For years, Mia, has wondered if her flight aboard a UFO she had found in a meadow she use to visit was real or all just a dream. So Mia decided to return there. Nothing was found that you wouldn’t expect to see in a meadow in a forest clearing. Mia settled down on her back on top of a soft blanket she brought with her, and gazed up at the blue sky.
Of course, being that it wasn’t that long after lunch and a warm day with a nice cool breeze caressing her cheeks, Mia started to get very drowsy.
Mia’s eyes blinked several times as she started to wake up, and was wondering if anything would be different when she became totally aware of her surroundings and the groggy mist had cleared from her mind. Expecting to see a normal late afternoon sky, her eyes became very wide! The sky was not the one she had always known! She was no longer in a meadow at all!
Mia found that what was underneath and all around her was not the Earth that she knew. This was a very different place. The sky was dark and a very un-Earth like blue with very strange clouds receding into what seemed to be a forever horizon. The land around her was like nothing she had ever seen. Endless craggy, and very sharply pointed mountains both large and small seemed to go on forever. That wasn’t all, there were many unnatural looking rivers that flowed in all kinds of crazy directions. Of course, to her relief, Mia had no trouble breathing. Immediately around her and underneath her feet was what she might think of as a futuristic space station that appeared to be on stilts high above the ground. She was on some kind of platform on the outside of the building. Mia’s immediate thought was; ’somehow I ended up on another planet again.’ ‘I just know this isn’t real, it has to be a dream’. Laying back down on her blanket that was still with her and thinking; ‘I will just wake up and know this isn’t real at all’.
But sleep would not come. So Mia tried to see if she could go inside the building. She turned around and saw that there was only a smooth wall. Venturing forth, Mia, approached the wall thinking there must be a door nearby, As soon as she got close to it Mia found herself inside! She walked forward into a room that was straight ahead to find a woman, who was
standing in the far corner of the room facing away. She seemed to be looking down at something. “Hello?” “Where am I and did you know I was here?” Then this person turned around to face her and Mia almost fainted, It was herself staring back at her!
Mia asked, Where am I? How are you me? Is this a very strange dream or something? The other “Mia” says “You are on Earth, I don’t know, why do you think I am you?”
Mia retorts back, “How is this Earth that is impossible! And you look exactly like me, is your name Mia also?
“No, this is the only Earth that I know of, it has always been here, and my name is not Mia, it is Amelia.”
At this point Mia starts to feel very light headed then everything goes dark. When she wakes up again she finds she is in her room on her bed. Such relief! ‘No, that was just a weird dream, nothing more’. Interestingly enough her blanket lay folded neatly at the end of he bed. Mia gets up to walk out of her room to the bathroom, she needs to pee badly.
Alarms start going off in her head! When she goes to reach for her bedroom door that has always been there, her hands only touch and feel a smooth wall. What is even stranger, her need to pee just goes away. As if she had just been able to relieve herself while her mind was racing ahead to what possibly could be going on here. Mia went over to where she knew her window to be, and found it was there after all, but outside her window was a blank world. It was so dark she couldn’t make out a thing. So she slumped back to her bed and closed her eyes.
When Mia woke up, once agin she found herself in a room that was not her own at all. One long shimmering drape filled the wall opposite of the bed she had just woke up in. Mia walked across the floor that felt so soft to her feet and toes, and yet it seems she was walking on a metallic floor. With her right hand she parted the drape that came to and end on the left side of the window. She looked out in wonder. Mia was beginning to feel she wasn’t dreaming at all. Somehow her room was moving through the air. Mia just couldn’t shake the feeling that she kept waking up to another world every time she fell asleep. She couldn’t take this, and went back to the bed and laid back down.
These are Mia’s thoughts so far:
‘Mia is who I am, I thought I existed in a real place, I loved my secret meadow, I loved
the deep blue sky above.
I thought I had a very strange dream once, I thought it was real. I came back here to see if it was just a dream.
I am awake now but my meadow is gone, I look up and I don’t see my sky.
Am I dreaming again, or did my dream transport me to another place? Have I lost the sky?’
Asleep again. Feeling helpless to stop what was occurring to herself. Of course she woke up later, she felt she had no choice. ‘What am I some kind of rag doll that gets thrown about where ever the universe wants me to go?’
Awake Mia realized she was on a new bed, one that was much nicer, so nice it felt like she was on a cloud. Laying there wondering what came next, gazing up at a curved green metallic ceiling, she started to realize a face was looking down at her. Again it was her face. But not her right? What name did she say? Amelia, that’s right.
