You see yourself moving through a field of nothingness. The gray expanse feels delicate and warm, as
if the air is being perfectly circulated around you. As you float along, distant, formerly
amorphous, shapes begin to appear more geometric. You can make out buildings. Not historic, stucco or brick buildings, but
large cement blocks. An illusion of
light is created by small bits of mirrors cemented into the sides of the
buildings that reflect the shards of light which cannot be masked by the artificial
cloud cover that not only fills the sky, but fills the spaces between the geometric,
evenly spaced structures.
As you
continue to move closer to the cluster of buildings, you can feel the eerily
warm air comb through your short hair and make your light, silky clothing
ripple against your dry skin. Your hands
are loosely holding a warm metal railing, not for the sake of balance or
protection, but the necessity to have something solid to hold onto.
The light,
dry, gray fog around you begins to thin, as the cluster of structures grows
closer. The field of nothingness slowly
splits itself into three parts. The
first being the thinning fog mixed with the warming air, the second the
approaching “city,” and the third being the still, channel of liquid you are
cutting through. The color of the watery
substance is difficult to identify. It
is a tertiary, powdery green that is tainted with the same gray undertone as
the rest of your surroundings. The liquid in front of you appears almost as
still and cement at the buildings you are approaching until your industrial
wooden raft cuts through it.
The raft’s
deck is made of smooth wooden planks that feel cold under your feet, clashing
with the warm air surrounding, sending a feverish sweat through your poorly
insulated body. You are standing at the
bow of the 800 foot raft which is shaped liked a thin oval with a pointed bow
and stern. The actual source of the
raft’s forward motion and direction is unknown, as is the width and length of
the channel you are traveling on, due to the thick, puffy cloud cover that is
only absent over the raft’s path but stands like the walls of a tunnel ten feet
from each side of the raft and a ceiling about twenty feet overhead.
Through
your journey there was rarely a break in the clouds and they created the
constant illusion of a solid wall in front of you. But as you approached the city, you suddenly
broke through the eternal wall of clouds.
The clouds turned from a dark gray to light gray and began to appear
thinner and wispier, but show no sign of disappearing. The cloud ceiling appears to raise at an ever
increasing slope, and the shards of light that reflect off the buildings
increase, causing you to squint your eyes.
You cannot remember the last time you saw light, real light. The raft has four ten foot tall fluorescent
lights that create a bright square in the center of the raft. You prefer to stay outside of this artificial
light because it reflects off your bright white tunic, with a blinding effect
and causes your head to hurt.
Your name
is #248677895883 but you go by “Key,” after the trade of your distant locksmith
ancestors. What a locksmith or a “Key”
actually is, you don’t know but you’ve been told they go together.
You feel a
hand press against your back. Simple
human contact is relied upon for sanity during long, raft journeys through the
gray abyss. Any concept of time slips
away as you pass through the never-ending foggy tunnel. It is only when you approach the occasional
cluster of buildings that you can tell you’ve actually covered any
distance.
On the
rafts, people find things to entertain themselves with. They count the wooden planks. Then count them again. The children create games, tapping each other’s
fingers and pulling their clothing in different directions to create
costumes. Most people slip into a state
of restless sleep or, for the lucky ones, meditation. Other people just sit close to one another or
hold hands just to exchange a feeling of life.
There is no speaking permitted on the rafts.
I wrote this on a plane a few months ago. Not really sure what it is or exactly what it means but it's something I might want to work on in the future. Hope you enjoyed it!
