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It was Friday at 5 am, and my alarm kicked in, waking me abruptly. I must have gone straight to bed after my visit from Metatron yesterday evening because I don't have any memory from then.
Quickly, I started getting ready in the bathroom; throwing some water onto my face and trying to brush my teeth at the same time. I was trying to think if I had prepared my sandwich for lunch today at work. I spat out the toothpaste and took a swig of mouthwash. Taking a glance at myself in the mirror, I ruffled my hair back.
As I entered the kitchen, I could see a light that I did not recognise. The fridge door was wide open. I looked at the milk in the carton and I could see it had curdled. I couldn't see anything that I'd prepared for lunch.
Rushing around trying to get ready, I just thought to myself that I'd buy something from the canteen. I was just about to get my bike out of the shed when I remembered what Metatron had said about projecting myself to a place and then allowing myself to transport to it.
My bike was half in and half out of the shed. I stood still and froze.
I imagined being at the bicycle shelter at work. I could see in my memory, in my mind's eye, the bike shelter. I imagined being there. Slowly, and not feeling scared or freaked out, I could see that my body had started to light up in golden colours. Just like before, I felt my eyes zooming in like a video camera, and in what felt like a split second, there I was outside the bike shelter. I could see the bike stand. I could feel a different breeze, and at the same time, I was aware that I was still in my back garden. My bike in my hands with the back wheel still inside the shed. I was aware I was in two places at once. Looking around the car park, the bike shelter was deserted, not a soul in sight. I relaxed took a breath in. I started to close my eyes, and I thought to myself, “Ok, I'll allow myself to be there.”
As soon as I conceived that thought, and before I closed my eyes, or even processed what may happen, the bicycle stand outside the hospital felt like it was enfolding me. It felt as if I was looking through a fisheye lens, my vision was distorted and curving around me.
Like a train going past, it whooshed and then it popped from fisheye vision to a photograph becoming 3D. And there I was, standing outside the hospital, mountain bike in hand. I could see the golden embers of light fading away from my body. Looking around to see if anyone was about, I was shocked, scared, nervous, and excited at the same time. I locked up my bike. My hands were shaking with excitement. Composing myself, and taking in deep breaths, I headed towards the automatic doors at the hospital. Jeanette was sat at the reception desk and gave me a warm welcome,
“You’re early,” she said with a smile. I looked at the clock on the wall behind her, she was right. I was fifteen minutes early. But I would be, I didn’t cycle there.
“So I am!”
“Are you ok? Jeanette said. “You have a red line down one side of your face.”
“I'm ok, I guess.” I used the glass screen between us to check my reflection.
She was right, I could see I had a red line down my face.
Realising I had only been awake ten minutes, and it was the indent from the pillow left on my face, I said, “I'm ok. It will fade soon. See you later!” And I carried on through the corridors heading towards the lift.
My shift at work was a busy one. I knew it would be as there were seven ambulances out front. I managed to get a late lunch break. The lovely girl behind the counter who looked young enough to be on work experience made me a fresh sandwich without any butter on it.
Leigh wasn't working today, but I was too busy to stop and chat even if she was. Each job I clicked on using the iPad, I had a fleeting 'shall I or shall I not' moment. I had a cheeky smile on my face knowing I could teleport there or materialise, or whatever it was that I had managed to do this morning. I didn't, obviously. People would scream if all of a sudden I popped up out of thin air in front of them.
I felt like the day had gone quickly. I didn't take time to stop and chat as I usually would. The workload was non-stop, and I thought I had to get to the next job as soon as possible. Finally, my shift was finishing, so I began to make my way towards the porters’ changing area. I logged out of the iPad, leaving it on its docking station. I changed out of my uniform and headed out, checking my pockets to make sure I had my iPhone and the key for my bike chain. Turning right from one of the long corridors to the next, I bumped into Brandon. Brandon was one of the new hospital security guards. He was in his late teens and did not look like he could secure anything. His uniform looked far too big for him. He didn’t look like a typical security guard, he was skinny with a pale complexion. If I were to place him in a stereotypical job, I would have him sit at a desk writing a computer programme. He was a friendly kid, but that's what he was to me, still a kid.
“Whoa, sorry Brandon,” I said as we seemed to do the tango on the corridor.
“No, don't be,” he said. “I was coming up to hopefully catch you before you left.”
“Everything ok?”
