NINE TIME MACHINES: Do you want to undo your entire life on planet earth?

CHAPTER 120

The walls fall into a lonely country road drenched in brilliant sunshine. The path comes alive with a variety of flowers. It is almost as though someone shook multiple seeds in a bag and scattered them indiscriminately. Their collective scent reminds me of long walks from my childhood, or at least the ones I always dreamed about. I lower myself in the sea of flowers, eyes closed, brushing my face against buttercups, marigolds, periwinkles, lilies, tulips, petunias. They dance happily in the wind as birds that have never been caged, freely giving of their beauty to the birthday girl. In this moment, no one and nothing exists; not even my slow and deliberate crawl to death. That is until I am distracted by angry voices nearby.

I rise up to make sure it isn't simply bad memories haunting me in this newfound paradise. Then I see them; but not really them. Just the large red placards dancing above their heads. I grudgingly leave the bed of joy behind to investigate the source of their discontent. It isn't long before I too become enraged. Just beyond the protestors, there are baskets filled with flowers and raped soil everywhere. The scene sucks every last ounce of pleasure I'd earlier received. I remain silent in an effort to trap some of its essence so I won't go back to the mundane. And it is from the safety of that silence that I see the white letters waving from left to right. Greedy Bastards. Dream Killers. Family Massacres. Soil Rapers. Mind Thieves.

Now I really look at them; rough skin like my own; faces painted angry. They are ready for war with the flower pickers while I sit balled up in my corner of fear, running from yet another thief. I am this close to sinking to my knees and screaming when a loud screech rings out above us. Suddenly, their rough skins shatter like glasses under pressure and they vanish, leaving me alone to defend the remaining flowers. I shut my eyes tight and wish for a better place.