Chapter Five

“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”

                                                                                  -Martin Luther King Jr.

            Fear grips me like I have never felt before. As I am no hero, I’m not a courageous man. I am no different then you who reads this passage. I just happen to find myself in an unbelievable situation. I have been walking for quite some time, so when I reach the edge of this black forest. I can't help but a feel a bit happy. 

            As I crept towards the edge a sense of accomplishment radiates from me. I have been through so much, and now here I am on the precipice of freedom. Unfortunately, those feelings flow out of me like spilled water from a glass. As the realization that the shoe may have gotten knocked over onto its side, but the distance from the lip of the shoe, which is where I am now, all the way to the floor below is still a potentially deadly drop.

            In a matter of a instant I’m assaulted with a sense of defeat. I spend all this time moving my battered body to what is suppose to be my escape. However, it merely leads to another adverse situation. I punch against one of the black pillars as I glance down over the edge seething with anger. I wonder if I could survive a drop from such a great height a second time?

            I kick at the floor in frustration as I plop down onto the ground placing my head in my lap unsure of how I can move forward. I know that I can’t stay here forever; however there isn't exactly a sea of options awaiting me either. The only option that I have is to jump and while it isn't an ideal solution it is the only one I have. As eventually malnutrition and dehydration will set in if I stay here.

            I approach the edge and look down again, however as I do so, I notice out of the corner of my eye the shoe lace draping down to the floor. It is a flat shoe lace with large grooves going down the length of lace. I can't believe I didn’t see it before. I just have to make my way over to the lace and then I will be home free.

            The real challenge is just getting to the lace as it's draped over to the side and juts outward a few feet from my reach. This makes it so that I can't get a hold of it without tumbling over the edge.  I look behind me and walk about five hundred feet back and take off running. As I made it to the edge I can feel myself getting winded but I know that it is time to make this happen. If I delay I will just think myself out of it. I take the leap of a lifetime, stretching my arms out for the lace. My legs kick nervously hoping that they can somehow help propel me through the air. My finger tips hit the lace and then my chest slams against the side of the shoelace. My fingers dig into the lace as I try desperately to pull myself up.

            I try in vain to pull myself up, but I just don't have the upper body strength to do it. So I start to pump my legs like I'm on a swing to get my body gyrating. Taking full advantage of this new found motion I swing my leg around to the front of the shoe lace, than use my leverage to pull myself onto the lace.

            I'm huffing and puffing as I gather myself back up. I haven't ever felt anything like this before. I feel so energized and alive I let out a joyful yell. I imagine this is how a person feels after they go sky diving or bungee jumping.

            I spend a good while just resting and recovering. My heart rate slowly falling back into a normal speed where my muscles get to the point where they don’t hurt under the pressure of my own weight. So I decide that it is time to head off of this shoe lace into the great beyond.

            As I stand up and start to head down the shoe lace I begin to realize how dark it really is in here. I find it to be a bit surreal that even now the tiny grooves in the shoe lace are like gigantic canals which rise above my head, but not nearly as much as the black spires of the shoe insole.

            Each canal was about the length of a drainage ditch which would you see along the side of the highway. Only instead of a single drainage ditch, we had multiple drainage ditches spread across as if it’s a twelve lane interstate.

            I continue to trudge along in the wide open for the first time in awhile.  I feel my heart once again start to race. As each sound causes me jump with a fright. I look from left to right as if I cand see something but the room is to dark, and the grooves of the shoe lace were much too high.

            The sounds are really starting to creep me out; usually when I am in a strange house all the rumbles, and pipes creaking, the heat turning off and on, trees scratching against the window. It would all give me a pretty good scare so I’d check out my surroundings before I’d go to bed. I don’t have that kind of luxury. Now I’m in a dark room, in a strange home that I don’t even know the layout in. Every time I hear a noise my nerves get put that much more on edge.

            My whole body feels as if it’s a pile of nerves by the time I reach the end of the shoelace. The end of the laceis frayed in such a manner that it leads me directly into the forest of carpet. As I step off the shoelace I notice right away a difference between the surroundings. The fibers and fabric which make up a shoe insole are tiny. In fact so tiny that a person isn’t even aware of the fact the insole is made up of a million tiny fibers.  However, the carpet fibers are much higher. Each one stands as impressive as a skyscraper. The somewhat horrifying fact to the whole thing is that this is low shag carpeting. I couldn’t imagine what something tall and plush would be like.

            I begin walking towards what I believe is the kitchen. My desire is led by hunger more than anything else. I want real food, and some water would be nice. As I haven’t had anything substantial since this ordeal began. Interrupting my thoughts and hunger was a loud knock at the door.  The simple noise was deafening and shocking.  What felt like a nanosecond later the ground begun rumble and shake. It was like nothing I have ever experienced before.

            I looked upward however my vision was shrouded greatly by the overhanging carpet. A loud voice seemed to rumble across the landscape like a thunder clap over the Midwestern plains.  My skin turned clammy and my face a ghostly white as a cold sweat formed at the top of my brow.

            I look on in awe as I tumble onto my bottom. I realize now just how deadly and dangerous this world really is as my eyes focus on a pink and white striped sock which seems to cover miles in every direction.  The carpet starts to bend as her foot gets lower and lower. I find myself in the midst of a panic attack as I watch her foot loom closer and closer dropping at what looks to be hundreds if not thousands of feet each second. 

            “This is it” I manage to scream out in between my frantic breathing. My stomach acid starts to gather at the back of my throat. I can taste it creeping up like a lion stalking a gazelle. My mouth careens open and it is at that moment the gazelle stumbles and loses the pack and the lion pounces. In this case my stomach acid and anything else I still had in there came flying out and onto my face and body.

            I tightly close my eyes knowing that I am about to be crushed to death by what has to be a million tons of girl power. However, in my final moments I find a peace that I hadn’t felt leading up to this second. My panic attack subsiding, the smells of my own bile and stomach acids hit me.

            “Father, do not fault her for what she is about to do, as she does not know the murder that is afoot. Just watch over my family and have mercy on her. Amen”. Another loud rumble rolled across the floor. This caused me to open my eyes. Astonishment fills me as a look up perplexed at what I am seeing. This girl’s full weight shifting down onto the ground all around me. However, her foot still looks as if it is a shooting star in the sky. As the star rushes past at what could easily be hundreds if not millions of miles away and yet you can see the atmosphere reacting with the star creating a feeling as if you could reach out and pluck the star from the sky.

            The carpet all around me is completely compressed and I can smell the scented lotion permeating the air around me. The tropical scent of the lotion is everywhere tickling my nose a bit. As her foot lifts upwards it creates a powerful updraft and I find myself starting to lift off the ground. I grasp at the ground wrapping my arms around one of the smaller loops which make up the base of the carpet.

            My legs are pulled off the ground and are pulling upwards at a seventy degree angle as her foot continues to lift higher and higher into the air. Tiny dirt particles that are about the size of pebbles to me but invisible to a normal sized human are pelting me in the face. As the pink and white striped sock lifts further and further away the wind power lessens and my body drops roughly back onto the ground.  I sit up breathing heavily covered in my own puke.

            Thunderous voices careen about the room as the familiar smell of ferments the room mixing with the tropical scent which still lingers a bit. My stomach grumbles as I look in the direction of the door knowing that most apartments have the kitchen near the entrance. So my best chance for any kind of food would be to head that way. Slowly rising back to my feet I head off in that directions hoping to find some remains from someone’s dinner and avoid being killed in the process. However, as Charlie Brown once said, “only dread one day at a time.”