Man of a Thousand Doors

Sometimes in life, you end up at a party, where you know the person that invited you, but no one else. I don't mind those situations too much, because it's fun meeting new people. You just never know if you'll meet someone awesome or hear about some fascinating things that they do or have done. Today I found myself at a longish dinner table with twenty people. The one person I knew, Anne, was seated far enough away from me that I couldn't chat to her without speaking over a few people, so basically I was alone in this sea of strangers. I figured it would turn out okay.
The man sitting next to me was an oldish fellow, who's skin looked tough and worn by the sun. I imagined the heroes I read about in the stories of old, the adventuring ones, would have skin like this.
"My name is Billy," I said, "What's yours?"
The oldish man told me his name was Bezeal, and when I asked him what he did for a living, this is what he told me:
"I'm a magician, and so is my partner here, Anduin."
The younger chap who was sitting to his left leaned forward and gave me a friendly wave and said, "Hullo." I think their accents were Irish.
Magicians! How interesting! I chatted to them about it during the course of dinner (which was some succulent chicken, roasted by the birthday girl, Anne). I learned that they travelled from place to place, wherever the wind took them. That kind of life sounded very romantic and exciting. They had actually met Anne just the night before and she had invited them to dinner!
"Their magic is amazing!" said Anne, who had overheard our conversation, "I don't know how they do it!"
Bezeal chuckled and bowed graciously. "I'm glad you enjoyed it, milady."
He said Milady! (This is me talking inside my head). Who says milady these days? I love it!
"Can I just say," I said, "I love that you said 'Milady' haha! It's so cool."
Bezeal just looked over at me and smiled. It was warm, but I wasn't sure what he meant by it. It almost looked like he had let the word Milady slip by accident, if that makes sense.
"Could you put on a show for us?" said Anne.
Bezeal grabbed his glass of beer and took a long swig of it, then put it down and said, "Well under ordinary circumstances we wouldn't, but since it is your birthday Lady Anne. We would be honoured."
"What a liar!" said Anduin, "He loves performing at the drop of a hat!"
"Yay!" cheered Anne, "Should we clear to the living room?"
"Oh nothing as formal and stuffy as that," said Bezeal, "We can do it right here. But excuse me a moment, I seem to have dropped my fork on the ground."
I looked over and noticed that his fork was still on the table.
He grabbed the fork and threw it down at his feet, which drew a laugh from everyone. He pulled his seat back and crawled underneath the table. A good while passed and he didn't come back up.
"Oh excuse me, Anne."
It was Bezeal's voice.
But he wasn't under the table! He was now standing in the doorway of the dining room!
How?!
Everyone at the table gasped! (except Anduin who was still digging into his chicken).
"I hope you don't mind," said Bezeal, "But I came out of your room just then, Anne. You guys should see some of the things she has in there!"
Anne laughed and said, "I don't know how you do it!"
"And look at this lad," said Bezeal pointing at Anduin, "Stuffing his face."
"It's good chicken," said Anduin.
"Well I seem to have forgotten to pick up my fork after all that. Could you pick it up for me?" said Bezeal.
Anduin sighed.
"I suppose so, old man,". And with that he also went under the table.
And also didn't come back up!
"I can't resist," said Anne, "I want to look under the table." She peeked underneath.
"He's not there!"
Now everyone took a look. No one was under the table! We had all seen him crawl under there!
"Are you guys looking for me?"
Everyone turned and now poking his head OUT OF THE WALL was Anduin. His head was literally sticking out of the wall.
"Who needs door, hey?" he said. Then he withdrew his head and it vanished!
"How?" said one of the guests.
Moments later, Anduin crawled up from under the table and then said, "Bezza, I got your fork." and he laid the fork on the table and went right back to eating his chicken.
Bezeal came back to the table (just walking!) and then gave a short bow and sat down.
Everyone clapped so loud and cheered and people who could whistle, whistled.
"I have never seen anything like that before!" said one of the girls across the table.
Bezeal bowed his head humbly.
There was some general talk after that, but it was obvious that these two were not going to reveal how they did it, so eventually the conversation turned to other things. The rest of the night went as many birthdays go, nice times with good friends. Every now and then, someone would go up to the pair of magicians and just say, 'That was incredible." But other than that, it was just a solid, fun night.
At twelve, the guests started heading home. I was about to make my way home, when I saw Bezeal and Anduin talking to each other in the corner of the room and looking over at me. Then Anduin walked over and said, "Hey, Billy. You should come back to our caravan after this. We want to show you something."
I felt such a warm, safe vibe from these two that I immediately accepted.
"Let's go now then," said Bezeal.
The three of us said goodbye to Anne and then left. We strolled in the dark streets until we came upon their caravan. It was not was I had been expecting!
