Internal Perspective

I

It’s foggy. I woke up in an unfamiliar place. I have never been here before. There’s no one around. It’s just an empty room with no windows and a metal door. No footsteps or breathing. No, just me. There is a box on the corner. Dusty, old but a strong looking box. Am I supposed to open the box and find a key?

Wait. Why am I here again? How did I get here?

I pace towards the door to check if I can open it. It’s unlocked. It doesn’t even creak when I opened it and it doesn’t seem new either.

Outside was a green field with rows of houses with grilled windows. People are looking through the windows like they have never seen a man walking in there streets. On some houses there were singing, some shouting. A very active neighborhood but not one kid playing outside or a man washing his car in the garage.

Up ahead are bigger houses with more order it seems. Some curtains were closed and people are barely looking. The order of the aristocrats and their lawn full of colorful flowers but disorganized tool sheds. The streets up here are narrower than where I started.

I see paintings on the walls in one of the houses. When I was young I used to draw too so I went up the porch and knocked at the door. The door was made of clear glass and I can see through inside. Full of life and color. I can see the boy who paints and he doesn’t look so happy despite the pictures he creates. He seems aware that I’m looking but I keep looking anyway. He tried to tell me something but I can’t hear him. I tried shouting but he looked away and seem focused on what he’s doing. Not a bad neighborhood at all.

Now what? Where do I go? I have to ask somebody where I am. As I walked faster towards what I see is a car with a man coming out I felt something in my hand. I looked and it was a little girl holding me. A little girl outside? A welcome very welcome sight.

“Are you lost little girl?” I asked her.

She did not answer. She isn’t looking at me at all. She seems lost in thought, a blank face staring afar. She does not seem alive. Her other hand steadily pointing towards the end of the road which is now visible from where we’re standing. Maybe she wants me to take here there so I held here firmly and walked towards the end of the road. The end of the road…

This seems to be a familiar place. A déjà vu perhaps? Or have I been here?

What are the answers to all my questions if I’m stuck in this god-forsaken place! But the little girl, I have to take her to her home or where she is safe. More eyes are staring at me. So I ran faster with the girl and she doesn’t seem to resist and caught up to me. I turned back to look at here while we’re running. She is frozen, her other eye seems to be blinking involuntarily. She is sick! My God she is sick! Before I can stop to carry her in my arms, I felt like falling. We were falling. 

 

II

It’s warm. I woke up in a familiar place. This is my room. Where was I yesterday? Was it all a dream?

 I tried to stand up but my right leg hurts. Yesterday’s fall was very real. I hopped my way to the table where there was food. My wife must have prepared this meal when she left for work early this morning. Crayons on the floor and a little girl’s drawing! My little girl! How could I have forgotten her and what she looked like yesterday! An imbecile of a father I am, I heard a knock on the door. It was more like clanging of metal bars.

I opened the door and saw two men dressed in white. One was holding the box I saw yesterday and the other grabbing my little girl by the arm up in the air as if she was some piece of cloth. I walked angrily towards the other guy but I was restrained by some bars in front of me that I didn’t see before.

Where do these pieces of garbage metal came from? I shouted at the man “Let my little girl go!”

He replied gently, “Easy there big man, here’s your little girl’s doll. You broke it yesterday,” as he easily handed me my daughter through the bars. This man has got no respect for my beloved girl.

The man carrying the box left it by the door. As I look around I see a white ceiling and three walls. A cage? Me and my baby in a cage? My little girl and I have to get out.

Author's Note

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