The Encounter

I opened my eyes to a bluish colored light that blinded my eyes. Bluish light? Is it the light? I looked at my surroundings. It wasn’t heaven. It was the nurse’s office. How am I not dead? Looking at my arms, I saw that they weren’t bandaged. Oddly, my arms and legs didn’t hurt. I looked at my hands, they weren’t cut up. Sitting up slowly I felt my clothes stick to my body as if I had sat in a car for a long drive in the summer, without air conditioning, or if I had jumped into a pool with all my clothes on. Sitting up, a horrible pain shot to the back of my head. I rubbed my temples. There was an ice pack on the pillow where my head had sat. I didn’t like being here and climbed out of bed. A nurse rushed over.

“Good, you’re awake. You gave me a scare when you were hit in the back of the head with the wooden board. The museum really should put up some warning signs. This is the third time someone came in because they got hit with those stupid boards.” The nurse talked too quickly and with too much happiness.

She turned to leave, but I stopped her. “What about my arms and legs?”

“What do you mean? They’re fine.” She said giving me a questioning look. I felt my arms. No glass…

“But I was bleeding…”

“Bleeding? Where?”

“From my arms and legs, they were cut with glass!”

She examined my arms and shook her head. “No hone, they aren’t and weren’t bleeding. There aren’t any cuts. You must have dreamt it.” She said then scurried away before I could say anything else. The room had five other beds besides the one I was on. There was a sink and another room in the back.

There had been cuts. There had been cuts. Right? It seemed real. Could I have dreamt it? I felt up my legs. My hands ran over a bump. I twisted around to get a better look. A scar ran on my leg. I defiantly did not have that before today! It couldn’t have been a dream! What’s going on? I couldn’t have healed that quickly! How did I even get here? The headache grew. I can’t think about this.

I climbed out of the bed, stretched and turned around to grab my bag. I started for the exit and felt something in my shoe. I reached down and pulled out a black string that was connected to my necklace. “How the hell did that get in my shoe?” I mumbled to myself in a light voice as I put it back on.

“Hey! Blondie we meet again,” I stiffed and turned around. There was the black hair, dark blue-eyed boy that I had crashed into earlier.

“Hi,” I said unhappily. Great, I get to talk to him again.

“So have you hit into anyone else lately?” The boy said with a laugh and a smile.

“No,” I scolded, putting my hands on my hips.

“Oh I’m sorry I didn’t know that you were only against me.” He sneered.

“Oh you’re real nice!” I said sarcastically rolling my eyes. At least he’s taking my mind off of earlier.

“Why thank you it means so much to me that you feel that way.”

“You’re unbelievable!” I yelled.

“Hey, that’s what my mom calls me.” He said with smile and a laugh.

He’s joking! That little…I pushed him. He seemed startled by my act of violence.

“Oh I’m sorry I didn’t mean to upset you. I was just playing around.” He said sincerely.

“Sure you did!” I yelled. Now I was fuming.

The boy stuffed his hands in his pants’ pockets and rocked back and forth on his heels. He casually looked up then down then around the room avoiding my eyes and face. After a few minutes, I started to clam down. This is too much to handle. Calm down. I finally sighed and removed my hands from my hips. The boy looked up and opened his mouth as if to speak but closed it again.

He opened it again finding his voice. “Why did you come here?” He asked, and I caught a tint of concern in his voice.

“Why do you care?” I said rudely. Okay, not calm.

“Why shouldn’t I?” He asked with a bit of pity in his voice.

“Fine. I got hit in the back of the head with a wooden board.” I answered. At least that is what I am told. “Why are you here?” I questioned before he could ask anything else.

“I got a bloody nose. Someone decided to hit me in the face with a door. It started bleeding and I was forced to come down.” He answered. Then there was an awkward silence again. “So… what’s up?” He said breaking the silence. “Oh, I forgot my name. I’m Teddy, and you are?” Teddy asked, and sketched out a hand as if waiting for a handshake.

At first, I was surprised. Then I stuttered a minute, than I shook his hand.

“I’m Chelsea.” I said. I checked my watch, Teddy watched me, and I ignored him. He pulled his hand back and stuffed it in his pockets.

“So do you have any siblings? Teddy questioned.

“Yeah, I have an annoying little brother, you? I answered wanting to get this conversation over with.

“Oh I have an older brother and a younger sis.” There was that silenced again. I had nothing else to say.

