Crimson

The car was crimson and had a bumper sticker that said, “I leave bite marks”. But I barely noticed. I walked around to the side and opened the door with a loud creak that made me start in surprise. Contorting my body I carefully climbed in the little two-door car. I wrinkled my nose at the strange odor of stale cigarettes mingling with the cinnamon scented Betty Page air freshener. Suddenly the door across from me creaked open and a pale leggy blond wearing a black drapy shirt climbed in the car, much more gracefully than myself. Her eyes were outlined with black kohl and her lips were a deep shade of red, smiling at me she said “hey baby, want a ride?”

Somewhat nervously I nodded. If possible her eerie smile grew even wider and brighter. Before I even had a chance to buckle myself in she pulled out of the parking space in a screech of brakes and a smell of burned rubber. Still grinning at me, and barely watching the road, she raced along the streets and although I squealed and covered my face at a couple of the close shaves her smile never faltered. After one such incident I uncovered my face to find the day growing dark. To my amazement the landscape around me had also changed. We had been driving along country roads, but now I saw a desert. The day had grown colder; I shivered in my tank top and jeans. As we drove the landscape continued to grow more and more desolate.

The car stopped suddenly, throwing me hard against my seat belt, “Well here we are!” my companion said brightly. Still shivering I got out of the car. As soon as I did the view changed, tilting up and out it became hot, volcanoes appeared, erupting flowing streams of bright lava onto the desert floor.

I turned around to ask her where the hell we were, but before I could there came another squeal of tires. By the time I finished turning around the red car and leggy blond had both disappeared.

“Great.” I muttered, “What the fuck is this Dante’s inferno or something?” As soon as the words were out of my mouth I regretted them. The air around me grew hotter and hotter. I couldn’t breathe. Hurriedly I fixed in my mind that no, I was not in hell… I was not in hell…I was not in hell…. the thought swirled around and around in my head as the air began to slowly grow cooler. Finally I could breathe; I sighed in relief and began to berate myself. Thoughts like that could make this even harder than it was.

I stood up from where I collapsed and looked around. For the first time I felt true fear. Part of me wanted nothing more than to wake up, while the other part tried to reassure me that I was just in my own mind, nothing could hurt me here. Predictably enough there was a single path in front of me. Still looking around the hellish landscape I stepped onto the path barely looking at it… and jumped back in pain. I looked down and noticed that the path was covered with sharp black stones.

“Well that’s just great.” I said out loud, to no one in particular. Looking at my bare feet I tried with all of my might to imagine them with shoes. As I looked on a faint outline of tennis shoes appeared around my feet, but no sooner had they appeared than they vanished. “What the hell?” I cursed. I looked at the road and tried to imagine it smooth. This time I couldn’t see that my efforts had any effect. “Damn it.” I muttered.

Wincing I stepped back onto the road, each step was an agony, but I continued. It didn’t hurt as much as in the real world, but it hurt enough. As I painfully made my way along the road I looked to the side and saw a snake slithering along side of me.

“So you’re to be my new guide?” I asked it. The snake looked up at me. It had beady little black eyes and it’s scales glistened red, “My other one was prettier.” I said. The snake hissed and looked a bit affronted. As I looked on, to my amazement I saw it slither down a rather large hole just off the side of the road. “I guess I’m just supposed to follow you then?” I called after it. Shrugging a little bit I gratefully stepped off the road and moved towards the hole. Looking carefully I saw handholds and footholds that I could use to climb down. As I began my climb I looked back toward the road, which was now smooth and covered with white sand. “Figures.” I muttered.

It was a rather short climb down the hole until I reached a spot where I could see the bottom about twenty feet below me. I grinned remembering something that I was told just before I went on this mad Journey. Still smiling I jumped off towards the ground… and landed flat on my back. I groaned and whimpered a bit as I got up.

“That was a rather stupid move.” A voice came out of the darkness.

“I’m surprised you had enough courage even for that.” Another voice sneered.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I snapped.

“Well, you are a bit of a coward,” the first voice said,

“When was the last time you took a risk?”

“Made a plunge,”

“Dared…..”

The voices began to fade away. The darkness swirled around; it felt like it was inside me. “thudthud thud thud thudthud thud thud…” the drums now sounded far away. Finally after what seemed to be hours the swirling stopped. Heart pounding in time with the sound of the distant drums I slowly opened my eyes… and nearly screamed. I was standing on a very narrow branch and looking down…. very far down… into a canopy of leaves. The trunk of the tree that I was standing in continued below me for what looked like more than three hundred feet before it disappeared into the leaves that spread out for as far as I could see. My tree seemed to be the only one that was this tall, the rest of them looked normal sized, but of course it was impossible to tell, I couldn’t see one inch of the ground. For all I knew it could be miles below me.

And carefully as I could, I began inching my way backwards along the branch until I reached the trunk of the tree. Keeping my back firmly against the trunk I shut my eyes and opened them again, but I was still there. Over and over I tried it but no matter how hard I tried to imagine myself anywhere else all I could see when my eyes opened was the endless stretch of leaves 300 feet below me.

“Jump.” Said a voice beside me startling me so badly I almost lost my balance and fell out of the tree.

“What?” I asked incredulously. I turned my head and saw a young man with a drum strapped around his waist floating in the air beside me.

“Jump.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“Jump.”

“No.”

The man regarded me for a minute. “If you don’t jump then this will all be for nothing.”

“I don’t care.” I said forcefully.

But I did care. I thought back to everything I had already been through on this Journey, and everything that I had done to be able to take it in the first place. I sighed and ever so slowly began inching my way back to the end of the branch. My heart still pounded, but now it seemed even louder, it nearly drowned out the sound of those distant, relentless drums.

I reached the end of the branch. I looked back at the young man who was now smiling broadly. “Jump.” He said merrily, waving me forward. Taking a deep breath I stepped off the branch.

Thudthud thud thud thud thudthud thud thud thud the drums seemed to grow louder and louder as I slowly opened my eyes. The smell of burning sage still wafted through the air. The shaman stood just above me with an eager look in her bright blue eyes.

“So,” she said, “how did it go?”