The City of Gold

The city was enormous, as I looked around the changing landscape; the city went as far as my eyes could see.  I was no longer in the dank, swampy reservoir; I was in some kind of futuristic palace.  Donnie and Derrick had all but disappeared, except for the faint murmur of Cajun music that seemed to exist so far in the past.  The city was beautiful, huge sky rises of gold sequined with diamonds and jewels of all types.  It was a place of hustle and bustle as they were cars flying through the streets.  No literally, flying… each with its own level, the cars made their way through the maze of gold skyscrapers.

            As my vision came more into focus, I could see that we were sitting atop some vast hill overlooking this city; it reminded me of Olympus looking out upon a great space-age kingdom.  The fire had since been transformed into a bubbling fountain of many colors, and as I turned to look at Joe I saw I was no longer in my t shirt and khaki shorts, but a white robe laced with golden trim.  As my eyes narrowed, I saw Joe was wearing the same attire; he let out a godly laugh as fireworks exploded around his head.  The only phrase I could mutter was “How did you just do that with the lights?”  He laughed again and said, “You’re in my trip now… how do you enjoy the view?”  I smiled and replied, “It’s beautiful it really is, but where are we?”  Joe simply said, “This is where I come to relax when I come camping, I feel like a king perched up on this throne, overlooking my vast empire!”

            It was at that point, which I realized I was literally in his trip, what he said was indeed correct.  As my eyes gazed across the kingdom once more, I couldn’t help but get a mild shiver crawling up my spine.  Now I had tripped before, but never had I ever tripped the same thing as someone else.  This was getting weirder by the minute. 

As my mind began to panic, the golden city began to flutter a bit, popping in and out of existence.  As I lay back in my chair, I took a huge deep breath, and as I relaxed so too did the vision of this place.  “Be careful,” Joe said.  “You don’t want to break the cocoon and shift out of this place”  “Cocoon? What’s that?” I replied.  Joe then went on to explain:

“An acid trip works like a series of small universes that play off the macrocosm (your real reality) each taking on the reality at one particular moment.  Just like a caterpillar has made his nest in the cocoon, by disrupting the small universe you may break through into the next and shift your trip to a completely new universe… new sights, new surroundings.  You cannot avoid a cocoon breaking, but you can prolong it by staying relaxed and focused.” 

I was astonished!  I had never heard it put quite that way before and in my alternative reality, Joe’s words made an increasing amount of sense.  “Just lay back and enjoy the scenery, it’s all about the ride my friend,” Joe said.  As I kicked back in the chair, I noticed Scooter was sitting upright looking at the city as well.  He was a regal beast indeed by this point; he looked more like an Egyptian dog god with his slender body and large ears.  He was no longer the tranquil, fun loving Scooter that I knew he was something much more than that.  I dared not call him; as I studied his posture a warm yellow glow began to come around him, almost hugging him.  For once I thought I was seeing him, for who he truly was, an old soul, my protector, a speedy, crafty individual with his own life force.

I slowly reached out to pet my noble animal, and just as Scooter’s head turned towards me, his aura vanished; it went dark.  I looked up for the city and just like a flash of a camera it was gone.  I lie there in the damp recesses of the reservoir; Donnie and Derrick were sitting by the fire and Joe sat with a smirk on this face.  I looked up at him and just said “Cocoon!”  Joe laughed, almost proud, “Now you’re getting the hang of it!”

“How’s wonderland over there Alice!” Donnie called out to me, laughing.  “You boys been on some crazy adventure, we can barely understand what you’re talking about.”  Joe and I just looked at each other and hysterically laughed.  Surely there was no time to explain where we had been or what it felt like.  I simply replied to Donnie, “10-4, good buddy, eagle one has landed safely back on planet earth.”  Donnie just rolled his eyes and continued his chat with Derrick.  For a while, everything was back to normal, I stood up and walked over towards Donnie and Derrick, Joe did as well.  As I rose, so did Scooter following always in my shadow.  We conversed for a while around the fire, before I got the sudden urge to sit back down in the lounge chair.  Joe followed closely behind, as I kicked back into the chair, a strange feeling came over me, as I now knew what to call it, I was shifting!