10.01.2006

I don't know how long I lay there, drifting in and out of consciousness. I felt myself being lifted by a corpulent being wrapped in thick, coarse dark brown cloth. I was placed into a wooden cart with large wooden wheels. I noticed that I was lying on animals skins of all sorts, or more specifically, things dead. The stench was overwhelming, and I passed out again.

I came to on and off, with the buzzing of flies all around. As I lifted my head as high as I could, I saw that the same individual who had lifted me was now pulling the cart along a thoroughfare. We passed building after building, with the orange glow of the sunset or of fires blazing all around being reflected in the windows far above.

The thunder resounded all around, probably still the echoes of the war that was constantly ongoing. And I passed out again.

I don't know how many miles this person dragged me, yet he inched onward ever forward. Slowly, trudging, the wheels clattered on wartorn streets. The stench made me gag and choke. My head was matted with dried blood, and the pain I felt was dull and numbing.

It seems that I was carted away from the city for days. Now when I came to I noticed that the buildings had becomes mountains, looming upward into clouds and deep blue sky. Yet there was a constant glow of orange reflected as though fires were yet burning fiercely all around.

After what seemed like an eternity, I suddenly felt myself being pulled out of the cart. I was lifted not so gently, and dropped onto the ground before a wrought iron gate opened outward. There behind the gate were rosebushes overgrown and barren. There wasn't a single flower. Only there in the center of the gateway, I noticed a young person with long flowing black hair and a sincerely beautiful countenance. I don't know if it was male or female, but I was beckoned to come forward.

It took every ounce of energy that I had to move at all. Yet I moved. I stood and walked toward the being, who had a deep red rose in hand, and gestured that I go to my left.

There before the mountains, no longer wartorn and ravaged, I saw a bench and went to sit down. I sat and rested, hoping to regain my strength. I felt water fall onto my head, my face, my body. It was misting. I passed out again.

It was wonderful to lie stretched across the bench. I slept for hours, maybe even days. I could feel the healing sensation of the sunshine mixed with the cooling effects of the rain. I never felt hungry nor even thirsty. At last, with renewed strength I was able to sit up. As I sat up, I looked to my right. There beside me sat a young man whose head was enormous and misshapen, whose torso dwindled curiously into legs that appeared too small and thin to carry the weight of its owner. He began to speak.