When the Mad Hatter is running the party the only thing you can do is follow the white rabbit.
By: John Silva – July, 2022
Instead of awaking from a dream… I fell asleep while I was waking up. And, then I had this really weird feeling. I was floating and not able to tell if I was rightside up or upside down. And, I was in a place where everything was colored white. I also remember thinking, how is it possible to be inside nothing?
When you are floating inside nothing, and everything is white there is no frame of reference. No way to get your bearings. Try to understand how I felt. Imagine you are suspended with nothing below you and nothing above you. And, no matter which way you turn or look there is nothing, but the nothing is white. Just trying to explain it to you is making me dizzy.
A tiny speck has appeared in the nothing. It seems to be in front of me, and I am sauntering towards it. I’m traveling upside down and sideways through the void. I feel alive, and I seem to be me… but I’m trembling as the nothing surrounds me with its creepy, unearthly, mysterious, eerie, weird, frightening, and scary presence.
What am I doing here? What should I be doing? What can I do? What the hell is going on?
I guess there is nothing to do but to continue my trek. Maybe I can determine what it does. Or, maybe something will find out what I do. It doesn’t really matter because I don’t care anymore. I’ll do anything to be free from this mind numbing nothingness.
I feel like I’ve been walking for days or is it weeks? I can’t tell. There is no sun to mark the days and no clocks to tell the time. Damn it! I am so confused.
The speck is getting larger. But, no matter how far I think I may have walked, I’m still not sure. Strangely, I’m not tired as I walk. But, what I do tire of is the nothing, and more nothing, and then more nothing of nothing…
Presently, I have to force myself to keep walking. And, I’m fearful of what might happen if I stop.
Have I gone a block, a mile, or five hundred miles? Wait, five hundred miles? I recall a song about five hundred miles? Oh yeah, Peter, Paul, and Mary sang it. What? Why am I thinking of this… what’s wrong with me? What is this happening to me? Am I losing my mind?
Finally, I arrived. The speck turns out to be an enormous structure with roofs, doors, and windows. Approaching the building, I see a large sign hung over the door. It says… LOST and FOUND. What! You’ve got to be kidding. Lost and Found? That’s sick! Really sick! Lost and Found? If that’s supposed to be a joke, it’s not funny! How could I be anything but lost?
Part of me wanted to go inside, but the other part of me said… are you crazy? Curiosity triumphed, and I opened the door, and I was violently sucked into a very large room that had no walls. The place was literally jumping with color. After an eternity of white on white on white, and now the colors were banging against each other hurting my eyes and blood kept spurting from my ears. Spurt… stop. Spurt… Stop. Spurt… stop. What’s next… that’s when the top of my head popped off and the colors exploded as if a volcano was erupting.
There were colors, and more colors, and more colors. Every color you have ever seen or even imagined was there… there were millions of things, objects, devices, thingamabobs, and whatchamacallits. And, each had its own amazing and wonderful color. Some colors were throbbing to an unknown beat while others were beautifully still. Some colors were hard and others were as soft as marshmallows. There were fearless blues, blazing reds, juicy oranges, and screaming yellows… red, white and blue colors were waving at the muted purples and deep mossy greens… colors… colors… everywhere… colors.
I noticed a pair of faded blue jeans. And, I am jolted when they start talking to me. What? Talking jeans? What’s happening? Am I losing my mind? Again? The jeans tell me how their owner got lost hiking in Utah’s red rock country and how they kept hoping to be found. … but no one ever came.
I picked up a beautiful, bright, chrome hub cap. And, it whispered to me that it had slipped off the wheel of a brand new stretch limo. And, how it had rolled for a million miles and then collapsed in a gutter for weeks until an artist spied it, scooped it up, and used it in a three-dimensional piece he was creating. The artwork was purchased, but the owner soon tired of it and tossed it in the garbage. It told me of the artist’s hope that his creation would be “discovered” and he would become famous.
The brand new mint green tuxedo with its dark purple lapels told how it was only worn once… for the wedding. And, how joyful he was that its owner had found true love.
I asked the souped up hotrod painted a candy apple red that kept slipping off its fenders. for its story. Eagerly, it shared the joy it brought its owner as they roared up mountain roads, around blind curves and down into valleys. It also spoke of sultry deeds and wild quests that had occurred in the back seat.
A familiar sight drew me to the gold suit slouched in the far corner of a room. I asked how it came to be here. It explained, Elvis had lost it while performing in Las Vegas. However, it later confided a fan had actually stolen it.
A well-worn clarinet beckoned to me and told me many stories about Dorsey and his band, their music, successes and disappointments… some were interesting, others were funny, and some made me blush.
The ten foot long green hundred dollar bill told of the numerous times it had been lost and found and the hopes and joys and the despair and sorrows it had seen.
As I started to leave the room or was it a space because I thought if its a room shouldn’t it be enclosed or at least defined by some kind of arrangement of walls. Or, were the walls so far away I couldn’t see them? It was impossible to tell.
As I stared into the vast nothingness of colors traveling at the speed of light speeding all around me melting and blurring into each other, I knew I had one last deed to do. I found a paint brush and some paint and I added a few strokes of my own to the sign above the door… it now reads THE LAND OF LOST HOPES AND FOUND DREAMS. And, it was a spectacular sign in full living color.” Damm! I thought. Now, that’s a sign!
Finally, as I slowly awoke and recovered from my colorful but exhausting trip. I was grinning at the huge yellow hemisphere surrounded by its bubbling white disk. It was a fried egg rolling around inside my head on its side. And, I could clearly hear the audio track playing in the background… over and over… This Is Your Brain on Drugs… This Is Your Brain on Drugs… This Is Your Brain on Drugs…
Note: To get the full flavor of the story, a second reading might prove helpful.