CHAPTER ONE
Chapter 1
A Split Second
“Ten…nine…eight…!”
Old Year Square shivered along with the folks of Graysland
as they counted down the final seconds of the fading
year. Frigid winds swirled and swished around the
heads and legs of the dozens and dozens who had arrived
in the square to greet the newest year. On that wind raced
herds of dead leaves that crunched and scraped along
the stones. It was Graysland, after all, and here the leaves
fell across all the months.
Rupert Dullz stood, his gaze fixed on the giant metal
bellberry leaf that sat atop the tall silver Yearling pole,
waiting for the countdown to finish. Around him stood
his parents, Polgus and Olga, and his grandma Folka,
who was bundled up in a brown coat and hat so thick
she looked like a bear.
“Seven…six…!”
The numbers shouted by the crowd sent clouds of
steam into the chill night air.
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Folka leaned close to Rupert and whispered, “Did you
make a wish for the New Year, sweetie?”
Rupert nodded and felt his face grow warm with a
blush. A very specific wish had been floating around his
head for the last few months. Ever since school began in
September, he had noticed a new girl in his sixth-grade
class. He wondered if she had noticed him.
It felt like an eternity since he had shared a first kiss
with Mynerla in the wondrous land of Far-Myst. He remembered
her often, and had wished he could meet another
girl who made him feel as special as she had.
This new girl in his class had a very unboring name
—Rainn, with two Ns and not just one old boring one.
Rainn Evertree. Rupert found it hard to put two words
together when she was close by. Even saying hello was
harder than reading an entire page from The History of Leaf
Cutters. Backwards!
If only she liked him as well. That was his wish.
He kept this wish tightly wrapped in his thoughts.
He gazed at the sky, patched with clouds and dabs of glistening
stars.
“Five….four…!”
Rupert had experienced great adventure in the wondrous
lands of Far-Myst and My-Myst. He had even had
the chance to see what his boring town of Graysland had
been like in the old days when it was not so boring. That
was six months ago, when he’d stepped through Pie O’Sky’s
door from old Grayslandville then returned home and
celebrated the Winter Joy holiday with his family for the
first time.
“The Big Leaf Countdown”, as it was called, was one
of the few unboring things that happened in Graysland.
He didn’t think his best friend Squeem was boring, either,
and sent a friendly wave to him across the square, where
he stood with his mom and dad.
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“Three…!”
Rupert’s heart raced as pulleys creaked on thick ropes
and the leaf, cut from a large sheet of green metal, began
to lower. The squeaky wheels sent a flock of pigeons into
the air, their fluttering wings making fwap! fwap! sounds.
Across the square, Rupert spotted Rainn, in a black
capelike coat, a gray woolen hat pulled down low to cover
half of her eyes, and a black scarf wrapped tightly around
her mouth. Strands of her hair, which shimmered with
streaks of brilliant electric blue, hung from beneath her
cap.
Rupert thought her hair was so unboring. He had never
seen anyone in Graysland with hair of such color. Everyone
else’s was the usual, boring old hair colors. He repeated
his wish to himself. Then, he noticed she was looking
at the sky, and glanced up.
A pitch-black shadow, like that of a giant bird, pushed
the clouds aside like a rude man through a crowd. Oddly,
stars were not revealed. Instead, strange swirling colors,
like motor oil on the surface of a puddle, shimmered.
What the heck is that? Rupert wondered. He turned to
ask his father, who was cuddling close to Olga to keep
warm.
“Two….O—!” cried the excited crowd.
Something very unexpected happened.
Everything stopped. The metal leaf froze in place less
than a foot from the ground. The clouds of visible breath
from the gathered residents no longer floated and vanished
like ghostly vapor. Instead, it became like a solid
mass of thin milk. The pigeons hung in the air like ornaments
strung across a line.
All sounds froze, a silence so deep it hurt Rupert’s
ears like an explosion of quiet. Only one thing moved—
the colors in the sky began swirling like living rainbows
all over the square. In that tornado of color, there was a
rush of brilliant light and sound.
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Then, with a swoosh that vibrated his body, the multicolored
winds vanished back into the sky. Silence returned.
Rupert tried to look up to see if it was truly all over
but discovered he couldn’t. He could not move his head,
or his arms and legs. He could not even shift his eyes about
the square. The dozens and dozens of townsfolk were like
frozen mannequins. As were the pigeons.
The only thing that was moving and spinning freely
were his thoughts. His mind still worked.
This was good.
