attractive today, if I may say so!), but I confess that I was in that
moment floored by the predicament in which I found myself. Here I was in a whole new world, & there on the horizon was Fairyland,
& yet people I did not even know were insisting on my kinship to the hideous one! This was a far cry from what I had planned, or would have planned, had I
been the architect of my own destiny!
âThere there, young lady. We are a highly-strung creature, to be sure!â he said, putting his arm around my shoulder in what
he may have hoped to be a fatherly way, but I shook him off roughly, & Fru Schleswigâs pawing hoof too, & remained in a dignified
state of silence (or âa ryte royle sulkeâ, as Fru S mutteringly referred to it) as Professor Krak led the way down a wide
bright-lit corridor to a cupboard-like room where he picked up a bag from which he pulled two enormous red blankets of a texture
I had never encountered before (which might have seduced me, had I not been in such a state, for soft as the fur on the belly
of a kitten they were, & as sweetly warm!), in which we wrapped ourselves before following him out, passing through an octagonal
room housing brass machines in glass cases, alongside globes & telescopes, & cogged contraptions whose purpose seemed to calibrate
or trap something. âThe museum,â murmured Professor Krak distractedly, & I spotted that he seemed hurried, & glanced nervously
about him all the while, as though he were trespassing & had no right there. (Which later of course I learned was indeed the
case, & he had only succeeded in gaining regular entrance through bribery, blackmail & extortion.) We exited through a back
door that led to what he called the Fire Escape &, once at ground level, walked some way in the oddly warm night air through
a wide, tree-filled field whose floor was littered with the bobbled seed-pods of the plane tree, as found on Strandboulevarden,
which I was glad to see for at least they looked familiar in this landscape, though my fur-lined boots were drenched, & they
squelched with water at each step. As we made our way across the mown grass of what seemed a sloping park, the humming, roaring
noise swelled out from the bright light-strings, which Professor Krak announced with pride were âcars, moving carriages powered
by a motor & fossil fuel. Welcome to the modern world, my dears, where the twenty-first century has dawned!â
The twenty-first century?! Lord, spare us! I thought, but said nothing, & merely pondered the Professorâs words as we tramped
on in silence through the dusk or dawn or whatever this half-light was in the shadow of the Tin City, for it seemed infected
& false, & clearly bore no relation to sun, moon or stars. He had knocked me down with a feather, of course, with this talk
of leaping more than a century forward in time. But on the other hand â well, although it was not entirely clear to me what
manner of a place this was in which we had landed up, I was beginning to surmise that we were in a world that existed invisibly,
& in another sphere to our own. Not an afterlife, so much as a side-stepping of death, a kind of cosmic cheat, or parallel,
or chimera which (if Professor Krak was to be believed) was taking place far into the unthinkably distant future. Well, so
be it, then! A dream it was! I would wake up soon & all would be well! And I would laugh at the whole absurd story over breakfast,
& perhaps even recount some of it to Fru Schleswig & make her spray the room with rundstykker crumbs as she in turn guffawed. But the dream did not end, & could not be escaped from so easily, & indeed it then most swiftly
turned nightmarish, for waiting at the black wrought-iron park entrance (which we scaled with the assistance of a ladder that
stood there, the gates themselves being padlocked shut) stood a shiny black carriage of iron, horseless, on four wheels, that
growled like a foul-tempered
moment floored by the predicament in which I found myself. Here I was in a whole new world, & there on the horizon was Fairyland,
& yet people I did not even know were insisting on my kinship to the hideous one! This was a far cry from what I had planned, or would have planned, had I
been the architect of my own destiny!
âThere there, young lady. We are a highly-strung creature, to be sure!â he said, putting his arm around my shoulder in what
he may have hoped to be a fatherly way, but I shook him off roughly, & Fru Schleswigâs pawing hoof too, & remained in a dignified
state of silence (or âa ryte royle sulkeâ, as Fru S mutteringly referred to it) as Professor Krak led the way down a wide
bright-lit corridor to a cupboard-like room where he picked up a bag from which he pulled two enormous red blankets of a texture
I had never encountered before (which might have seduced me, had I not been in such a state, for soft as the fur on the belly
of a kitten they were, & as sweetly warm!), in which we wrapped ourselves before following him out, passing through an octagonal
room housing brass machines in glass cases, alongside globes & telescopes, & cogged contraptions whose purpose seemed to calibrate
or trap something. âThe museum,â murmured Professor Krak distractedly, & I spotted that he seemed hurried, & glanced nervously
about him all the while, as though he were trespassing & had no right there. (Which later of course I learned was indeed the
case, & he had only succeeded in gaining regular entrance through bribery, blackmail & extortion.) We exited through a back
door that led to what he called the Fire Escape &, once at ground level, walked some way in the oddly warm night air through
a wide, tree-filled field whose floor was littered with the bobbled seed-pods of the plane tree, as found on Strandboulevarden,
which I was glad to see for at least they looked familiar in this landscape, though my fur-lined boots were drenched, & they
squelched with water at each step. As we made our way across the mown grass of what seemed a sloping park, the humming, roaring
noise swelled out from the bright light-strings, which Professor Krak announced with pride were âcars, moving carriages powered
by a motor & fossil fuel. Welcome to the modern world, my dears, where the twenty-first century has dawned!â
The twenty-first century?! Lord, spare us! I thought, but said nothing, & merely pondered the Professorâs words as we tramped
on in silence through the dusk or dawn or whatever this half-light was in the shadow of the Tin City, for it seemed infected
& false, & clearly bore no relation to sun, moon or stars. He had knocked me down with a feather, of course, with this talk
of leaping more than a century forward in time. But on the other hand â well, although it was not entirely clear to me what
manner of a place this was in which we had landed up, I was beginning to surmise that we were in a world that existed invisibly,
& in another sphere to our own. Not an afterlife, so much as a side-stepping of death, a kind of cosmic cheat, or parallel,
or chimera which (if Professor Krak was to be believed) was taking place far into the unthinkably distant future. Well, so
be it, then! A dream it was! I would wake up soon & all would be well! And I would laugh at the whole absurd story over breakfast,
& perhaps even recount some of it to Fru Schleswig & make her spray the room with rundstykker crumbs as she in turn guffawed. But the dream did not end, & could not be escaped from so easily, & indeed it then most swiftly
turned nightmarish, for waiting at the black wrought-iron park entrance (which we scaled with the assistance of a ladder that
stood there, the gates themselves being padlocked shut) stood a shiny black carriage of iron, horseless, on four wheels, that
growled like a foul-tempered
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