Not Reality

Blinding White

             When we walked outside all I could see was blinding whiteness. I stumbled a little with the not being able to see and Parker caught me before I could fall. It took a few seconds for my eyes to adjust to everything being so bright. The street was colored pure white. The buildings surrounding the hospital were either made of glass or marble. Even the cars on the street were colored white. It was blinding. Yet my eyes adjusted to it quickly and didn’t have to squint too much to see. I looked up at Parker who wasn’t having a problem at all.

 “Where to?” I asked.

“The Housing Sector. It’s the center of all the Sectors. We’ve had an apartment there for the last four years,” Parker told me. I looked down at my left hand where there was diamond ring with emeralds surrounding it. It looked old, more vintage than from today’s time.

“Where did you get this ring?” I asked. It did look familiar, something that was vaguely in my mind.

Parker looked down at it. “I don’t know. From a jewelry store, I guess.” How could he not remember where he bought the ring he proposed with me with? It wasn’t that too long ago... Maybe he had a little amnesia too.

“Oh, okay.” Maybe I should ask him later.

Parker hailed a white cab with a black strip. The car had no driver, but Parker opened the backseat door and I entered. He got in and closed the door. He looked around the driver’s seat. There was a bunch of lighted up buttons and things that I didn’t know what they did.

“Housing Sector, Building 401B,” Parker told the steering wheeling. It seems to understand him because it beeped twice and pulled out into the traffic. The ride was smooth; it felt like we were gliding along. Everything was so... perfect. I looked out the window. There were people on the streets, doing their own things; everyone had smiles, talking with one other. The place had a sense of happiness and uniformity. It was calming. And nerving at the same time. I feel like something should go wrong.

I grabbed Parker’s hand. A little warm comfort was what I needed. But his hand wasn’t very warm, they was cool to the touch. Maybe I was the warm one. I felt my forehead. I felt fine. I was the one that just came out of a coma; I was just adjusting. Parker let me keep my hand, giving it a little squeeze. The building flew by and I saw us passing a big marble and cement wall. A sign on the wall read:

Leaving Terrance.

Welcome to Housing.

“What is with the big wall?” I asked.

“Um, not too sure. Been there as long as I can remember and never thought about why it’s there,” Parker replied.

“Oh.” Silence fell over us again. The cab stopped. Parker got out and swiped his card in the reader on the side of the cab. With another little beep, beep, it drove away, to pick up its next rider.

The building we were dropped off at was as alike to every other building around it that the only way I knew it was the right building was the big C it had in the front. I looked down the line of buildings and saw the sign with the numbers 401 written on it. Uniformity again. It was so unusual to me. Why wasn’t I use to it? Parker slid another card in the door and it swung open. We entered, he flipped on the light and, again, everything I saw was white. Wear was the color? I was wearing some, and the flowers in the planters had color but the walls were white and all the furniture was white. But not just any white, bright white. Like it was new. But Parker said we have lived here for the last four years… Everything about this place was so confusing.

Parker put his jacket up in the closet and threw himself on the couch. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do. I just stood there while he turned the TV on and got comfortable. Finally he noticed that I wasn’t moving and beckoned me over. “Come here, Kailyn. We can relax and see if you can remember the apartment and if you got in questions for me I’ll answer as best as I can. I know that this is a lot to take in all at once.”

“That’s for sure,” I said. I walked over and sat next to him. He wrapped his arm around me and I snuggled in. We were watching a documentary. Something to be about cells. I got distracted easily, looking around the apartment was more entertaining. I saw a picture on the bookcase, I got up and looked at it. It was a picture of Parker and I together on the top of a mountain. All of a sudden, I blacked out at the intensity of the flashbacks.