Trapped

I sat beside her and looked at her as the wind blew her hair to the side. She had planned to have a picnic with me for a while, we both knew that things like this happen rarely because we both work very often. We were in a beautiful open space, on the grass surrounded by dandelions. As Lori takes one of them and blows at the round dandelions causing the seeds to fly all around the field. She smiles at me and returns her gaze back to the field and then to the beautiful clouds above us. She says, 

“Rick, we should take photographs of these.” As she pointed to the clouds. I smiled and once she got up with my camera in her hands she looked back at me and from the position she was in, I could see the sun shining on her face as the color of her eyes slowly changed.  Lori and I are the type of people who love and enjoy going outdoors but we rarely do so. I mean before we used to go camping, go on hikes, and other related activities that you can imagine, however, all of that ceased for a bit until today. You see, the thing about us is that sometimes we don't have time as we used to. So, small moments like these are very valuable and worth it.  I care so much for her as she cares for me and we both understand that this isn’t easy for the both of us. Nevertheless, this has been one of the best afternoons I have ever had with her. I can hear her sigh and say,

“Rick, we should start packing. I have to get back to work.” I quickly nodded and we packed leaving nothing behind us. I am assuming that she spoke with her boss, right now they are short on staff. 

Once we made it back to our house, our little adorable puppy, Milo greets us right as we enter through the door. Lori rushes upstairs to shower and change her clothes. Milo is so happy to see us back. 

“Hello! How’s the wonderful boy!” He wags his tail as I say that to him. I placed the basket and the bags that I was carrying from our wonderful picnic we just had. Then I went straight to the kitchen. Grabbing a cold soda from the fridge to ease and cool off the heat from being outside. 

I was drinking the soda and sat on the couch closer to the TV when Milo hopped on the couch and sat next to me. I grabbed one of the books that I have stored on the table that had cabinets with it. That’s when I remembered about the bunch of entries and letters my mother wrote a long time ago that I have been given the day after she passed away. It made me reminisce about my mother. I barely knew her but I knew she loved me because these papers she would write about me even when I was unborn. At the age of 10, my mother had suffered from a heart attack and my father I never heard from him. He wasn’t in the picture, mother wouldn’t let me find out who and where he was. Ever since then I have lived with my uncles and worked hard to become someone in life. Meanwhile my uncles worked in construction, I would work on fast food restaurants and study at the same time. All I can say is that it wasn’t easy. My mother would be so proud of me.

 I heard footsteps from upstairs when Lori came down the stairs and she looked gorgeous. She was ready to go to work. I gave her a warm peck on her cheek.

 “Please, take care of yourself.” I say 

“Yes! Bye! Love ya!!” as she snatched the keys from the desk with such precision. She then leaves and I am again alone with Milo but not for long the guys have made several calls and have been messaging to meet up. They were supposed to have a barbecue today later in the afternoon but I wasn’t in the mood for that, so I stayed home. I needed some rest. 

Hours later, I received messages from my boss talking about my plans for next week. It is going to be a pretty busy schedule but as of right now I’ll take my chances to watch movies. I grabbed some snacks and served food to Milo. It was late already and I’m pretty sure Lori is going to be here pretty soon. I washed the dishes, took out the trash and took a shower. Then I came downstairs to the dining room table where my computer was and sat there working on some of my projects. Sometimes I can’t even believe that the months and years are going by so fast. My birthday was last month and it felt as if my birthday was about two weeks or so. My wish is to go on a vacation with Lori and travel to a country or if not then go to a beach and get on a cruise. That’s when I momentarily heard the door opening and Lori then came in. 

“Hey!” as I hear her move towards the kitchen. 

“Hi!” I say. As I approach to hug her, she stops me from doing it.

 “Look, you need to get dressed immediately!” She placed her keys and her purse down on the counter so she could grab fruits and make what seems like a smoothie. 

“Okay?” I say.

 “ Tonight there is a party, and there will also be lots of photographs, paintings, and other media hanging on the walls from people all around the world.” 

