Have you felt the green grass?

Part 1 - Trapped indoors

The little girl was ecstatic. She was rolling down a hill and playing a game with her brothers. The grass appeared so soft and refreshing by only looking at it. But I wondered what it would be like to brush my hands through the tips as I felt a breeze through my hair.

I was watching a film on the television with my parents. This film was extremely outdated. If I were to go outside now, there was no question that my entire family would be arrested. That action would be a breach of the security laws. Everyone knew you would probably also not survive the trip outdoors. For the past 12 years, the climate and the air outside had become inhabitable for humans. Nobody was sure what exactly caused it to be so, however it was speculated that it was due to a combination of global warming and poisonous gases polluting the air. It was common knowledge to everyone that you couldn't go outdoors or interact with any people other than those in your household.

After the film had reached an end, I made my way to my room and collapsed on my bed. I was still deep in thought, imagining myself roll and lay on the grass as that little girl in the film had. I turned on my back and spread my arms, pretending that the blankets were grass and that I was laying on that same hill that was in the film. The natural world was extremely fascinating to me since I had never been in a physical outdoor location.

I sprang up to look out the window. There were some trees and grass outside, on the side of the streets. After the speculated events happened which propelled the world into its current state, people's houses were modified by government officials to ensure that they abided by the safety and security laws and for no gas or air from the outside to penetrate the house. However, the streets of our town remained untouched. Now, the only difference was that they were completely devoid of any signs of life such as cars or people. Only a few plants and trees remained. Apparently, it was summer at the moment. I didn't know how one could know for sure since one couldn't feel the weather from inside. However, I believed it because of the pure greenness of the plant life outside my window. Besides from the street outside my window, I had never seen the outside world for myself. I was beginning to realise just how bored I was today while daydreaming about the outside world.

I stood up and walked over to my closet. My mom asked me to reorganize some things in there. I thought that I might as well do it since I had nothing better to do. I opened the closet and ruffled my hand through the clothes that were hanging there. I didn't want to do this right now, but I didn't know what else to do.

My shoes were at the base of the closet, but they were all over the place and you could see that I had let them pile up for a while. I would start with this. I took out all the shoes so that it would be easier to reorganize them. I placed them all in a row outside the closet with matching pairs adjacent to each other. Next, I took out all the clothes on the hangers and placed the items on my bed according to which style and colour they were. Normally, I would only ensure that my closet had a neat appearance when my mom asked me to clean it, but I had some excess time now and thought might as well do it properly.

After I had completely emptied the closet, I noticed something I hadn't before. It appeared as if the closet had infinite depth – as if it were a never-ending tunnel, stretching much farther than the 1 metre depth closets usually were. This was intriguing and according to my logic, must have been some kind of visual illusion.

I never said no to exciting opportunities, especially when I had nothing better to do, out of the fear that I might not get such opportunities again. Without a second thought, I grabbed my phone, turned on the flashlight and hopped in the closet, closing the doors behind me. I knew that what I saw probably wasn't real, but I wanted to see it for myself. It couldn't only be in films that crazy events happened that led people to go on wild adventures.