For the first time Amelia seemed to be smiling at Mia. “Time to wake up sleepy head. And please, let’s stay awake for a while this time?”
“I am sorry, so much to process, including why you look like me.”
“I will explain all, once we have some food.”
“Please is there a mirror around here, I am sure I look like a mess and I want to confirm I
am still me”
“Sure.” Just walk over to this wall”, Amelia points to the wall across from the bed Mia
was sleeping on. “Just think mirror and one will be there for you”
Mia wants to ask why and how will a mirror just appear on the wall because she thinks
of it. Mia doesn’t believe she has any magic in her. Not that that is even true of her world, Well maybe. She thinks better of her burning question and walks over to the far wall. All she thinks is I need to see what a mess I am now and a large body size mirror appears. What Mia sees is who she has already known as herself. A delicate rounded face with deep hazel eyes staring back at her. Her shoulder length light brown hair, bangs down to the very top of her eyes, is a tangled mess. “Wowa!” Out of no where a brush appears in her hand. She struggles to get her hair in order but eventually does. She gazes at her slender short body, hidden underneath a light blue cotton blouse, overhanging her a darker blue shorts. ‘Hmm no shoes or socks on. must have taken then off back at my meadow.’
Mia turns around to see an amused Amelia. She smirks and asks a question for something that was bugging her a lot. “Amelia, something I just can’t seem to understand. Earlier I woke up it seemed I was back home in my bed, I got up and had to pee real bad so I went to the door to go out to the bathroom. But there was no door and then for some reason I no longer had to pee. I know I never left the room, but I didn’t pee in my shorts or on the floor. How is that all possible?”
“You see, Mia, you did go out to what you call a bathroom to pee. For some reason your mind just couldn’t comprehend what had happened.”
“But how?!” There was no door!”
“See, Mia, just like the mirror and brush, your thoughts took you out to what you think was your bathroom, where you were able to pee.”
“Ok, I think thats all, don’t want to discuss my private needs any longer.” “Thanks though, but this is all so bewildering.” “And where am I now?”
“I found you out in a completely different part of our world, or I should say worlds, or Earths. Earth is what we know of as a two phased world. The place you found yourself in the first time was the second phase. We normally can’t live there. The only resources there can be used for building our stations and traveling pods. You recently woke up or “moved” to the first phase of Earth. That is where we can create and gather food and other things needed to sustain us.” “ I found you out in the wild and am now taking you to our other station in one of our travel pods.”
Mia just stood there blinking. Nothing she just heard made any sense. In fact she just knew at any moment she would wake up and see that all of this is just a crazy dream.
“Amelia, how do I know this isn’t all just a strange dream?” “None of what you say makes sense, at least not in the reality I know.”
“Well first, Mia, lets go up to the front of our transport pod, where we can get something to eat and talk a bit more.” “I will try and answer your questions while we walk there.”
“Sigh, ok.”
“You wonder if this is all just a dream?” “Of course, I know everything around me is
very real, but that proves nothing to you.” Amelia looks at Mia with a sly grin. I could pinch you, that might or might not prove anything though.” ”I was thinking of having you go back to sleep again. But since you seem to have stopped actually dreaming and you're probably moving between dimensions through you dreams, my idea won’t work, or is too risky. I think it is just going to take time before you are convinced that what is all around you is real.” “As I just stated, I believe that you are moving across dimensions when you enter a dream. In a way it is just like the mirror, brush and that missing door.” “Also how we travel between the two phases of this World.”
“But what about you, how is it you look just like me?”
“I don’t know for sure, but it is probably that this dimension has a few similar things in it that are in your world. That includes people. But even if I look just like you we grew up in a completely different environment so we are very different people.”
“And here we are, at the forward viewing room.” “Sit down where you wish.”
Mia looks around with eyes wide as they can be! Before her is a darkened room, Through viewing ports both front and to the sides she can see a world that is more incredible then the one she first viewed. As with the first there were sharp mountains large and small for as far as she could see. No rivers in this place though, that she could see. Except she does see mostly green areas. The sky is like nothing she has ever seen. It appears to be night time since she can see stars and a very large planet hanging in the sky. But there are bright white swirling clouds along with strange hues that go down to a purple haze of a horizon. The room she is in has seats both in the center facing the front view port, and on each side facing the ports there. The chairs look very comfy with high backs. Mia plops down in the front facing one. “Where are you taking me, Amelia?”
