INNEREAL ADVENTURES - ONE

THE SECOND GATE

THE SECOND GATE   

   Byron was quite excited to go through the gate and was eager to discover what was on the other side.

   But, he soon became quite confused because he could see nothing at all. All that he was able to determine was that he was caught in some type of thick mist. There was no dark and no light, just a plain gray mist. He blinked his eyes and reached out around him and took a few steps, but he didn’t find anything. Then he tried to go back to where he thought the gate was and couldn’t find it either.

   It was eerie and unnerving.

   He held his hand up right in front of his face and didn’t see it at all. He tried to turn on his orb light, but nothing, nothing at all. Even the gravity in this place was different. As he started to walk forward, he felt like there was no ground beneath him. He felt like he was walking on a treadmill and making no forward progress at all.

   This went on and on – walking and walking and walking. That is all that Byron knew he had to do. He simply remembered Jacobis’ words and just kept walking.

   Hour after hour, or day after day, Byron had no idea which, he just walked on, his only companion being his thoughts. He thought about Old Oaken and the many adventures that he had in the woods. He thought about his family and about how worried they must be. He thought about Jacobis and Narrie. He thought about Ajobis and the Crusher and the Lighthouse, of course. Finally, he thought about how wrong he was not to listen to what Narrie was telling him about the gate. He always thought he knew what to do, but in this case, he didn’t. He began to learn that maybe he didn’t have all of the answers after all. Maybe he wasn’t as great as he always thought he was. Maybe he was less, much less.

   It was a short while after this conversation with himself that he encountered and felt the first tangible object in the horrible gray mist. He actually walked right into it, like slamming into a wall, and after a bit of exploration, he discovered that, as near as he could tell, it was some type of door. But, this particular door was just hovering in the mist. Byron could feel all around its entire perimeter, including the top and the bottom, and he could feel both the front and the back surfaces. According to Byron’s observations, the door was quite small and he figured that he would have to bend over a bit to get through it, if he were ever able to figure out how to open it. The door was about a handbreadths thickness, but like everything else in the mist, Byron couldn’t see it at all, no matter how close he came to it. At any rate, Byron was certainly thrilled to come into contact with anything after such a long and dreary journey in the mist.

   Then, he figured that the third orb might open this door like it opened the gate, so he reached into his cloak pocket and took it out. He squeezed the orb in his left hand, but nothing seemed to be happening. So, he put the orb away and took out his pocketknife. Byron could always trust his pocketknife to help him get out of difficult or sticky situations. But, after a long time of careful examination, Byron found nothing on the surface of the door that he could even think of inserting a knife blade into.

   Byron started to push on the door, but it was immovable and just floating there in the mist. He started to pound on it and kick it, but to no avail. Finally, he grabbed it on both sides and started to just tap it with his forehead in frustration. “Why, why? What is up with this thing?” he thought. “I’m trapped in this mist, and I just know that this is the only way out. What is going on here?”

   Suddenly, right in front of Byron’s eyes, five circles started to appear on the surface of the door. They were arranged in a row of four on the top and one below, and Byron instantly recognized that it was the same pattern he saw on the latch across the door at the base of Old Oaken. So, he carefully raised his left hand and inserted his fingers into the holes. He could feel a slight clicking movement on his finger tips, and then the door started to turn on a center axis like a revolving door, so Byron quickly took his fingers out and stood back a step or two.

   The door just kept revolving on its own, so Byron decided to just take his chances and bend over and step through it. Whatever was on the other side of that door had to be an improvement over the dreadful mist.

   As Byron carefully stepped through the door, he was filled with expectation about what he might discover on the other side. But, his excitement waned rapidly as he found himself trapped again in the mist.

   “No! No, no, no,” he thought. “Am I ever going to get out of here?”

   Now, Byron’s only companions were sadness and sorrow and gloom. Over and over he thought of being trapped in this nothingness and wandering and wandering nowhere into nowhere. He began to weep and cry and sob profusely. He cried and wailed. Then, he tried to pound his fists on something, but there was nothing there. He cried until he couldn’t cry anymore and then more crying came after that. He was exhausted and devastated, broken and bankrupt of any sense of himself at all, or any desire for life at all.

   Finally, he was curled up in a ball, hanging onto himself for dear life when one word from a friend came into his mind, “Walk.” So, Byron mustered a shred of courage… 

   [“Why did he want mustard, Daddy?” “Mustered here just means that Byron found and gathered up some courage,” said I.]

   Byron then uncurled himself and began to crawl forward. Then, he got to his feet and slowly put one foot in front of the other and trudged on through the mist.

   After, again, what seemed like ages, finally, just as before, he bumped into another door. “Oh, no, no, not again,” he thought. But, upon further investigation, his spirits lifted a bit because he discovered that it was not a door after all. It was a gate, and it was exactly like the first one, except that it was floating in the nothingness like the door. Byron could feel all around every edge and both surfaces of it.

   Bryon just knew that he was supposed to go through the gate, so he reached into his pocket for the third orb. Again, he felt that same slam to his chest and then the gate started to change to the color of swirling bliss, so he reached out his left hand and walked through the second gate.