It had been some time since Toni and Tessie had seen one another. Toni became a CEO for a large oil company and was transferred to Texas where she was in charge of the large refineries while Tessie remained in California teaching Psycho therapy in the Psychology Department at Berkeley University; each having enviable positions. They e-mailed one another now and then, but hadn’t actually gotten together for a few years until one Christmas morning when Tessie and Toni decided it was time to came home for the holidays and have their reunion. They thought it might be fun to meet in their old stomping grounds since their parents both remained at their respective homes in which they grew up. Tessie’s parents thought it would be nice to accept Toni’s parents’ offer to join them for their Christmas dinner, along with her parents as well, and while they were there they ventured into Toni’s old bedroom where Tessie pointed to the old antique desk and laughed. “Do you remember when we put those wishes in that old desk? I’ll never forget that experience.”
“Ironically enough, I was just thinking about that last night. Hey, let’s see if the notes are still there.” Toni said as she moved over to the desk giggling with Tessie right there behind her chuckling. It felt just like old high school days when they’d hang out, have fun dreaming and planning about the present and future. Now here they were again, face to face beaming from ear to ear as if they had just been transformed back to their teen-age days. They pulled out the drawer and before Toni grabbed the notes Tessie asked, “By the way, what were our wishes? I’ve long since forgotten or did I just ask to...”
“An event as important as that was? Toni giggled, “I haven’t forgotten; you asked that you could be with me when my wish came true.” Toni chuckled as she opened the envelope and read out loud her request. ‘Wizard I wish to venture with you into the unknown; to visit the parallel universes that hold the existence of dual worlds.’
Across the room the lamp’s brightness shone through Toni’s hair giving it the color of honey, making the blueness in her eyes shine like a clear blue sky. It gave the look of a far away princess looking beautiful in her long evening dress, but the truth of the matter was that it was her silky night gown with the light shining on it until it looked florescent pink. Her flushed cheeks appeared as if she was glowing with happiness as she read and remembered her wish twenty or more years ago. “Wouldn’t that have been an exciting event Tessie?” Toni asked.
“Whatever made you ask for such a wish? I hadn’t known you to be interested in anything of that sort.” Tessie asked abruptly.
Toni scooted closer to the desk and smiled, “I remember reading an old Wizard book with directions on how to get a wish fulfilled. Out of the blue, I thought I’d play around and try it, but as you and I both know, it never came true, but nonetheless, it filled one of our days with dreaming about such a thing.”
“It may have filled your day with dreams of it coming true, but if you recall I never knew what wish you asked in that note, but nonetheless I asked that I would be right beside you when it did come true. Do you remember?” Tessie laughed.
“A brave soul you were?” Toni chuckled.
“Don’t give me credit for bravery too fast because I never believed the whole thing anyway. I guess I just wanted to be part of the great fun.” Tessie laughed as she took the notes from Toni’s hand and threw them up into the air, and almost immediately the room darkened and then lightened again. “Wow, did you see that? Do you see…?” Tessie hollered.
“Spooky…No, more like weird… Boo!” Toni screamed.
Tessie jumped back and as she did she noticed the painting on Toni’s wall of a willow tree she had painted in kindergarten was now worn and tattered, giving it a look of a hundred years old. “My hunch is that we’re imagining things Toni, but nonetheless, take a look at that painting of your Willow Tree on the wall? Does it look older than it did a few minutes ago?” The painting seemed to have recreated itself into a growing ageing body adding colors and nuances to its branches and darkening the trunk with such magnitude one would expect to see it push its branches out of the frame and drop leaves to the ground.
“I don’t know, but hey…oh my God! Look at my bedspread; it’s yellow instead of the original color of blue.” Toni shrieked. The yellow was intense as a ripe lemon. The subtle blue had faded before their very eyes and was being replaced with a growing spray of colors like waves spreading across it as if showing off its skills until the brilliance of lemon yellow completed its course, but there it was right before us.
“Look what’s happening, and look at butterflies spread across it too?”Tessie asked startled. The butterflies spread out their wings and laid them open only to be drawn in and absorbed by the newly created and enhanced color. If one looked closely, the butterflies could be seen as a dim silhouette, barely visible but undeniably there. The two jumped up off the floor and looked around the room and the whole room had changed. It now had an old bed frame made of metal with the most ornate and interesting iron-works that appeared to be hand-made. The bends and twists defied the imagination because where in modern times could such a work of art be created? It had to come from out of the past. Yellow flowers and green vines found themselves wrapped around each pole in such a way as if to be planted in the ground and coming up from the earth to adorn the frame. Toni jumped back and cried, “Tess, what is going on here? I’m getting freaked out. Are you seeing what I am seeing or are my eyes alone playing tricks on me? Is it playing with you too?”
Tessie screamed, “Toni, look at the floor? It’s no longer your nice plush carpet that your parents carefully selected for you because the colors were in perfect harmony with your likes at the time they were installed; it’s now hard wood flooring. This is freaky because this wood is such that could have only come from a certain location and such that it would have taken weeks just to install; it’s happening before our very eyes.”
