12-25-2006, 06:46 AM
I posted part of this before but here's the complete version. It's really short for a story so it should be an easy read. Well, quick at least.
Suddenly, I found myself wandering in a field. There was no one else in sight and I couldn't figure out why. I came upon a huge glass dome that was big enough to hold the world, and it was.
I walked up to the dome and looked inside. Therein I saw a multitude of people. I spent the next few days examining it and found no doors and no windows or hatches. How could these people be inside if there was no way in? All I could do was watch and wonder. They seemed to be interacting with each other and this baffled me. What was the point of this interaction? How did they do it? Were there rules? Little did I know that I would eventually find the answer.
Over the next few hours I kept looking for ways in. There had to be something to activate in some way to allow me access. Nothing. I decided it was no big deal. At this point I returned home. I lived with my parents in a small house out in the woods. I tried to tell them about the dome but they said I was imagining things and it didn't really exist. How they could deny the existence of this gargantuan dome and actually never see it or hear about it is beyond me. I don't even know how I ended up in the field. All I know is I went to sleep the night before and woke up walking around aimlessly in a field. I told them I would take them to see it and they obliged.
The next day I took them back to the same spot I was at. I asked if they saw the dome and they said they didn't. I couldn't understand because I could see the dome clearly.
"You don't see that huge glass dome?" I asked. "No, nothing" they replied.
We went back home and I returned to my room, I wouldn't come out. There had to be some sort of explanation as to why I was the only one that could see it. Obviously, my parents thought I had problems; that I was crazy.
All at once, I was back in the field again. This time I hadn't fallen asleep. One second I was at home, the next I was in the field at the dome. At this point I really started to question my sanity. Was I hallucinating? Was I in a state where I was dreaming but still fully conscious? I tried to walk back home but couldn't remember the way. After a few years I came to the conclusion that my home and my parents didn't exist. At least in the way I thought they had. I built a shelter and lived primitively by catching my food and starting fires any way I could, mostly by rubbing two sticks together. I regressed into a primitive way of life and soon forgot all things I'd learned.
One day when I was walking around the dome, still trying to figure out a way in, some people approached me from the opposite direction. I tried to be nice and greeted them in a friendly manner. They only replied with hatred and hurtful things. All of them. Not one of them was nice to me. I tried to be nice still, but to no avail. I retreated back to my little shelter in a state of shock. If these people were going to be angry at me for no reason, then I didn't want any part of them. I started finding rocks and built a wall around the dome as far as I could. I wanted to keep them in and away from me. I couldn't build a wall around the whole dome though, and eventually someone else found me.
I didn't want to see him, though. He approached me and said hello but I refused to speak. I knew what people were like and he was probably no different.
"I'm a doctor", he said. "Your parents tell me you're having trouble making friends?"
"What?" I replied, breaking my trance.
I was in a psychologist's office sitting across from a man that had apparently been speaking with me.
"Your parents tell me you're having trouble making friends" he said.
"Um, yeah I guess. I just don't know what to say" I told him.
He then told me that he could help me. "We'll see" was my answer.
I'm searching my mind trying to figure out how I got here. What the hell happened to my shelter where I was alone and undisturbed? Where did the dome go? Why was I no longer in the field? As soon as my parents and I exited the office I got my answer. The moment my foot stepped onto the pavement of the parking lot I was immediately back in my shelter with the stone wall and the glass dome on the other side.
"Ah, this is much better" I thought to myself. "Nobody to bother me or, more importantly, abuse me."
About a week later from around the wall here comes the doctor. "What the hell does this guy want?" I thought.
"Hey", he said, "how's my buddy?"
"Um…I don't know. Who's your buddy?" I asked.
He replied with something that shocked me. Something I'd never heard up to that point. "Ha ha, you" he said.
I was shocked. "Oh, I'm ok" I said.
For the next hour we talked about school and life and the thing most teenage boys care most about, girls. I stepped onto the pavement again after the session ended and was immediately in my shelter again. For the next couple of years the doctor would come and I would be transported to his office and then back to the field. Over the course of about two years I began to have this feeling of loneliness when I would sit in my shelter. The doctor was teaching me good lessons about how to interact with people in the dome. If I could only find a way in, that is. He said that was the one thing he couldn't teach me and I would have to do it on my own. I was learning a lot from the doctor and was starting to become accustomed to the visits. However, one day, the doctor came and said he couldn't teach me anymore. I was at the point of "graduation". He could teach me nothing new and it was time for me to start practicing what I had learned. Then he was gone.
