Worlds colliding

Once upon a time... that is how they always start. Stories have endings and every ending is a new beginning.

Adeline is a being cut out of this world. She is one of those human creatures that use to sit late at night by the window and talk to stars, and wake up early to meet the sunrise. She constantly changes her mind, as if there are 100 tabs open in her head.

Nonetheless she always felt insanely lonely. As if the world fell on her and devoured the bits that were left for the others to see. She could snap her fingers and become a completely different human - to protect herself from everything around. A glass wall, invisible to the sight which you could bump into in an instant the moment you came too close to. How do we become so marble like in the face of life? Perhaps people, in their genetic mutation have developed the capacity of protecting themselves not only from predators that are a threat to their physical body, but also burn every being in the way of their mental serenity. Parasites killing parasites. Hurt parasites. Broken parasites. That is Adeline for you. Too many times she thought no one could understand her, so she tried to invest in at least understanding herself. Maybe because she couldn’t love enough, or maybe she loved too much.

It is a beautiful sunny day in London. It rarely happens on a land surrounded by nothing but water. Living in the UK, you have to realise that whenever there is a sunny day, you HAVE to go out, you have to take a walk through the park, admire the silly people running in flip flops and shorts, even though it is 10 C outside, you have to live. It appears not to be the case for Adeline who lies on the floor, looking at the ceiling, wondering: “Why do people judge people they don't understand? Why can’t we accept someone else's decision, even though it hurts us? Can we really know what their poor neurons have to go through?” She stops. Closes her eyes. It feels the loneliest she has ever been. There is no one to share that with. No one to debate and untangle the questions of life. And in that oblivion of nothingness, under the gentle sound of the breeze outside, she falls asleep on the cold floor.

What if our previous lives are in our dreams? Somehow, waking up, you are aware that you were in a state of dream, yet you have no recollection of it. Just a vague feeling, a snippet of a person, or a fragment of a word. What if, in dreams, we see ourselves alive in another reality, taking a different decision, living a different life?

A loud knock on the door. It was already too dark and the lights on the streets had come out.

- “There is nobody home!” she said in a half asleep voice.

Something about the scenery felt different. There was an undistinguished energy in the air, as if a mist landed on the surface of the Earth. The stamping became louder, so did her fear. Half awake she ran towards the kitchen, grabbed a knife, and tip-toed towards the door.

- “Who's there?”

No one, just the sound of keys dangling. Someone was trying to get in and she had no idea what else to do than hide. Hide anywhere. The door opened. Silence. A figure appeared in the ‘contre-jour’. Subtle, long gentle fingers, with an elegance in every step. She entered the apartment and put the keys on the table.

- “Adeline?” Silence. “My dear, there is no need to hide. I can find you even with my eyes half open.” She threw her fur down and with an arctic gaze inspected the view in front of her.

- “Do you have any alcohol in the house?”

She opened the fridge, took the bottle of wine, got the cork out and poured herself a glass.

- “I’ve always had a good taste.” She whispered to herself. “Should I pour you a glass as well?” Silence. “You are getting on my nerves already? Either you take your butt out of that wardrobe, or I am going to pull you out myself. And trust me, you don’t want that.”

There was something strangely familiar to the voice, thought Adeline. With heart drumming like an orchestra she got out of her hide and stepped into the kitchen. In front of her was a woman that looked outside of this realm.

- “Sit down darling otherwise you are going to faint.”

- “Wh.. who are you?” asked Adeline, even though the answer was already obvious. It seemed like someone was holding one of those magic mirrors that transport you through time-space.

- “Who are you?!” smiled the woman.

- “What kind of game is that and why are you in my house?”

- “I can certainly ask you the same question. And put that knife down, please, until you end up hurting yourself. Okay.. keep it if it makes you feel better.”

- “I… What…? Okay. How… How did you end up here?”

- “The question is still wrong my dear.” The woman gently touched her lips to the wine glass and took a sip. “Look, right now, we both are prisoners of time. There are moments when.. lets say.. time collides, crosses each other and... forms another world --”

- “-- parallel realities?”

- “Yes. In which those two worlds meet. Sometimes the borders are so close to each other that when the two touch, the events happen in synchronicity... Are you following?”

- “Yes, I’m not stupid. I just… So... we are not from the same reality. How is this…?”

- “No. I managed to get access to your world, as I need for you to do something for us.”

- “Seriously?” said Adeline perplexed. “So you come into my house and..” She stood up from the chair, planning on opening the door to let the unexpected visitor out, but when she did that, the edge of her house was gone, as well as the corridor and the stairs. Pure blankness, erased and decomposed. She stepped back in fright. “What is this? What is going on?!”

- “This is the eternity of time. Did you actually think that we can meet just like that, in a three dimensional world?”

- “No, but..”

- “Yes. But… Look, time is not linear, yesterday, today and tomorrow, past, present and future are not consecutive. Everything is deeply connected; the future can change the past and it only takes a pair of eyes that consciously decide to stay open inside and out. And you have that. Now please sit down, I’ll pour you a glass of wine and we can talk.”

Adeline does as she was told.

