Imagine Me

I awaken in a gust with cold wind blowing around me. It’s very dark. Low lighting gives just enough visibility to examine my atmosphere. I rise and began to follow a common mental pattern of seating around me, only to find that to my right there is a row; to my left there is nothing. Where could I be? It’s cold but not breezy anymore. I hear small noises. Clanks, the chatter of metal, and soft particles move briefly with short winds from space alone. I began to reach for the wall. I focus my direction toward lower dim light seen about every mile and a half. I rub the walls hoping to find a light, a picture, a fixture, a beam? Suddenly as I feel and step carefully,….. a wall separator. Hooray! I laugh while breathing for joy, yet gasping over where to go from here. A wall separator is a good sign to me. 

I now know that where I am has angles. I step and feel, step and feel….. step… and…. What’s that! Another seat row! But why is it adjacent to the other row a few feet down! I grab the seat and sit for a minute, just to reassess and wipe my eyes. I sit there contemplating. Ok. I’m alone. It’s a few wind gusts, but cold only due to my knowledge that there are no other forms of life near me. It’s dark. I hear sounds. Ok, ok, Me. Don’t flip out! I can do this. I set my eye on the dim lighting again hoping to embark upon an exit of some sort. Step and feel has worked so here I go. What did I drink? I wonder. I must have been tired. I don’t know where I am and I wake up in the dark. Suddenly I take a step and what do I find? An end. An ending wall to my left. Okay. Let me reconfigure. So, I can’t go left anymore and to go right I will end up touching nothing, so backed up against the wall, I take a breathe. I decide to step forward and reach. I take a baby step while planting my other foot safely next to me. Great! I made it. I get a bit assured to take another baby step. C’mon, you can do it, I express within myself. And alas! I make the next step completely. I’m now ready to go all-out. I mean, Hey, it’s all or Nothing anyway at this point. I take a giant step ahead… and…Oh! I feel something solid! Excited now to see what this is next to my foot, I carefully plant the next foot at an angle to balance myself. I land safely. I straighten my body and plant that angled foot securely next to mine, making a mental notice to self not to move my toe from against what’s solid. I made it! At this point I must figure this out, I mean give me a pat on the back here, I’m getting out of here soon I suggest to Me. Gently I crouch down on my hinds. I reach my hand toward my feet and grab what seems to be a solid metal. I carefully rub my fingers feeling my way up a leg, a lever, an arm….sigh. It’s another seat. What in the world happened?! Now I’m a bit frustrated.

Suddenly I hear a big screech and then POP! Boy! What in the world was that one. I hear a few voices but they sound pretty far away. Maybe they are trapped as well. I can’t consider it. I must find out where I am or find my way out of here! I climb with my hands across the seats and walk, only to bump into another seat in what feels like a new row! What is this and why is it now a row mid-centered or near the left center of the room? No use in investigating, I feel seats, rows, and then a pole. Hmmm, ok. It appears I am in some sort of meeting room, gallery of a strange cave, or on a merry-go-round of some sort. I’m flabbergasted at this point! How come no one considered or woke me before I entered. 

Ok let me hold this pole and think. I left this morning. I planned to go visit a historical archaeological site. I planned to write about my observations of some of the finite stones found upon other archaeologists findings in comparison to what I have in collection. I got to the site, but was told that the main entrance to the building was closed and any visitors had to enter through the construction site, leading to a back entrance into the south end of the location, which takes up three blocks entirely. It was warm. I was hungry and had traveled far. Ok, Me. I agree, I was truly tired. Getting back to business here, I proceed to turn around and head toward the right of the room. The part I feared the most. I don’t know if the floor is going to cut off at some point but hopefully someone will read this and learn from my missteps. 

I proceed forward hold to seat’s until I feel none. At this point I’m pretty adjusted to the architectural structure of this room less of the right side. I get almost four big steps away from the rows to embark upon a huge discovery. My foot hit something else. Not a seat, not a row, and not a bar. This is scary. It’s circular shaped. It’s solid but flimsy like a plexus glass globe on a board game. I pull back only to not crush it. After all it could be lethal. I plant my other foot in order. I take a deep breathe. I turn to view the dark room which what my eyes have adjusted to merely by the few sim floor lights against the walls. Taking a deep breathe, I prepare to either say goodbye or hurt myself by examining this floor bubbled plexi-glass fixture. I began to do my amazing crouching routine but ….. wait! Stop! Think here self. If I bend down and touch it and it’s lethal or opens the floor, it may hit me in some way I certainly don’t want my face affected. I stand up tall. I take another very deep breathe. Alright Me. Here it goes. Here goes nothing. I lift my foot, and with sweat protruding down my head and nose I extend my leg over…. and…..tap it. All of the sudden with my eyes squinted tight I see light. Oh my goodness! I open my eyes, unclench myself to find that the lights actually came on. Wow. What a relief. I sure thought it was over for me. I began to look around. Examining the room and hearing voices getting stronger. Just when I was going to yell for help, a motor begins and the reality that this is entrance is not a lobby area but a train that I am on, strikes me heavily. All doors open and I am able to exit freely. I…, I don’t understand. Why was I here just sitting and what business uses a train as their entrance or lobby. More so I wondered to myself to question what train traps it’s passengers inside! I stop and ask one of the construction workers why the train was not running. I am told that the site is owned by a Arabian dynasty of archeologists. The front entrance is being reconverted into a shrine. Since many people visit, not only will they have the opportunity to view new found pieces of unknown rock or metals, they also will have the opportunity to learn of or experience the Arabian culture and significant times of prayer. How they worship is to them, “key” to their findings. Therefore, everyday at 11a.m., they shut the site and train down for prayer while the shrine for now is under construction. The back entrance was a train with a track which has been lodged there for ages according to history. It was one of the first train tunnels made. They tested the train out but could not get it out of the tunnel. It’s lodged there so when the site was purchased, they made it apart of the experience. The entire tunnel that is actually being used is a lobby as well, but also a they’re sanctuary, until they are ready to open the front entrance when everything is completed. What can I say. I shook his hand and thanked him first for the opportunity to talk to someone else! But I had to inquire from him why the motor came on if the train was stuck. He helped me understand that the motor was just their form of an alarm to wake them in a shaking format which will not break their focus from prayer as a bell or alarm would. Wow. Now I’m a bit awestruck. I was trying to visit a site but entered into in a world I didn’t have knowledge of. I began to walk away, but turned because I was still a bit lost. I rushed back over to ask the man why no one woke me to let me know. What he said to me sealed my entire afternoon! He said upon entering the train, the other worshippers saw that you got on and your head was immediately bowed. They do not disturb during this time. They figured you were worshipping to. I just stood there in awe. I thanked him, took my jacket off in a very hot afternoon and headed back home with a chuckle on the inside. Letter to Me, You live and you learn.

The End.