“Never mind the flooring, take a look at yourself in the mirror; you’re wearing a long old fashion dress – almost like in the early 1800’s.” Toni said and then looked at herself and saw the same type of outfit on her own body. These dresses were long and extended because of the cage-like structure underneath the material giving it the effect of being swollen. The materials were of elegant imported silks and cottons unknown in modern times for these dresses were fitting at the President’s Ball or other such events. The color patterns were adorned with ribbons and floral patterns, interspersed with lace obviously hand crocheted. Now here they were, each admiring one another but so stunned by the event that Toni was sickened. Even at this heightened brilliant array of looks and beauty it was too much for either of them to comprehend because they were exhausted by the suddenness of all the commotion and it frightened them while exciting them; they simply couldn’t wrap their minds around the goings on.
Silence fell. Toni broke it at last. “I feel ill Tess. I think I’m going to lose my…” She said as she ran to the bathroom and saw an old fashion toilet and screamed. “Tess, come here…come quickly and take a look at this toilet.” She leaned over the old tub and lost every bit of what was in her stomach and then wiped her mouth with a cloth hanging over the curvature of the design. It had brass fittings with angel-head creatures, claw feet of bi-metals that looked as if they were gripping the floor to keep the body of the structure from slipping. Perfectly finished porcelain interior with hand-painted borders surrounding the outer dimension of the tub were in great profusion with works of art likened to the Sistine Chapel; art created only by a great master. The flush bowl of the toilet was raised at least six feet from the ground with a tube attached to its center so as to allow a gravity pull forcing water down to eliminate the matter within the bowl. The flush mechanism consisted of an ornate pull chain which activated the flushing action allowing the water to flow. It too was heavily designed obviously not made for a common household, but for someone with means. She turned on the facet and began cleaning up th
e waste when the lights dimmed again and then brightened, and that’s when everything went back to normal. The two stood and looked around the bathroom, bedroom and themselves and saw it as it was minutes prior. Out of fear or need they tightly hugged one another and didn’t utter a sound; they were too overwhelmed by the events loosed upon them which created an emotion that had no immediate solution. What had just happened could only have been reproduced in a horror or fantasy movie where the characters were delusional or simply being tortured by some evil being. So here the two were, closely embraced and unable to rationalize what they saw or imagined and if their story was related to others, offer proof of anything they told. When the shock abated, but not gone, Toni released her grip on Tessie and rushed out the door, down the staircase, and into the living room where Toni’s mother was relaxing in the quietude of the Christmas spirit alone in her thoughts.
“Is everything okay Mom?” excitedly asked Toni with wide eyes.
“Why Toni, what’s going on? You look like you just saw a ghost. Is everything okay with you two?” returned Toni’s Mom.
“Has anything unusual happened since Tessie and I was upstairs?
“Well, if you mean the TV - it quivered a little, but it does that from time to time; other than that all things are quiet and peaceful as they should be this time of year” responded Toni’s Mom, Francine. “I love the holidays and I’m extremely happy to see you and Tessie together again just like old times, but what’s all this excitement? What’s going on with you two? Are you getting into mischief like you did when you were kids,” reminisced Francine.
“Oh my goodness,” exclaimed Toni. “Something happened to Tess and me, but, no, it’s a long story; one that we will tell you later.”
“I’m not sure what you mean dear,” assured Francine.
Toni ran back upstairs to make sure Tessie was still there and in good shape what with the events that had just taken place
“Tess, Tess,” exclaimed Toni. “Do you realize that what just happened to us only happened to us? I mean they didn’t happen to Mom sitting downstairs. Nothing happened anywhere but here with the two of us. Did we lapse into a state of insanity for a short time? This is your field, my friend. Have you tried to come to terms with what has happened? Can you explain this manifestation of our minds? Are we mentally ill?”
“Oh, my God, Toni, do I look like a mind reader or a sear out of the past? Do you honestly think I can explain what just happened to us? I’m as dumbfounded as are you my dear friend. I have not the slightest idea what just happened. I can honestly say it was too fast and furious to explain, and I might add it was exciting while it was unfolding before our very eyes, and I am happy that no harm came to us, but only the shocking jolt it gave our brain and psyche. What a strange happening!”
As Tessie and Toni stood in awe at the events of the recent past the thought of the old antique piece of furniture entered their minds at about the same time. “The wishes!” they exclaimed at the exact moment. “It was our wishes, or at least my wish with your okay that sent this event to us,” exclaimed Toni. “We were given a glimpse either into the past, or into an alternate dimension, whatever that means and wherever that is. We have leaped, so to speak, out of our realm of current existence and were allowed to pass to another time and place” exclaimed Toni.
“Oh, my, God, Toni, duel worlds – get it? You know the wish? Nonetheless, I must agree with you,” assured Tessie. “There were case studies of such events in some of the courses I had to take while in college, but they seemed far-fetched back then - how could anyone rationalize another existence just by thinking about it?
“If I wasn’t a believer before, I’m leaning closer to it now. My mind is so confused right now that I’m unable to make a sound judgment of the happening. Are we to expect these things to happen again and again? And if so will we have to be together when they do? Surely they won’t happen when we’re back at our jobs? All these questions must be addressed, but how do we attend to them when we can’t explain or understand them? Toni, I think I’m afraid!” nervously iterated Tessie to her friend, “I’m truly afraid of what might happen in the future.”
Peter
Chapter Two