"What the-" I said, "This is a full on gypsy wagon!". Straight out of the computer game Ultima VI (I like computer games!). I wandered around the front and I saw an car that looked like it was made the same time black and white tvs were. "A car. I was expecting a horse!"
"We used to have a horse," said Anduin, "She was a good girl."
"Come inside," said Bezeal.
Once I stepped inside, I was met with the cosiest scene. I was warm and full of orange and browns. It was choc full of stuff, I'm sure I could have spent hours browsing everything. It was like a good op-shop. Bezeal went over to a small chest in the corner. It looked like a treasure chest, only a mini version, about the size of a backpack.
Anduin turned to me and said, "Get excited."
Bezeal opened the chest.
It was a real Zelda moment.
Inside was a giant jewel about the size of a coconut! It was a deep red and it had lots of jagged pointy bits. If you've ever seen Pokemon, it looked a bit like Brock's hair, only maybe not as pointy.
"Presenting, the Shamrock," said Bezeal.
I felt butterflies in my stomach. I knew that I was being shown something very special.
"Do you remember our magic trick at the party?" said Bezeal.
"Of course!" I said.
"This is how we were able to do it," said Bezeal, "The Shamrock gives the person powers to walk between doors."
I must have looked confused, because Anduin said, "It makes sense when you see it."
"Billy," said Bezeal, "Would you like this power?"
"Okay!" I said. The word just came flying out of my mouth. I don't think my brain had much say in the matter.
Bezeal smiled. "Good."
He put his hand on the crystal. Next Anduin put his hand over Bezeal's hand. and then with a nod of his head, he indicated I should put my hand over his.
I did.
The Shamrock began to glow! And then it pulsed, like it had a heartbeat.
"Push down," said Bezeal.
All of us, acting as one pushed down on the Shamrock. It was like pushing a big button. I could swear I even felt a click. And then we pushed it a few more times. I just followed their lead when i felt their hands move.
I could feel an energy travelling up my arm.
Perhaps Bezeal had uttered some incantations as well, but I was honestly so overwhelmed by how interesting and cool the situation was, I didn't notice that part.
And then the light of the crystal faded and everything went back to normal.
"How do you feel?" said Bezeal.
"Fine! That was really cool," I said.
"And now we just need to wait. Soon you will begin to see doors," said Bezeal.
We all sat down.
"What do they look like?" I said.
"They look like Doors," said Anduin. And he laughed.
"He loves making that joke," said Bezeal, "But yes they do look like doors. And you will know them when you see them."
We all sat in silence. It was like when you are baking a cake and even though you want to do something else, your mind is just waiting for the time when the cake is ready! And in this situation, I was the cake! And Bezeal and Anduin were waiting for me!
Then a thought surfaced to the top of my mind.
"Why did you guys choose to give me this power?" I said.
"We do everything by instinct. By feel," said Bezeal. "Anduin said he felt like you were the right person. And I feel the same way."
It felt nice to hear that. I was about to say something, but I was interrupted by something far more interesting.
It was lower down.
It was glowing faintly.
It was the outline of a door!
The outline was thin and yellow. The door was lying horizontally.
"A Door!" I said.
"Yes," said Bezeal.
"What do I do?" I said.
"Just go in it," said Bezeal, "Once you've gone through. You will be in the Space Between Doors. From there, you will see other doors. And then you just come out whichever door you feel like. Simple as that."
I was excited.
"Tell him how to move too," said Anduin.
"I thought he would just figure it out for himself," said Bezeal.
"The best way to move," said Anduin, "Is to crawl like a snake. It's much faster. If you try to walk normally, its very slow."
"Not quite like a snake," said Bezeal, "But I know what you mean. More like a lizard. Your elbow and knees come together at the sides as you slither along."
"Like a crocodile?" I said.
"Yes! Like that," said Anduin.
And then they were silent.
It was time,
I didn't even stop to think. I knew at times like this, you just do it. I just dove in.
Literally!
I went head first into the glowing outline of the door! It was actually hard to get through. Like diving head first in molasses. But once I had committed, I just had to keep going forward.
And eventually, I made it! And now this part feels like a dream. I was floating in this space. I could see doors all around me. I tried heading towards one, but I barely moved. Then I remembered what the two magicians had told me. I started slithering like a snake-lizard-crocodile hybrid. It was much faster moving this way! As I got closer to one of the doors, I could see through to the other side! I looked like a park at night. And now this part is very strange. I just intuitively knew where it was in the world. I knew that it was fairly close to the gypsy caravan. I dived into it.
And came back out into the real world. And I came out tumbling with all the grace of a greasy penguin on a jumping castle.
But I had made it! I had travelled between doors! I had vanished in one place, and reappeared somewhere else! I can't even describe how happy that made me feel.
And that my friends, was the beginning of my life as a man who could go through doors.
And I would later learn, that as expected, this ability would...
open a lot of doors for me.
😜

THE END