The opposite side looked like my side. My side looked like the opposite. The trees and the sky looked like the pond, and the pond looked like the trees and the sky. Everywhere I looked I saw a mirror, dozens of mirrors, but I wasn't sure if they were reflecting a scene or the scene was reflecting them. The more I looked, the dizzier I became, and an overwhelming urge came over me to go into the pond. Over and over I heard the urging in my mind, "Go into the pond." A tiny voice in the back of my mind was yelling No!, but it was very far away and didn't seem to matter.
 |
| Pond of the dreamscape. |
Then the reflections turned serene and beautiful. The pond seemed so idyllic, like something out of a dream. I thought perhaps I would just step into the pond for a moment to revel in that beauty. Just for a moment, I told myself, and as I stepped forward, it was as though I could hear hundreds of tiny bells ringing somewhere in the distance. What happened next is still a mystery to me. I know I did not trip. I know my feet were firmly on the shore. Yet something reached out and grabbed my left ankle and yanked it fiercely. I lost my footing, fell, and hit my forehead on a small rock, cutting it just a bit. I reached my hand up to my head and saw a drop of blood on my fingers. Instantly, everything changed! The bells stopped, the reflections distorted, and the wind took up a strange howling sound.
I looked at how close I was to the pond. What was I thinking? I wondered. I could so easily have drowned in that bizarre state, and clearly that was the intention of someone or something. Yet just as clearly, someone or something else had prevented it. I did not trip. Something pulled me back. There was nothing around, not a soul to be found, but clearly first contact has been made. This changes everything.