I looked at her and smiled right back. She giggled and I said, 

“We should get going then before we go late to it..” I knew where she was taking me. I enjoy going to these places but it is not very often that I go to them. Lori and I are such a wonderful couple but sometimes we act as if we are rebel teenagers. We both didn’t have a good childhood, we both suffered loss at such young ages. I get it, it gets rough sometimes and we have to face those challenges but it is hard to avoid or forget such things that have been recorded in our memory. Sometimes we both cry and sometimes we laugh and sometimes we just get so angry, I mean it’s life but we have to move on. Sometimes I ask myself if we are destined for each other, I mean we both have our likes and dislikes of each other and other similar or familiar things we both experienced. I hate to question myself sometimes and I don’t know if Lori does it too. I mean, I love her so much that she means the world to me. But what if in the future years, we weren’t destined for each other? Why am I thinking of such things that I am pretty certain it won't happen?. Just as soon as I heard her calling my name and asking me to zip her dress from the back while I was tying on my shoes downstairs. I go up and she is there, standing and waiting for me to zip up her dress.

“Rick, I wanted to thank you.” As she turns over and I say,

“Thank me for what?” 

“For being patient with me and understanding me, although I feel like I am pushing you away from me because I work so much.” She then started to fix my tie which pretty much seemed like a mess. . I could see tears rolling down her cheeks as I grabbed a box of tissues for her. I grabbed her hand and hugged her. I then gently fixed a few things of herself like her hair that was pointing out. It looked as though she stuck her head out of the window’s car. 

“Rick!!!” she yelled and I laughed, as if she could actually hear my thoughts.

We went past many street lights. The way where we were headed was an hour and a half of distance. I drove and passed through a drive-thru for the reason that Lori hasn’t eaten anything after the picnic we had today. We were close and/or near the place until we finally arrived at our destination. I got out of the car and opened her door as she slowly rose and got out of the car. Her scent was like a flower, sweet and tender. I closed the car’s door behind her as she grabbed my arm to the entrance of the gallery. I could hear jazz music playing in the background. She then meets one of her friends just as soon as I open the door for her. I am grateful I came because the gallery looked very different from what I am used to seeing. It was colorful, some had patterns, and some had history from the ancients. Lori’s friend, Janice, mentioned to me that she was expecting a baby. I could see Lori’s  face, she was smiling and happy for Janice. 

 “Congratulations! Oh my!” Lori said and everybody turned to look at what was going on. There were still people from other places looking at the paintings and images that held onto the wall. Later, Lori left me behind, I didn't mind it because she deserves to speak to her long distance friends. I kept on moving and honestly I am amazed by the good pieces of art. Just as soon as I move from one painting to another. Staring at the beautiful portrait in which I have never seen before. It was unique and it had a hidden message for sure. I then looked at the one that was beside it, I stared at it a bit longer but somehow I heard it calling me, pulling me towards it and that’s when I felt a sensation of me being locked up into it. I couldn’t move any part of my body. Could I possibly leave my body? All I could hear was the jazz music in the background. I don’t know what was going on and why could anybody around me see the weird position I was in. That’s when I suddenly felt a sort of dizziness and felt a warmth that rose up and went through from the bottom to the top of my body. Then after that I believe I fainted because all I could see was pure darkness. 

Just as I woke up and sat and opened my eyes, it felt as if I was in a different world. How? Where am I? I am lost and this doesn’t feel normal. I turned around and looked around. Was I going crazy? I am in a different era, this what I am wearing is not what I was wearing tonight. I looked up and around just to see a mirror or a portal to the gallery. I am stuck here. I banged as hard as I could but nobody around the gallery could see me or hear me. Everybody seemed to be leaving the place and I was here stuck. What is this? Was this painting haunted? Why me? Then a figure from the other side of the mirror or portal, it seemed like a man. He was transforming into me. His gaze and mine met. His clothes where mine and mine were his. What kind of witchcraft is this? I looked around to see if there was anything sharp around me to break the portal but there wasn’t anything, not even a single rock that I could possibly lift. A man from a distance seemed to be calling someone’s name,

 “Philip!!, Phillip!! Where are you?!!?” And I crouched down until they saw me. They grabbed me and as much as I wanted to let them let me go I couldn't because they were so strong. I could fight against them.. They held weird chains and weird armor. I begged for them to let me go but they wouldn’t listen. As they started to walk away from the portals they were seeing. I could hear them , his name was Philip, saying, 

“At last!! I’m free!” I was then taken by these men and I knew I would never return back. That's when they hit me hard in the head in which my vision went black.