- “Everything that once lived, lives on forever in the eternity of time. Everything we lost lives somewhere in the past, untouched and unchanged. That is why I am here. I have to leave something with you, as I won’t be able to hold on to it any longer. You have to understand that by doing that, I am creating a cycle. A cycle that someone has already started a long time ago.”

- “Does that mean that I have to do the same thing as you?”

- “Good girl. And the other one will oppose and get scared, just the same as you today. I know this information is hard to digest, but I need for you to be patient and explore this idea until the time-space touches again. Now, would you be so kind as to bring my coat back to me?”

Adeline nodded silently and with as little resistance as possible, grabbed the fur coat from the floor and brought it to the woman.

- “Thank you. Now look here.” She pulled a little black leather book and handed it to Adeline. “When the time comes you’ll have to pass it.”

- “Pass it to who?”

- “I forgot how impatient I can be. When the time comes you’ll understand it. That is all I can say. Now please hide it somewhere.”

- “You put a lot of pressure on someone who can hardly put her life together!”

- “Didn’t you want a sign from the Universe after all? Here it is your sign. Take it.”

All of a sudden everything started to shake as if the world was collapsing under its own pressure.

- “I have to go now, but you know what to do next.”

She grabbed her coat, opened the door into that dark oblivion and passed through the darkness. Her voice still echoed in the distance:

- “We all exist in between ghosts.”

The door closed, the walls started to spin around Adeline into a swirl, a colourful swirl of emotions. Screams, laughter, crying, words from the past, memories of the future. Everything became louder and louder, until the noise transposed into white silence.

Adeline jumps off the floor, unable to catch her breath properly. It is early morning, the sun is peeking over the horizon in colours of orange and there is no evidence of anything unusual. No book, no glasses of wine or even the bottle. She runs towards the door, opens it, but everything seems as usual as it was before.

- “It was just a dream. Nothing more than.. just a dream.” She laughs to herself.

Slowly goes to the kitchen, makes herself a cup of coffee, sits by the window and looks down at the street underneath her house. Busy people running around like ants in search of something. During the day, everyone has the need to belong, while at night, it feels like being ‘you’ is the only way of surviving. No one slows down anymore, she notices. No one stops to smell the flowers, to feel the sun caress their skin only to feel a sense of nostalgia when they are covered by the shade.

Shortly, her train of thought is disrupted by a knock at the door. It is 7am. Everything feels like a strange deja-vu.

- “Who is that?”

- “Post. Post for Miss Adeline Miller. Does Miss Miller live here?” exclaims someone on the other side.

- “Yes yes, one second.”

She opens the door and in front of her a 7ft tall man, holding a metal box in his hands and smiling brightly at her.

- “This is for you. Please sign here.” She does. “I think you have something for me as well.”

- “Excuse me? There should be a misunderstanding.”

He looks at the small note attached to the box.

- “You are Miss Adeline Miller, aren’t you?”

- “Yes, I am but --”

- “Would you be so kind as to check the right pocket of your burgundy coat for me?”

- “My what?”

- “Your right pocket of your burgundy coat.”

She examines him with a long gaze. All confused.

- “Should I ask you how... Just give me a second.”

She grabs her coat from the hanger and inside of the pocket a little black leather book.

- “How?” she almost mumbles.

- “Yes, yes, that one. Thank you for keeping it safe.”

The tall man grabs it from her and evaporates into the street, leaving the black metal box at her feet. Adeline grabs it and rushes towards her table. Slowly opens it. Inside a letter. Two letters of a pale crimson colour, signed with “Open me first” and “Open me second”. She takes the scissors and opens the first envelope. Inside a folded letter.

“My dear Adeline,

We all exist, walk, think in between ghosts. You see them everywhere, you hear the echoed voice inside yourself, still vibrating. They are living projections of the memories we still hold deeply in our hearts, rooted shadows passing by, ghosts.

Soon, you and I will also become ghosts lost in that eternity of time. I hope you still remember our conversation, that everything exists somewhere - untouched and unchanged.

In a world of so many possibilities, you have to manage to create your ‘own’ possibilities. This second letter will open your world towards those new chances. Adjust your lungs and eyes, your pores, your mind. Don’t let your soul swim into nothingness.

Trust who you are today and allow her to blow tomorrow. Do not rush. Your intuition is your guide.

Yours,

A.

Date: another lifetime ”

A silent smile on her face. Adeline takes the second envelope, cuts its edge and finds inside a rectangular piece of paper. On it, stamped and signed, is printed a cheque for $20,000. Her eyes turn blank, mouth gently opens and the almost too valuable piece of paper slips from between her fingers. Without even wanting to, she starts screaming and jumps up and down in disbelief, at the same time feeling somehow guilty for this surreal event. She sits herself down, unable to spit a word out, takes the cheque again in her hands and looks at the sky above which is a blanket of grey. Everything seems on a pause. She gently folds the papers, dresses herself in her burgundy coat, puts the letters in her pocket, and silently leaves the house.

“Years from now, when I will have a collected conversation with myself, with those untamed shadows of my past, I - today’s future and tomorrow’s present - will open the doorway towards my memories and will smile. Because now I know.”