Trip

I was lying in bed when tingles started running up and down my body. I felt floaty and heavy all at once. Full rolling body chills came in swells. I was the ocean, constantly expanding and contracting in waves. My limbs felt like they weighed a ton each. I melted into the bed, wondering if these sensations were normal.

The tea had been hard to stomach. The floating chunks of gray-blue mushrooms had hovered on top like little boats. I gagged as I swallowed them. The lemon juice helped, but it was the texture of the mushrooms that left me retching. They seemed to stick in my throat as I choked them down. I quickly chugged the tea to get it over with.

An hour later, I was in another world. My room was the same place it had been, but everything was different. The walls started to breathe. They moved in and out like a chest rising and falling. The beige carpet became a sea of swirling patterns, constantly moving and shifting. A face bobbed by me. He looked so sad; his mouth was agape as if he were in agony. I felt so sorry for him, that I started to weep.

“I’m so sorry, sir,” I said out loud.

My voice wasn’t mine. It sounded harsh to my ears. It made me laugh. I collapsed back onto my bed in a fit of giggles. I sounded like a customer service lady who tells you that she’s sorry that the product her company sold didn’t work out for you. “I’m so sorry, sir.” The words rang through my head over and over and over again until they became slow and morphed. Suddenly, they were sinister. I shook my head like a wet dog to push them out.

A tiny green light on the bottom of the tv caught my eye. It started pulsating. I could hear the light throbbing.

Waaoooo waaooo waaoooo

My body involuntarily started wiggling with it. The light got bigger and bigger. It was moving toward me at a rapid pace, getting closer by the second. It was so bright, that it burned my retinas.

Too fast!!! I thought. I clamped my eyes shut in fear.

I was immediately transported to the anti-gravity machine at the Rehoboth Beach Funland. I was six years old, and I could hear the shrill bell ring as the ride began.

Ding! Ding!

My dad was next to me, my sister on my other side. The ride started spinning slowly, and then its pace picked up. Lights inside blinked and flickered a rainbow of colors as the people around me became blurs.

Red. Blue. Green. Yellow. Red. Blue Green. Yellow.

My body stuck to the wall as the ride whizzed quickly. My entire world became a smear of flashing colors, high pitched squeals, and dinging bells that rang in the distance. Dizziness overtook me and I was terrified. It took all of the effort in my body to turn my head towards my dad to try to see his face. His eyes were screwed up tight, like he was afraid too. I watched his glasses float out of his pocket. I opened my mouth to scream but no sound came out.

I opened my eyes and I was back in my bed. I fought intense dizziness to lift myself up. My mattress felt like it was full of water, and I struggled with its rocking and rolling to sit. All of a sudden, I was intensely aware that my bladder was really full. It felt like it was going to burst. Panic set in and I popped up out of bed, my feet hitting the carpet that had turned into a sand pit. Afraid I was going to sink into it, I sprinted to the bathroom. I lost my balance and my shoulder slammed into the door frame.

I could hear my brain rattle in my skull upon impact. I pictured it bouncing around in my head. It seemed angry. This made me laugh as I plopped onto the toilet. I looked up at my teal shower curtain, and the paisley pattern was a sea of faces. They were pushing out of the curtain as if a bunch of people were pressing their faces into it from the other side. Some were happy, some were sad, some were laughing. A din of noise filled my ears as the faces chattered and chortled. I stopped peeing, but I was embarrassed to have an audience.

“That’s quite enough!” I yelled at the faces.

They froze immediately and the noise stopped.

“You all are being very rude.”

They remained silent and chastised. I pulled up my underwear and went to the sink to wash my hands. I faced the mirror, and a stranger was staring back at me. Her hair was long and wavy. It wasn’t my blonde hair on her head; it looked so red. The woman’s strawberry locks tumbled down her back. I touched them as she touched them in the mirror.

I smiled.

She smiled.

Her eyes looked black. I was startled. I took a step back. So did she. Then I walked up to the mirror and pushed my face forward as close as it would go. I studied the woman’s large, black pupils. I could barely see the green rim around them. Her freckles popped out at me aggressively.

I turned away from the mirror, walking back over to my bed. The blanket was a puffy cloud, and I sank back down into it. My dog peered up at me over a pillow she was laying on. Her big, brown eyes were full of concern.

She’s judging me, I thought. My hand reached out to pet her. It felt unattached from my body as it floated towards her in the air. The top of her head was so soft, her ears silky. I wanted to tell her it was okay, but I was worried that my weird voice would scare her. I started to weep again. What if I was stuck like this forever? What if my voice never changed back or that black eyed lady was always waiting for me in the mirror?

I closed my eyes and continued weeping. Suddenly, before my closed lids were undulating shapes in every shade of green. They changed constantly, like a kaleidoscope. A deep, feminine voice called out to me from within my psyche.

“Who are you, child?” it said with resounding authority. I was both comforted by the voice and in awe of it all at once.

My mind reached out towards the voice. The shapes continued to oscillate, but I got this strange sense that I was not ready for whatever this was.

What do I do? I thought.

The voice replied, “Be here now.”

The shapes disappeared as quickly as they came. I opened my eyes and laid in bed until my walls stopped breathing and the floor stopped moving.