Eleanor had woken from her coma early and after several weeks of physiotherapy, nourishing soups and hospital jazzercise she was allowed a brief trip to the city to see all the marvellous things that had changed.
The rocket trolleys, hand-wobblers and spacey tingle-toggles certainly were impressive
but there was one thing that stuck in her memory the most.
As she was assisted onto the train by her therapist she first noticed that all the commuters sat or stood silently wearing ornate lampshades over their heads.
"What are those?" she asked with a quizzical look upon her face.
"Why, they are Lamp-Hat Spineroo's, and they will turn even the saddest of frowns - upside down!" the therapist replied.
Upon closer inspection, lights were flashing from within the lampshade as if a myriad of delightful fireflies were having a jolly party. Then, seemingly in random fashion, the entire lampshade would spin around and stop suddenly before more lights - with different colours this time - would flash and flicker inside.
"They spin!" Eleanor remarked, seated now beside a gentleman in a crisp new business suit with one of these amazing devices on his head.
She peered closer, up and under, to see that the lamp-shade was attached to the top of his head on a soft little harness strap that tied cutely beneath his beard.
"What a strange grin he has," she thought to herself, "and his eyes - how they dart and roll about!"
There on top of his head - a series of levers and dynamos with a battery like attachment, powered hundreds of small grape-sized bulbs that flashed randomly and spinning the entire thing around every now and then with a comical 'whizz!' sound.
She also noticed he was wearing ear phones - but she couldn't quite make out what exactly it was that they were playing.
Just then the train pulled into a station. As if in unison, all the businessmen pulled the drawstring on their Lamp Hats (which extinguished the playful light display within) and flipped open a small aperture at eye level so they might safely trot out onto the platform and to their workplaces.
Once fully recovered, Eleanor later found part-time employment in a pool of tepid water somewhere to the north.