I awoke that morning to the sound of people talking in the other room.....
Opening my eyes I think how beautiful the mountains are in the distance, all purplish in the early golden light.
Wait, there aren't any mountains near.
I blink and the normal view is framed by the window.
Well, whatever.
Smelling that wonderful aroma of freshly brewed coffee, I get up and go into the kitchen. Ahhhhhh. Okay, the world is right side up again, there is coffee.
Reaching for a cup I ask my friend who else has arrived.
"Nobody that I know of, just you and me here."
Really?
We chat for a while before I go to prepare for the day.
Stepping into the living room I notice additional furniture. It appears like a room within a room or one overlaying the other. All the pieces look solid. I'm a bit disoriented. Then the living room furniture becomes "hazy" like in a hallucination while the bedroom scene gains details. I turn to look for my friend but he's not around. Then I hear his voice.
"You okay?"
"Ummmm, sure, just losing my mind like normal."
He laughs knowingly. The "bedroom" fades away as I walk through the nightstand and over to the couch. We begin planning out the day's activities and mid-sentence I'm back in the bedroom, this time the living room has disappeared.
An elderly, ill woman engulfed in covers laying on a huge intricately carved bed, a young man standing at the end pleading with her to let him go, he's got to go. The old woman isn't having it. She progressively gets more upset.
Meanwhile I'm there trying to digest it all.
This is certainly odd, there's something amiss.
The clothing and hairstyles are from another era.
Somebody needs to turn the lights up.
There are no lights, only lamps.
Suddenly I feel that familiar pressure, blink and look over at my friend who is sitting there smiling at me.
"How was the trip?"
"Interesting half hour I'd say. Sorry about that."
"You were only gone a few minutes."
We pick up where we left off. He's accustomed to the strangeness, no explanations required. So, when I tell him I need to take a moment he simply nods.
A nagging feeling, I couldn't completely disconnect from that elderly woman and young man. I move, in a more controlled manner, to them again.
This time when I enter the room the elderly lady is out of bed sitting in a chair, the young man standing off to the side, with his back to her, crying. I look at the elderly woman and her eyes move, she twitches.
Ah ha, so you are aware I'm here.
I shift my attention to the young man, he doesn't notice. Okay, I've got the "lay of the land" so to speak. Now, what to do.
The young man turning, with tears in his eyes, pleads with her "I love you Grandmother, but I've got to go, please let me go now." The elderly woman grows hysterical, so I place myself between the two of them, facing her.
We're eye to eye and neither one of us is going to give an inch. I feel myself getting larger somehow. Calling out for two mature women I sense are nearby, they immediately begin calming the old woman. Without turning I tell the young man to walk out the door and leave. "Go, now. She'll be okay."
I know as he walks out of the room each step takes him back into a firmer "view" of whatever world he lives in.
The elderly lady looks at me, gives an imperceptible nod and closes her eyes, her breathing stops. The two women start crying. I leave them be and go to find my friend, ready for our day's events.