The Last Door

I’m standing in the darkness. Facing two doors labeled Past and Future. I don’t know how long I’ve been in the coma. I remember when I first entered the white room. I picked myself up off the ground; my straight black hair framed my thin pale face and brushed against my ear. I looked around the white room, white floor, ceiling and walls. The room was circular and the walls were covered with many doors. I didn’t know who I was, where I was or where I had come from. I reached for the nearest door and noticed a small blue paper bracelet. On it was written; Oliver, 15 years, Male, Chronic Bronchitis, New York CityHospital. Knowing this I again reached out my hand and turned the handle on one of the doors.

I found myself in a hospital room. A woman was cradling a small baby boy in her arms. She looked pale, thin and tired. A man stood next to her, he too appeared to be thin and pale. “His name is Oliver” the woman whispered. The man smiled and placed his arm round her shoulders. That was me, I was the baby boy and there I was with my mother and father. Suddenly my mother collapsed, I tumbled from her arms, landed on the soft bed and began to whimper. My father frantically yelled as doctors and nurses did everything they could to save her, but it didn’t work. My father took me home the next day. He showed me no love or affection. The house was tiny with hardly any furniture and was littered with cardboard boxes. My father wrapped me in blankets and placed me in a cardboard box before taking me out to the car. We drove to a building in the heart of New York. A sign told me it was the orphanage. My father left me on the steps, rang the bell and clambered back into his car.

I found myself in the white room once again. I realised why I was surrounded by doors. Each door contains a memory, a connection to my past. So from then on I went from door to door, memory to memory. I watched my life in the orphanage, all those years in the darkness, wishing I had a family. Until finally I came to a very important door, I was gravely ill and had been admitted to hospital. Two doctors were murmuring in the corner of my room, “He’s not going to be missed” said one; “Should we try it” said the other. They continued to talk and I realised they were putting my sick body into a coma and then sending my soul fifty years into the future, to the year 3000. Everything seemed to be progressing well. The doctors looked very excited then their expressions swiftly faded. Machines beeped and whirred. I was stuck in a coma; the doctors took me to a different room. They could not show me to anyone else, their experiment was illegal and a failure. They fed, washed and clothed me everyday but I knew they couldn’t continue this much longer. The room gradually started to fade away and once again I was in the white room. I only had one door to go. My hands were sweaty and shaking as I carefully stepped through that door.

So here I am, in the darkness about to decide my fate. I look at the door labeled future. I wonder what my future is like, if I step through that door I will wake up from my coma, I might be able to leave the orphanage and maybe even find my dad. There was only one problem, what if I don’t wake up from the coma what if I am sent fifty years into the future with no way to escape. I would be lost and lonely. I look at the door labeled past. I could go back and see my mother and father, relive all the happy times. The only problem was I would have no future. I would know that I was going to fall ill and end up in this room once again. I would lose my memory again, end up in this room again and go back to my past again and again and again. My life would be one long cycle. I sink to the floor and stare at the ground. I don’t know what to do. Then I notice a slither of white light slowly creeping across the floor. I turn around and see my route of escape, the door to the white room, my present time. I turn my back on my past and future and enter the white room. I visit my mother and father behind that first door everyday. I’m glad I made that decision. I wouldn’t be here in present time, if it weren’t for that last door.