Orion's Belt

Darkness was all around.

Orion's Belt

I don't know really what happened, not really. I got out of bed as usual, walked to the front door, went out to the driveway, picked up the daily news, and then looked around me. Something seemed amiss. I didn't recognize where I was. Nothing looked familiar. I figured I was having an out of body moment. I'd heard those things happen sometimes.

Across the street the neighbor's daughter was taking out the trash. Like me, she was twenty three years old. She had just graduated from a college up north with a degree in education.

She had accepted a teaching job at the intermediate school a few blocks away. She would be teaching third graders I think.

  I know all this because my mother had told me. Mom had the scoop on all the good stuff going on in the neighborhood. .

She had a head of thick brownish hair. A person couldn't run a comb through it even if he had a steel comb and the strength of Superman.

She was also quite tall and skinny, rather awkward looking.

She looked up and waved,

"Garbage day," she giggled.

"Yep, garbage day," I replied, "my favorite day."

Garbage day, what a goofy thing to say. I suppose I was just being conversational.

  The truth was, I didn't know it was garbage day. My thoughts were  scrambled like bubbles in a champagne bottle.

She laughed.

 I didn't think what I said was all that funny, but she seemed to think it was.

Walking across the street, she held out her hand and introduced herself.

"Im Sara." she said.

I've seen you around quite often. 

I always wanted to meet you, but I'm a little shy sometimes. 

It keeps me from meeting people."

"Hmm, garbage...somehow it just has a way of always brings out the extravert in all of us." I replied.

A big smile smeared across her face as she laughed again.

I had said exactly two things to this girl and both times triggered a laugh from her. I was on a roll.

"So," she asked, "gotta' name, and don't lie to me either, cause I know you do."

Watching her waiting for my response I realized my confusion was worse than I first thought. Not only did I not know where I was, I couldn't remember my name either. I stumbled over my words unable to recall the simplest details of my life.

Even the walk out the door was a blurred mess.

"What's up mister, cat got your tongue?"

Looking at her with a confused look on my face I said,

"I...I."

It was all I could do.

I sat down cross legged in the middle of the street as if sitting around a campfire. Standing in front of me, she knelt down and faced me.

"You know, it's not exactly the safest or smartest thing in the world to be sitting in the middle of the road. 

If I sit like that I'll get the seat of my pants all dirty, so don't expect me to join you."

Funny she should say that because sitting in the road seemed like the safest place to be at the time, even though I knew it probably wasn't. I looked up into the dark early morning skies.

The stars were still out, bright and shiny. I searched for Orion's belt, but it wasn't where I thought it should be.

"Orion's belt," I said. "It's in the wrong place."

I pointed to what I thought was the southwestern sky.

"It should be over there, shouldn't it?" I remarked.

But my memory had been wiped clean, so I could have been wrong. I didn't know what was what. I could be on Mars for all I knew. Highly unlikely, but who knows?

The girl looked at me as though I was a person who had recently lost my mind. She wouldn't be too far off, I'm sure of it.

"No no," she answered, "it's exactly where it should be."

I looked at her face, studying it, trying to find something familiar about her. Nothing...everything was a blank.

I leaned toward her and quietly remarked,

"I'm a little confused, you see. I can't seem to remember my name. Is that crazy, or what?"

"Why that's silly," she remarked. She pointed to the house behind me she and exclaimed,

"You live right there. Your mother and my mother are friends."

If my mother and her mother were friends, then wouldn't she know my name? That was another story altogether. According to her account, our parents had been conspiring to get us together for some time . For some reason or other, things just didn't work out.

" It was a case of simple logistics," she explained. "They never managed to put things together."

I didn't understand any of it. Somehow she had never gotten my name.

But there were stranger things going on here than simply not knowing a name.

She stood up, held out her hand and commanded,

"Here you. Get up before some truck comes along and smashes us like some arrant beetles."

And that's when it happened.

Sure enough, just as she predicted, a large truck came along and SPLAT! all over the place.

And this is where the story really begins.

We were in a foggy but bright place. I realize that's a contradictory in terminology, but it was true.

I said we because she, the girl from across the street, was there with me too.

We walked, hand in hand, toward something. I couldn't make it out, but it appeared to be a large illusionary castle, but it wasn't, as I would discover later.

Don't ask me what that means because I don't know the answer.

We were in heaven, or so I imagined. I couldn't be sure, you see, having never been there and all.

I supposed we were, at least, I was hoping we were.

I didn't believe we were in that other place because it wasn't warm enough. I've heard it gets rather steamy down there, although, nobody's actually come from there to talk about it.

As we continued our walk, a large flashing sign appeared off in the distance. It read,

Mamma's Cafe, Open Early, Closed Late. Come on in.

What I once thought was a castle was actually a cafe.

We looked at each other, Sara and I, and mumbled simultaneously, "Huh?"

Mamma's Cafe appeared more like a diner than a cafe. It was designed like one of those old train car diners from the 50s.

An older woman in her early 50s, shouted out in a raspy, croaky, smokers induced voice,

"Have a seat, I'll be with ya in a minute."

Sara looked up at me and asked,

"Where are we?"

I shrugged my shoulders.

"I don't know."

Soon enough the waitress arrived at our table to take our order.

I looked at the menu, but there were no choices listed. I looked at our waitress and inquired about the blank menus.

She grabbed up both menus and grumbled, "There are no choices, don't you see that?"

"What did she mean by that?" I thought. There are always choices...always.

I gave her a confused glare,

"We had an accident," I said, "a terrible one. There was this big truck and..."

She interrupted me saying,

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know all about that."

Sara rediscovered her courage and asked the waitress,

"Where are we then? Are we in heaven, or that other place?"

The old waitress snickered and laughed,

"Heaven...hell, those places aren't for you, don't you know that?"

I could see the agitation in Sara's eyes. She was becoming irritably disturbed by this seemingly thoughtlessness, and crude waitress.

The old lady pulled up a chair and sat down.

"Look you two, in a few moments none of this will matter. You have been chosen. You are going on a special mission, but first you must pass through transformation."

"TRANSFORMATION," shouted Sara,"what tran..."

The old woman cut in, "Don't worry about it. In a few moments you won't remember any of this. You will have new lives in another place. You will have been married for three years. Everything will seem as normal, but you have a mission."

There it was again, that word mission. What did she mean by that?

"Don't worry,"she said,"you'll see soon enough."

There was a bright light outside that seemed to be heading in our direction. I thought it might be another truck, but it was bigger and brighter than before.

It came closer and closer until it engulfed both of us. I couldn't see anything, not even Sara, who was sitting right next to me.

Soon after the light came the darkness. So deep and dark was it that it seemed nothing else existed, not even me.

I thought I was alone until I felt Sara snuggle up next to me.

"What's happening to us?" she asked.

Not knowing for sure I answered,

"It could be the transformation the old woman was talking about."

"I don't like this," she said.

I told her I wasn't too thrilled about it either.

About that time the darkness began to give way to light. Sara and I could see each other once again.

There was a large sign leaning up against an odd looking tree. It read TRANSFORMATION AREA.

Author's Note

Something a little different from me...but not much.

Reviews

[Kim S.]

I enjoyed this write, I thought it was very good, love the imagery and detail.

[M.E.Lyle]

Thanks for reading. It was a little strange.

[alanwgraham]

This is very intriguing M, and well written. You've maintained the tension and mystery throughout. I does feel unfinished as if there is some revelation to come - although I'm a bit surprise you haven't referred to it.
Regards, i'm looking forward to the conclusion.
Alan