Soul Path

chapter 2

As soon as you step one foot inside, a blindingly bright light appears. You can't see anything for a second, but when the white light behind your eyelids fades away, you open your eyes and see that you're in a room.

The floor is littered with lots of toys, ranging from cars to dinosaurs; the walls are lined with different posters; some have the alphabet on them; some have maps of the world; and others are simply animals.

The carpet is a race car track And there's a single crib in the corner of the room with a mobile with spaceships and stars hanging over it.

But looking in the centre of the room, you see a small baby chewing on his toe, not paying you a single thought, and happily enjoying the full-course meal.

Its fun is interrupted by tires screeching outside the house and a car door being furiously slammed.

As you listen intently, the sound of footsteps gets louder and louder against the cement driveway. They lead up to the door, and the same as with the car, the front door is slammed shut.

Unfortunately, you can't hear the conversation outside the room, but you can get the gist of it; the voices start quiet but muffled. However, they rapidly decrease into a shouting match when you suddenly hear skin making contact with skin and plates smashing. Soon after, you can hear light sobbing and hurried footsteps running past the door.

"So that's the pinnacle of human love, the more you know, I guess," you say, letting out a light chuckle, but for some reason, you get a strange feeling of Deja vu from their interaction.

You're interrupted by a blinding, bright flash once again that slaps you across the face.

When you recover, you know that on a street, the area has more of a suburb feel. In the distance, you can hear the grass being mowed, and looking around, you see a group of kids playing football, another group riding their bikes on the street, and some other kids playing tik-tac-toe on the sidewalk.

Looking down, you see little Jerry playing with a toy truck when suddenly, from around the corner, you hear the sound of tires screeching

As you peer up, you see a car peeling down the road. From the corner of your eye, you see Jerry running towards the road. Looking in the direction he's running, you spot a child not paying attention and walking out onto the street.

As Jerry dashes furiously toward the child on his short, stubby legs, he shouts at the kid to get away, but the child is not hearing him as he strolls even further out.

He finally reaches the kid, grabs his hand, and pulls him away in the nick of time. They both fall back and land on the grass. Jerry is trying to catch his breath while the rescued child keeps thanking his savior, while Jerry simply looks up at him like a blank slate.

Before you can see the end of the situation, you are once again engulfed in a bright light.

When you can finally open your eyes without them burning as if you were looking at a furry convention,

You see that this time you're in the back seat of what appears to be a 2002 Honda Civic driving down a dark, empty back road. You try to inspect what's going on, but its dark out and you can't see much. What you can see is that in the front seat sit Jerry and a friend.

It appears to be the same child he rescued. But you just barely recognised them since they're now teenagers.

As the music blares in the car, you can smell the distinct smell of weed, and the boys are having the time of their lives.

"Man, today was wild. I said I would make your 21st birthday special, and I did," Jerry's friend gloats.

"You didn't have to get the hooker, but this pot is so good; where did you get this?"