The room is cold with only a small
wood furnace to warm the house. Snow drifts down from the sky and collects in
white piles on the hard, frozen ground. I sit hunched in my chair, the aches of
the day settle over my body and the worries of life settle in my mind. To me,
the cold of winter is not enjoyable, yet I love and cherish the chill of Fall
and early Spring. Winter is cold air and people huddled around fire, Fall is
warm houses and a refreshing breeze.
I stare outside at a tree, bare and
snow spattered. The sun shines down on the snow, but the frozen water refuses
to melt. The persistence of Winter is equal to an old man refusing to get out
of your chair. Old man winter has settled into your seat and no matter how many
times you prod him, he wont budge. I do not make a habit of prodding old men in
chairs, but if there was only one chair in the world and an old sleeping man
was in it, I might prod him.
As I let my eyes stare unfocused at
the scenery outside, the world through my window flickered. It was the quickest
kind of flicker that I would have missed if I had blinked. Then the world in
front of my eyes flickered again, but this time the alternate image stayed. The
space outside my window was no longer winter but late Autumn.
The sky was a dusky orange as if
time was stuck in permanent twilight, the trees stayed bare but the bark of the
tree was darker and the bare branches curved down like grasping hands with long
slender fingers. I felt excitement and confusion, I couldn’t tell if my vision
or my brain malfunctioned or if the world really had changed from Winter to an
eerie version of an October landscape.
I leapt from my seat and ran down
the wooden stairs. I threw open my door and stood to behold the world in full
October glory. This wasn’t the Autumn landscape printed on travel magazines
that some writers write about ad nauseam, this was October and the spooky
thrill of Halloween.
I began to walk around the
backyard, the stubborn snow was removed, old man winter evicted from his chair
and the chill of fall replaced the bitter cold of winter. A local stray cat
strutted through my yard as if it were the dominant species. It was a dirty
orange tabby with a smug expression, short legs and a small chubby frame. This
small potato walked with the confidence of a lion. I called the beast, it
looked at me and opened its mouth but instead of a meow, it let out an echoing
wolf howl. The cat looked very pleased with itself and then walked away.
I smiled at the strange creature,
my expression was that of amusement and bewilderment. I gazed at the land
before me and spotted the largest full moon I had ever seen. It was bright and
seemed to glow. The yellowed white color of the moon added to the warm colors
of the dark orange sky.
I walked out to the road and saw
the small houses of my neighbors all brightly lit and decorated for the Fall
festivals. The people inside were acting normally and if they saw me might
think I was the one who was strange. At this moment I realized I was barefoot
and still wearing my indoor clothes. I was so used to the winter cold that
being outside on a fall day without a coat didn’t bother me and my excitement
kept me from going back inside for shoes.
I walked down the street toward the
center of town and as I walked I marveled at the fall decorations, the
Jack-o-lanterns and the candles put in almost every windows. The I gazed up at
the moon again and for a minute it had a face. The moon had a large grinning
mouth with rows of teeth, wide eyes and no nose. I was so startled that I
gasped and in response to my gasp the moon winked. A moment later the face
vanished and I continued walking, my mind trying to work out how to deal with
what I just saw.
Once I arrived at the center of
town I spotted a black cat, who wore a witches hat and stood on two legs,
conversing with a skeleton, who didn’t wear clothes but had an elegant
mustache. I decided not to interrupt the conversation, as it seemed important
from the tone and the way the skeleton kept repeating “No! It’s real! Ok!”.
I was enjoying the sights and
sounds of this alternate reality so much that I didn’t much care if I ever
returned to my wintery, snow blasted reality. I didn’t know how to return even
if I wanted to.
The fun ended when two men wearing
black robes approached me. “how did you get here? You don’t belong here” The
man on the right said. “He must have slipped in somehow” said the man on the
left.
I explained what had happened and
how I had no idea how I ended up in this world. If I was indeed in another
world, I didn’t so much slip in as I fell in. I didn’t choose to come to this
place even if I was enjoying.
The two robed men thought on this
and then moved towards me “We don’t know how to send you back, so we need to
take you with us until we can figure something out” said the first man. As much
as I would have liked to see a Halloween prison, I didn’t want to be trapped in
one, so I turned around and took off running back to my house. The men in robes
took off after me, their feet disappeared under their cloaks as they levitated
off the ground and flew as they gave chase.
I couldn’t out run flying creatures
and I didn’t want to be imprisoned for an indefinite amount of time. My mind
raced as fast as my feet as both faculties tried to help me escape. Just as the
men wear gaining on me, I heard a wolf howl. I turned to look as a road orange
cat flew from the darkness and struck the first man. The potato cat struck the
floating man with such force that he careened into the man next to him. The two
men tumbled to the ground as they fought with a surprisingly fierce runt of a
cat.
I eventually reached my home, I was
tired, sweating, out of breath and had dirty aching feet. I ran up my stairs,
went into my room and sat down. I looked out the window and saw only a
Halloween landscape. I stared as hard as I could hoping for another flicker.
The door downstairs began to thud and break as intruders came in after me. I
stared at the window and continued hoping to return to my old reality. The
intruders came up the stairs and barged into my bedroom. I kept staring at the
October landscape, hoping, for the first time in my life, that it would turn
into a winter landscape. I felt large arms grab me around my torso and pull me
back. I struggled as I stared in desperation at the old window. I was slowly
dragged from my bedroom and as I was pulled out I saw a flicker outside. I
fought even harder to escape and get to my window.
I was hauled downstairs and
outside, I was dragged across the yellowish dried grass of late Fall as my
hopes of escape began to dwindle. Then in a flash I was outside in the snow.
I had returned to my own reality.
The freezing cold was too much and I was under dressed. I stood up and ran back
inside. There I saw a black cat and an orange runt of a cat sleeping peacefully
on my bed. The orange cat didn’t howl and the black cat didn’t stand on two
legs or wear a witch’s hat, but they did expect me to feed them.
I felt a sudden sting on my arm so
I rolled up my sleeve and saw a Jack-o-lantern mark with a face and large
grinning mouth like the moon had. The mark stung and looked like it had been
burned into my skin.
