Brad's Space Market/¡▪︎¤♡♤°○

“You’ve never been to the space market before?”

“The space what?”

“Well, I know that Earthlings use the terms ‘space’ and ‘market’. We, on the outside, call it ‘¡▪︎¤♡♤°○’

“HUH?” 

“I know, I know. Space language is different. Our language is more of an experience."

"Go figure, I'm not sure if I heard it or I felt it. Fifth dimension woes, am I right?" I chuckled nervously, "So how did I get here anyway? And who are you?"

"Oh yes, I forget that Earthlings enjoy introductions… I am ■□□♤, but for simplicity sake, call me Brad."

"Okay… Brad." I peered around suspiciously, "Did I die?"

"What makes you say that?"

"Well, for starters, you and I are floating around in some sort of vast white space. You're definitely not a human being. You're more like a light-being… You're… You're not God, are you?" I said cringing.

I mean, if Brad is God, then I am a freaking fool talking to God like this.

"I simply don't need limbs," Brad replied. “Or a body for that matter.”

"Okay, hold up. I think we're getting off topic here. My bad. Um, what were we talking about again?"

"‘¡▪︎¤♡♤●°○’"

My stomach lurched.

"I'm sorry; space market." 

"Ah…" I groaned in agreement. "And how did I get here?"

"Well, how do you say it? Dream? In our language we call it--

"Please don't," I waved my hands, "I get physical reactions from your language... Alright. I'm dreaming. This is cool and all but I really gotta get back to 3D now."

"Don't you want to see where the space market will lead to?”

“Honestly, not really. I feel kind of sick, actually. I’d like to go home now.”

“Alright,” Brad said, “I won’t stop you.”

“Thank you. It was nice to meet you.”

I was kinda dizzy. There was no telling what was up and down, left or right. I spun around in zero gravity looking for a way out. 

Brad zipped around like a shooting star. If I could explain what he looked like, I’d say he reminded me of those atom diagrams we see in school. He is this glowing gold center with multiple neon blue halos whirring around him. 

There had to be a way out. Brad did say I was dreaming right? 

I drifted off into nothingness. Brad was both near and far. This was it and only it. I was on a lazy river of weightlessness. Neither hot nor cold, dark nor light, I just was. 

"Brad?" I called, "I'm lost and I need your help."

"Oh, okay." He said whirring to me, "Would you like to see the market now?"

I sighed, "Sure… And then after I can go home?"

"Sure!" 

When I was a kid, I remember vividly playing in a park shielded by large fluffy maple trees and woodsy pine trees. I remember the pine needles sticking to the bottom of my feet as I ran through the grass toward the kiddie pools. Momma had dressed me in a lemon yellow bathing suit. I think I remember being shoeless because I had carelessly flung my tiny flip-flops out of the car window with so much excitement.  

I have this distant memory of talking to a cousin through a pay phone on the side of the change room walls. I remembered imagining the phone was a tunnel of stars connecting me to him. I miss him so much. I was asking him to come to the park and play with me. I also remember him telling me, he couldn't. He was older, maybe fourteen years older at the time and I begged him to come. To just slip through the tunnel connected to us by the phone and zip, he’d be here with me. 

That’s what it felt like traveling with Brad. He swept us into this tunnel of stars that felt like walking on those escalator floors in the airport. As we walked, the stars and planets just zipped by. 

Brad hummed beside me. He bobbed, weightless in the air. I could feel he was happy. 

“Brad?” I tested.

He seemed to be listening. I could tell. 

“You’re really excited about this space market, huh. What makes it so special?”

He whirred around me like an excited puppy wanting to play.

“The market is special! It’s where I was born.”

Surprised lit up my face. “Oh! How were you born? Or is that a weird question? Do you have a mommy and daddy, too?”

“Not particularly. Not like you Earthlings have. My mommy and daddy are the divine existence and everlasting love that blinks and sighs. It’s hard to explain in Earthling language. But in my language it’s  ‘¡▪☆¤♡▪︎♡¤□°》》●○°¡”

My body tingled. This time it was pleasant. “Okay, I think I have an idea,” I said feeling gratitude wash over me. “So what can we expect to find at this space market? The ones on Earth have food and antiques. Just about anything really. Anything worth selling and anything worth buying.”

“It’s grand. Like nothing I’m sure you’ve seen before!” He buzzed. “There’s a transactional component like all markets, I suppose. But it’s even bigger, even larger!”

“I’ll be sure to pick up a souvenir!” 

“I’m sure you’ll find a lot more than that!”

Before I could say ‘¡▪︎¤♡♤°○’, I could feel my heart leaping, as if we were about to go over a steep hill on a roller coaster. The tunnel stretched and warped with us inside it.

“We’re here! We’re here!” Brad exclaimed.

Then ding!

Brad led us onto a starlit platform that seemed to levitate in the space that we know. The darkness was everywhere except, the starlight was blinking at us as if saying hello.

“Whoaaaa…” I gasped in awe. “This is outer-space?”

