Alone in A Strange Place (AIASP) Entry 1 - Pink - A Walk Between the Worlds, page 1

Alone in a Strange Place
Entry #1 - Subtitled "Pink - A Walk Between the Worlds"
Mostly, Sort of, Kind of Fiction
by: Trexter Ziam
February 2008

Chapter I.
The Last Thing I Remember:

My spouse was driving down from the hilltop into the shallow valley about two miles past the lignite mines and suddenly everything turned pink. My hands were pink, the trees were pink, the sky was pink, my spouse was pink. Everywhere I turned my gaze, the world both inside the pickup truck and outside the vehicle was pink. I asked my spouse if I was pink and if the whole world appeared pink to my spouse. Affirmative. EVERYTHING was pink. It was like an old black and white television, except it was tones of pink. Instead of greyscale, everything was pink scale.

The sun was nowhere to be seen; but, I'm sure it was behind the trees to my right, west. I looked at the dashboard clock, 3:20 P.M. Downhill, uphill, overhill we drove ... all the while the world remained pink and no vehicles ever passed us. 3:42 P.M. Still pink, everything, everywhere was pink, even my teeth were pink in the visor mirror. A few minutes later, everything was still pink. I checked the clock again. Time had stopped at 3:42. I watched the clocked for what seemed hours, days, months, perhaps even years. It never changed. An eternity passed and it was still 3:42, everything was still pink.

Chapter II.
The Whorlpool Swirl and Beyond

The next thing I remember was being sucked into a whorling swirl, a whirlpool of prime colours that blended together until the full color spectrum was whirling in a dizzying array of colours, coalescing into a vibrant crystal white light tinged with streaks of blue. Presumedly, my body had been unceremoniously plopped somewhere, though I know not where. With the inverted ice cream cone of colours gone I began to get my bearings.

I began to see myself, there, there, there, and another miniature version of myself on a long wooden table there, and the fifth and most defined version of myself, somewhat closer to my normal height in front of the first three. I counted all the "me's" of which there were five, plus the physical body which was nowhere in site, plus the "self" that I was who was observing all the others. Seven, I had split into seven parts.

The room was very long and contained only the long wooden table. Had there been chairs, it could have seated somewhere between twelve and twenty-four persons comfortably. At the opposite end of the table, there was an exit to the room which opened into a city of sorts. There was nothing remarkable about the room, I've forgotten the wall covering material, but, the archway had details I will tell you about shortly.

The second "self" walked into the third version of me and they rejoined becoming one. The first "self" then joined the second/third. I ordered the fifth, more solid version of myself to stop and wait for the others and me with my thought. The fifth stopped and the joined trio walked into the fifth and joined. Next, I approached and the miniature version of me on the tabletop was screaming, "No! No! No! Don't go in there!" I could tell the miniature version was going to be a handful; but, knew I must join the fifth myself ... and so I did. I joined my fifth body and could hear the most beautiful, unearthly, unimaginably wonderful music I ever heard. The music was such that no possible instrument on Earth could ever, ever, EVER recreate those sounds. The magical music was pulling on me like I was a roped calf. The miniature version of me was to my right and apparently heard the music and had a sense of its overwhelming power. I allowed the miniature me to stay separated and did not command it to join.

I walked to the archway. It was pink and had sparkling embedded jewels and crystals, linear engravings and exotic symbols. I no longer remember the symbols etched in the portal; but, know they were not from any ancient language nor known magical sigils, runes, symbols, alphabets or ciphers. I was more intrigued by the music and followed the tug of the musical rope, knowing I didn't have time to make a proper study of the ciphers on the portal. The miniature me continued to scream, "No! Don't go in there! You'll never come back! No! You cannot come back if you go in there! No -o-o-ooo-! Don't GO-O-O-o-o-ooo-!"

Chapter III.
Beyond the Pink Portal

The moment I decided I would cross the portal archway, the view appeared and in front of me was a huge pink city with a pink cobblestone thoroughfare roughly 360 feet wide. In the center of the thoroughfare were twelve to twenty-four enchanted, zombified beings, walking in a circle ... never stopping, never changing, a continous circling walk of doom. I immediately knew they were no longer living in the sense that I was ... I mean they were completely "unaware". The buildings, like the portal were pink.

The portal and the buildings were made of something akin to adobe or pink mud I presume, at least they had that sculpted sort of look about them. Even so, the buildings did not 'seem' real ... real being 'material' ... but, they were clearly there and starkly ugly in their nakedness and lack of decoration or signs of life. The buildings had no doors, portals, archways, nor windows and the only way to tell one building from the next was by it's varying heights.

Looking to the right, down the long pink-stone thoroughfare, the sun was roughly fourty-five degrees above the horizon and well centered, though hidden behind a green fog.

Ah! But, I came to find the source of that unearthly music and it was pulling me from my right. Behind me, the miniature 'me' stayed inside the room with the table, still audibly yelling and screaming and demanding I return, threatening that I'd never be able to return. I ignored the emotional 'me' and turned to my right and walked around the edge of the building. There was a wide pink-stone cobbled area between me and the next building. I walked toward the next building, where the musical sound seems to be coming from and I saw a green being!

I approached the being who was shorter than me and green and who stood behind a wooden, water-table with cystal clear glass-like organ pipes on his side of the basin. I could no longer hear the miniature me left so far behind; but, the music magnetically pulled me in closer and closer. I stopped and watched the green man as his hands massaged the clear crystal pipes they bent gracefully and dipped into the water-table. The water table was about four feet long by three-ish feet wide, and the six to twelve inch deep basin was filled with water (or some liquid substance). The green man was alive, I could sense it; but, he was not aware of my presence or was unable to see me. He continued to play, massaging the crystal pipes and slowly pressing them under the water from whence they would slowly spring back into their upright position.

Mesmerized, I listened and watched and then had a moment of clarity where Pythogoreus-like knowledge filled me briefly, seeing clearly the correlation between music and mathematics and sciences ... and then the moment of enlightenment disapparated as surely as it arrived.

I walked behind the table, right through the green man and tried to play the pipes; but, my hands flowed through the crystal pipes as though one or the other of us did not exist. The music continued, though, I could not see the green man anymore. I tried again, tried to play the water-organ and again, my hands went straight through the cyrstal pipes, not phasing them in the least. I tried a third time and failed again, resigning myself to having been blessed by the opportunity to hear the music ... even if I could never create it myself.

The sun was approaching the horizon now and my time was up. I knew it inside. I walked back toward the archway and heard the taunts, threats, warnings and cries of my miniature self beyond the portal; then, the frightful cries stopped ... forever.

[edit on 12-2-2008 by Trexter Ziam]