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The Playground

A man taking an unexpected trip

By Tiggerish Eeyore (Aaron Wood)Published 3 years ago 10 min read
1

Adrian stumbled through the streets, tired and hungry as he ever was. He longed for the days when his life wasn't in shambles and had meaning. It's been a year since the day he lost his job, six months since Lauren left him with little Cindy to go live with her mother. The bank repossessed the house three months ago and he has been living rough on the streets ever since. Adrian tried his best to find new employment, the only skills he had was making horseshoes but those weren't needed on these new-fangled automobiles. Tripping on an unseen stone, Adrian landed face first in a mud puddle. Sputtering and shaking his head as he climbed to his knees, Adrian spotted a small black notebook lying in front of the puddle oddly clean and dry in comparison to the dingy alley behind the shops where Adrian had gone in search of food.

A door banged open as a cook in a once-white greasy stained apron threw it open to throw out a load of trash. "Get out of here mongrel! Get!" the cook growled at Adrian, he scooped up the book and took off with his head bent down. He ran on for a bit longer, then turned a corner and leaned against a wall to catch his breath. Looking closer at the small black notebook, it seemed like the thing wasn't fully real. It seemed strange to look at or touch, every instinct told him to throw the accursed thing away, but something stronger compelled him to open the book instead. Slipping a finger between random pages, Adrian opened the book. The pages were blank, no mud, no water from the rain the night before, no ink marring the yellowed parchment. Just blank pages, flipping through the entire book confirmed it was unused. 'Maybe he could barter it off for a spot of soup' the thought no more than crossed his mind when a whirlwind began to blow around him and swept him off his feet causing him to drop the book. Round and round he went towards the open book when his big toe sticking out of his holey shoes touched the book he vanished in a flash of bright light, everything in the alley was super still as if holding its breath. The book phased out of existence just as a newspaper boy came skipping into the alley. "Sure hope that Mister can handle the rough ride he's in for" grinned the boy.

The flash blinded Adrian causing him to clamp his eyes shut, sensing the flash had faded his eyes flashed open to behold wonders beyond his wildest imaginings. He was floating in a vortex of fluid colors with things drifting, rushing, and swirling around him. He saw rubber ducks, wooden toy cars and trains, strange monkey looking creatures screeched at him as they zoomed past, clothes, a china hutch, living stuffed animals of all kinds, and other things that were familiar and unfamiliar. Everything, including Adrian himself, was flowing towards a point where the liquid colors swirled together. Frantic, Adrian turned away from the conversion point and struggled to swim away fearing what was to come. As if attempting to swim in quicksand, however, all he achieved was speeding up his progress towards the place he was trying to avoid. Feeling something gripping his feet, he looked over his shoulder in horror as the color collusion started to suck him in with a horrible sound like a naughty child noisily slurping on a sucker wanting to annoy adults. Adrian struggled harder but the lava of color held him fast with an iron grip, pulling him faster until only his head was left and saying a quick prayer and holding his breath, he closed his eyes in resignation and waited for the end to come.

"Hey Mister, whatcha doing on the ground like that? Doncha know you're holding up da line?" Adrian opened his eyes to find the owner of the twinkling voice standing above him, a talking platypus in a pink and white striped dress with a dusty blue bow on her head was watching him with amusement.

"Truthfully, I thought I was going to die. I was in a swirling whirlpool tube of color, it grabbed me and now I find myself here. My name is Adrian, I simply must ask, where am I? This doesn't seem to be the afterlife unless someone has a truly wild sense of humor," Adrian said rising, a little shaken. After all, he had seen in such a short time, a talking platypus still caught him off guard.

"I'm Sally, nice to meet ya! Welcome to the Playground. Nothing normal ever happens here, although it's rare for a human to find their way here. Gilbert doesn't usually invite humans these days unless they are deserving of a temporal displacement from their life to break from reality. Essentially, your world is frozen in time while you're here, so you don't have to worry about being missed. Ain't that just swell Mister Adrian?" Sally prattled, she seemed to have the spirit of a young child.

"Yeah, great," Adrian replied nonchalantly. Looking around, he saw the world here was made of the flowing colors he had just left except it flowed lazily like a small stream rather than a rapid river. Trees dotted the presumable landscape, purple and blue trunks with yellow and pink branches extending from them. At the end of each branch was an animal head, ducks, goats, sheep, moose, deer, eagles, alligators, dogs, cats, pandas, and other easily recognizable protruded out and chattered in various languages used by people. The "sky" as one may define it had fish swimming and jumping like Olympic games swim meets. Various beings wandered around, some blinking in and out as they went. As Sally had said, nothing was normal to be seen. "How do I get home? I wasn't 'invited' so much as 'abducted'. Invitations can be declined."