Rupert tried to think what could have possibly caused
this situation. Had a really super-duper cold wind blown
through and freeze everyone?
Nah.
Or maybe his thoughts had been so focused on Rainn
that it affected how he was seeing the real world. Maybe
it was like time was standing still.
No. That didn’t seem like the answer, either.
What is going on?
In his field of vision, the sight of the pigeons floating
in the air, wings spread, filled him with wonder.
I can’t imagine how birds could just hang in the air without
flapping their wings.
Imagine! That was the answer.
Rupert’s mind sizzled with sudden excitement. If I can’t
imagine why this happened maybe I can Imagine a way to stop
it.
It had been some time since he used his Imagining
abilities, but he knew the first step was to make his mind
as quiet as a library. He needed to shush out all the negative
and scary thoughts. He thought about how peaceful
the Garden of Dreams was during his journey to the
wondrous land of Far-Myst. He recalled the feeling of
the warm campfire, and the still night air, and the comforting
songs of night birds, and funny, glowing insects.
4
He felt a smile form. Maybe not on his lips, but in
his brain.
Then, Rupert had the image of a clock in his head, like
the one over Mrs. Stonelaughter’s desk at school. The clock
that seemed to take forever and a day to reach 2:57—the
greatest time, when school was over. Sometimes he thought
the clock was broken, stuck, its gear gunked up by dust
and grease.
Maybe that was what had happened in Graysland. Perhaps
there’s some giant, unseen clock that makes days become
nights and nights turn into mornings. Maybe, just maybe,
that clock was gunked up.
How could it be ungunked?
Anyway, Rupert thought. Where is it? How can I clean
the gears of a clock I can’t see?
He would need a special viewing glass to see it.
He figured if he could Imagine that special clock then
why not Imagine a way to see it? The glass must be able
to move on its own, since his arms were frozen at his sides.
It would have little wings, and fly across the square, and
settle on the bridge of his nose like his dad’s reading glasses.
It would have feathers. Purple feathers on a golden
frame.
Yes! Rupert could see such a pair of eyeglasses.
A sound whispered in the solid silence. Tiny pops of
cracking air. And there, across the cobblestone road, was
an object hovering in the air like a purple bird. Flecks of
light struck off gold and glass.
It worked!
The object of his Imagining was approaching, and as
it drew closer and clearer, Rupert felt hope in his heart.
The flying glasses settled on his nose, and through the two
crystal-clear lenses, he was able to see the ghostly shapes
of gears, a multitude of toothy wheels, hanging in the air
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before him. One of the gears had a gap, just as Rupert had
when he’d lost his first baby tooth.
A missing tooth! I just need to imagine a new one.
He brought into his Imagining a seed. A gear-tooth
seed. He Imagined planting the seed in the empty slot.
With a little splash of Imaginary water it would grow a
new tooth, and the gears would move again.
A little sprout of silver popped up; and in seconds,
the missing tooth was back, and the gear wheels began
to turn, and…
Everything went dark. The gears, the glass lenses, the
golden frame, and the purple wings all vanished. The entire
town square was nothing but black.
Then, Rupert realized his eyelids were closed, and
he gave them the command to open. And they did. And
the town was back.
But everyone was still stuck in place like statues. Even
the flock of pigeons.
Rupert turned his head and saw his grandma, her
smiling face, with its busy roadmap of wrinkles, fixed and
frozen.
Wait! He had moved his head! He tried his hands, and
soon had his fingers flexing before his face. He took a
step. Then another. He had freed himself!
His stomach sank as he looked at his parents, Squeem,
and the gathered crowd. The town square was still as motionless
as a frozen river. He stepped up to the New Year’s
Leaf and brushed its cold, smooth surface with his fingers.
It was a mere foot off the ground. A single second from
bringing in a new year.
“Weird,” Rupert whispered.
“Really weird,” someone said.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Since his childhood
Mike Di Certo
has always harvested his work from the abundant crop of his
imagination. From the wild and hilarious Rock and Roll space adventure Milky Way Marmalade, to the child-like wonder of his middle grade series, The Adventures of Rupert Starbright
(The Door to Far-Myst, The Secret of My-Myst and The Ghosts of Winter
Joy) Michael's passions play out on the pages. His love of animals, his
family, gardening, travel, movies, VR, history, Yoga, reading and music
guide and influence his life and his writing.His latest book is the middle grade fantasy novel, A Nick of Time.
Visit his website at www.ruperstarbright.com or connect with him on Twitter and Facebook.
