Blackbox

Blue Leaves

There seemed to be no gravity. Maya was floating inside of a void whose end she could not locate. There were no entries or exits. She was a dot in the vast expanse of black that seemed to engulf her. She saw no point in trying to swim through the blackness because there were no markers to ascertain that she was even moving.

Maya clenched her eyes shut hoping to wake up from this dream, if it was one. But there was no difference in what her eyes could perceive, whether they were open or closed. It seemed to be a universe residing in her own mind and body, only there were no stars.

A breeze touched her arms and passed on into nothingness. The silence had started to sound like a deafening beep whose volume increased steadily. Maya cupped her ears with all her might; her face looked like a crumpled napkin,  after it had been used to wipe a wound.

The breeze touched her legs this time, coming from the opposite direction. She squinted her eyes in an attempt to get a better view of what lay ahead. Maybe there was an exit, after all.

Her expectations were thwarted by the wind that rose to an exponential speed. She was being pushed and pulled at the same time; it was almost as if she was inside a wind cage closing in on her. Her eyes started to water profusely, leaving her blinded.

The wind completely stopped after a few minutes. Maya's eyes were still watering and her face felt raw. She was too scared of what she might see once she opened her eyes.

This time, she could see flowers: lilies budding amongst blue leaves. Through the slight opening of her eyelids, Maya made sure she was not in the void anymore. Once she saw the lilies, her eyes shot open of their own accord.

The relief that washed over Maya was unparalleled. Her laptop lay in front of her upon her baby blue bedsheet sprinkled with lilies. On her screen, the Netflix homescreen was visible. And the laptop was about to die.