“Aaron,” he said, “You're not going to believe this, but you're famous.”
“I'm what?”
“You’re famous. Well kind of anyway.”
“What do you mean, kind of?”
“Well, you can't see your face so no one can tell it's you, but it must be you because it's your bike being locked up.”
I had a terrible feeling I knew where this conversation was heading.
“Here,” he said. “Check this out,” he pulled out his phone and unlocked it using his facial recognition, flicked at his phone with his thumb until he came to the YouTube app.
“Press play on that,” he handed me the phone.
I took the device from his hand and tentatively pressed play.
It was a recording of the security cameras set around the hospital, filmed in the security room. There looked to be more than a hundred cameras. To the right was one screen which was full size. You could tell it was recorded by hand as the camera is shaking and moving around a lot. Clearly and excitedly, you hear Brandon from behind the camera say, “Watch this guys. Just watch this...”
He moves the camera closer. I could see it was a static camera shot of the bicycle stand. It was in black and white and pixelated. I knew what I was going to see. I remained calm. Brandon looked at my face for my reaction. I could feel his eyes boring into my face to see what response I would deliver. The video continued to play, and the camera started to shake further as Brandon's left-hand reaches for the mouse near the screen. Brandon in the recording clicks the play icon on the television screen.
Nothing happened for the first ten seconds. It was just the bicycle stand in black and white. To the screen's right, a white vertical oval glow appeared from nowhere. The light expanded as the white balance on the security camera tried to adjust. The whiteness nearly encompassed the entire screen like a flashlight going off from a camera.
It took about one and a half seconds. The whiteness faded away. The camera tried to refocus on the bicycle stand, and there I am clear as day looking around. You cannot make out my facial features, but Brandon knows it's me, and I know it's me.
“Wow, is that me? Did I just ping out of nowhere? How did you do that?” I gave him the phone back, “You're in the wrong job Brandon, you need to be in television or special effects.”
“I've not messed with the video Aaron. This is what it recorded. That is the actual footage.”
“Haha, yeah right! Well, I'm impressed. You really should consider movie effects as a career.”
“Aaron, I'm telling you, man, I've not messed with the footage. This is legit.”
“Oh, ok I'll go with that then. If you have not messed with the video footage, I would tell your bosses your cameras need checking out. There is some glitch, I mean you don't think I just appeared out of nowhere, do you?”
He didn't answer; he just shrugged his shoulders and said, “I don't know.”
“How many views has this YouTube video glitch recording of yours got?” I said, grabbing the phone back out of his hand.
“No way,” I said as I glanced at the total views. Over six thousand. Posted eleven hours ago.
“I know,” he said. “Nearly seven thousand views. I've never had so many.”
I could feel my throat drying up. “Who else has seen this at work?” I asked.
“Just me up to now, but I have logged it as a job for my boss to look at it. Whether he has or not, I don't know.”
“Look it's probably a glitch in the system. It's obvious it's a glitch in the system, but Brandon you are going to have to take it down from YouTube.”
“Why? No way, I'm getting loads of hits. It's a good video.”
“Well, if you want to get sacked then leave it up.” I handed the phone back.
“What do you mean get sacked?”
“Information governance, Brandon. You're breaking every rule going.”
“Information? What are you on about?”
“Brandon, you can quite clearly see where you are as you film this. You can see the hospital logo on a poster on the wall. You can see all the hospital cameras. Your YouTube channel is your name, 'Brandon James'. If your boss sees this video, it will be instant dismissal I promise you.”
I could see the colour from his pale face draining. The vein in his temples began to bulge as he processed the information I’d just told him.
”Crap! I never thought. Oh god, you’re right. I’ll delete it straight away.”
I patronised him and laughed, “I told you you were in the wrong job, best security guard out there!”
I left him standing there on the corridor frantically tapping his screen on his phone.
I made my way to the bicycle shelter, unlocked my bike, and cycled home.
Taking a shower after work was therapeutic, I had the showerhead on the jet which punched the water into my back. I was thinking about my quick journey to work, and I was thanking Metatron in my head for how he had helped me feel relaxed about my new abilities. I know I would have been freaking out otherwise. I had a peaceful new outlook on life. I was also thinking of other places I could visit. Random thoughts were popping in my head. The recording that Brandon had made and the potential number of people who had seen it. Not that any of it mattered, the footage was a second screen recording; it could have been a fake and the quality was low.
