2      Jack's Dream

Jack dreams he is kidnapped like Dan

 The old woman spoke to him like she spoke to Dan 

Art: Donata

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Jack did not know he was asleep until the beautiful lady touched him. A roar filled his ears, like cars on a busy road. Tower Hill Park rushed away. Streets of houses blurred to trees and fields. Towns and rivers dashed past in frightful motion.

Jack was not moving. He stayed perfectly still while the whole mad world raced by. Crossing a marsh, he shut his eyes as a flock of birds took to the air. When he finally looked, the birds were gone. They had flown through him and the lady as if they were in an entirely different world.

The roar in his ears stopped. Everything lurched to a sickening halt. They were on top of a low hill ringed by tall stones. Away through the treetops he saw the imposing roof of a big old house.

“Where are we?”

“Elphame, your home.” Her voice rang with the tinkling of a thousand silver bells.

“It’s not my home. I’m not Thomas. It’s not Dan’s home either. You’re mixing him up with someone!” Jack started to cry, bitter tears of frustration and fear.

She touched his tears with a touch light as thistledown on the summer breeze. “Poor Thomas, be not afraid for you are with your pretty maid, nevermore to wonder far from this loving eye or heart.”

Grabbing him with an iron grip, she dragged Jack towards the dark unfriendly trees, full of shadows like something from a horror film.

Jack Hughes & Thomas the Rhymer

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