The Portal

I’m standing in a dream. Is it a full on dream, or is it one of my few and far between visions? I can’t tell as I stand in a space with a white airy ground and no walls. I hear a voice, move forward. But, it’s like I know the voice. I’ve heard it before.

I move forward and fall.

I fall into the sky, into the world at a speed that will kill me. I feel no fear. I fall fast and it’s like the pressure will kill me alone, but I turn around and fall backwards. I look up to what looks like a door, the door hiding in plain sight that I fell through.

This must be a dream I pull reason into my thoughts grabbing on to them harshly as I feel fear beckoning me. I turn around and fall smack into a boat like I’ve been pushed down. I have no broken bones, my face is still intact, but my nose bleeds. It feels like a warning to never do that again.

I stand up and for a second it’s like I weigh a ton, like I’m made of iron. I hit my stomach and I feel as stiff as steel. But, why did I not burst through the boat? Why am I not dead?

“It’s not a dream and your life as you know it is gone,” he says to me while sidled up to the side of the boat giving me a once-over.

“Stay away from me!” I say holding my stomach suddenly sick from what I think is the fall. I then barrel over the side of the boat and spew chunks with the added bonus of tons of yellow fluid that smells, over and over again. He runs to me and I whack at him to go away, but he holds my hair back. I’m overcome with the feeling of gratitude. A quick change of pace from two seconds before.

I fall from weakness, my bones seem to to the monster mash and do a sort of dance and the collapse. He peels me off the base of the boat and carries me to his quarters. As I lay in his bed I can look around, but my body won’t move. He looks over me and all I feel is the gratefulness of his kindness.

“I was wrong about you,” I say moving my mouth slowly.

“Yeah, happens a lot,” he says sitting in a chair near me. “When you feel better, do you really want to man this boat with me? The air says it was your wish,” he says with exuberance.

I dare not shoot him down at his mercy, but I want to tell the truth. “I didn’t wish that.”

“You did, the air doesn’t lie. And you’re sick from your past doings…maybe something else too,” he says looking down with what looks like he’s shy.

“I need water,” I say to him as more of a command than a question.

“Oh, yeah,” he scuttles over the chair he’s sitting in and hurries to fill a plastic cup with water from a fridge that’s in the boat. He runs to me. “Here drink this,” he says holding it out to me.

I take it and he props me up with and pillow until I sit up straight and I can take a sip. I guzzle the entire thing. I turn to him. “What’s wrong with me?! And why didn’t I die?” I ask in irate anger.

He comes to sit on the bed. “This world has different rules, what you did on Earth causes things to happen here. We need to figure out why you’re dehydrated, why you didn’t die,” he says like a school teacher.

“I feel terrible,” I confess after liking him little more. As I look at him and his blonde short cropped hair and strong physique, he’s taller than me I noticed when he was over me holding my hair back. But, it’s his eyes that shine a hazel kind of goodness and It’s like I can see his heart. I’ve never experienced anything like this, I can see he loves me. Although, I’m not sure he knows that.

“I know how you feel, even though people hate it when you say that, but just get some sleep and it’ll all go away,” he says with a kind smile.

“Who are you?” I ask, but his face changes.

“No, not now. Please, jut get some rest,” he says more matter of factly.

When I wake, it must’ve been hours because the small window at the top of the boat is dark like night, I look around. His bed is comfy to the point I must’ve felt comfortable enough to snooze a lot. I look and feel my drool, yuck.

I sit up and look at my stomach. I see that in my life I was strong like this, strong as steel. He walks in and I pull my legs over to the side of the bed.

He leans against the wall facing me. “You know, since you’re better now…”

“No, don’t even think that,” I say standing, but I limp and hold on tot he bed, he rushes to me. He holds me with his strength. I look at him, different. He holds me with a softness too and doesn’t make a move since I said something. He’s different, nice or even kind.

“Thank you,” I say looking into his eyes. I see fear, but love. I stand up straighter with his help. “I was strong in life and was able to say no to you, but why don’t I want to anymore? Are you a beer drinking gutless fisherman that spends his life away on fish and pin up girls,” I say still looking him straight.

“What if I drop you for such speech, but I won’t. But, yes I am,” he says pleading with his eyes.

“Then kiss me," I say in all seriousness.