Z.O.E.

_1

I woke up in the dark to the sounds of machines. I could feel the intensity that emanated from their whirring computer brains. Energy wafted towards me like a warm, comforting blanket that smelled just exactly like baking bread. A rumble in my stomach warned me I was hungry. I blinked, but there was no difference in my sight whether my eyes were open or closed. I lay there thinking, wondering.

I knew where I was. That is, I knew I was somewhere. I knew that I should know where I was, but it felt like a dream. Maybe I was dreaming.

Just as suddenly as I had emerged from sleep, I heard a noise. It sounded like the release of an intense amount of pressure, like twisting off the caps of a thousand soda bottles all at once. I felt a pinch up and down my right side. A set of orange lights blinked on, and I made out a bulk of metal immediately to my right. Soft blue lights flashed on from the ceiling. Slowly, I sat up. I glanced around, but all of these sights were familiar to me. I knew that I knew it. But I could never have seen any of this before.

I had been lying on a sheet of metal. Without shuddering, I realized it was the kind of slab a corpse might lie on. A series of cords trailed from the table to the glowing orange machine. They connected something to it, but whatever it was had been disconnected. I studied the suction-cup-like ends. They reached out toward my form like octopus tentacles. I knew octopuses were very smart. I looked ahead again. This all seemed very right, as if I was waking up from my bedroom at home. Home? I knew about home. It wasn't this. But it all felt so right.

I swung my legs over the cold table, dropping my feet to the floor. I was barefoot. The floor felt smooth and frozen. I thought vaguely of an ice skating rink. Ice skating? Yes, that was right.

The gentle blue light illuminated the bare room. The floor reflected back the pale walls, the metal table, and the machine with its wires. There wasn't much to the room, but I knew where the door was, "and that has made all the difference." I wrinkled my face in concentration, trying to reach back into my memory to wherever that line was stored. It was a famous line, a familiar line. Try as I might, were it my lifeline, I would have drowned.

Faint lines in the wall proved the door to me as I approached. I reached out to touch the panel where I knew the door to be though it was barely distinguishable from the walls on either side. My hand slid back from the barren metal, and the door opened. All was suddenly bright white. I stepped through the opening.

As I blinked and my vision adjusted, I felt a smile. This wonderful, magical place! I stood on a glass bridge and gazed upon the world. I was very high up on this bridge, as I could see anytime I turned my head. The ground I could see beneath my feet so far, far below me. But none of this was very grand compared to what I saw!

Out these glass windows I saw great, metal birds flying through the air. Some were all wings, some were all claws, some were all beak. They soared with packages on their backs, beneath their feet, in their mouths. And they moved so swiftly! Everywhere I turned, I saw them. They filled the space from the white ground to the four white skies. Their packages littered the floor beneath my feet.

Hurrying delightedly down the bridge, I passed great, big pillars lifting up the world. As I passed them, the scene changed. I saw forests of bright colors, of every color, rolling in great messes over the ground, and I saw metal fingers sorting and pruning them. The glitter of it got everywhere.

Passing another pillar, passing pillar after stately, world-supporting pillar, I arrived at my favorite scene. It always filled me with pleasure to see it! I saw an army of little children. They were always perfectly still, when I saw them. I saw them march on in unison, to a particular beat that I couldn't hear that made them lurch and stop, lurch and stop. I saw not one of them move a muscle or blink an eye. On they marched, acquiring each piece of their uniform. Their head, their torso, their limbs, their features, their hair, their dress, and each one I saw exactly just like the rest.

I watched their beautiful harmony until I sensed I would like to go back down the bridge. I passed all the pillars again and arrived in the precinct of the great, metal birds. I paused to watch them, and to study the littered ground. Crates sat around down there, and there was a reassurance that won me over every time I glanced at them.

I knew that all of this was mine and belonged to me. My world of wonders and my home. How was there any other way? Stamped on every crate was my name. In great, bold letters. Z. O. E.

I returned to the room where I had been sleeping. Back to my bed of icy metal. I sunk down,resting my eyes. A nice, contented sigh echoed around the room. The soft, blue lights flickered off, and the orange glow turned to black nothingness. The cords latched themselves again to my side, and I kept living.