Jessica tried to open her eyes and felt her heart pound when her eyelids wouldn’t cooperate. She rubbed her eyes, removing dried tears. Slowly, she peeled her eyelashes apart, which allowed her to see.
She was lying on her side. She surveyed the area around her but didn’t recognize anything. She expected to see the boring beige walls of her hotel room—Str8 Truth Media budgets only allowed journalists to stay in middle-of-the-road establishments—but what she saw wasn’t her room.
Her senses returned as her brain embraced the coolness of the grass under her cheek. Puzzled, she rolled onto her knees in an attempt to get up, but the rhythmic throbbing on the side of her head shackled her knees to the ground.
She tried to look around to assess where she could be. She made out a tree-lined grassy meadow, but before she could take in more, everything began to spin. Jessica had an awful flashback to the time in middle school when a friend convinced her to go on the biggest roller coaster. She threw up for an hour afterward and swore to never go on anything like that again. That’s one promise to myself I’ve never broken.
But this wasn’t that. Jessica lay her head back down on the grass, hoping it would stop the spins and the pain. Much to her relief, as soon as she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, a soothing feeling came over her. She inhaled deeply and exhaled even more profoundly. Now, what do I do? She still had her eyes shut tightly as she began to notice the pleasant sound of water nearby, which helped her relax.
The sound came from above her head. She shifted her body toward it little by little and tried opening her eyes again. Jessica was lying at the edge of a clear blue pond. As she gazed at the pond’s surface, amazed by the color and clarity, a koi fish the size of her leg popped its head up.
“Where am I?” she whispered before several other large koi fish appeared. Jessica now pushed herself up onto her knees to get a better view of the water. What started as one fish turned into hundreds, all with their heads out of the water, looking at her. They had the shape of large koi, but instead of their scales being the typical white, orange, and black colors, all of their scales were transparent. Jessica could see the organs working together inside, and contrary to the transparent scales, the fish’s inner workings were radiant colors. The sight was beautiful and confusing. She felt panic rising in her chest, and her headache returned, bringing her back down onto the grass.
She shut her eyes as tightly as she could, hoping this odd dream would end, when a flashing light turned the inside of her eyelids from dark black to a fleshy red. She raised her hand out in front of her to shield her eyes from the blinding light and opened her eyes to a safe squint. She watched a figure approach and asked, “Can you lower that flashlight, please?” The light was a vibrant violet-blue. It must be one of those new LED energy efficient flashlights. Her head was still ringing, and the light had not yet dimmed. Jessica repeated her request, “Can you please lower that flashlight?”
“Are you okay?” a woman asked. “What are you doing out here?”
Jessica shook her head. As the light dimmed, Jessica’s vision returned. She inhaled deeply and looked upward. Are those stars in the sky? I haven’t seen that many stars since I went camping at the Grand Canyon when I was a kid. “Where am I?” Jessica asked. “And what time is it?”
“You are in the middle of a field,” the woman said. “Do you remember how you got here?”
Jessica looked around again. I don’t even know where here is. “I’m not sure,” she responded.
“Do you want some help up?” the stranger asked, extending a hand.
Jessica regarded the woman, evaluating her before accepting her hand. She seemed tall and lean, yet strong, with curly black hair and a kind smile. She was wearing a white linen dress that flowed down to her ankles, and she was barefoot. I’m in some hippie commune.
“Any idea where you were headed?” the woman asked.
As the woman helped Jessica to her feet, Jessica tried to remember, and then she noticed the pond move. Jessica watched, mesmerized, as the clear blue lake turned white and choppy, more like a river rapid. Koi fish were jumping out of the water like sharks fighting over fresh chum. Jessica fell back to the ground, and everything went black again.