Holes

What Lay Beyond

When the terror ebbed I steeled myself. I had to see it again, to touch it, before I could accept it!

I walked back through the darkness. The sight that greeted me was slightly different. I hadn't returned to the exact spot.

The first thing that registered was grass. It was everywhere!
I stepped across the doorway into it and found that it was very real-and tall enough to brush my hands!

Turning, and looking up, I found the darkness hid the door. It hadn't flowed out of the space it occupied which was amazing in itself!

I took a second step backward, my head still tilted back and took in a sight that nearly made me forget the door. The doorway was 4.5 meters wide and 9 meters tall.

What stretched up and out from it made it look small! The structure was over 600 meters tall and-I needed to get a better view. Backing up 3.5 meters I took in the rest of it-183 meters wide at the base! It rose in a series of narrowing terraces for 600 meters before ending as 3 slim spires for the last 10 meters.

I spotted movement at the bottom edge of my vision and came back. The door was closing! It slid down, then in, leaving no visible evidence that a door had been there.

That's when I saw the doorkeeper. It was a woman but she looked like no woman I had ever seen. For starters she was 8 meters tall!

The surprises didn't stop there! She was bald, smooth as a cue ball. I didn't think sickness had caused it. She looked healthy.
Where my nose was she had a single great eye! Her mouth was positioned where I had eyes. Her nose was where I had a mouth. It consisted of a pair of holes that were sealed by a pair of eyelids! Looking at them I was reminded of my classmates when they were half-awake and smiled.

The oddest thing of all was when she opened her mouth. She had a better command of my language than I had!

She was wearing a black dress. It was knee-length with short sleeves.  There were objects mounted on her shoulders.  The skirt had multiple, loose folds giving her considerable free movement.

Looking at her a sense of familiarity arose from the empty part of her memory. She felt, for no known reason, that she could trust this person. Even after the last surprise, the ability she had to answer in her language!

I turned away from her toward the land beyond. It moved away before me and, in the distance, across my entire range of sight, rose a mountain range.

Closer, I saw no craters, no barbed wire. This land bore no evidence that a war had ever been here! I could have clung to the illusion that I was still on Earth if it weren't for the mountains. They were less than 70 kilometers away! Even without the direct evidence I knew there was no Paris on this planet!

I turned to face the doorkeeper, looking upward, and asked, with fear and resignation mingled in my voice, "What planet is this?"

The doorkeeper bent down, crossing her legs, "This is Antrica,  your home." Dismay was evident in her voice.

Chapter 1 1915 words