Read Version 1.3 here.
I’m not
asleep…but that doesn’t mean I’m awake.
̴ Author Unknown
*
We are
such stuff
As
dreams are made on,
And our
little life
Is
rounded with a sleep.
̴ William Shakespeare, The Tempest
The
dark corridor and the walls melted away and I found myself standing on a beach
with the man. By then, I was beyond surprise. I wondered which beach this was –
Bar beach, Oniru, whatever. It was deserted and there was no one else with us
as far as I could see.
“Where is this place?!” I asked. I
was tired of all the weirdness and just wanted it all to end.
“That depends.” The man replied.
I
scoffed. “On what?!”
“On where you need to be.” He said
evenly, not offended at all by my attitude. He almost seemed to expect it.
“Who are you anyway and what do you
want with Ayoade?” I asked.
“I could be a lot of things to you.”
He said, smiling. “And as to what I want with Ayoade, I want the same thing
from you.”
“Which is what?!” I demanded. “ It’s
been you all along, isn’t it? All the crazy stuff today, the voice, the
illusions, the dreams!”
He
didn’t say anything to that. He just kept looking at me with his head angled to
one side, like he was trying to decide how best to handle a child throwing a
tantrum.
“Come with me,” He finally said.
“Let’s take a walk and see what we find.”
With
that, he turned and started to walk down the beach. I threw up my hands in
frustration and followed after him. He didn’t say a word, no matter what I said
or what I asked. After a while, I gave up and sulked quietly. We finally got to
a door. Yeah a door. A solid wood
door, complete with hinges and lock but without a frame. How a door can stand
upright, in the middle of a beach, without a frame or wall or anything else to
support it is totally beyond me, but there it was! A door! Curiosity made me
walk round it, but there was nothing on the other side, just mile after mile of
sandy beach. A door with no entrance!
“What’s this?!” I asked.
“A doorway.” He said simply.
A
doorway. I didn’t see a doorway, I saw a door, period.
“What’s a door doing here?!”
“That’s for us to find out. What do
you think doorways are for?”
I
shrugged. “Doors are supposed to keep things locked in, safe, whatever!” as
silly as it sounds, I’d never really wondered about the functions of a door.
“True.” He said. “But they also give
us access.” He finished.
What
was his obsession with doors anyway?! First Ayoade’s door, now this one.
“Don’t you want to find out what’s
behind the door?” He asked.
I
gave him a look that said I thought he was completely bonkers. He just
continued to smile at me.
“There’s nothing behind the door!” I
said pointedly.
“Are you sure about that?”
“Hello! Take a look around! We’re
standing on a beach and that’s all that’s on the other side of the door!”
“You know, things aren’t always what
they seem like. You might not know what is behind a door until you open it.”
“Fine! Go ahead and open it then!” I
said exasperated.
He
smiled again. “This door isn’t mine to open.”
I
raised an eyebrow, as in seriously?!
He simply shrugged, still giving me that annoyingly patient look. I hesitated
for a moment. The dream had ended here at the door and I had no idea what would
come next. I would probably wake up again.
Or things could really go hay-wire! What
if…
“Whatever!” I was tired of all the
theatrics. I grabbed the door handle and put my whole weight into the push ‘cos
the door looked quite heavy and I figured the sand on the other side would
resist my opening it. The door swung open so suddenly and so lightly that I
fell head first into the room.
*
* * * * *
The
beach was gone and in its place was a room. I looked around the room and the
memories hit me like a blow. I had not thought about this room in years. I
thought I had forgotten all about it, thought I had burned all the memories of
it to ashes. This was a memory I had locked away somewhere far, and thrown away
the key. It was gone. Dead. Buried. Forgotten. Until this stranger dredged it
all up on a beach. A beach with a door. A beach with a door into this room. A doorway. I looked around the room in
horror. My mind simply refused to process the info it was receiving. It looked
exactly as it had the last time I had seen it. The two beds still sat at
opposite ends of the room with the door between them. The walls were a dark
blue, not helping the fact that there were no windows; it was always dark in
this room, not just dark in the sense of no light, but dark as in
deep-down-in-your-soul-dark. Angry, I swivelled to face the man.
“What exactly do you think you’re
doing?!” I shouted at him. “How dare you bring me here?! You have no right!”
“I didn’t bring you here.” He said
calmly. “You did.”
I
lost it then. How could he stand there so calm, when he was tearing my world
apart! How dare he throw it all in my face, rub it in without even a flicker of
emotion! I lunged at him, rage fuelling me on. I grabbed a handful of his shirt
and thrust my face in his, seeing red. The tears came hot and furious, an
intricate mix of anger and pain with no distinction between where one ended and
the other started.
“How could you bring me here, bring
all this back?! What sort of sick, twisted mind does that?!” I asked through
clenched teeth, snot and spittle flying. “You know what this place is, you know
all it stands for, how could you?!”
He
didn’t say anything else. He just stood there calmly; when my fists pummelled
his chest; while I scratched at his face and neck; holding me while I sobbed
and shook uncontrollably; after all the anger and emotion was gone and I was
spent; when the wailing shrivelled away into silent tears; he just stood there.
Not saying a word. A solid wall holding me up. Soaking up the tears. Reliving
the memories with me…
