Man at the Portal - An Elon Musk Fanfiction

Part 1 The Forest

It was a fine fall day. About 38 degrees out. I could see my breath. The ground was wet and the trees were dripping from last night's rain. Pretty typical for a Forest in Oregon.

I had decided to take a break from school and ride my bike to the pond that was at the end of the boulevard. The name of the pond (well, as I like to call it) is the 80s portal. Me and my cousin decided to build a round rock formation of 8 large stones with one huge stone at the center. In the summertime, the pond dries up and the portal becomes visible.

As the story goes, you can orientate the rocks to calibrate different years. For instance, if you add another rock to the 8, you can go to the 90s. If you take away rocks, you could go to the 40s, and so on of course. But once you activate the portal, and go inside, if someone were to alter the rocks while you're away, you get trapped in the year you time traveled to forever.

Maybe someday the made up story about the 80s portal will become a popular legend in Oregon. Until then, I like to pretend it's real. (Because we need stories like that to keep existence entertaining. Without imagination, life would be pretty dull and meaningless. At least for me it would be.)

Anyways, I was walking on the half a mile trail that leads to the "portal". It was a sunny day, birds were peeping and singing, the trees were dripping from last night's rain, and the leaves and mud squished and crinkled beneath my feet as I walked.

It didn't take long to reach the portal, and from there I went over to a spot beneath an old leaning rotting tree and sat. The ground was dry under the tree so I wouldn't get my booty wet, which was rather convenient. I laid down and rested for a while, listening to the water drops hitting leaves throughout the forest and the birds talking. It was peaceful. Almost felt like I was in another world, which was how I always felt at the 80s portal.

The rock formation that my cousin and I had built was covered with water, as the water always covers them during the rainy season. Frogs croaked, and occasionally I'd hear a car drive by off in the distance, a leaf blower, and a jet fly over because I wasn't far from a busy road that led into the nearby city.

It's weird how you can be far out in the sticks but close to the city at the same time. I always thought it was cool. Like your two places at once kinda deal.

I continued to rest, just laying there under the tree and looking around at all the fading fall colors, the greens mixing with leaves of gold, red, and orange. Beautiful.

Eventually, I must have dozed off, because I abruptly awoke to the sound of a twig snapping. At first, I shrugged the sound off thinking it was a bird, small animal, or deer. But then I hear footsteps. Someone else had come to see the majestic 80s portal.

Out of curiosity, I decided to take a look at who the visitor was. So I quietly get up from my resting position to see who is here.

There was a man. He was rather tall and wore a long woolen black coat. His hair was a dark brown color, like mine. His back was currently turned to me, as he was attempting to crawl over the sitting log that blocked the pathway that led down to the pond. Once he got over the log, he walked down to the water's edge and stopped. From there, he looked down and gave a deep sigh.

I still couldn't see his face, but from the energy I was getting from him, he seemed sad. This energy wasn't the typical, "oh I'm just not having a good day" kind of energy, no, he carried a deep sorrow with him.

The man stood there for some time, just staring down into the water at what I presumed must have been his reflection. Then, he turned around and walked back over to the sitting log, and sat facing the water.

I decided it was time to move on from the brush, as I really didn't want to disturb the fellow. I tried to walk as quietly out of the brush as possible, but with the fall leaves, every step ended with a big ol crunch. "Damn leaves," I growl to myself.