Sally looked at Adrian puzzled as if he had just insulted her favorite toy. "I dunno what ya mean Mister, you'd have to ask Gilbert. He's smart, but you'll have to find him, I dunno where he might be hiding. We have been in a game of hide and go seek forever, he is just too good!" Sally exclaimed, running off to find something more entertaining to do.

Adrian shook slowly as he watched her run, somehow she reminded him of his daughter Cindy. She was also full of life and understood the world from her perspective, never daunted by the ideas of others or reality itself. With as much direction as he had in his normal life, Adrian started to wander through this strange colorful world in search of whoever Gilbert was. He tried to engage a few of the denizens with questions about the mysterious leader, but none knew where he was and couldn't give him a description either. "He likes to change his form but you'll know him when you see him" was the response he got from most.

Plopping down on what resembled a park bench growing a bonsai tree on each side, Adrian buried his face in his hands. What should he do now? It felt like he had been searching for an escape for hours, he was tired, hungry, and more lost now than he had ever been in his life. "Doth thou require sustenance and rest? Would this be why thoust has seen fit to sit upon us like common furniture?" A kindly voice whispered in his ear, making Adrian jump to his feet in surprise.

"So sorry, I didn't mean to sit on anyone! I am trying to get home but I am not having any luck so far. I am tired and hungry, but I didn't mean any offense," Adrian rambled in a quick apology, looking around for the speaker.

"Don't take my other half so seriously, he means no harm. Have a lolly, it will revive your weariness," a second voice said to Adrian's left. Looking in the direction of the voice, he saw the bonsai tree had extended a vine with a sucker with bright color swirls.

Taking the treat gingerly from the talking plant, Adrian felt instantly refreshed as he popped the candy into his mouth. It tasted like his childhood favorite, apple pie drizzled with caramel. "I don't suppose you'd know where I can find Gilbert, do you? I need to find him so I can go home."

"Thou shalt goest through yon door behind ye, take the left fork, and thoust shall find Gilbert beyond there," spoke the first voice.

"I'm sorry but what?" Adrian shook his head in confusion.

"He said you should go through that door behind you, take the path on the left and you'll Gilbert in the area after that," the second voice clarified.

Looking over his shoulder, Adrian spied a plain brown door he was sure wasn't there before. "I see, thank you for your assistance." Opening the door, Adrian saw nothing but a shroud of darkness beyond. Taking a deep breath, Adrian plunged into the void and found himself in a torch lit playground with a merry-go-round, swing set, and a metal slide. Ghostly figures ran about playing with the equipment, paying Adrian no mind at all until he got to about the middle of the area.

"Where are you going, Mister? Won't you stay and play with us?" The shades started to circle Adrian as he stood frozen in fear. Looking beyond the apparitions, he saw two paths, one forked left, and the other right. With a cry of desperation, Adrian bolted towards the left path, looking over his shoulder to see the spirits gathered together watching him with mischievous smiles. Adrian suddenly found himself floundering in a pool of water, sitting up he looked around and found himself in a small room with only a white door shining in a sourceless light. Apprehensively, he opened the door and found himself in the alley where he had vanished.

"Did you have fun, Adrian? Was the madness a nice break from the misery of your everyday life?" A child grinning at him asked, sitting on top of a garbage can.

"You must be Gilbert. Am I home now, back in my world? Please, I just want to get my life together and reunite my family," Adrian pleaded.

"You are, but you're not. Time hasn't resumed yet, I have a gift I wish to give you. No special reason, no lessons to be learned. Take this and go in peace." With that, Gilbert jumped off the can and dropped a burlap sack in front of Adrian before vanishing into the shadows without a sound.

Hesitantly, Adrian opened the bag and peeked inside. "Thank you Gilbert, this gift will help immensely. He hefted the bag over his shoulder and hurried to the bank where he insisted on speaking to a manager in private about opening an account. Given his appearance, the bank officials gave him a hard time, until the president of the bank himself came out of his office.

"Shame on you all! This man has as much right to do business here as anyone else, right this way sir." Adrian was lead to the president's office where the contents of the bag were painstakingly hand-counted to the amount of twenty thousand dollars. Even with a large amount of money now at hand, he had his work cut out for him to rebuild his shambled life into one he could be proud of. Eventually, he would, but his heart was set on first reuniting his family.

fantasy
1

About the Creator

Tiggerish Eeyore (Aaron Wood)

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