Chapter 5

By the time Hans and Millie returned from the mountains, the afternoon had softened into evening.

The Grand Bazaar grounds looked almost strangely peaceful without hundreds of customers filling the paths. Empty stalls stood beneath their awnings, their counters cleared and waiting for the next Saturday when Zephyr Town would once again become one of the busiest places in the region. Hans and Millie walked past them toward the railway station, their pace considerably slower than it had been earlier in the day. Neither seemed particularly eager to hurry. The sun had begun its descent beyond the hills, painting the western sky in warm shades of orange and gold, and the first hints of evening coolness had settled over the town.

Millie still had one journey left before she could call the day finished.

They sat together on a bench at the station, close enough to the bazaar that the familiar grounds remained visible beyond the platform. Millie rested her hands neatly in her lap while Hans leaned back and stretched his legs. After walking through town and then climbing into the mountains, sitting down felt considerably better than either of them wanted to admit. For a while, they simply watched the station. There wasn't much activity at this hour. A few passengers waited farther down the platform, while an employee went about his evening duties. The rails disappeared into the distance, catching the fading sunlight in thin silver lines.

Millie glanced toward the sky, "I'll have to leave soon."

Hans turned his head toward her. "Coach?"

She nodded. "I don't want to miss the last one."

"Probably a good idea."

"I'd have a difficult time explaining that when I got home. My family will worry if I don't come home."

Hans smiled. "Just tell them your tour guide got you lost."

"Then they'd never let me visit you again."

Hans opened his mouth with another joke prepared, but stopped.

Visit you.

Millie hadn't said visit Zephyr. He wasn't entirely certain whether she'd meant anything by it, and judging by the perfectly innocent expression on her face, she probably hadn't.

"Then we'll blame the windmills," Hans decided.

Millie giggled. "Much safer."

Their conversation faded into another comfortable silence. Hans looked down the tracks before glancing at Millie. They had spent most of the afternoon talking about Zephyr Town, but he'd realized something during their walk back from the mountains. He still knew almost nothing about her.

"So where exactly is home?"

Millie looked at him. "Hmm?"

"You said you have to take a coach, and I know you're not from Zephyr." Hans shifted slightly on the bench. "But I never actually asked where you live."

"Oh." Millie smiled. "Moondrop Village."

Hans repeated the unfamiliar name. "Moondrop Village."

"You've heard of it?"

"I've heard the name before, but I've never been there."

Millie seemed mildly surprised by that. "Really?"

"Really."

"Huh."

Hans laughed. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing. It's just strange."

"Why?"

Millie gestured toward him. "You seem like you've been everywhere."

"Not even close."

"You've certainly been to more places than I have."

"Apparently not Moondrop."

Millie smiled and looked toward the horizon. "It's not a particularly exciting place."

Hans raised an eyebrow. "According to the woman who spent five minutes staring at one of our windmills."

"Your windmills are interesting!"

"And your village isn't?"

Millie considered that.

"Well…I suppose it depends on what you find interesting."

"Then tell me about it."

The request seemed to catch her by surprise. "About Moondrop?"

"Sure."

Millie straightened slightly, apparently trying to decide where to begin. "We're mostly a fishing village."

That explained something immediately.

"Your family's business," Hans said.

She nodded. "We run the fish market."

Hans smiled. "So that's what you meant earlier."

"I didn't mean to make it sound mysterious."

"You absolutely made it sound mysterious."

Millie laughed. "I just didn't think you'd be interested."

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"It's a fish market."

"And I run a farm."

"That's different."

"How?"

Millie opened her mouth, paused, and then laughed when she realized she didn't have an answer.

"Fine. You win."

Hans folded his arms with exaggerated satisfaction. "Tell me about the mysterious fish market."

"It's not mysterious!"

"That's exactly what someone running a mysterious fish market would say."

Millie gave him a playful look before continuing. "My family has run it for many generations. A lot of the fishermen sell part of their catch through us, so we're usually busiest in the mornings. That's why having today off was such a treat."

Hans nodded. "And you work there?"

"Of course. We all help."

He could easily imagine it. Millie's apron suddenly made even more sense to him—not a decorative piece of traditional clothing, but something she probably wore because she genuinely worked in it.

"Where does everyone fish?" he asked.

"Almost everywhere."

Hans laughed. "That's specific."

"No, I mean it. We have a river, and there's an enormous lake the village surrounds. Moondrop is built around a lot of the lakeshore, so that's where many people fish. Then the ocean isn't very far away either."

Hans turned toward her with considerably more interest. "You have a river, a lake, and the ocean?"

Millie nodded.

"And you called your village boring?"

"It's normal to me."

Hans shook his head. "You spent this afternoon amazed because Zephyr has windmills."

"They're enormous windmills."

"You have an enormous lake!"

Millie burst out laughing. "It's just a lake!"

"Not according to you. You specifically called it enormous."

"Because it is!"

"Exactly."

She continued laughing, and Hans grinned.

The more Millie talked, the easier it became for him to picture pieces of a place he'd never visited. Not the entire village—he still had no idea what its streets looked like or where its buildings stood—but fragments appeared in his imagination nonetheless. Fishing boats crossing a broad lake in the morning. People bringing their catches to Millie's family market. A river winding somewhere nearby. Roads leading toward an ocean coast beyond the village. Hans realized he wanted to ask more.

Before he could, Millie's attention shifted toward the railway tracks. She watched them for a moment.

"Hans?"

"Yeah?"

"Where does the train go?"

Hans followed her gaze. "Depends which one you take."

"That one."

"The main line?"

Millie nodded.

