The Name Game

a void

Suddenly the world around me stopped, not for long, but it did.

Suddenly, there was no gentle hum from the fan that was spinning on the ceiling. There was no cold breeze, only still air. Only still silence.

The bass of the stereo system wasn't felt anymore. I could see the song was still playing, for thesound intensity meters still bounced on their screen.

But everything was quiet. And my head felt empty, unlike the 2 seconds before when it was bustling with ideas and revelations.

It felt like there were planets colliding somewhere in space and that the whole Earth paused to watch. It was like being baptized in a bath of thick, black ink. It was like getting high, with your eyes glossed over, but knowing that you've never been neat any sort of drug.

And then it came back. Suddenly, like the rush you get after passing out. Like the nauseating pain of a migraine on top of cramps.

And life was normal.

But that split second felt unearthly. It was a void that wasn't calculated. And maybe that's the feeling you get when another version of you from another dimension makes a decision that will shape their life.

Maybe the other you died, but that piece of you just came back.