* * *
Dulora was sleeping underneath her favorite wool blanket. She was dreaming again. Outside her floating room, snow was quietly falling.
* * *
It was seven o’clock in the morning. In another hour her alarm clock would begin to ring. Moments before she closed her eyes and fell asleep every night, Dulora would always force herself to think of better tomorrows, because of what her parents told her when she was really little, “Better to hope for impossible tomorrows than to live with the hurt and ghosts of the past.”
And every morning she would wake up like all the times before with the warm sun on her face. But lately, it was taking longer and longer for her to fall asleep, and today wasn’t any other day. For the first time last night, she forgot what her parents told her about impossible tomorrows. Today, there was a good chance Dulora would never wake up from her sleep again.
* * *
The second hand on Dulora’s alarm clock was eleven seconds away from striking eight when it suddenly stopped. Not long after, cracks started appearing everywhere, while Dulora disappeared from her room. And then, and all at the same time,
* * *
the moon crashed into the sun. Waterfalls reversed and melted snow slowly started dripping up from broken window panes. Hummingbirds started to eerily glow. Under endless aurora skies, clouds burst into fire. Tornadoes touched the horizon, as tea cups, toads, and whales fell from the sky.
* * *
Finding herself standing in a meadow of violet flowers after a moment of reverie, Dulora saw Black Mountain far off in the distance. For a moment her mind was blank. She was beginning to panic when she remembered Farrah telling her she was going to wait for her on top of Black Mountain. She began to worry. She remembered the rumors about Black Mountain.
Dulora turned around and felt the rays of the perpetual sunrise on her face. She thought of her life back home. If she left now toward the perpetual light, she could still make it back home to wake up, but if she went to Black Mountain to meet up with Farrah, she knew she might never return again.
* * *
Surrounded by an eerie silence, she closed her eyes and concentrated on her memories of Farrah. She remembered the time Farrah stood up for her one day after school when she could have looked the other way. Opening up her black and bruised eyes again, Dulora decided to go to Black Mountain.
* * *
As she was walking, Dulora thought about Farrah’s decision to go to Black Mountain. Farrah knew about the dangers. “Why would Farrah go to Black Mountain when she knew she wasn’t supposed to,” Dulora questioned herself. Frustrated because of the cracks in her memory, she began wondering why she was having such a hard time remembering.
After a while of being lost in her thoughts, Dulora noticed that she was walking past the same strange tree time and time again. She stopped and stared at the tree, which was covered in spider webs and upside down raindrops. A frayed noose was hanging from one of its branches.
* * *
“Hello, Mr. Tree. Why do I keep seeing you,” Dulora finally asked, hesitantly.
The tree didn’t reply.
* * *
“If you don’t answer me, I’ll climb on you,” Dulora said angrily, after a long silence.
“Oh no you won’t,” the tree quickly replied.
Startled with curiosity, Dulora approached closer.
* * *
“You better not go to Black Mountain. You forget more than you choose to remember,” the tree whispered.
“What are you talking about,” Dulora said with her hands on her hips. “And why do I keep seeing you?”
Starting to shake and screech, with red raindrops whirling off into the sky, the tree shouted, “Go home! Or wouldn’t you like to go around one more time pretending you never noticed?”
* * *
Becoming frightened and dizzy with vertigo, Dulora stumbled back into a puddle of water. She looked down at the water and saw violent ripples. When they stopped she saw one of many reflections. She felt her heart sink.
“Why don’t you jump before it’s too late?”
She turned around and ran with tears in her eyes. Dulora ran and ran until she collapsed near a raging river.
* * *
Exhausted, Dulora cried thinking about the reflections. She wished she had never met Farrah.
* * *
Dulora noticed an unusual change in the light above her when she woke up.
“Answer my riddle my dear, and I’ll help you to the other side of the river.”
Dulora stood up and brushed the grass off her grey dress. She turned around and instantly cried out in fear.
“Answer my riddle or I’ll eat you alive until there’s nothing left of you, my dear.”
* * *
“Get away from me,” she screamed out hysterically. The creature did the exact opposite. Dulora felt its breath.
“Answer my riddle!”
* * *
Dulora didn’t answer. Instead, she fainted, as these words were whispered in her ear, “Sleep my dearest Dulora, and dream of your many tomorrows.”
* * *
Moments later, Dulora sat up and rubbed her eyes.
“Where am I?,” Dulora asked herself, as she stood up.
* * *
Dulora found herself in a tower high above a painted desert. The air was heavy with smoke. She heard explosions and angry voices outside. They were getting closer.
Afraid and with nowhere else to go, the thought crossed her mind, maybe she better jump out of the window before it was too late.
* * *
Instead, Dulora closed her eyes and concentrated on her only friend Farrah. While more bombs fell from the sky and the vaulted ceiling above her began ripping open with fire, she imagined Farrah waiting for her by the broken mirror.
* * *
“You’re back my dear!”
Dulora didn’t reply. Thick smoke surrounded her.
“Answer my riddle and I’ll help you get to the precipice.”
* * *
“After being away a really long long time, why did French Fry go over to visit with Ketchup?”
* * *
“They had a lot of catching up to do,” Dulora said puzzled, hazily remembering Ursus.
“Do you remember me Dulora?”
Dulora slightly shook her head and turned around. The smoke was beginning to clear.
* * *
Realizing too late that she turned around onto a tight wire that was suspended high above the river, Dulora soon lost her balance and fell.
As the river carried her way, she held her breath and thought about the first time she met Farrah: on the snowy meadow, as they were both walking to their first day of school. And gently, like a cool summer breeze, she slowly blacked out.
* * *
When she woke up again, she was covered in seaweed, the Capita Mortua. Dulora was floating in the Merced. The clouds above her were covered with electricity.
* * *
She held her breath, as a violent wave crashed over her. She somersaulted a couple of times before another wave hit, leaving her gasping for air. And just as she blacked out again, eternity kindly reached for her and carried her to the end.
* * *
Waking up sore and finding herself covered in ice, Dulora stared out from the precipice.
* * *
Dulora shook the ice off herself, as she tilted her head towards the sky. Ash and embers were falling. Dulora’s heart suddenly stopped because she could see the Ephemeral. Black Mountain was suspended high above her in the starry sky.
* * *
Dulora looked down and thought about her life back home. She didn’t want to return without Farrah. She bent over and picked up a handful of sand. The sand glittered in the twilight.
* * *
The sand slowly fell from her hand as she began to rise.
* * *
One by one, the stars around Dulora began to disappear. She watched them slowly vanish until there was only one. Feeling her feet touch the ground, Dulora started walking up toward the light. Her memories began to return with every step.
* * *
Finding herself back in the impossible garden of ideas and love, she approached the light and saw that it was a flickering candle. Slowly, a figure appeared out of the light.
Dulora rushed to her friend and hugged her.
* * *
They both visited with each other for what seemed an eternity, then Farrah handed the candle over to Dulora. They held hands as they began to rise higher and higher, both remembering their friendship and the perpetual sunrises of better tomorrows.
And the strange light from the candle began to get stronger and stronger, and widening cracks reappeared everywhere around them.
* * *
The sun slowly moving across the endless horizon, suddenly stopped, as Farrah opened up the stuck window and called out to Dulora. Dulora woke up and jumped out of bed.
They both ran out to the mirror’s edge and felt the warm sun. Dulora and Farrah smiled at each other.