I had to be more careful in future.
Towelling down, I sat on the closed toilet seat as I dried in between my toes. I slipped on my dressing gown and looked at myself in the mirror.
“How do I change into the purple and gold guy?” I thought.
I closed my eyes and took a deep, slow breath in, and then out.
At the same time, I was thinking of myself as Mr Purple Man. Before I even opened my eyes, I could feel the energies changing within me, electrical activity pulsating as each cell became alive. I closed my eyes. I could see through my eyelids the brightness and golden colour breaking through. Slowly I opened them, and no longer was I wearing my dressing gown. I was the purple man with a golden cloak, boots, and a golden aura all around the outline of my body. Still in my bathroom, I looked closely at myself in the mirror, checking out my skin, my ears without any piercing and my perfect nose. My eyes were the deepest blue with a purple edge around the iris.
“Is this what Metatron meant? The world is waiting for a positive change. Be that change! Me as Mr Purple Man? Is this what he meant for me?”
I wanted to try this flying thing again. The only experience I had was floating above the camp chair while Barkley was fast asleep. I wanted to see if I could fly properly.
Walking into the back garden, the golden glow coming from my body lit the garden up like a firework. The outside light became activated, whitewashing out the golden glow.
I could see Mr Williams’s house next door and his upstairs bedroom light came on. His curtains were still open and the window slightly open on the latch. I didn't want him to see me. I looked up at the dark sky. I didn't know how to fly. I didn't know if it would work. I just imagined being up there in the sky and imagined I was looking down.
With a swoosh, I felt like I was on a reverse roller coaster. I felt like my stomach was in my boots as I flew up into the darkness of the sky.
The feeling of not being governed by gravity was a whole new feeling in itself. It wasn't like the first time when I was floating above the camp chair. I have no other experiences to compare. I can only describe it as being in a diving pool. Still, this description does not come close to the freedom and the agility my body had in the open air. I felt a freedom like never before. I could move in any direction, all I had to do was think, and I would move through the air. Like on a bike you would think about turning left, then you would turn left, it was precisely the same, but I had no vehicle, I was the vehicle.
The view was intoxicating and mesmerising. Weirdly, it was so quiet up in the sky. There was no sound, just the breeze and the sound of my breath as I breathed out. I could see my house, the outside light illuminating my garden which now resembled the size of a piece of Lego. I was feeling elated, euphoric, that all of this was happening to me. The knowledge that I can fly is literally out of this world.
In the sky, I hung there, My golden cape was flapping in the breeze and the golden glow continued to surround my body.
Then I realised, and quickly, that people would see me due to the golden glow around me. I imagined that I must look like a golden lantern in the sky. At this height, approximately one mile above the earth, I assumed I would still be visible with the naked eye. I looked up and went even higher. As I did, I could hear the wind rush between my ears. I listened to the flap of my cape and I noticed that I could see water vapour exiting my mouth, it must have been cold, but I did not feel it. About two miles up, I could still see my house, but more noticeable was my neighbourhood. I could see the shape it took from above with the streetlights lighting up the ground. I could see the hospital in the distance. I wanted to go higher, but I was aware that I might not have any oxygen to breathe. I didn't know my limitations, so I didn't. I wasn't scared, throughout all of this, I was not scared at all. I was embracing every moment.
I could see car headlights lighting up the dark country roads. They looked like snails with headlamps on moving across a winding road. Everything appeared to move slower than usual. At this point I had only travelled upwards and turned around facing a different direction in mid-air, I hadn't journeyed forwards or backwards yet.
I wanted to test my flight and travel. I thought of a place I had never been before and always wanted to go. Brighton, down south, my mum told me of her childhood holidays there. I didn't know which direction to fly in. I supposed if I was higher, and I could see England as an outline like on Google Maps, I would know where to fly. My entire peripheral vision was land. Without thinking about which direction to fly in to get to my destination, I started to drift. It was like a gut feeling. But it was more than that. It was a sense of knowing that this was the right direction, so I went with the flow. I was flying. I was still in a vertical position, moving forward in the direction that I felt was Brighton. I don't know how fast I was flying. Still, it didn't feel fast enough. I began to pick up speed, and as I did, my body began to rotate at an angle. I was becoming vertical, more aerodynamic. I wasn't doing this, it just happened naturally.
