The Green Beam

It’s been an eternity since I last got behind the wheel, technically I never got my full licence, but I’ve dreamed of driving away from this place for so long I don’t care. My parents got me this car for my 16th birthday, and it’s been sitting on the side of the road outside the ‘Mont Park Asylum’ for the past three months, collecting tickets and dust.

I never wanted to go to that place, but my parents told me they would drag me there if they had to, so to show them that I am sane I decided to drive there myself and check in. My parents say that I’m ‘crazy’, but I never believed that. I know what happened to me was real.

I don’t remember much about the day everything changed, which is odd considering that it altered the trajectory of the rest of my life. All I recall is a blinding green light, the feeling of intense fulfillment and the company of being’s unknown to this world.

I know how I sound, but I don’t care, I’m tired of caring. I cared what my parents thought and look where that got me, stuck in an asylum for the mentally ill and disowned by the two people who promised to take care of me. I suppose 18 years old is the cut off for the length of time your parents have to legally care about you and after that you’re dropped.

I’ve been driving for over an hour, nowhere to go and no plan of what’s next, but I don’t care, I can’t stay in that place any longer and I don’t have to. Everything looks the same in the dark, I keep thinking I know where I am and then realising I’m not . I’m constantly getting side-tracked, thinking about that night, wishing that they never returned me back to this horrid place. How can I live an ordinary life knowing there is so much more I could be experiencing and so many more being I could be conversing with? No person on Earth could possibly be adequate once you’ve known such creatures.

There is a red light ahead, the only light source for miles, I could go straight through, there is no one around and no cameras, but I stop anyway. The light seems to stay on red for five minutes, not a single car in sight. As I sit, I glance around and realise that this is the spot that it all happened, then my attention falls onto the traffic light. I stare at the red light, willing it to turn green when finally, it does but I don’t accelerate. I keep my foot on the break, staring at the green light, not able to move, not wanting to move.

I focus on the light, unblinking, and as my vision begins to blur, everything around the light fades except the electric green glow of the bulb. Suddenly the green light begins to brighten and pulse, beams of green light, burning into my eyes and then suddenly it goes black. For a moment I sit and stare ahead into the darkness of the night when finally, one last beam of green light floods the road. However, the green light source isn’t coming from the traffic light, it is casting from the night sky directly above.

This is a light I know too well, the light I’ve been dreaming about for months. It’s a promise of excitement and fulfilment and most importantly, an escape from this dull world and its people. I wasn’t certain last time, I hesitated when I had to choose between staying or leaving, but this time I’m ready, this time I’m certain, this time I’m not coming back.