Ellipse

Chapter three

A sharp high pitched ringing woke Roland up, it was Monroe's clock, 'perhaps if I just stay in bed he'll turn it off,' he thought. But Monroe did not turn it off, and it kept it's annoying pace like a thousand angry bees swarming around. "Harris's frogs!" he cursed as he rolled out of bed and tried to find the clock. He found it behind the desk, where it had apparently been knocked off the night before. In its place there was a strange looking machine that Monroe had built, it looked just like the designs on the blueprints, yet much smaller than Roland had thought, and a bit more three dimensional. He leaned over and picked up the clock, Monroe made the clock, and was the only person who knew how to turn it off. There was not enough room in their bedroom for two beds, so they both agreed on hanging up a hammock over the first one. Roland got the bed, but that was only because he had won a bet. Now Monroe was asleep in the hammock, appearing as an obscure looking cocoon. Roland threw the clock up into the hammock, there was a CRACK and an, "oof!" and the clock kept ringing.
"oh so now you want to sleep?" he said, and stomped into the kitchen angrily. He stood by the stove and looked out the window, the red tiled roofs where gleaming a bright orange in the sunrise. He put a pot of water on the stove top, and then pulled on a cord attached to the oven. The cord caused the motion box to move the ellipse, and as it shook the ellipse became hotter, and hotter, until the stovetop caused the water to boil. Roland then made his coffee and toast.
He opened the door letting in a cool March breeze, and walked outside. There was a chorus of loud buzzings as messages shot through the web-like message machine. The message machine was just one part of the odd postal service in Askew. It was very large, and extremely complicated. And covered the city like a broken umbrella. The ringing from inside finally stopped, as Monroe woke to turn the clock off. Roland leaned over the railing to look at the street below, there was that old man who walked on the street every morning, he looked up and waved at Roland, Roland waved back.
"Roland," said Monroe from the kitchen, "you're toast is about to burn."
"Can you take it off?" asked Roland.
"Not now, I'm a bit busy."
Roland turned towards the kitchen, in one hand Monroe was trying to examine the machine he had made, while in the other he was trying to drink his coffee. Roland's toast began to smoke from the oven, he ran in to save it. The oven apparently had become too hot, and a harsh grimey smell filled the kitchen. "Bloody stupid-," cursed Roland as he knocked his toast off the oven and onto the counter.
"What do you have planned today then Roland? Besides getting angry at toast."
Roland sat down and opened the sticky honey jar, "the Professor told me that I didn't have to come in this morning. I told you last night,"
"You did? I don't think I was listening," said Monroe, "I think we should take a walk out to see the ocean on such a beautiful day as this."
"No," Roland replied chewing his toast, "I have a lot of things to be studying right now, I'm going to have to spend the morning reading."
"But you spend every morning reading, some fresh air would do you good."
"No," Roland said again.
"Alright then," Monroe said and drained the last bit of his coffee, "suit yourself." He wandered into the bedroom, leaving Roland to finish his breakfast. A few minutes later he came back in, well dressed as he always was, with his bowler hat in one hand. He turned to look at a blank part of the wall, "where's the mirror?" he asked.
"Look down," said Roland, Monroe looked down to see the mirror sitting propped up against the wall, turned away from the rest of the room.
"Why do you always do that?" Monroe asked, Roland watched as he put it back in its place on the wall. "I don't like it there," he said. Monroe put his hat on, and straightened it, looking in the reflection. "Well," he said, "I don't know why you can't just move it to another place, instead of placing it on the ground where it could get broken." and then he stepped towards the door, that Roland had left open, he then stopped and looked down at the place where the man stood. He had seen a lot of weird people in the last two years of living there, but there was something off setting about the man from the night before.
"You really should come out," he said, "you spend half your time in Winningham's dusty laboratory, and the other half in our dusty apartment; if you're not careful, you might become dusty yourself. I can't possibly assume that someone, at such a young age, should be cooped up all the time as you and be healthy."
Roland shook his head, and Monroe began his walk down the stairs. Roland sat at the table in silence, finishing his breakfast. He didn't care if he was dusty. A small chilly breeze drifted into the room through the open door, and he shivered a bit. He didn't want to, and he told himself not to, but Roland looked at the mirror. He could see the reflection of himself slouching at the table, with his disheveled hair, and tired morning face. But that was not why he did not want to look into the mirror, for as he looked, there was a dull image behind him. A dull image that was not in the mirror, nor was it outside the mirror. It was a faint face, with faint eyes, and a faint nose, and it was behind him, just faintly moving. Roland shivered again, but this time not because of the breeze that blew through the door. He stood up and took his eyes off of the mirror, rubbed them and looked at it again. Still there. He walked over to it and took it off the wall, he then put it back on the ground where Monroe had just removed it. There was nothing behind him, and even when he looked he saw nothing. He turned the mirror back to its position, where it was facing the wall.
He then ran towards the door out to the platform outside, "Monroe!" he shouted looking down, Monroe's head appeared from three platforms down, "yes," he said, holding on to his hat to keep it from falling off his head. "Wait for me, I've changed my mind."
"brilliant," Monroe said back in reply.