“Something like that.” Brad said, “follow me, we need to find a cloud of stardust to take us to the market below… Oh--There’s one now! Let’s go! Jump!”

"Jump?! Are you crazy?"

I felt myself running from one part of the platform toward the end following Brad's lead. My feet took off from the edge and I was falling, falling, falling, until I felt my bottom collide with a soft cloud made up of twinkling stardust in pink.

Brad whirred down to sit with me as the cloud gently wafted to the city below. 

“That’s the market? Down there?”

I could feel Brad nod. He didn’t, but I could feel it.

My face was lit up with brilliant colours as if I was sitting in front of a glittering Christmas tree, or, sprawled over a plane of grass watching the fireworks fall.

“Everything you need is down there. But not all of it you can hold.”

“What do you mean by that, Brad?”

“You shall see!”

It was a grand city in space. From up on the platform, I barely noticed the city was built on a floating disk, forever spinning.

The vast space around this disk was infinite. Dark, alluring, mind-boggling.

The pink cloud disappeared when we reached the ground. Space rock was what I was standing on. The rocks were simultaneously crumbly and spongy just like a Canadian candy bar I’d had as a kid called Crunchie.

“Well? What would you like to see first?” Brad asked me. “The marketplace is everywhere and anywhere.”

“...Okay. Is there space food? I’m feeling kind of hungry.”

“Oh! Yes, we can do that!” 

I was propelled forward down a street. Intergalactic beings appeared suddenly in all shapes and sizes and energies. 

“Whoaaaaa… What is that?!” I said pointing to a cartoonish looking dragon creature.

“It’s rude to point,” Brad whispered. 

“Oh, sorry.”

And then the beautiful sprites came along. They smelled like cinnamon and apples, lemon and sugar. I took another big whiff of them before they floated off.

"This is called ‘¤¤《♤’. Much like cotton candy from your world," Brad said returning from a street side stand. 

I took a big piece of fluff and stuffed it into my mouth. It was like cotton but it had the best crunch I've ever experienced. "It tastes like fwied fish. It's pwetty good." After, I swallowed some more. 

"Careful," Brad warned, "eat too much of it and it'll turn your Rs into Ws."

"...Oh cwap."

My eyes caught the sky. It was the most vibrant lavender colour I'd ever seen and in the deep dense city, beside buildings made of titanium, tents and stands started to appear along the space roads as the sun dipped below the disk.

Cosmic purple lanterns levitated in the air, igniting a path down a segment of the marketplace.

Brad bobbed alongside me as I strode through, eyes wide with wonderment. Everything was just so wonky. There were beings that even my own imagination could never think up.

“Aliens?” I asked Brad quietly.

Brad chuckled, “Well, to them you are!”

We stopped at a stand of beautiful looking gems and stones. I looked at the shopkeeper and motioned to something that resembled a garnet. 

“☆●••○■♧■> … `□♤●●•!” The shopkeeper’s tentacles vibrated with excitement.

Brad leaned in, “It’s a stone from the Galaxy 746. It’s said to have properties to heal any wounds and cure any sickness.”

“I’ll take it!” I said, “...But wait, how do I pay?”

Brad whirred in the direction of the shopkeeper. “>¤《》¤●●■◇♡•~○¿”

“...□■◇¤▪︎□|•<●○♤”

“☆●□○■{》\ … ~○<《{♤...□●●♤♡♡~~”

“She’ll take a strand of your hair. That would suffice,” Brad glowed.

I was queasy. This language literally touches--err--shakes up my soul. I plucked a strand of black hair from my head and gave it to the shopkeeper. Her tentacles quivered in excitement.

“Thank you,” I said, receiving the stone. “I have someone I’d like to give this to.”

Brad bounced around beside me, “There! There! The house of mirrors was where I was born! Let’s go, shall we?”

His light glowed twice as bright as I felt his gravity pull. We went into the house of mirrors and it was like how I expected it… a literal house full of mirrors except… I had been in this house before.

The old Victorian style home, with modern furniture, in greige. My aunty’s favourite colour for furniture. The blocky television and remote control with too many buttons. The antique clock on the south wall. Even the portraits; baby Janet, my older cousin. Now she’s thirty with three kids. Henri, my other cousin, the youngest one, and Bradley… the middle kid. Except his portrait was located on a shrine in the kitchen. He had died many years ago.

My reflection shone back at me. I was crying.

“Brad?” I called, “Brad?”

He was nowhere in sight.

I ran up the stairs toward his room knowing the home like the back of my hand, tears blurring my vision. The stone was suddenly heavy in my pocket.

“Bradley?” I choked. When I burst through the door of his room, he was standing there, perfectly normal, eighteen years old as if he’d never died. In the corner, old IV poles, dusty saline bags, and syringes were piled high.

I pulled the stone from my pocket and put it in his hands.

“...So this is heaven?” I asked him.

Brad smiled at me, “It’s not your time yet, but one day, you’ll see.”