When time stands still.
A little flight of fancy. Sort of AU, but not really.
You've all heard the stories about time standing still; perhaps a someone finds a hole in a barrow, or drinks too much beer with the skittle playing mountain men or falls asleep in a fairy circle, to wake days or years later, an old man with a foot-long beard. Sometimes it is an evil sorceress who casts a spell of sleep over an innocent maid who can only be aroused by her one true love (imagine the poor girl's terror at being woken by a stranger and then be expected to marry him!)) Perhaps our unlucky hero is forced to relive the same dreary holiday over and over for eons until he learns to change his behaviour and outlook on life. Or maybe a child steps through a cupboard and lands in a different world filled with magical critters and when they finally find their way home a lifetime later, they become a child again. Frankly I always thought that story rather evil, to go through an entire life, adolescence, puberty, adulthood with family and children and finally old age, only to return, lose all you have loved and worked for and need repeat it all over again but without magical creatures to help you.
So, let me tell you about a man, his wife and the day time stopped. There are places in this world where time never seems to progress, to always be in that half-life between then and now. Ballarat is such a place, and this was the home of the man and his wife.
The man was a Good Man and a Doctor. He had his faults, true; liked to drink a tad too much and was prone to impulsiveness and he had a tragic past. Still, he was a Good Man all the same. He liked to Find Things Out and this often led him into trouble. But he was lucky to have married his wife, who was a Good Woman and knew how to manage the impulsive Doctor. She also Knew Things to help him when he was Finding Things Out, things that most people had missed or thought inconsequential.
It had taken this Good Man (whose name was Lucien) and this Good Woman (who was known as Jean) several years of trials and tribulations to find each other. But after many years of strife and misunderstandings they had at last been able to begin their Happy Ever After together.
There has been some speculation that this Happy Ending was the reason time stopped. Something to do with a cancellation in the cosmos of the story line for Lucien and Jean. Another theory is that the Happy Ever After wasn't a true reflection of the underlying reality of life in Ballart. There have been ugly rumours and accusations thrown about claiming that Lucien was not the Good Man that we were led to believe, and consequently Jean could not be the Good Woman we thought her if she supported him.
But neither of these are the truth of why time has frozen for Lucien and Jean.
It was, in fact, late on a hot summer night when the world and the cosmos aligned, dreams became real and wishes reality.
Entwined in each other's arms, Jean and Lucien were unaware of the cosmic dance playing out in the night sky as they slept. The moon had risen so bright and large if you had seen it you would have thought you could reach up and pull it out of the heavens and put it in your pocket. It was the Blue Moon, a moonbeam splashed across the sleeper's faces and Jean stirred slightly in her slumber.
The cool light flooded the garden illuminating the blossoms of the Crepe Myrtle tree making them glow like hot pink flames. High in the sky, the Flying Foxes had taken wing and were dancing in the air. Tiny gems of sparkling stars stood out in the clear midnight sky. A Magpie woke in the bright glimmer and began to sing.
Jean and Lucien woke to the sounds of the Magpie carolling, and they turned as one to each other, smiled, and embraced.
'I have waited for you So Long,' murmured Lucien into Jean's ears.
'You are my One True Love' whispered Jean back.
Gently, with leisurely grace they began to make love to the music of the magpie's song. Totally absorbed in giving and taking, being within and moving together, Jean and Lucien existed in a world of their own not noticing that the moon outside had begun to dim.
At the apex of their pleasure, the moon also reached the climax of its eclipse and turned Blood Red.
Spent and satiated, Jean and Lucien held each other close.
'If only this moment would last forever' sighed Jean to Lucien softly.
'And all our tomorrows were today' answered Lucien back.
And the Blood Moon heard them. Revelling in its power as a Super Blue Blood Moon, that most rare and magical of earthly and cosmic events, the Moon granted Jean and Lucien their wish and Stopped Time for them.
So sweet reader, do not fret, the Good Man and his Good Woman will forever be held still in time at this moment, their happiness finally complete and never ending. No termination of a story nor foul rumour can ever alter this Happily Ever After.
Believe in the Happy Ending and may Time and the Moon always treat you kindly.
….
Wild
ps. I think I will leave this here as a 'stand alone', however, if I think of a continuation...watch this space.