Several years on the island and more spent in Ankh-Morpork, a city that was home to Unseen University, and it was still a bit of an odd sight. But then, William supposed, that was as much because it was impossible to predict as anything.
Donna looked at the man who had spoken, more than a little startled. Beyond the appearance of unfamiliar trees and a jungle that hadn't been there a moment ago or the disappearance of her bosses, some guy turning up to welcome her somewhere was just strange. "To where?" she asked, blinking as she took a few steps toward him.
"Er, well, that's a little complicated," William said. She wasn't panicking, which he took as a good sign, but it was early, yet. "It's probably going to sound somewhat strange, depending on where you're from. You're not dreaming, and you're not hallucinating, and you're not mad. You're now on an island and not wherever you were a moment ago. Er, that last part was probably obvious."
He considered this. "Unless you were in a jungle. Although if you were I have to question your choice in footwear."
Donna blinked at him for a few moments, then looked down at her shoes. At least they weren't heels, but she had to concede the point. "I was in Washington, DC," she said, her tone turning plaintive again. "After many, many hours of working very hard to get back, involving" She sighed, hands falling against her hips. "at least ten different modes of transportation, I was in Washington, DC. And now I'm on an island? You're sure I'm not hallucinating?"
Right, she thought, because if she were hallucinating, the best person to confirm or deny the fact was someone in the hallucination.
"I'm sure," William said, mentally filing away Washington, DC. "I know that's probably something a hallucination would say, but, well, is there any reason you'd be hallucinating?"
Donna seriously considered that for a moment, looking off to his side. "Not really," she said. "I've been up since about 6 am, got stuck in Indiana and had to... shepherd my bosses like small children, but I don't think I'm that exhausted." She sighed, looking back to him. "So I took a step forward and appeared on an island."
"An island with no way off," William said, suppressing the urge to step back. This was where it could potentially get very awkward. "There are boats, but nowhere for the boats to go."
"...nowhere for the boats to go," Donna echoed. "It's an island how can there be nowhere for the boats to go?" Maybe he was the one having a hallucination.
No, that wasn't anymore comforting than the alternative.
"When people sail away for any distance they end up sailing back, as I understand it," William said. "So either we've an island of very bad sailors, or there's something fishy going on."
Frankly, William was inclined to think it had something to do with the shape of the world. Nothing good could come of a horizon that curved.
"So people just walk onto an island they can't sail away from," Donna said. There were some things which bore repeating, just to be sure they were correct. "And get to stay there for... how long? There has to be a way to get back." There was work they were supposed to be doing. Josh would be needed by the President, what with the evening they'd had, and she would be needed by him in turn. She couldn't just disappear at the tail end of a Presidential campaign on the night of a bombing.
"The longest anyone has been here is two years and... five months," William said, looking up as he worked this out in his head. "The shortest somewhere in the region of a week, I think, but I'd need to look that up to check. And while it's possible there's a way back, no one's found a way to do it deliberately."
He remembered his manners, a bit belatedly. "I am sorry."
She couldn't afford to be gone two days, let alone two years. In six weeks, it would be election night, and she had to be there for every remaining step which led to that. Josh would kill her.
It didn't make sense. It had been a long, long day, but even the mess of it had made a kind of sense, and this was just bizarre beyond explanation. She reached up to touch a tree branch, staring at it, worried by how rough and real the bark felt against her fingers. "There has to be some kind of mistake," she said. "How did this happen? Why did I get brought here? I was with two other people where are they?"
"Er. let me do that in order," William said, ticking them off on his fingers. "Probably, no one knows, no one knows, and right where you left them. ...what were their names?"
"Josh Lyman and Toby Ziegler." It was easier to focus on the part of all that that actually made some kind of sense. There was no reason for them to be where they were if she was where she was, wherever that was.
Maybe this was what had happened to the staffers who had missed the motorcade in Tennessee.
Well, that changed a few things. Mostly, it made them harder to explain, unfortunately.
"Ah," he said, delicately. "In that case, in addition to being right where you left them, Josh Lyman and Toby Ziegler are also here. They have been for a while. They've been in both places at once. Er, lke you are, now. It's all a bit metaphysical, I'm afraid."
"Um, hello," he said. "Welcome to Tabula Rasa."
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He considered this. "Unless you were in a jungle. Although if you were I have to question your choice in footwear."
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Right, she thought, because if she were hallucinating, the best person to confirm or deny the fact was someone in the hallucination.
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No, that wasn't anymore comforting than the alternative.
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Frankly, William was inclined to think it had something to do with the shape of the world. Nothing good could come of a horizon that curved.
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He remembered his manners, a bit belatedly. "I am sorry."
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It didn't make sense. It had been a long, long day, but even the mess of it had made a kind of sense, and this was just bizarre beyond explanation. She reached up to touch a tree branch, staring at it, worried by how rough and real the bark felt against her fingers. "There has to be some kind of mistake," she said. "How did this happen? Why did I get brought here? I was with two other people where are they?"
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Maybe this was what had happened to the staffers who had missed the motorcade in Tennessee.
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"Ah," he said, delicately. "In that case, in addition to being right where you left them, Josh Lyman and Toby Ziegler are also here. They have been for a while. They've been in both places at once. Er, lke you are, now. It's all a bit metaphysical, I'm afraid."
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