Two Blue Figures

The wall of mystery; a structure made of dynamic shapes. Odd figures move and merge with one another in swirling patterns. I want to reach out and touch them but Momma made sure I knew not to get close. She says that “bad things” will come for anyone who touches the wall but many people have bumped the wall before. I don’t know what the danger is because everyone who bumps it seems to be fine afterward. Momma is only overreacting. It is quite the peculiar sight to watch the figures continually change and move around. Are they alive? Is the wall really as hard as stone like I have been told? I won’t know until I touch it, but momma won’t leave me alone.

Momma takes us further, passing the large, continuous wall. The sky is black with spots that hurt my eyes when I look up at them. I ask Momma what they are, blinking through the pain, and she calls them “lights.” I know that word already. The sky is foggy and swirling when I look up at the lights. It is not the same as the wall but it is similar. The air shimmers with the color I love, called “blue.” The ground beneath me is covered in colorful patterns. In some places, the wall extends to both sides of our path and stays very dynamic as we move our way through each area.

As Momma continues to lead me she stops and looks at many pretty rocks. There are blue rocks, green rocks, red rocks and more that I cannot pronounce. She calls one “pink,” a word I have heard before but only now understand what it means. I look back toward the wall and see more shapes and colors than I would have expected to see. The wall is usually an assortment of boring colors that turn the eyes away but not this time. Momma continues to look at the pretty rocks so I wander my way toward the wall. I am small, and although moving past the crowd is sometimes difficult, I somehow float through the crowds easily. I am closer to the wall than I thought I could be. Something is tugging at me to get closer to the wall. Is it Momma? When I look back to her I see she is still looking at the pretty rocks, unaware I am not still beside her. Around I look, wondering where the tugging is from but I feel the sensation come from inside me. I want to touch the wall. It is a curiosity isn’t it?

Eyes are on me as I walk toward the wall. The bodies of those same eyes move away from me as I walk toward the wall and prepare myself to touch it. I giggle to myself as I reach out to touch it. I did not think the exhilaration would be so disorienting but I am struggling to touch the wall. I should not hesitate. The sound of Momma frightens me as her voice pierces the air and all the heads turn to look at her. All I heard was my name but it was enough to remind me not to touch the wall. She grabs me and we wander far away from the wall.

Time passes, I grow older and the wall remains untouched.

I have not counted the amount of times I have passed by the wall since Momma first got upset at me. Somehow, it feels familiar like an old friend. The same shape on the surface of the wall is a brilliant shade of blue, the only color like it and it consistently shows up when I am near it. I find the courage again to reach out and touch the wall. With Momma gone it is something I am able to do now. I reach out, half expecting Momma to come from above, below or behind me and yell at me not to touch the wall. But she did not come.

I weigh the risks and feel the pressure of the wall. Is it really physically there? I am unsure and still it is right in front of me. I feel the pressure of temptation running through my brain and the fears of what may occur. I may die, pick up a disease, lose my ability to move or… nothing will happen. With all the risks, I can’t bring myself to make contact with the wall. It swirls in front of me in various shades of blue. The bright, shocking blue that meets directly in front of me. It looks like me. The same shade of blue coating me swirls upon the wall.

I am alone in this room with the swirling wall as my company. How can I call this company of mine a companion without touching it? Momma isn’t here so maybe I can physically meet this companion I have.

I touch the immense magical wall.

The shapes shift and wobble more than I have ever seen before. I touch it again, allowing my touch to linger as the shapes begin to slowly return to their normal swirl. Is the wall not like me? I draw nearer to the wall and it seems like it is moving differently than I do. Is this just my reflection or is this something different altogether?

As I put my eyes closer to the glass I shudder. Eyes just like mine looking right back at me. My touch, which has remained along the wall, is met with the touch of another, on the other side? Fin and hand, hand and fin, touching each other through the clear wall. It is a portal to another world, one where another blue figure exists in its own form. A world coexisting from my own, populated by creatures with intelligent eyes. I move along the glass, staying close as I follow it to see what the creature on the other side would do. It follows me too, interested in the intelligence it sees in me.

We spend time attempting to communicate through the glass wall that separates our worlds. We do everything we can but in the end we give up. Two blue figures staring at each other through the glass barrier wondering if they will ever meet.