Great Horizons

Chapter One

I'mwriting this story with any spare time I can find, crammed into Hotelrooms and spitting the lines out. It's so absurd that even Ihardly believe what I'm putting on paper, when I go back and read it,I realize that my life really has changed, I don't even know who I amanymore, or who my friends and enemies are, so much has happened inthe last few weeks and this is the first chance I have to put itdown. Anyway, here I go.

Myname is Peter Inkling.

"Areyou okay Sir? Are you okay?" I opened my eyes to see an old manlooking at me. He had a shrimpled-up face with all sorts of crazyfungi growing on his cheek. The man reached out to put his hand overmy mouth, he frowned and leaned forwards, then cupped my eyeballs."He's breathing, and blinking" he looked around and talked tosomeone behind him.

Icouldn't move, I tried to move a hand or speak, but nothing came. Ididn't know where I was or what I was doing here, the last thing Iremembered was that I was eating dinner with some friends at home.

Awoman came up beside the man and looked at me, she had a namebadgeand the mark of an airline, her hair was done up in a bun, but shelooked more concerned than anything. "We need to move him" shesaid, "The customers are watching"

Itried to move but my head was killing me, my arms and legs felt likethey had been asleep for days. How had I gotten here? Who were thesepeople?

Thewoman reached out, but the man held her back. "He's moving","Look" They both watched me, I strained my body to what felt likeits limits and pushed myself up, I crawled around, grabbing surfacesand pushing them until I managed to sit on the couch, it had made meso tired.

"Whoare you? Where are you from?" The woman leaned down and peered upat me with curious eyes. "Can we contact someone for you?" I feltlike laughing, I wanted to ask her the same questions, who was she,who was this man? And why were they looking at me strangely. I sawthat I was in a small room, there were couches on either side, andpeople were relaxing, reading books, writing in laptops, doingbusiness calls on phones. But others were looking at me, like I wassome bug who had distrubed their busy life.

Aweird sound went through the air. It was country music with a heavymetal guitar. Some weird Southern accent bloomed through. "It's hisphone, it's been ringing for a while now, that's how I found him"the man said, he reached into my pocket and brought out my phone. Itwas my phone, but it wasn'tmy ringtone.

Thewoman snapped the phone out of the man's hands and held it in frontof me. "Can you answer it?" She looked around, obviouslyconcerned that it was disturbing the other people in this room. Sheopened up the phone and held it against her ear. I noticed that morepeople in the room were looking at me now, wondering what was goingon.

"Here,you talk to him" she gave me the phone, I struggled to holdit, it felt foreign, the name flashing across was "Big Momma",who was this? I didn't have a friend called "Big Momma" I talkedinto the phone "Hello?"

"Darling,you're awake?" I heard a tidy woman's voice. She sounded like shewore lipstick and smiled a lot. There was some sound in thebackground, like she was cleaning dishes, or coooking something. Itried to imagine my classmates, or any woman like this in my life,but came up blank.

"Sorry,who is this?" I said.

Thewoman in front of me sighed to the other guy. "He doesn't knowwho's talking in his phone?" She crossed her arms and looked aroundimpatiently. "Where do all thesenutters come from?"

Thelady in the phone talked sweetly, "Honey, it's okay, you probablyfeel lost and confused, but don't worry I'm here now to take care ofyou." I heard her slicing something on a chopping board smoothly,then turning the tap on and then off.

"I'msorry, whoever you are, I'm not feeling very well, I just woke uphere, do you know what's happening to me?" She was in my phonecontacts, I must have known her from somewhere

"Relax"the lady said, "This happens a lot to you, just take a deep breathand relax. Peter, I'm your wife Jenny, just tell me where you are soI can come and pick you up"

"What?"I said, "I don't know you, you're not my wife, I'm not married, I'min University, I go to class everyday"

Ilooked around, I didn't know where I was, where was this place, whowere all these people looking at me, I didn't recognize a singleface.What happened to me? I was having dinner with some friends, whatled to this?

"Trustme Peter, I know you better than anyone else"

Shewas my wife? How come I didn't remember anything?

"It'snormal to feel confused" the woman on the phone said. "It's okayif you don't know what's happening, but it will all be fine, can yougive the phone to anyone there?"

"Okay"I said, grasping the phone. My breathing was heavy, I had no ideawhere I was. I handed the phone to the woman, she was still lookingat me with an expression that said, well? Are you done yet?"She says to talk to her"

Thewoman picked the phone up and immediately started speaking, "You'rehis wife? Thank goodness, yes, he's in the gold class waiting room ofAuckland International Airport.

AucklandAirport? How had I ended up in New Zealand?

Thewoman followed some instructions and looked at me from the corner ofher eye, she nodded, "Okay, I got you, I'll do that, thank you"She dropped the call and turned to me, with a rpofessional smile onher face. "Check inside your left pocket" she said, I lookeddown, my pants were expensive looking shiny ones, and I was wearingpointy brown business shoes. I had a clean ironed pink shirt on withblue patterns running across. This wasn't the way I usually dressedeither.

"Goon" the lady said, and I slowly reached down to my pocket. This wasturning out to be really weird, and it was becoming more uncanny.There was a piece of paper in my pocket, these pants weren't mine,and even this hand didn't feel like mine. I looked down and saw myname, printed across a boarding pass . "Peter Inkling" flying toHong Kong.

"WellI guess we know where you're going now" The woman sighed a breathof relief and wiped her forehead with a handkerchief. She forced me asmile, and took my hand and led me to the gate.

Wherewas I going?