Hans sighed as he remembered how ordinary the place used to be before he moved to Zephyr and his hometown became an exotic place most people dreamed of visiting."Atland."

Her head snapped toward him, "The city?"

Hans smiled at the immediate recognition. "Yup. The Great City of Atland."

Millie looked back toward the tracks as though they had suddenly become much more interesting.

"So they really do go all the way there. I knew Zephyr had trains, obviously, but I didn't know that line went directly to Atland."

Hans studied her expression. "You've heard of it?"

"Everyone has heard of Atland."

"I wasn't sure how much people in Moondrop knew about it."

"Not much." Millie tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "Travelers mention it sometimes. Merchants too. Someone comes through and says they bought something in the city, or that they're traveling there, or that they have relatives there. Things like that."

"So you've never been?"

Millie shook her head, "No."

Hans found that surprisingly difficult to imagine. Atland had once been such an ordinary part of his life that he'd barely thought about it. To Millie, it existed mostly through passing references made by other people.

She turned toward him, "Have you?"

Hans nodded. "Plenty of times."

Millie's eyes widened. "Really?"

"I used to live there."

Her mouth fell open, "You lived in Atland?"

Hans laughed at her expression. "Yes."

"In the city?"

"That's generally where Atland is."

"Hans!"

He laughed harder.

Millie shifted toward him on the bench, suddenly looking as excited as she had when he'd given her the bouquet. "What's it like?"

Hans opened his mouth. Then stopped. How exactly did someone explain Atland? Especially to someone who has never seen it before.

Hans coudn't think of a better answer than, "It's very big. Everything is bigger in Atland."

Millie stared at him, "That's your explanation?"

"I'm getting there."

"You're an awful tour guide."

"You already knew that."

Millie smiled expectantly.

Hans tried again, "There are buildings everywhere. Not like Zephyr. I mean huge buildings. Some of them are dozens of floors tall, and you can walk for blocks without really leaving the same commercial district. There are shops, restaurants, offices, apartments, theaters—"

"All together?"

"Not exactly. Well, sometimes. Then there's the mall."

"The mall?"

"The Great Mall of Atland."

Millie's expression became even more confused.

Hans continued anyway, "It's enormous. There are stores inside the building."

"Inside?"

"Lots of stores."

"How many?"

"I don't know."

"How do you not know?"

"Because there are too many to count!"

Millie laughed. "That doesn't make any sense."

"It makes perfect sense when you're there."

"So the stores are inside another store?"

"No. The building isn't a store. It's a mall."

"Which has stores."

"Yes."

"Inside it."

"Yes."

Millie stared at him. Hans stared back.

"This explanation isn't helping, is it?"

"No."

"All right. Forget the mall."

"But now I want to know about the mall!"

Hans rubbed his forehead. "There are buses everywhere. And trains. And crowds. Lots of crowds. The streets can be packed even when nothing special is happening. There are restaurants serving food from places you've probably never visited, and there are shops selling things you wouldn't find anywhere around here. There's Atland University, and the harbor is enormous, and at night—"

"The harbor?"

"Yes."

"So there's an ocean?"

"Yes."

"Near the skyscrapers?"

"Some of them."

"And the trains?"

"Those too."

"And the giant store-building?"

"The mall."

"Right. That."

Hans started laughing. Millie joined him, though she still looked completely bewildered.

"I think you're making Atland sound more confusing every time you explain something," she said.

"That's because Atland is confusing."

"How did you live there?"

"You get used to it."

Millie looked down the railway line again. Hans could see curiosity written all over her face. He knew that expression now. It was the same one she'd worn while looking at Gabriel's artwork. The same one she'd worn standing beneath the windmills after learning what they actually did. The same one she'd worn on the mountain viewing platform when Zephyr Town stretched beneath them.

Hans suddenly understood the problem. Atland couldn't be explained to Millie. Not properly. He could spend the rest of the evening describing skyscrapers, crowded stations, buses, shops, universities, restaurants, docks, and enormous malls, and all he'd accomplish was giving her increasingly disconnected pieces of a place too large to fit into her experience.

Hans smiled, "You know what?"

Millie turned toward him. "What?"

"I should just take you."

She blinked, "Take me where?"

"Atland."

Millie's brown eyes widened. Hans gestured toward the railway. "It'll be easier than trying to explain everything. We can catch the train here, spend the day in the city, and come back in the evening."

For several seconds, Millie simply stared at him. Then her entire face brightened.

"You'd really take me?"

"Sure."

"To Atland?"

"That's usually where the train goes."

"Hans."

"Yes. To Atland."

Millie leaned slightly closer, excitement replacing every trace of her earlier bashfulness, "You promise?"

Hans smiled, "I promise."

Millie immediately clasped her hands together.

"It's a date, then!"

Hans froze. Millie was still beaming at him. A date.

Hans's brain seemed to catch on the word while the rest of the sentence continued without it. He looked at Millie, who appeared completely unaware of what she'd just said. She was already glancing toward the tracks again, probably imagining skyscrapers and enormous malls and whatever strange version of Atland Hans's terrible explanation had constructed in her mind.

Then, slowly, Millie's smile faltered. Her eyes widened. Apparently her brain had caught up too. A blush spread across her cheeks.

"I—I mean—"

Hans felt heat creeping into his own face. Millie stared determinedly at the railway tracks. Hans suddenly found the opposite direction fascinating. Neither spoke.

A train whistle sounded faintly somewhere in the distance. Millie folded her hands very neatly in her lap.

Hans cleared his throat, "So…"

"Yes?"

Hans looked at Millie, "Atland?"

Millie smiled back, "Atland."

Another silence settled between them, considerably less comfortable than the previous one. But neither of them took the promise back.