A Negative World(A collection of short stories)

A Negative World(1)

Now, dear readers, I would like to tell a quite brief story about my own true experience involving two humans, which includes myself. Though numerous short stories start like this and you may distrust me for telling some random story I heard from friends close to me as my own creative material, I can tell you just one thing for sure: this is based on true things.

It, fortunately, won't take long, but I am afraid it may take you a lot of periods of headaches to fight against as you try desperately, just as I did myself, to follow the entirety of this experience of mine.

Just as I am now, I was one of the numerous young zookeepers employed in the Bronx Zoo of England, aged 27 then. I was a diligent young man who worked hard next to a giant elephant cage to take care of myself and a dog, ordinarily dubbed Rex, for some reason.

I had numerous friends who also worked as zookeepers at the same zoo, and one of them was the most important character here. His name was Bradley Davis, and he worked quite close to me, and took care of seals in a deep pool situated quite near to my elephants. He was aged more than 50 back then.

His presence greatly entertained me everyday, for whenever it was break or a short shift, he would tell me a story. Yes, he would tell me a story. He had a great deal of stories in his head all the time. All of them seemed quite authentic, but I liked to attribute the frightening truthfulness of his stories to the fact that he was, simply, a talented speaker who had, with great unfortunate, gotten into a zoo instead of becoming a debater.

However, soon, I would learn that this false attribution of mine would lead me to receive a great astonishment later in the course of my career in the zoo.

I was slowly enjoying the idle air of lunch at the zoo when Brad, just as usual, strolled over to me. He had gotten used to having me as his audience; thus, he was a good speaker, while I was, apparently and with little offense, a good listener.

We shared a set menu from McDonald's which arrived in 5 minutes from a nearby chain by motorbike, and Brad started talking as soon as the man left.

"Have you, my dear friend, ever imagined of a world that's completely the opposite from ours?" His stories usually began like this, and thus, I merely shrugged my shoulders as I unwrapped a burger.

"A lot of times, I guess-normally during daydreams during lectures,"

"And what do you imagine those worlds to appear like?" Brad was a man of considerable weight and volume and he took a few seconds to comfortably shift his pose to stare at me directly, a serious smile tugging at his lips.

Well, to be sincere, I hadn't thought seriously of my daydreamed worlds, and I couldn't answer straight away.

"Perhaps, a world of dark in the day, a world of light in the night, and a world of no gravity," I suggested, once taking a bite of my food. Brad nodded, seeming impressed a bit.

"That, my friend, turns out to be quite true."

I turned to him, truly surprised. Though Brad's tales, as I have told you just a few paragraphs ago, are quite authentic, he had never attempted to connect them to real life directly.

"Yes, dude, I know what an opposite world looks like. Or, to go back to the basis of this talk, I know that an opposite world exists."

"Huh?" I was, as you might be able to tell, confused.

Brad laughed, his hands still on his lap, but the laugh ended soon, as if he was intent on getting his story continued and told.

"I know this confuses you a great deal, but I discovered this other realm just a few days ago and visited it several times to check my discovery. And the results have been astonishing. I knew that I couldn't keep this to myself for too long, nor did I want to; thus, you're officially the first person that I'm about to confide the presence of this world."

This could only, as it would have done the same to you, create jumbled questions in my head. It was as if Brad's normally excelling imagination had gone too far, or he was simply making a big joke out of me.

Brad noticed my confusion and calmly pulled out something from his work suit pocket, then showed it to me, rolling the thing gently among his big fingers.

It was a tiny wooden hourglass, its surface old and slightly rough.

"What is this?" I asked, getting impatient and curious.

"I found this at an antique shop, and the owner didn't seem to know much of it. I dubbed it "the Gate" after seeing what it can do."

Before I could reply something, Brad suddenly stood up, holding 'the Gate' with 3 fingers, and straightening his clothes.

"I'll show you what I found,"