|
The Remy -4207 continued. Shock filled what was left of my psyche because I began to witness the skin of my arms splintering off like sand blowing off a dune during a summer storm. I could see through my thinning outer layer and into the blood filled inner tissues of my arms. After a few seconds, my skin was gone leaving the pulsating inner structures of my body. Lacking an outer covering I thought I would witness an explosion of my own self. Instead, like my skin, the inside tissues of my arms were also being blown away. I looked down at my legs that had atrophied to half of their thickness with white disintegrating bone tissue becoming more and more obvious. The colored blur which surrounded me had now sped into a pulsating white smear of passing light which emanated from the larger light at the end of a now obvious tunnel. This light had grown into an immense hole destined to swallow up what was left of me. The hole was spinning; spitting out white plasma like light that now completely surrounded me. For the first time since my journey began, I started to comprehend a high moaning sound around me. The closer I came to the light, the louder the sound became. The faint whining sound evolved into screams of others who also must be in the act of falling into the light. Could they be riding their own REMY- 4207 to their destiny? I also started getting back some feeling in my body. At first, it felt like a slight electric charge. With time it became obvious that it was pain. I was now, for the first time since my journey began, questioning whether or not to choose the darkness by slowing down the bike. The closer I approached the light, the faster I felt I was traveling and the more I disintegrated. This was it. I knew that if I stopped pedaling I would be thrown into a black abyss that would never end. And if I kept pedaling I would fall into a hole that led to probably everywhere. Looking down, I observed the computer panel on the bike. I saw that the bike read at maximum RPM and maximum workload. The miles were rotating at such a fast speed that it was impossible to read. The calories expended appeared blank. The only scale I could read was the timer that was just approaching the twenty-minute mark. Looking up into the light I could see that I was within seconds of being swallowed up. My mortal self would be totally disbursed. Afraid to close my eyes I glanced at the time once more. It struck twenty minutes. "Are you finished yet?" My eyes had finally shut because of what was happening to me. But, what I had just heard created a curious thought. Am I finished yet? Was this God talking to me? Why did he sound like my wife? I opened my eyes and saw myself sitting on the REMY -4207. I was together again and in my family room. 	 "Dinner is going to be ready in the next few minutes. So, if you're going to take a shower, I suggest you do it now." The sound of my wife's voice bellowed out of the kitchen waking me to the reality that I was still very much alive. I carefully got off the bike and proceeded to follow my wife's voice. She was preparing dinner and because I was so ecstatic to be alive and able to see her again, I wrapped my arms around her. "Are you nuts?" she screamed as soon as I touched her. "Look at you. You're all wet. Get away from me and take your shower. You're disgusting!" You should have seen me a few minutes ago, I thought to myself remembering what the insides of my body looked like as it was being blown off my bones. "OK, I'm going." I exclaimed as I walked into the bathroom. Was I dreaming or was I close to that stroke or heart attack? Time was confusing my thoughts like it does to a bad dream after you wake up. I looked into the bathroom mirror to see that I was still very much alive. Below my feet was the bathroom scale. I decided to see how much weight this near death experience made me lose. After weighing myself, I saw my sweating body staring back at me and sighing: "My God, I gained a pound!"
The End |
|
Jim Fabiano is a teacher and a writer living in York, Maine, USA . |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