“Home, well mine and our home, maybe your new home too.” Amelia walks over to a small area in the far corner of the room and seems to be rummaging around the stand in that spot, pushing some small glowing buttons. Soon she comes back with a dish of some strange looking food on a plate and sets it down on a small table that just appeared in front of Mia. “Here, I think you might wonder about this food but it is quite delicious, created from local plants we harvest about once a week.” Mia finally realizes she is indeed quite hungry and nibbles her food at first, not really trusting it. But yes! This is very good, and goes at it as if she hadn’t eaten in a week or two.
Mia sat lost in dream or just random thoughts as she gazed out of the portal. Such a beautiful and strange world she was flying over. In time a shadow obscured the view she had, then in the place of the landscape she was viewing, were metallic walls with a green/blue hue to them.
“Mia, we are home”. Mia looked over at Amelia with a sleepy smile. She got up slowly and followed Amelia and the two others who were with her. Mia wondered aloud at that point, “Why didn’t you introduce me to your two friends here?
“Oh I am so sorry, Mia, I thought it would be better not to toss too much your way. Maybe I should have?” “This is Stakken, and Ellraea.” They both nodded to Mia. The four of them walked out of the forward viewing room down a short hall to the exit. Down the exit ramp they went.
A while later as Amelia was showing Mia around the Land Station, (as she called it), she said to Mia, “I might call this a “Land Station” but it is also a home, one of many as you will come to know.” They all entered a vast and beautiful room. It had a very restful ambience. A lake that was fairly large surrounded by a deeply green jungle. Fireflies flitting about in the distance. Closer to them was a round metallic table with chairs surrounding it that seem to be floating on air. Mia looked all around her, completely enraptured by what she could see, smell, and hear. Nearby some rocks shot straight up to the ceiling with a waterfall cascading over them into a pool below where the water then continued it’s path into the lake.
“How is this all possible?” asked Mia to everyone there. A young man standing next to Amelia said “ this is,” as he moved his right hand in a circular path, “our Story Room.” “Meaning that the ones who built this Land Station told a story that created this room. We all meet here to relate our own and new stories to each other. Oh my name is Sheladancc.” “Thank you Sheladancc.” “I hope I didn’t butcher your name.”
“You said it as it is, thank you.”
Amelia followed with, “come Mia let us sit down here and we would all love to hear your
story.”
“Where should I begin my story?” Mia asked the room.
“Please just start at the very beginning, when your journey through life began, well as
much as you can remember.”
“Ok, this is my story, I hope it doesn’t put you all to sleep” Mia looks up with a nervous but sly grin.
“My life started the day someone told me, I was very young then, maybe four to five years old, that my parents had died. I remember being very upset but not really understanding what that meant. I was told they were on the way home from looking at a possible new house when they were hit head-on by another car. I barely remember anything from those days, I think life at that age is nearly all very dream like. I do know I found myself staying with my aunt. What is strange is I don’t remember her name. I know she was single at that time and was not happy that all of a sudden she not only lost a sister but had me thrust into her life. She didn’t treat me badly ever, she just mostly ignored me as if I wasn’t there. Oh she fed me made sure I was taken care of, but she didn’t talk to me. During meals she would plop my food down on the kitchen table then leave the room. Eventually she got married and had a couple of kids, I was in high school by then. Her whole family pretty much ignored me. I was very surprised by this and a bit angry. It inspired me to remove my last name when I was old enough. I don’t even remember what it was anymore. So I am just Mia. By then though I had learned to just stay in my room when at home and draw, and write little stories that I kept to myself.
“I didn’t have any friends, everyone at school looked at me funny and sometimes I would find myself in a councilor’s office where they would ask me how I was feeling and why don’t I try to make friends. I told them, I am not good at talking with others so prefer to just keep to myself. I was warned that I was creating suspicion because it was always the loners that ended up shooting and killing others in schools.” That only served to make me more withdrawn. I was good in class, especially the computer art class and an english and writing class. But still I kept to myself.
