Paradise Found

PARADISE FOUND
by Stephen A. Abell.

No. of words: 408 .



They walked silently through the crowd.

Nobody saw them.

I did.

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I remembered the car slamming into my side and then skidding along the tarmac. I could feel a stickiness slipping over my face and realised I was bleeding ,somewhere, from my head. The pain in my side burned like a hot poker and it was quickly spreading through my body.

Looking up I saw, for the first time, the crowd. A couple of people with orange first aid boxes, knelt by my sides. Though they tried to tend to my injuries and make me feel comfortable, it was useless. The pain now had a death grip on me.

My attendants mouths were moving but I couldn't hear a word they were saying. On the numberless faces of the crowd I saw that their mouths were moving silently too.

I was not deaf. I could still hear the birds singing, a few cats meowing, dogs barking, cattle mooing, sheep baaing, and somewhere in the distance children playing.

I looked through the forest of still legs, in front of me, and saw eight legs moving towards me. At first I thought it was the paramedics, that is, until I looked up.

They walked silently through the crowd.

My mind kicked into reality, they walked through the crowd. People didn't move aside for them to let them pass, why would they, the people didn't know they were there, the people didn't need to; they walked through the crowd.

I knew I should have been afraid but I wasn't. Strangely a calm had rested into my bones. Even my pain was forgotten.

They came into the small clearing around me. There were four of them. One woman and one girl, one man and one boy.

As they took their positions at my shoulders and feet I noticed they were dressed in everyday apparel; there was nothing special or abnormal about their appearance. The only difference between them and the crowd were their eyes. They shone with a cold white light.

Out of their pockets came hundreds of multicoloured ribbons and they cast them down to me, all the while, holding on to the other ends. I felt the ribbons entwine my body and I was comforted. They lifted me up with the ribbons and I floated through the air like a balloon.

I floated through the crowd.

Nobody saw us.

I saw white.

I saw paradise.