Don't Judge a Basement By the Floors Above

Outside, the weather was dreary. I yawned and walked into the living room, not knowing what I was going to do with my time at home. Deciding that there wasn't anything better to do, I turned on the television and snuggled up with some fuzzy blankets. The movies that were on weren't all that interesting, but I continued watching. After I watched all of the Harry Potter movies in consecutive order, I realized that I was probably wasting my time.

Stretching my tired limbs, I stood up and walked into the kitchen. As I put some water on the stove to boil, the steam cleared my head. I drank a cup of peppermint tea, inhaling the minty and subtly sweet notes emanating from the cup. It woke me up. I walked upstairs and decided to wash my face and brush my teeth. Simple, seemingly monotonous activities always seemed to jumpstart my brain.

What to do, what to do, I absentmindedly wondered. I started to aimlessly stroll throughout my house. Any outside observer would have thought I was mad, but I didn't mind. Drawing nearer to my bedroom, I was reminded of my younger days. Being in my mid-twenties, I consider myself far too old for childish games. Since this day wasn't offering anything better, I decided to go back to my childhood.

When I was younger, I was an imaginative child. Inviting over other boys to come and play, we would pretend that we were princes, brave firefighters, or superheroes coming to the rescue. Today I decided to be a brave explorer, for brave explorers were always able to turn negative days into exciting ones.

"When I was younger, what did I use to explore?" I mumbled under my breath, having forgotten what it was like to imagine something. I ran to my room, a new sense of purpose audible in my footsteps. As I grabbed a backpack, flashlight, granola bar, and water bottle; I laughed at the absurdity of what I was doing.

A twenty-something-year-old pretending to be an explorer on a rainy day. Ha! I chuckled to myself. Not knowing where to explore first, I decided to go to the most obvious place: the bookshelf. In all spy movies, there was always a secret passageway behind the bookshelf. I took out my flashlight and messed around, shining it on the random vases and knickknacks accumulated through the years.

Suddenly, I saw something that seemed out of place. It was a book that I didn't recognize. I reached out to grab it. As soon as I did, the bookcase spun around.

"Oh my gosh!" I exclaimed. It was like I was in an Indiana Jones movie. Bracing myself, I walked towards the staircase that had been revealed. I seemed to spiral down for ages. The air smelled musty and old like no one had been this way in a while. Now if I lived in England or someplace old, this would be understandable. I live in a house in the middle of a neighborhood, in Nashville, Tennessee of all places!

As I kept walking down, I noticed strange cracks in the walls. It seemed like a flood had happened. There was lots of water damage and irregularities along the wall. I continued going, realizing that this staircase never seemed to end. As soon as I had that thought, I reached the ground.

The room before me was like nothing I had ever seen before. It was round and made of stones, with barren walls. I wasn't sure what happened in this room, but from the looks of it, whatever it was hadn’t happened in a long time. The air was cold, causing my teeth to chatter in the middle of summer. I started to pace in a circle, scanning the circular wall for some clue as to what this was. As I was doing this, a sudden thought came to my head.

What if this room could take me somewhere, anywhere in the world. If it could do that, where would I want to go?

“Greece,” I said, as if in a daze.  Around the room, the word Greece echoed off of the damp walls. I slowly backed up so that I was standing in the center of the floor. Looking down, I saw that the floor had a doughnut look to it, with a small circle inside of a larger circle. The small circle (the one I was standing on) started to rotate. The rotating became faster and faster, and I closed my eyes, afraid to look at what was happening. 

Behind my closed eyelids, I could tell that the lighting was changing from very dark to extremely bright. Gradually opening them, I squinted in the blazing sunlight. I raised my arms above my head in glee, realizing that I was just where I wanted to be. I was in Greece!

“Aaaaaaaaaah!” I yelled. It wasn’t a fearful yell, but a scream of delight. I felt like a child again, free with the whole world at my fingertips. Around me, there was blue sky and what must have been the greenest grass in the whole world. I was standing on top of a large hill, which would be considered a mountain I suppose. Down the hill, it was a bit rocky. Towards the bottom, small houses dotted the slopes, continuing down until they met flat land. 

Embracing this freedom, I ran down the mountain, screaming the whole way. I felt as if my imagination was limitless. I could do or be anything my heart desired. As soon as I had thought this, my mind snapped back to reality.

How did I get here?

Stopping abruptly, I raced back up the mountain. Panting for breath, I sat down in the center of the mountain top and talked to myself.

“If I got here by thinking about Greece, I guess I could get back home by thinking about my newly discovered basement...or is that too crazy of an idea? Well, Steve, you discovered a secret passage and then were transported to Greece. I don’t think it could get much stranger than that.”

After answering my own question like an insane person, I thought long and hard about my basement. As soon as I did, the same sensation happened. The room spun, I got lightheaded, and I closed my eyes. Once I opened them again, I was back where I started.

For the next few hours, I played around with this strange trick. I was able to visit Rome, England, New York, China, California, and Australia. While I was in all of these places I noticed one similar thing. There were people everywhere. Back home, we had been instructed to stay inside due to illness. In all these places, people didn’t seem to care.

It didn’t make sense to me. The disease was affecting the whole globe, yet people in literally every single place I visited didn’t seem to notice. I didn’t do much of anything in any of the places. I would try some local food, walk around for a bit, and come right back.

 In Rome, I tried carbonara; England: fish and chips; New York: a classic hotdog; China: a bat from a marketplace; California: sourdough bread; and in Australia: pavlova. The strangest thing was, I never seemed to get full. After my trip to Australia, I went back home and stayed there. I exited the basement and went upstairs to watch the news. 

“More stunning updates about the Coronavirus. How it started and where,” the newscaster said. I was taken aback by what I saw on the screen. Pausing the television, I walked closer to look at what the picture was. It was me in the Chinese market! A few days ago, all the pictures showed a man that was clearly from China. What scared me the most was that the man they showed before ended up catching the coronavirus. If my picture replaced that man’s picture, that would mean...I have the coronavirus!

My palms started sweating. The news made this virus sound horrible. I'm not at high risk, so I probably won't die, but today saying that you have coronavirus is like saying that you have the plague. Then it hit me.

The basement made me go back in time! That's why so many people were out and about.

I knew that I would never go down there again. If time travel could give me the coronavirus, who knows what else could happen.