“During my senior year I started going on walks in a nearby forest. I was told by someone (yes I did talk to others occasionally, I wasn’t mute all through life), that if I went down a certain path it would take me to a small park, one with picnic tables and some swings and a grassy area. One day I found that trail, but instead of a park there was this most wonderful little forest meadow.” “My meadow, as I came to think of it, was my place to hide, to be at peace” “I found out after I had gone there over the years, and once I was in college, that it didn’t exist. I had taken pictures of it on my phone but still no one believed me. They insisted there was only a park in this location and accused me of creating the meadow on my computer.” “That made me really feel like this was my meadow if a bit angry at them. It was just before I graduated from the two year college I was going to that I found a UFO there. I will tell you more about that later, but I had for years thought it was just a dream.” “During those years after the UFO, oh I guess none of you here know what I am referring to?” Mia saw some bewildered expressions on everyone’s face, including Amelia. “On my Earth, a UFO is basically some space ship from another planet but no one believes they exist. And sometimes people claim to see these space ships. They can’t be fully explained so they are called unidentified flying objects” “As I was saying, I thought that experience was probably just a dream so I didn’t tell anyone. For years it haunted me. I finally wrote a short story about it, I have it saved here on my phone. I can show it to you all sometime.” “I finally went back to my meadow, with the hope of putting all of that behind me. And then of course I ended up here.” “There I have told you my story.”
Everyone sat in thought filled silence for a short while. “I wonder,” Amelia said, “it sounds like that meadow was the beginning of you being able to move to other dimensions, though this time without dreaming first.” Your story is a little sad, that isn’t good about how your aunt treated you. Overall it is an illuminating story. I hope your meadow might manifest here in the future.” A strong feeling of elation came over Mia! Here were these people who seemed to like her, care about her. Something she has never known. It brought waves of joy and fear, even sorrow at the same time. She thought, ‘maybe I should see if I can go back to my world for a short bit, see if I really want to leave it behind?’
“I have a thought, what if I try to see if I can go back there through a dream then be able to return here. I think it might work now since I am starting to feel I have an anchor here. In this place, where you all are. “I think that might work but it is very risky. What if your meadow is no longer there? Then you could never return.” Amelia put a strong emphasis on her last words.
“But I still feel I have an anchor to my meadow. If it isn’t there then I just return to my life, I would be very sad, but then I might find a way back to you.”
Later that night Mia lay down, being so very tired. She tried to focus on her meadow, even looking at pictures she had taken of it on her phone. Drifting off, Mia had some strange dreams, just dreams this time. When she awoke she was very startled to see she was back in her meadow! But something was not right. The air was very smoky, She looked around the meadow at the forest that surrounded it and saw large plumes of smoke billowing skyward. Immediately she knew her meadow may be in trouble so she lay back down and tried to go back to sleep so she could return to her new home. But her heart was racing, couldn’t sleep at all. Mia rose up quickly to see if there was a safe place to run, but her meadow now was surrounded by fire! She knew as soon the flames touched the grass it would race across the meadow at frightening speed. And now the air was so full of smoke, Mia started coughing violently. She knew it was too late now and lay down and closed her eyes. She didn’t want to see herself become engulfed in flames. So hot, so extremely hot! Then it was all black for what seemed to be a very long time.
Mia’s thoughts now:
“All black all nothing all around me. I still think I am me. I don’t feel my body but it has to be there, I hope.”
“I feel like I am moving forward even though it is dark all around me. I wonder where I am going?”
“I can see something now, Not sure what I am seeing.”
“Oh, now I see, there is a lake but I am not sure if it is real.
There are faces all around me. Not sure who they are, everything is hazy, ghost like.
“Ah, now I see, there you all are. Where were you?” “Amelia?”
Mia woke up with a start! She was alive and back in the new home. She was in the story room now. Amelia was there as were the others.
“Mia!!” Amelia said with much urgency. What happened, we heard you coughing and crying out!”
Mia looked down at the floor and closed her eyes.”I think I might have died back in my meadow. I woke up there after I had slept for some time. But it was all on fire!” “I couldn’t escape so I lay down and closed my eyes, waiting for the fire to eat my life away. Then I am here, how?”
Amelia quietly said, “If you did die, and since your consciousness has been able to travel to other dimensions, and I don’t believe it is strictly tied to your physical body, it moved back here since you already had an anchor here. Also I believe your consciousness can also manifest your physical body, which is why we see you normally. My other idea is that the meadow you were in was a kind of pocket dimension that was erased by the fire in the actual world you came from. That forced you to travel back here. I guess we may never know”
Mia, thought for awhile, “I am home now though. Maybe someday when I am brave enough I might try and see if I can dream myself back there to see if my meadow is gone or not.”
“Look!” A woman in the room cried out, she pointed to the an area to the right of the waterfall. They all turned in that direction. There was as meadow there with a few trees behind it. Mia smiled because it was her meadow, and there was a small brook flowing through it.
Everyone returned to their rooms except Mia, She walked over to her meadow and lay down in the soft grass. Closing her eyes she drifted off to a quiet dreamless sleep.