18. Hiatus

'I can never quite understand,' he began slowly enough at first as if the reason he was talking at first was to test if he had any voice left. 'I don't think I would ever understand what's inside of your head,' he said as she turned to look at him.

'Oh, but you wouldn't want that,' she smiled upon his confusion and his breath hitched at the ethereal beauty piercing his sheer eyes. Have beauty been more tragic than this, he thought to himself. Of course it had, don't be daft, came the uninvited voice inside him.

'Why is that?' he asked as he struggled to clear his rusty voice. How long had the box been abandoned, he implored every inch of his being to not fail him now and with every silent words uttered came a reply he did not like very much, Long enough, sir, and he knew it was his fault after all.

'Oh, simply because I am mad,' she declared as if it was not at all peculiar thing on earth. She got up from her seat and dusted her gown so and with a hum she made her way towards him, one of her hand was not visible to the view, hidden by lofty of her gown ruffle. 'But you know,' she tiptoed closer to him as if she was letting on a secret she had sold her soul to not to tell another soul, 'You are supposedly mad, too,' she came down on her heels and handed him a stalk of rose. She skidded away past him without a care if he should follow her or not.

'Supposed so,' he said as he trailed behind her. 'How did you know?'

'There's a hint of golden cloud I can always see around you,' she told him like it was the most natural thing in the world and gave him a look that questioned his knowledge of the life.

'Really, now?' he asked dubiously. Curioser and curiouser, he thought. Had he finally fallen into a rabbit hole and was trapped in a wonderland much like Alice?

'Why, there it is again!' she said pointedly at him, as she saw the torn indifference and mustered up curiosity in him, she paused and told him, 'Or mayhaps, it wasn't madness that I saw,' a small smile of sadness began to pierce from her orbs. 'Maybe it was hiatus,' she suggested before adding, 'But you have to be mad to be on hiatus, anyway. That makes you mad either way, don't you think?'

Just like that, everything made sense.