Walking out of This World

Fourteen

The night is taking my sleep into the depths of unconscious reasons.

Down...

Down...

Sinking beyond conscious control.

A yellow light is floating across the bridge. A gaping mouth filled with pointy teeth...Arrow-sharp eyes point to a triangular shape where a wisp of green slithers out...winding, twisting like a snake...shimmering on the glossy night.

Gossamer threads emerge from under the mouth, pulled from the tips of pointy teeth. A silky balloon rises before the yellow light and waits...Green haze kisses the translucent hologram.

One line of silk reaches out to one corner of the tapestry, finding purchase. Another joins the search for another corner...another...and a fourth.

The four gossamer lines pull the jack'o lantern face...hovering over the midpoint. Yellow light streaming along the silky lines...in and out of its yellow-glowing countenance.

Yellow streamers fly out over the tapestry...pulling the yellow-glowing face down to the tapestry's naval.

The face breaths in...One is interred within the yellow globe. "Now...Jack is in charge...the regulator of mind, will and emotion...a new weaver for the tapestry," the mouth says.

The yellow face lifts...hovers. Thirteen lines are released from pointy teeth...seven remain—anchors. A new solipsistic world is weaving its way..."Shh...We are now serving One"...weaving an egocentric world from which there is no escape.

Shh enters the golden globe...whispers ...slithers...twisting. "Shh...Don't worry daddy's here."

More gossamer lines flee from daddy...shimmering in yellow glow...slithering...twisting...crocheting in concentric circles...outside to center...covering the tapestry with a new transparent hologram...yellow streamers. "Shh...daddy's in charge."

Beneath the silky mesh a green haze covers the tapestry like a morning fog rising from turquoise frost.

Jack hovers...surveying his work.

Silky green threads search their way up into the yellow mouth. They twine around One...holding him fast inside the yellow globe.

"Who will help me? I am John! I am John! I am John!" My voice echoes off slippery yellow walls.

Body...Shaking...Hands griping my arms.

"John! John! Wake up!"

My eyelids fly open...My lungs are pumping...up...down...up...down.

Warren is bending over my face. "You're caught up in a dream!"

"Jack?" My ears hear words escape from my mouth, pushed out in the muddle of a half-awake brain.

"No! It's Warren! Wake up!"

He pulls me into a sitting position and releases his grip on my arms. My brain is starting to recognize real. I rub my eyes.

"let's get dressed and take a walk. The cool air will clear your head," Warren commands.

The cool air hits my face like a cold splash of water. Warren pulls something out of his pocket. He sticks the green cigarette between his lips and lights the business end with the flick of a lighter.

He takes a couple of puffs and hands the the greenie to me. "This will calm your nerves."

The green haze follows a straight path to waiting lungs, who blindly pass the news onto gray matter. "Shh...daddy's here."

The deed has been done. Jack is in charge now. What's next on the menu?