Chlorine Halos

Choices

The gap widened between my feet and the ground. The folds in my flannel shirt clapped a slow tempo beat against my skin, gradually rising into a drumroll, as I soared into the sky. I met the pearl colored clouds, awestruck by the beauty they introduced. Spheres of light housed themselves within the mist and streaked by as my speed accelerated. Before I could make any further distinctions on the surrounding marvelousness, I began to twist into an uncontrolled spiral. The clouds opened for my departure and I spun into a panic as I realized I wasn't flying. I was falling. My limbs flailed, not knowing where I was going, but knew the direction was down and down fast. The push of air contorted my face as I let out a scream. The montage of my loved ones started to play, but was rudely interrupted by the cushion of water.

I broke through the top of the surface and sank to the bottom as my momentum dissipated. Once my feet touched the solid, flat floor, a buried light circled me. My cheeks puffed, jailing the last breath I refused to let go. The ground within this light grumbled as it slowly elevated. My hands and knees were cemented to the rising rock, unable to find a handle or groove. The loud gasp for oxygen rode tandem with the sound of splashes as I surfaced.

As the platform continued to move upward, my pulse slowed more and more. Although I was sopping wet, this indescribable calm washed right over me. The ground groaned, rubbing against a semi-circular wall made from the same spotted granite rock. At the top, stood two men, looking down at me. 

Once level with the ground they were on, the platform halted and they approached. One was the larger Maestro, bronze ring back to a belt around his overalls. The other was a lean, middle-aged man with long features. His thin, dark hair was cut into a bowl around his head and acted as open curtains for his shiny forehead to peek through. His large brown eyes gave him the stare of an innocent child, while his pointed nose placed a chute on his face, a long slide down to a tiny pout. He was dressed in a crisply pressed forest green shirt, wrapped with a suede vest. His dark pants were given the same meticulous attention, not one visible wrinkle. The same care was applied to his flawless patent leather shoes, brown and polished to a shine. Still frightened to leave the safety of my crouched position, I cringed with an anticipation of unbridled snobbery.

"Wow! Avian Douglas, I'm Donovan Reed. It's an absolute pleasure. Truly, a pleasure!" he exclaimed, vigorously shaking my hand with the two of his. I was caught speechless. No condescension. No snootiness. His small mouth couldn't paint a grin wide enough to convey his level of happiness and energy. His light voice shot out rapid staccato syllables which threw me a little off-balance. "I'd like to be the first to welcome you to the city of Cartesia. Well, actually, I am technically the second, just behind Thomas Maestro, but he really only introduced you to the point, so with that technicality in mind, I can justify my initial position of leading the order of welcoming, canceling any aforementioned technicalities or technicalities proposed in the future."

As Maestro helped me to my feet, I wondered how he was able to scale the wall and meet me at the top. He wasn't soaked with the signs of an unscheduled swim. Before I could dwell on the matter any more, Donovan tore through my curiosity. 

"I must say this: I loved your entrance. Inductions are an incredibly rare occurrence," he said with the same briskness. "Once you were within eyeshot, I counted twenty-two full rotations before traveling into the water. You were a quarter way through another, just shy of a half, which I would have, of course, rounded up, but since that wasn't the case, I didn't because I didn't wish to be dubbed as an individual who deviated from traditional decimal rounding."

"That's okay," I said, unsure of how to respond and feeling I spoke with an unbelievable slowness. I turned to Maestro, still perplexed by his presence. "How did you get here?"

"There's a better way to travel, Avian," he replied with a twisted smile. "That was actually your first lesson. Congratulations." He gave me a hard pat on the back, causing me to grunt. "It's like learning to ride a bicycle; You're going to fall down a few times."