James Hochstetler

Palette

The world was mute. I was walking roads I recognized; but everything felt foreign to my body. Visually everything was in the right place and where it should be, but something seemed off. I was strolling down my old neighborhood. Passing my friend’s house, then my house, an old tree me and my childhood friends would hang out at after school, and a pond close by where we ice skated many cold winter nights. Seeing these mementos submerged me in my nostalgia, until all I saw were memories that were long repressed surrounding me at all sides. It brought tears to my eyes seeing friends I hadn’t seen in decades, feeling as if I never left. I was filled with a feeling of love and warmth, and taken back to a time period where everything was simple. But that warm feeling soon went cold. I opened my eyes to see the color palette of the world had drained. The outline of everything was still there, I was just surrounded by a void of black and white. It was strangely beautiful. I kept walking down my neighborhood road until it intersected with the community park. I loved this park as a kid, it brought a smile to my face remembering all the hide and seek games I played here as a child. Remembering these thoughts and memories were great, but I don’t know why I’m here. It feels as if the world hiccupped and I was placed in an area of limbo. The world was still, and quiet. Almost as if a vacuum were keeping the noises from escaping. But as I was cresting a hill, a little ways away from the playground, I heard the faint sound of a chain creaking in the distance. It almost hurt my ears to hear a sound again. I tried to move but I couldn’t. I was frozen in place. As if I weren’t the one who controlled my body anymore. I was so focused on the fear I felt on not being able to hear, that I didn’t even notice what was in front of me. The creaking of the chain continued, and I was barely able to shift my eyes down enough to see a kid sitting on a swing set. Their presence brought an overwhelming amount of fear in my body. I just knew they shouldn’t be here. That they didn’t belong. They were swinging back and forth, but fazing in and out of static. Cascading pink’s and red swirled around them as they glitched back and forth seeming like a virus to this world. I wanted to go. I wanted to run, but I couldn’t. I went to scream but nothing came out, I was paralyzed. I was filled with a feeling of dread, as if this were the end. I closed my eyes to look away from the bright array of colors clouding my vision, but when I opened them I had control of my body again. I looked around and I was exactly where I was left off before, but instead this time, the world was basked in color. I saw children running around in the playground and families sitting together feeding the ducks. The atmosphere was filled with laughter and car horns in the distance. I could feel and hear again. But then it hit me. I turned to look at the swing set where I saw the kid before, but there was no one there. There was no one there, but the swing was still swinging back and forth.