Lands Above

It was time for my life to take flight, going to a faraway place that only fantasy knows. They say it is a place of magic. My heart beats faster and my body shakes back and forth against the quick winds. It is like a roller coaster, only with no harness and a much higher drop if I were to fall. As my body is whipped from side to side, I try to swallow, but my throat is closed and the pressure of the speed has risen to my ears. Suddenly, everything stops. I look beneath my feet and see intertwining shades of white, blue, and green. My stomach settles, as does my journey, as I float amongst the vast area around me. I see glistening lakes and rivers wrapped around patches of fuzzy green. The sun shines bright, but I can see clearly- more clearly than ever before. The shining light makes the grand scenery shimmer and sparkle and I feel safe, yet I have never been here before.  

Then comes the wind. Giant gusts, twists and turns, and I do a dance in the sky. My body is twisting and turning, as if I am inside a tornado. I close my eyes, afraid. My chest is tight and my heart is beating at an untraceable speed. I feel that my heart might explode from the shell of my body. The breath is suddenly taken from my mouth and everything falls silent. 

 I open my eyes and see nothing but white. The world around me was filled with swirls of cotton and fluffy air. It looked as if I was inside a cloud, comfortable yet trapped. Where am I? Did I die and was this heaven? There was no one around. “Hello?” I yell. 

I take a step and slip, the ground slides beneath my feet as I sit upon the swirls. I look beneath me to see some of the swirls have become a pastel pink, like the color of a beautifully decorated baby shower. I place my hand beside me and touch a swirl- it also becomes pink. I start tapping the space around me, and suddenly my world changes from white to pink. I stand and begin to walk, to where? No idea, but I didn’t seem to care. At this point, I was more fascinated than afraid. With each step, I look behind me and I see that I leave a trail of pink footprints. I start running and turning, seeing a trail of pink leaving my body. I was sprinting now. The smile on my face was wide and my heart was racing. In the distance, I see a dark blue figure. I stop to catch my breath and try to make out what it is. It looks like a silhouette of a person. “Hello!” I yell. No answer.  

“Hey!” I start running again, this time to a destination. I pick up my pace to reach the blue image, but it doesn’t seem to get any closer. As I run, I slip and fall on my bottom. I can see the figure more clearly now, I see the features of a person. I try to stand, but I slip again. This time I roll, as if I fell down a steep hill on an icy day. I try to slow down, but I roll faster and faster, seeing nothing but white and pink surrounding me. I feel as if I am rolling through clouds and they are suffocating. I feel my throat begin to close and I attempt to scream for someone, something, anything to answer. But no sound leaves my mouth as the clouds enter my lungs and I close my eyes. 

When I open them, I see my clothes are wet. Around me, I see nothing but blue. I look down and see that I am sitting in a shallow pool, but this pool goes on for what looks like forever. Am in the ocean? I touch the water around me, it is warm. I’m soaked, but somehow comfortable. I can’t be in the ocean. The water is only a foot deep, so I stand. As I begin to walk, my feet are tickled by the sand between my toes. The water is navy, with shimmering lights. It looks like a lake in the evening with the moon’s reflections present on its surface, but the sun is out and it is definitely daytime. “Hello?” I yell. No answer. I look up and see a beautiful starry sky. The sun and other stars are all out, but the sky is a light blue, as if it is 2 o’clock in the afternoon. Where am I? 

I continue walking and feel the sand beneath my feet become thick. Walking is suddenly exhausting as I struggle lifting each foot. My left foot sticks and I am immobile. I pull on my leg with all of my might, but no budge. I wasn’t sinking, and this wasn’t quick sand. The sand begins rising all the way to my knee and the water begins to drain, as if I was in a giant bathtub.  The sand continues to rise to my waist, as I continue struggling to move. The sand surrounds me as it reaches my throat. My chest tightens and I scream, but no sound escapes. The sand reaches my nose and I can’t breathe. I can still see around me, somehow I am not dead. The water is entirely gone from my view, and I only see sand, the bright sun, and the stars. I look in the distance and I see the blue figure again, it comes towards me. I try to focus on it, as it comes closer and closer. But then, sand covers my eyes and all I see is black. 

My eyes begin to open, as I see a second pair of eyes staring directly at me, very close. I scream and pull away, as my body falls a few feet below. My back crashes into the hard yet fuzzy green ground. The pain is true; my lower back feels broken and my shoulders throb. I lay there still. Maybe I’m not dead. Looking up, I see green. Trees? I manage to stand, but realize there is no place to walk-the only way is up. I am surrounded by trees with protruding branches coming from every angle. I try to step over a branch next to me, but I am hit by a branch and flung backwards. I hit the fuzzy, yet painful ground again. I try turning around and walking the other way. I am then smacked in the face by a different branch. My eye is throbbing from the pain. 

I decided to climb. I find myself out of breath very quickly, as I move my legs and arms in ways I haven’t before. I make it a few branches up and hear leaves rustling behind me. I turn around to look. Nothing. I turn back and I am met with eyes again. They are bright green and belong to creatures vaguely resembling a monkey. I stand very still, hoping the creature will move. The monkey howls like a wolf, and the trees are then filled with these creatures. I stay very still, holding onto the tree in front of me so hard my hands begin to sweat. The creatures all stare at me, silent. The monkey I have locked eyes with starts jumping, shaking the branches that are keeping me from falling. All the monkeys start howling, like they are cheering me on to fall. Then, the branch beneath my feet snaps. I fall down into the green abyss, hearing nothing but howling and I see a faint blue figure in the sky.  

