The Road Not Taken

The final intersection on my return from school was just an ordinary and unremarkable intersection. To the right was the familiar row of houses, the last of which belonged to my mother. Behind me was the well-traveled road to my beloved elementary school. Forward was the ultimate abyss, the nothingness that swallows everything.

But to the left…

My mother always warned me: Never take the left turn. Always take the right and you’ll be home in just five minutes.

I never knew what lay to the left. It always gnawed on me why mother never allowed me to go left. Why she was so adamant? I mean, there were plenty of other intersections on the way to school, but mother never talked about them, just told me to keep straight until I got to the school, never admonishing me not to go left or right. Once when I was returning home from school, I even took one such left turn and entered the same kind of unremarkable row of houses as the street I was on. Bored, I returned to the intersection and continued towards home after just a minute or so of walking.

The final intersection was however completely different. Logically, mother should have implored me not to go straight at that intersection as I was heading off to school. Arguably, I would be in even more trouble as I would be running late for my classes, but no such prohibition existed. It only seemed a problem to go in that direction as I was returning from school.

I never disobeyed mother even once in my life.

As the years and decades passed, I became more and more annoyed with this rule. Why can’t I sneak a peek at what is left? Just a tiny one. Whenever I gazed in that direction, on the right corner, I could clearly see the same kind of unassuming row of houses as in my direction, nothing out of the ordinary. Once, I even crossed the road to courageously get a closer and better view, but I quickly darted right back across the crosswalk to my side of the intersection.

Then, one day, I woke up to go to school and I simply felt ready.

All my anxiety about crossing left disappeared. It is like I knew it in myself that it was finally time to go left.

The school day was normal. We had our regular classes, played in the playground, dissected one student alive as he was screaming and begging not to be dissected, nothing out of the ordinary. Still, something was stirring in me. I was finally going to do it!

When the school ended and I said goodbye to my friends, none of whom went home in my direction, I casually walked back towards home. As I approached the intersection I could feel an ominous pull of the intersection. The wind picked up and the sky turned dark like it never did before. It is like the intersection knew what I was going to do.

I stood at the right corner debating for the last time whether I would go home. I knew mother never like for me to be late. She always preferred to start torturing me just as the purple sun set behind the Plains of Sorrow. Still, I took one last gaze at the familiar row of houses to the right and turned my back on them.

I was finally going to go left.

Gingerly, I crossed the crosswalk. I could hear the banshees scream in the distance. I approached the start of the street. I could hear the distant hounds squeal in complete terror. I was about to take the first step and the sky serpents hissed at me, warning me not to go further. The entire universe seemed to be conspiring for me to not go left.

All of a sudden, I felt immense hesitation. What if there is even worse pestilence on the other side? What if the fabric of the universe collapses? What if there is no ice-cream? What if mother gets angry? All these questions swirling in my heads were giving me quite headsache. I could not even begin fathoming the level of responsibility I was placing upon myself for daring to disobey mother’s orders. Maybe it was a mistake. Maybe it was not too late to turn back. I mean, why don’t I just return to the other side of the crosswalk and go home? Maybe I should forget about this. My body was trembling as I was trying to talk myself out of it, trying to give myself any reason I could possibly find not to take a step forward. I was fighting two opposing forces that threatened to tear me apart. I no longer even knew or understand what I was fighting for. Was my conscience sabotaging my subconscious or the other way around? What did I want? I no longer knew? The winds howled, the dogs howled even harder, the screams from the banshees almost drowned out all the other sounds, the sky serpents surrounded and hounded me. I didn’t know what to do. Do I do it or not? Do I step forward or not? In this time of madness, I exhausted decided to trust my instinct, my body. It would know better than my mind, what to do, so I just surrendered, surrendered to my body…

And then I did it.

I took the first step.

Everything changed. At once. The weather was sunny. The sky was blue. The warm sun was bright yellow and did not have any evil eyes with which to stare at me. The banshees were quiet and instead of the hounds, I could hear the gentle barking of neighborhood dogs. The sky serpents were nowhere to be seen.

Gingerly, I continued to walk on this sunny street. I was afraid to turn around to see what was behind me. Was it the clear beacon of my past life, or was it all gone, never to return again? I honestly didn’t know which option frightened me more. Was I dreaming or was this real? I didn’t know. The only thing I knew was that I had to keep going. And so, I did.

I continued to walk forward, recovering from my haze. I slowly started taking in my surroundings. The strange green grass, the quaint picket fences, houses painted in bright colors. I quickly noticed a startling fact.

The numbers were in mirror image! For example, instead of the number ‘3’ resembling the letter ‘E’ now it was pointing in the opposite direction. Indeed, having passed a couple of houses I noticed the numbers were now read from left-to-right instead of from right-to-left.

Then it hit me! I passed by the familiar orange house. It was Mr. Miller’s house. I mean, sure, it lacked the evil spirits roaming in the garden hissing menacingly at anyone who passes, but I definitely identified it as his house. Except the garage was to the left instead of to the right of the house!

I was in some bizarre mirror image world. And then another absolutely worrying revelation came upon me. Just fifteen more houses to walk past, and I’ll end up at ‘my’ house. I wanted to run back, but I felt it was too late now. The only way out is forward. I had to push through, though my walking became noticeably slower and more hesitant.

I finally got to the house. It wasn’t that different except there was no blood splattered on its walls. No butchered children. No eyeballs crawling on the scorched ground. No rifts in the universe. No barbed chains where mother would always tie me for the night.

It was… normal.

And in this moment a deep thought surfaced within me which banished all fear. It was the feeling that I was finally home, in my true home. That this was how it was supposed to be and not everything I experienced before. I saw my reflection in a mirror. I had only one head, two eyes, one mouth and one nose. I didn’t have scales of the damned. I didn’t have body protrusions coming out of me to scream in agony. I wasn’t a thousand years old.

I was a child.

Just then, I heard mother’s voice:

‘‘Hi, sweetie! How was your day in school? Do you want to eat your lunch now? I have some ice-cream for dessert.’’