Fortuna

2

I don't remember how long I sat there trying to digest everything. Of all people, why me? Why did I have to stay in a goddamn hospital? I wasn't sick, was I? If what everything that lady said was true, then would I ever see my mom again?

Despite being in a cloud of confusion, I knew one thing for sure and it was that there was no way I was going to sit here and just read while waiting for the unknown. Reading! I can't believe she had the audacity to tell me to read.  

I climbed out of the bed and walked to where the door was (because escaping a hospital on a foreign planet was obviously the most logical choice of action). The door was again camouflaged against the wall so it looked as though it were a part of it. There was no knob and the only way to open it, I assumed, was to push. With one palm, I applied just a little bit of force onto the space in the wall where I remembered the door had to be. The door didn't budge even the slightest but it was unexpectedly and strangely warm; the material it was made of was something I had never felt before. 

I pushed a little harder this time with both hands and still the wall remained intact. Where the hell were the hinges and what was this alien material? 

After about a couple dozen more attempts at pushing the door open, one of which had me lying on the floor and kicking with both feet, I decided that I was officially locked in - by a door that seemed to be non-existent. I might have been actually going crazy. 

Just when I was about to give up, I suddenly remembered that there was a window. How could I forget about that? Carrying my sweaty and exhausted self, I brought myself to its ledge and inspected the window's edges. There was no mechanism that allowed me to open it up but that didn't mean it was impenetrable right? 

Wrong. And as I threw the lamp as hard as I could at the window, I knew that it was a mistake. Upon contact with the window, the lamp simply bounced back with the same amount of force I had supplied it with. The lamp came flying back at me like a boomerang and I ducked before it struck. Instead, it flew across the the bed and landed on the floor with a thud.

After that attempt, I realized that the door and the window were obviously escape proof so those were dead-ends. I couldn't see any other means of escape, no air vents either. Though I did find a small white bucket under the bed: a five star toilet.

A few more times I circled the room in frustration before finally, after what seemed like hours, I gave in and accepted the fact that I would have to wait for the lady to get me. I hopped onto the bed, cross-legged, elbows on my knees and hands resting under my chin. Fine. I would read the book. 

I reached over to the night table and pulled open the drawer. To my surprise, the bottom housed a circular and flat object that did not look like a book at all. I picked it up and grazed my hand along its surface. 

Beep!

I dropped it onto the bed in surprise. What was that?

Beep!

With the second beep, the device I had dropped began to flash mysteriously blue. I held it in my hands and watched in amazement and slight terror as the disk began to unfold itself like a clam. It stopped flashing and after a third beep, an image projected from the surface of the disk; it was a hologram. Books that were holograms? Wow.

The image projected resembled a menu screen where there were several headings I could choose from: The History of Fortuna, The Culture of Fortuna, The Food of Fortuna, The Nature of Fortuna, The Technology in Fortuna and Fortuna and the Galaxy. 

What a comprehensive book. I flipped the disk over and noticed that there was in fact a title that was engraved onto the silver material's surface: Mankind's Guide to Fortuna.