“Um bye.” I said and turned to leave, he followed right behind me. I turned around and gave Teddy a stern look.

“So what do you want?” I asked curiously.

“Where are you going next?”

“I don’t know maybe the Unknown room then probably some lunch.” Hopefully I can find it this time.

“I’m joining you.” Teddy said with a smile. I rolled my eyes, annoyed. I knew from the sound of his voice that there was no way of talking him out of it. “If that’s ok…” He continued.

“Whatever.”

Me… well… I guess Teddy and I headed over to the Unknown room.

As we walked Teddy asked, “Hey what’s that,” and pointed to my knuckle.

“Oh it’s just a mark.” He had pointed to a double S symbol on my hand.

The symbol was on my first knuckle on my left hand. I never knew how I got it. I also never knew what it was of. My mom said that when I was little I drew it on and it never washed away. That story seems very unreasonable. The other thought was when I was little I was burned and it stayed. That also is unreasonable. I doubt it would have a very precise design. The last idea, made by my dad, was that he said that I was born with it. Have you ever heard of something like that, I haven’t? My mom and dad always fought about it.

“Want to hear something weird?” Teddy asked as we were walking.

‘What?”

“When I was walking down to the nurse, I overheard two men talking. They said that someone had destroyed a display case and no one saw who did it.”

I froze. Broken display case... it couldn’t be. “Where was it?”

“I don’t remember some animal room.”

“African animals?” I asked too quickly.

“Yeah,” He said looking startled, “How’d you know?”

I bit my lip, “Just a guess.”

“Are you ok?” I nodded and started walking again.

The Unknown room had pots, books, stones and other random items. The room was made up of other things that didn’t fit in any other room.

Teddy stopped in front of a witch’s cauldron, type that you’d see on Halloween. A plaque stood on a stand next to it.

“Now that’s witchy,” Teddy said with a smile on his lips and went back to reading from the plaque. “Some superstitions that have to do with witches: Wear a blue bead to protect yourself from them. Planting rosemary by your front door keeps witches away.” Teddy smiled again, “People will believe anything.”

He then moved on to a display with different logos and packaging. “Read the instructions.” He read from the plague, “Directions from an American Airline, INSTRUCTIONS- OPEN PACKET, EAT NUTS. Directions from a hairdryer company, DO NOT USE WHILE SLEEPING.” Teddy laughed, “Do people seriously use hairdryers in their sleep?” I shrugged and he turned back to the plague.

I looked around and stopped in front of a stone square that was ten by ten inches long. The stone was black with an odd design on it. There was a hole in the center of the square.

“Directions from a frozen dinner, SERVING SUGGESTION: DEFROST. Last one, warning label on a bag of peanuts, WARNING: CONTAINS NUTS.” He laughed again, “No, I thought it contained chocolate.” I didn’t say anything, but stayed focused on the stone, it looked familiar. “Hey Chelsea,” Teddy said called my attention, “Don’t you find these funny?”

I ignored his question, “Teddy, come here.”

“Yeah?” He said. I pointed to the stone.

“Look at that.”

For some odd reason I couldn’t stop looking at it. I had a sudden desire to touch it. “Hey can you give me a boost I want to touch it.” I stood up on my tippy toes and I traced my finger over the pattern on the stone. It felt cool but warm at the same time.

“Can you help me? I want to touch the center of the stone.” I asked again.

“What could I do? I’m not going to get on my hands and knees and let you stand on my back.”

“Fine, I’ll do it myself.” I said rolling my eyes. I jolted back up on to my tippy toes. Maybe I should try it this way. To get closer to the center of the stone, I had to really stretch. I was about to touch the stone’s center when my neck became slightly lighter. I felt my necklace slide down my shirt it was very cold and gave me goose bumps. But the desire to touch the stone was too big to hold off any longer. For some reason I craved to touch the heavy stone. I never really had a craving to do something like this before, but there is always a first for everything.

When I rested my hand on the stone, the room flashed before my eyes. The colors were extraordinary with bright vibrant blues, greens and yellows that I have never seen before. I felt like I was floating in thin air. My body went numb and I started to feel very tired, but refreshed at the same time. It was weird, I was happy.

Soon my fantasy came to an end. My feet slammed into something hard that hurt my feet and legs. As soon as this happened, the extraordinary colors stopped. I was frozen and still num. Great what’s happening now? Was that the light? Am I dead? Please don’t be dead. But why else would I see though colors?