar Kazim, and land of all wonders great and sundry."

Accepting this as satisfactory for a moment, Theodore then inquired, "And what are you?"

"I am the Serpenteel, gatekeeper of the Kingdom and judge of worthiness. I am what every Serpent would be if he could first give up his selfish notions of unlimited grandeur - nothing less."

Feeling a test coming on, Theodore asked, "Am I worthy?"

"We will come to that without undue delay, but first I must ask why you are here."

"Well, I don't know. I only just got here - I'm not even completely sure where "here" is - and I definitely didn't come here because I wanted to..."

"Sometimes our motivations are only clear after further reflection. I believe your companion may have something to share with us, since it is only a rare occasion on which I see him."

Gustave, who had been watching the exchange for some time without interjecting, said, "I believe it is time."

Theodore, weary from all this discussion of time mumbled, "So much 'time'..."

"No!" said the Serpenteel and Gustave at once. "So little time!"

This rebuke roused such suspicion and fear in Theodore that he thought for a moment about turning and running, but he found his feet fixed to the ground, found his voice stuck in his throat, his eyes locked on those of the Serpenteel. "What is this?" he asked inside his head. A single dark red leaf, shriveled and dead, brushed by his paralyzed shoulder on its way to the ground.

The single, trembling voice answered, "You have nothing to fear, but the responsibilities you will take on are enormous... We fear for our well-being, and the well-being of everyone in this Kingdom... forgive us if our concern frightens you, but know that our fright concerns you. Now, a question..."

Theodore felt his stiff ankles loosen, and he let a deep sigh escape his throat.

"What's the question?" he said aloud.

The Serpentile answered aloud, "What creature walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs in the evening?"

Theodore, being well-schooled despite his humble living condition, answered immediately, "It's an analogy for man. Babies crawl on all-fours when they're born, we walk upright when we grow older, and when we're elderly, we walk with a cane." Theodore took the golden yellow of the forest canopy to be reflections of his triumph and felt a bit warmer, his blood flowing a bit more freely to his extremities. He thought of his Grandfather Theo, who had a walking cane in the shape of a rigid snake with garnet eyes.

"Well-answered. Now, something you're not likely to have heard before. What is at the same time found at our center and all around us?"

Theodore pondered the question for a few minutes, considering what could be so common as to be found most everywhere and, particularly, inside us. He inhaled the cool air in the glade. He felt the breath expand his lungs. Then he exhaled with a start — "Air!"

The Serpenteel's green eyes narrowed slightly, considering the reply. "When you are punched in the stomach, you are said to 'double over'..."

Theo groaned, not only because the feeling was all-too familiar, but because he had realized his answer was wrong. The trees had transformed from their lovely golden color back to their neutral green. "You mean our lungs aren't really our center, our guts are."

"Basically, but it's a good start. Think instead about another analogy you might draw..."

Theodore crafted a mental image of a girl doing a cartwheel, spinning about her center of gravity, and thought about what else might look like that, while having something essential both in the middle, and all around. He contemplated a lazy susan, thought about a pinwheel, a bicycle wheel. You could find the middle of everything by spinning it and seeing which part remained most stationary... He looked up at the sun, thought about the solar system and its spin, too. Thought about how the North Star stayed in the same place... Imagined the North Star through the beginnings of the sunset, through the green leaves above, saw the fringes of a few of them starting to take on the triumphant yellow color once more...

The sun. The center of the solar system, and at the same time just one in a sea of...

"Stars."

"You are, I believe, worthy indeed," said the Serpenteel. At this declaration, the entirety of the forest shuddered. Rather than stay a particular shade, the leaves of the trees shimmered in the rapidly setting sun. They shifted iridescently through every shade of the rainbow and bent low toward the Serpenteel until his paisley pattern merged with their rustling forms. In an instant, he had become invisible, but his thousand voices still lingered in the forest singing,

"This bar of merit, who can pass? / This velvet cord of chance? / The Forest resonates anew: / A hope, a cause for dance. / No single one could claim to know / exactly how I feel. / Let's just say / it pays in certain ways / to be the Paisley Serpenteel..."

"But I don't even know who I must see about this mess," thought Theodore.

"You will find him, I'm sure, for this entire land is under his eye, and he takes pains to acquaint himself with all who wander through. Now, be courageous..." And then the single trembling voice subsided and Theodore felt the rainbow sparks of the Serpenteel's departure sputter and extinguish.

It was now dark indeed in the Forest, and Theodore and Gustave traveled only by the light of the stars. It was impossible to say how far they might have gone, but the forest had thinned behind them, and now they had reached its edge. They could see the expanse of a vast plain before them, interrupted by many enormous, inert, convoluted shadows. It was at the Forest's edge they met someone, or rather, someones, else to give them further aid.