+ A Stitch In Time Saves 9 +

[redroses4sure]

[ Comes the 2 of ♠ tumbling down in2 the checkerboard ditch, happy as can be! 4 of ♣, he goes next, quick steps down the slope. The 3 of ♦ comes last, graciously gliding card body with frantically flailing people limbs, fluttering down in2 the ditch where they huddle together.

Where they smile, smile, s m i l e, whyever shouldn't they smile strained, shhhhh, no, not strained, be quiet, as quiet as they are cheerful, so very VERY CHEERFUL!? ]

♠ Concern? What concern? What could we have 2 worry about? ♠

♦ We love variety! Everybody loves variety! Nobody likes the hum-- ♦

♣ Or the drum! ♣

♦ ...Nobody likes the same old, same old humdrum view, day in--♦

♠ --day out! But it's aaaaaaaall fine! All good! Isn't it, 3? Isn't it, 4? Isn't it, one, 2, 3, 4! ♠

[♫ Music! Song! ♫ ]

♠ All fine! ♠

♣ All good! ♣

♦ All fine and all wonderful, Wonderlandishly wonderful and so very much fine and so good as it should! ♦

[ Somersaults and cartwheels carry them them up the inverted hills, carry their song 2 the vendors, between the trees where the merchants nest, where everything is as fine and wonderful as it is everywhere else, and little card soldier hands and little card gardener hands, and little card courtier hands point up in2 the trees where nothing is truly out of order at all! ]

♠ A little tweak here! ♠

♣ A little tweak there! A-- ♣

♦ Tweaking a^{nd creak}ing and 4boding l_eaking and sneaking and shrieking--♦

♠♣ SSSSHHHHHH!!! ♣♠

[ 3♦ smiles nervously. How silly of him! 2♠ and 4♣ smile all the brighter and more cheerful for it, all 3 entwining arms as they skip down 2 the beach, their ♫ next verse ♫ all the louder 4 the silly and unfounded mistake from be4. ]

♣ So fine! ♣

♦ So good! ♦

♠ So fine and so wonderful and so very much fine and so good as it-- ♠

[ C R A C K ! ! ! ! ]

[ A... sound? A fine sound, like a whip cracking in the air, a good sound like paper tearing, a wonderful (wonderful) sight at the beach, a shimmer (a glow?), a crack -- a tear! a rip! a nothing at all to be concerned about! -- in the sky above the sand, bright and glowing and no longer than a person's finger.

A tear in the air in the fabric of the world, bright and glowing and no longer than a person's finger, no smaller than that (but no bigger either).

The cards stare at it in awe.

(It is awe, it is decidedly awe and decidedly not at all terror or fear or any sense of impending doom whatsoever.)

( ♫ The next verse ♫ will prove it! ) ]

♣ ....Let's run! ♣

♠ Away! ♠

♦ Let's run away very fast even though all is well nothing at all is in any way not as it should be 2day! ♦

[ Hooray! ♥ ]

♣ ♠ ♦ G o o d b y e ! ♦ ♠ ♣

[ The cards -- the cheerful 4♣, the happy 3♦, and the upbeat 2♠ -- all link arms, and leave jauntily in the direction of the forest.

( Very very very very fast, coincidentally. ) ]