The Tower of Brahma. Sexty.5

6/2/09

I stand inside the bubble besides my older self. He looks on as the wall inside flickers to life. We're in a fancy ballroom. Tables ornately decorated, intricate carvings lining the walls, pulled back heavy curtains revealing not a window, nor door.

"Feel free to flick it around to whatever you like." Older Charles tossed something to me.
It was an oval shaped button about the size of my thumb. The groove of it slid across my thumb, the ridges whirling around the spiral of my thumbprint. It began to grow, seeping around my thumb. I pressed down against my forefinger.

The wall flickered and suddenly I was on stage, in the middle of an empty amphitheater with 360 degree seating. Spotlights popped on at the zenith of my bubble. I threw my hand up to hide from the light and clicked again.

I was floating in space, not weightless, but the tiles beneath me did begin to slowly rotate and swoosh. A spaceship popped into position about 50 meters out. From it stepped out an alien with enormous brain throbbing out of its skull.

I clicked. Again. Heavenly clouds, the alien becoming an angel, harp and all. Click. A pirate ship, and a buccaneer boarding the ship. Click as he got closer. A desert, the devil. He stood before me. I clicked at him, while Charles stood beside him grinning.

I was sitting in a chair, a lab of minimal sleek design all around me. The bubble looked transparent and closer than before. The wall of it was just outside my reach. I extended my hand out just brushing the skin of it with my fingertips. The devil stepped into view.

Only he wasn't the devil, nor an angel, and not an alien by any imagination. He looked like a friend. A bearded, bespectacled, much older, version of someone I knew. He looked at me with amazement, then glancing over at older Charles, who stood, smug with arms folded across his chest.

"I told you I'd do it." His smile broadened. I noticed he was outside my bubble.

"This should tell us everything we need to know. We can get you free finally. We did it!" The familiar man grew increasingly so with every gesture and mannerism.

I clicked again and we were sitting in a dive bar. I sat at the bar and a fresh pint rose from the counter. I downed it fast, following with a gin and tonic, and a whiskey on the rocks. I slid my thumb just so and a crowd of people eased into existence around me. My heartbeat rose, my lungs gripped tight, my mind raced.

Charles and his friend were still around. Patting each other on the back, ignoring me as if I were not even in the room. But I wasn't in the room, was I? I was wrapped up in some sort of enflated sleeping bag, kept steralized and uncontaminated, so they could test me. Poke and prod while staying away.

I slid the thumb quicksilver putty back and forth. I made it harder, denser, thicker. With a flick of my fingter tip the metal shot out to a point. I ran the edge across my jeans, pressing it against my thigh. Sharpened it with precision with denim friction.

I glanced sideways at the two of them there and my inner beast grew. I growled and ran the ridges of my teeth together, exposed slowly from beneath a lip sneer. My arm with the blade cocked back slightly, the tendons and muscles taking a step back and preparing for action.

I leaped forward, smashing the bubble against their own, keeping me a good five feet away, but I felt my own bubble compress, smooshing me into a bear hug. Charles and his cohort looked startled at me. I swung the knife around, slicing the air completely in half. A tear grew across the virtual reality of this dive bar chatroom.

Fiery chasms were revealed beyond my own deflating universe, a hellish landscape of craggy lavarocks, ash floating all around, whooshing into the bubble walls. A protective fluid seeps out of the bubble, the clearest of water, thick with syrupy cleanliness, spilling out like a torn backyard pool, starting small with increased pressure and speed. It evaporates as it touches the surface, transcending forms, rising as holy steam.

I hit the ground and the air doesn't seem so bad as I cough it out and suck it in. Feels like when I smoked. I watch as the final yard of the bubble is consumed in flames, Older Charles and bearded sap gasping in horror at my fate. Suckers.

"I'm not saving anyone but this Charles Crown." I thumbed myself in the chest, laughing at the absurdity of the situation.

"Where the fuck am I?"