A Gift of Change

I wasn’t expecting any gifts at all, which didn’t bother me. Why would it? I really didn’t fit into this group of mid-twenties elites. I was easily five years older than most of them, and I certainly didn’t fit into their glamorous lifestyle. So, what was I even doing there? Certainly, not thinking clearly. I was there against my better judgment because of my girlfriend, who was in their age group and income level and had wanted to meet and greet her friends, and I didn’t want her to reject me based on my greater age and lack of the amount of money and power she so admired. And in all fairness, I had misinformed her as to my income and even my occupational status in order to get a date with her.

As I entered the opulently furnished house, I was astounded at the beautiful artwork on display.  I appreciated the generosity of the hosts and was not above helping myself to a couple of the Benjamins that were sitting on silver trays like mints for casual sampling. Nobody took notice: to do so would be considered unsophisticated and gauche. Nonetheless, I truly did not belong at this party and felt at least a little guilty. Be that as it may, I assumed that my anonymity protected me from being noticed, or so I thought. So, when the gift was handed to me by a person I had not been introduced to, I was totally flabbergasted! First, nobody at the party had even been informed that we were going to be attending, and when we arrived late, the house was so crowded that we were barely noticed entering. Then, too, there were no name tags, so how was it possible that the gift-bearer who found me was able to confidently identify me and hand me a gift with my full name clearly printed on it? It was brightly wrapped in some multi-colored, ultra-reflective material, which made it almost painful to look at directly.

Ironically, my girlfriend didn’t even receive any gifts, which she took in stride. I felt a bit guilty about receiving a gift at a party of whose participants I disapproved, but still felt an overwhelming urge to open it, if for no reason other than by accepting and opening it (which would probably turn out to be a gag-gift), I would be duly humiliated and get this whole experience over with and behind me so we could leave this party so I could be alone with her.

As I began tearing off the paper, I discovered…NOTHING! But it was ‘nothing’ in the form of the original shape of the package. The air inside was distorted within the confines of that original shape, but I could easily feel the outline of the non-thing that I had unwrapped but could not see anything distinct within. Beyond edges, faces, and corners, the box-shaped object revealed only that it had some mass to it.

Out of pure curiosity, I began blindly feeling the outside of the non-thing that I was holding. Once I had explored the dimensions of whatever it was, I determined that I was holding a cube, eight inches on edge. I began to feel the hard, smooth faces. On the center of one face, I detected a slight irregularity, a subtle bump. Upon firmly pressing on it, I immediately felt dizzy and had to hurriedly sit down in one of the few unoccupied seats near me. It was then that I noticed a few partygoers staring at me surreptitiously as though waiting for something to happen.

I immediately noticed that the din of the party was gone and I was totally alone. I also no longer held my gift. Where did it go? Could I have been captured inside it? What put a thought like that in my head? As far as I knew, I could have been transported a million miles away surrounded by the vacuum of empty space. Disturbing thoughts troubled me: Did the attendees who had been watching me notice that I had vanished, or did they even remember me ever being there? Had I actually been there? Did my girlfriend remember that I was her date for the night or did she remember me at all? What I did know was that I was still sitting in the same chair as I had been after opening the ‘present’, but everything else was different. There was dim light emanating from some diffuse, unknown source. I seemed to be in some room or maybe a hallway whose walls I could not detect by sight. Also, I was naked, but I knew I no longer needed clothes and would never again wear any clothes at all.

I suddenly had an urge to get rapidly up out of the chair, and as I took a step forward, I turned slightly to notice that the chair was now gone. I seemed to know that moving forward was equal to survival in this new environment that I found myself in. The floor beneath me felt substantial like marble, and I expected to hear my footsteps, but there was no sound. I kept moving on but found that, other than the feeling of movement, there didn’t appear to be any change in my surroundings.

How long had I been walking? I had no way to tell. I wasn’t getting tired, thirsty, or hungry. I wasn’t bored or frustrated either. It seemed effortless and soundless. In the beginning, I had expected there to be an echo from my footsteps, but my walking continued silently.

When I reached my destination, I knew it with a certainty that I had rarely achieved during this life. My first clue, if I needed one was the low-hanging branch ahead of me. There was no other visible feature, so I was pretty sure that I had been directed to journey to this place to fulfill a mission of some sort. The tree from which the branch was protruding was stout and appeared to be quite healthy, standing in a strong beam of sunlight that existed nowhere else I had encountered since I had opened the ‘present’. I had already learned since the beginning of this experience that asking questions was a waste of time. They didn’t get answered, and I knew intuitively that I wouldn’t understand the answers if they were provided. That meant that I didn’t question the fact that the tree seemed to grow out of the marble floor as though that was the most natural occurrence I could have witnessed.

I automatically knew now what my next step must be and reached above me. There was no question that I would be able to reach it and grab it easily. I also knew it would support my weight.

Upon grasping the limb with both hands, I felt that the end of a long travail had finally been reached. I also noticed that the walls had disappeared and were replaced by a lush forest, and I suddenly felt exhausted and could not keep my eyes open for another second. All of the light around me except the single beam of sunlight dimmed further, signaling twilight and emphasizing that my trip would go no further.

I had no control over what happened after that. From the place my hands grasped the limb, tiny tendrils grew from my hands to the branch, forming a bridge between me and the tree. At the same time, the fibers sprouted out from my body and covered me in a thin sheaf.

My chrysalis was forming and covering me in a hard protective shell. My old self was fading, and my long sleep was starting.

I had no question about what would come next and felt secure in the outcome.

In due time, I would unfurl my wet wings to let them dry and then wait for power to fill them. I would emerge from my incubation and soon begin my new life. I would be the first of my kind in this world.