I wake up in a bright, white building. My back was still throbbing from my numerous falls from the trees. I am surrounded by identical blue leather seats, like the one I’m sitting in. There were probably over 50 seats in neat rows. This is the first place I recognize, but I don’t know how. The carpet was gray, with lots of stains and the lights were almost blinding. I start walking. There are signs everywhere. All the signs look like directions. Am I in an airport? I get closer to a sign on the wall labeled “Arrivals.” I was expecting to read cities like Chicago or Orlando, but instead I saw pictures. The first in the list said “just landed” with a picture of a green tree. Below it was a picture of a blue lake or puddle. These all seemed familiar. Below that picture was a pink cloud. On a second list, labeled “Departures”, there were pictures of fire, a purple flower, a black hammer, and a red chair.  I wondered what these all meant. The red chair seemed familiar also. 

I kept walking towards a large sign above my head labeled “DEPARTURES.” Maybe this is how I would get home. I started running and then I saw someone walking towards me. I picked up speed. Another person! I stopped next to them, “Hello?” He is a tall man with a slim figure in a suit. One hand held a briefcase and the other a cell phone, and his eyes were locked to it. Either he couldn’t hear me or he was ignoring me, because he kept walking. “Excuse me!” I was yelling now. Still no response. I tapped his shoulder, but he just kept walking. I ran up and stood in front of him. He kept walking, and walked right through me. I whipped around to see him keep walking. What was happening? Then there was another person walking towards me now, looking down at their phone like the last. It’s a young woman in leggings, a sweatshirt, and earbuds. She was also entranced in her technology, but I still screamed, “Excuse me! Ma’am?” No response. She just walked right past me.

Another person came walking towards me, and another, and another. All of their eyes were locked to their cell phones. Heads down, walking in a straight line, each at the same speed. They were acting like robots, not like people at all. There was a mother pushing a stroller, her eyes looked tired, but she stared tirelessly at her phone. There was a boy on a skateboard (I didn't think this was even allowed in airports), somehow keeping a straight line, looking at the phone in his hand. There was an old woman, she was hunched over with a cane in one hand, and her phone in the other. Yet, she was somehow still walking at the same speed as everyone. The people filled the entire hallway, walking and coming from both ways. I started feeling claustrophobic. else. I tried yelling again, “Hello? Does anyone know where this is?”

A young girl, probably around the age of 7 came up to me. She was half my high with a dark blue dress. She was the only one that looked somewhat normal amid the cluster of everyone else. She looked up at me with big brown eyes and beckoned me to kneel down. I did as she said. She said “I have to tell you a secret.” She cupped her hands, and leaned into my ear. “Go to departures and choose a door.”

“What door?” I asked. 

But when I pulled away from her hands, the little girl was nowhere in sight. I turned, doing circles around myself. Where could she have possibly gone? I started running. Running through the lines and flow of what might be people.

“Little girl! Help! Where are you?” My heart began to race again. I felt the blood rushing to my head and tears streaming down my face. I couldn’t think of anything else to do, but sit on the ground, as everyone kept walking by me. I pulled my knees to my chest and sob. I sat for what felt like hours, with my head buried in my knees, and my closed tightly. Eventually I look up to see everyone gone. Except what seemed to be the same little girl again in the distance, but all I saw was blue. 

I stood up and headed towards her, wiping my eyes and shaking off  the anxiety my body went through. The little girl starts walking towards departures, I follow and begin to pick up speed. When I reach her, I see 4 doors, each with a symbol from the previous departure signs. The little girl stood there, staring at me. I looked back at her for guidance. “ I just want to go home,” I said to her. 

She nods and points to the door with the red chair, without saying a word. The red chair looked oddly familiar and I had nothing to lose, so I walked towards it. “Thank you.” I said to the girl, and walked through the door. 

It was a long gray hallway, very narrow. The floor seemed to be temporary or moveable, yet familiar. I have been here before. Then I realized I was walking towards the entrance to an airplane. As I keep walking, I see lines of strollers, wheelchairs, and luggage. It all seems to be somewhat normal, except there was no one else in sight. I looked behind to see if there was anyone there, no one. When I looked back forward, I was looking right into the eyes of the blue figure, and it was me.  

I had locked eyes with a person that looked exactly like me, but blue. Almost like the bubblegum girl from Willy Wonka. She is smiling, an evil smile. “Welcome home,” she says. She steps closer and hugs me. My heart began to race and my breath quickened. I began to cry, I felt safer than ever before.  I close my eyes and sob into the chest of this other me.

I begin to breathe normally. I hear a baby crying and a man snoring. My vision is blurred and I wonder where I am. Suddenly, my body slams into something beneath me, as if I fell from the sky. I rub my eyes and see a red leather seat. I look up to find an array of knobs. I hear a woman’s voice asking for people to keep their seatbelts fastened. I look out a small window next to me and I see pink clouds in the distance. I rub my eyes and look again to see a green monkey floating on a large navy lake. The blue figure was in the distance, waving. I was entranced and so I kept staring and I felt like I could stare out of the window forever.