"Practice what you taught me??" I thought to myself, "I can't even figure out how to get into that damned dome!!!" I looked at the wall I'd built. The wall I'd built for protection. The wall I'd built to exclude myself from the pain and hurt of these people that were so strange to me. The wall that, upon a single moment of realization, became the wall that was to become the hardest thing I had ever had to get past. I picked up a wedge shaped rock along with another, flatter one. I used these as a chisel and hammer to chip away at the mud and grass that served as the wall's cement. After about a month I finally had one stone loose. It was out yet but a little pushing and a few hours later it came out. I looked at the rest of the huge wall I'd built and, for a moment, considered giving up. It was so big and it took me so long to move just one stone that I didn't see any point in the effort. The people that had hurt me years ago were still on my mind. What if everyone was like that to me? Suppose there's something about me that screams "I love being ridiculed"? I decided to work on the rest tomorrow. If nothing else, it would give me something to occupy my time since I no longer had the doctor's visits to look forward to. After about 4 years I knocked out the last stone of the wall. I was now 22 years old. I walked to the dome to see if, while I was tearing something down, if they had built a way in. They had not. "Damn it" I screamed. "What's the point of even trying if there's no way in?!" I slammed my fist against the side of the dome and realized that the glass wasn't as thick in that particular place as it was in the rest of the dome. I tapped on it with my knuckles and realized that the area of thinner glass was about the size of the mouth of a small cave. I turned back to my wall which was now just a pile of dirt and stones. I walked over to the pile and picked up a rock and took it back to the dome. I tapped the rock on the side and it had that familiar sound that lets you know how thick glass is. I smiled to myself. I now knew the way in. I took a few steps back and hurled the rock into the side of the dome with all my strength. As the glass shattered I could hardly breathe. I walked up to the opening and took a deep breath before stepping in.
As soon as I was inside the dome, my parents came up to me and hugged me and said "Congratulations! We've been waiting for you".
"I don't know what I would've done had I not found the thin place in the glass" I told them. They answered with "the thickness of the glass was never a factor because there was no dome."
"What?" I exclaimed.
"There was never a dome" they told me again.
"But I just came through it" I protested.
They just smiled and said "we know". I looked around and I was in my own house. So the dome never existed? Whatever they say. Whatever I saw, whomever I met, whatever I heard before this moment didn't matter. I was free to roam about the world. What an amazing journey this life will be.
Suddenly, I found myself wandering in a field. There was no one else in sight and I couldn't figure out why. I came upon a huge glass dome that was big enough to hold the world, and it was.
I walked up to the dome and looked inside. Therein I saw a multitude of people. I spent the next few days examining it and found no doors and no windows or hatches. How could these people be inside if there was no way in? All I could do was watch and wonder. They seemed to be interacting with each other and this baffled me. What was the point of this interaction? How did they do it? Were there rules? Little did I know that I would eventually find the answer.
Over the next few hours I kept looking for ways in. There had to be something to activate in some way to allow me access. Nothing. I decided it was no big deal. At this point I returned home. I lived with my parents in a small house out in the woods. I tried to tell them about the dome but they said I was imagining things and it didn't really exist. How they could deny the existence of this gargantuan dome and actually never see it or hear about it is beyond me. I don't even know how I ended up in the field. All I know is I went to sleep the night before and woke up walking around aimlessly in a field. I told them I would take them to see it and they obliged.
The next day I took them back to the same spot I was at. I asked if they saw the dome and they said they didn't. I couldn't understand because I could see the dome clearly.
"You don't see that huge glass dome?" I asked. "No, nothing" they replied.
We went back home and I returned to my room, I wouldn't come out. There had to be some sort of explanation as to why I was the only one that could see it. Obviously, my parents thought I had problems; that I was crazy.
All at once, I was back in the field again. This time I hadn't fallen asleep. One second I was at home, the next I was in the field at the dome. At this point I really started to question my sanity. Was I hallucinating? Was I in a state where I was dreaming but still fully conscious? I tried to walk back home but couldn't remember the way. After a few years I came to the conclusion that my home and my parents didn't exist. At least in the way I thought they had. I built a shelter and lived primitively by catching my food and starting fires any way I could, mostly by rubbing two sticks together. I regressed into a primitive way of life and soon forgot all things I'd learned.
One day when I was walking around the dome, still trying to figure out a way in, some people approached me from the opposite direction. I tried to be nice and greeted them in a friendly manner. They only replied with hatred and hurtful things. All of them. Not one of them was nice to me. I tried to be nice still, but to no avail. I retreated back to my little shelter in a state of shock. If these people were going to be angry at me for no reason, then I didn't want any part of them. I started finding rocks and built a wall around the dome as far as I could. I wanted to keep them in and away from me. I couldn't build a wall around the whole dome though, and eventually someone else found me.