I guess I did look like the superheroes from the movies flying through the air, only this time there wasn't any CGI, no wires, and no green screen. It was me, Aaron Abbey, dressed as the purple man with a golden cape, boots, and aura.
The land beneath was moving faster than ever. I did not feel that I was moving fast at all, the wind through my hair and cape, flapping vigorously, was the only indication I had that I was travelling at speed. Within about three minutes, I could see darkness. It was the sea. It was a darkness so black in contrast to the many lights that decorated the shoreline on the promenade.
I'd come to a natural stop. I didn't think it was me making a conscious decision to stop. I just stopped, slowed down, and my body changed from the horizontal position to a vertical position. I felt like I was sitting down on air. I looked around and thought about going in closer. I didn't make a conscious decision to go in closer. It was like a fleeting thought, and before the thought had even finished processing, I was already moving slowly back to the ground. The white lights were now becoming colours as I got closer. I was about half a mile up in the air, and I could see a multitude of coloured lights from one lamppost to the next. In the distance, I could see the coloured flashing lights of the fairground on the pier; the big wheel lit up like a flashing ten pence piece turning slowly.
Beyond this, I could see street lights and darkness on either side of the street lighting, no buildings, no funfair just countryside on one side and sea on the other. It looked quiet, and hopefully, no one would see me. As soon as I thought it, I was heading in that direction and then I began to descend.
The first thing I noticed was the sound. I could hear the waves crashing onto the rocks. As I got closer, my pupils reacted to the lights as the landscape came towards me. I could smell the sea air, the freshness, the crispness, the beautiful natural air that was Brighton. I landed gracefully as if I had been doing this all my life. Not a soul in sight, I was alone. I took a few steps and leaned on a railing overlooking the beach. The wind was blowing my hair calmly. The sea was lapping at the shore in cosmic rhythm. I looked at my hands; there was the faint glow of gold surrounding me. I realised I was dressed as the Purple Man. I couldn't walk into town dressed like this.
As I thought it, the gold embers dissipated from my hand as did the purple sleeves. Within seconds,
I was standing there leaning on the railing barefooted in my dressing gown. I was instantly freezing. I had to arch my feet and curl my toes inwards to prevent my feet from taking on the cold floor. I could feel the breeze fly straight up my gown, in-between my legs. Embarrassed and freezing, I must have looked like an escaped confused patient from the local hospital.
I could hear a dog barking and a male voice shouting, “Jimmy, Jimmy, here boy!” from a distance. The sound of the dog barking was getting closer, as was the male voice. I did not want him to see me barely naked.
No sooner had I thought about it, I already had the golden glow surrounding my body, and I was wearing the purple suit again.
The dog was in my vision, I could see him running towards me, barking with every leap. I wasn't scared, neither was the dog. He ran right up and sat right in front of me, offering me his paw. His barking was an excited bark. I think he could feel the energy. I could feel his life; it was unconditional love and obedience. I patted his head, and he bowed over. I swear he could understand that I didn’t want his owner to see me, and so he turned and ran off.
I could hear his owner saying, “Good boy, Jimmy. Good boy.”
I looked up at the sky. The moon was bright and reflected the sea in a line on the horizon. My feet left the ground, and I was high above the promenade again. It was a fleeting visit, but I was pleased I had made it. Next time, I would come prepared.
I went higher and higher. The silence fell upon me as the landmass grew darker. Home. I turned around and headed in the direction that I had come. Gathering speed as I did, the clouds covered most of my vision of the ground on my return, but I knew I was heading in the right direction. My body had assumed a vertical position again. You couldn’t make this up.
I came to a natural stop, looking down to my left I could see the hospital I have given more than half of my life to. And below, I could see the outline of my neighbourhood. I descended slowly, but I remembered the fact that I was landing in a built-up area. I quickly gained speed in my descent, and before I knew it, I was in my back garden, activating my outdoor garden light as I did. My patio door was still open. I walked inside and sat on my nursing home chair.
I'd been out of the house ten minutes, and in that time, I had been to Brighton and back. I had smelt the salty sea air and met a canine called Jimmy. I relaxed closed my eyes and thanked Metatron in my head.
“Thank you for the gifts I now have,” I said. “Thank you.”
Without being in a dream or being in the white room, I could hear Metatron's voice, “Do not thank me, Aaron, thank the earth.”
I opened my eyes, and I was back in my dressing gown.
“Time for bed,” I thought to myself. “Let's see what tomorrow brings.”