I didn't want to see him, though. He approached me and said hello but I refused to speak. I knew what people were like and he was probably no different.
"I'm a doctor", he said. "Your parents tell me you're having trouble making friends?"
"What?" I replied, breaking my trance.
I was in a psychologist's office sitting across from a man that had apparently been speaking with me.
"Your parents tell me you're having trouble making friends" he said.
"Um, yeah I guess. I just don't know what to say" I told him.
He then told me that he could help me. "We'll see" was my answer.
I'm searching my mind trying to figure out how I got here. What the hell happened to my shelter where I was alone and undisturbed? Where did the dome go? Why was I no longer in the field? As soon as my parents and I exited the office I got my answer. The moment my foot stepped onto the pavement of the parking lot I was immediately back in my shelter with the stone wall and the glass dome on the other side.
"Ah, this is much better" I thought to myself. "Nobody to bother me or, more importantly, abuse me."
About a week later from around the wall here comes the doctor. "What the hell does this guy want?" I thought.
"Hey", he said, "how's my buddy?"
"Um…I don't know. Who's your buddy?" I asked.
He replied with something that shocked me. Something I'd never heard up to that point. "Ha ha, you" he said.
I was shocked. "Oh, I'm ok" I said.
For the next hour we talked about school and life and the thing most teenage boys care most about, girls. I stepped onto the pavement again after the session ended and was immediately in my shelter again. For the next couple of years the doctor would come and I would be transported to his office and then back to the field. Over the course of about two years I began to have this feeling of loneliness when I would sit in my shelter. The doctor was teaching me good lessons about how to interact with people in the dome. If I could only find a way in, that is. He said that was the one thing he couldn't teach me and I would have to do it on my own. I was learning a lot from the doctor and was starting to become accustomed to the visits. However, one day, the doctor came and said he couldn't teach me anymore. I was at the point of "graduation". He could teach me nothing new and it was time for me to start practicing what I had learned. Then he was gone.
"Practice what you taught me??" I thought to myself, "I can't even figure out how to get into that damned dome!!!" I looked at the wall I'd built. The wall I'd built for protection. The wall I'd built to exclude myself from the pain and hurt of these people that were so strange to me. The wall that, upon a single moment of realization, became the wall that was to become the hardest thing I had ever had to get past. I picked up a wedge shaped rock along with another, flatter one. I used these as a chisel and hammer to chip away at the mud and grass that served as the wall's cement. After about a month I finally had one stone loose. It was out yet but a little pushing and a few hours later it came out. I looked at the rest of the huge wall I'd built and, for a moment, considered giving up. It was so big and it took me so long to move just one stone that I didn't see any point in the effort. The people that had hurt me years ago were still on my mind. What if everyone was like that to me? Suppose there's something about me that screams "I love being ridiculed"? I decided to work on the rest tomorrow. If nothing else, it would give me something to occupy my time since I no longer had the doctor's visits to look forward to. After about 4 years I knocked out the last stone of the wall. I was now 22 years old. I walked to the dome to see if, while I was tearing something down, if they had built a way in. They had not. "Damn it" I screamed. "What's the point of even trying if there's no way in?!" I slammed my fist against the side of the dome and realized that the glass wasn't as thick in that particular place as it was in the rest of the dome. I tapped on it with my knuckles and realized that the area of thinner glass was about the size of the mouth of a small cave. I turned back to my wall which was now just a pile of dirt and stones. I walked over to the pile and picked up a rock and took it back to the dome. I tapped the rock on the side and it had that familiar sound that lets you know how thick glass is. I smiled to myself. I now knew the way in. I took a few steps back and hurled the rock into the side of the dome with all my strength. As the glass shattered I could hardly breathe. I walked up to the opening and took a deep breath before stepping in.
As soon as I was inside the dome, my parents came up to me and hugged me and said "Congratulations! We've been waiting for you".
"I don't know what I would've done had I not found the thin place in the glass" I told them. They answered with "the thickness of the glass was never a factor because there was no dome."
"What?" I exclaimed.
"There was never a dome" they told me again.
"But I just came through it" I protested.
They just smiled and said "we know". I looked around and I was in my own house. So the dome never existed? Whatever they say. Whatever I saw, whomever I met, whatever I heard before this moment didn't matter. I was free to roam about the world. What an amazing journey this life will be.