Noah's Attic

A high pitched, metallic squeal pierced through the air of a poorly lit room. Seconds later, a heavy cloud of dust stormed down from above, saturating the air with a choking fog. A bright light flooded through the room illuminating the fog and four drab, satin walls.  Much of the dust had accumulated on an old matted carpet, blanketing it with a layer of grayish snow, and some had fallen down upon a young man named Noah. Noah, coughing as though he were in a sand storm, brushed away at the dust that covered his head and shoulders.  When Noah's coughing fit had subsided, he looked up at the chalky white ceiling above and gazed through the doorway of a pull down attic door.  Cautiously, Noah gripped the side of the wooden ladder and extended it all the way down to the floor.  Slowly shuffling his way up the steps, he finally reached the top of the ladder and, taking one last step, Noah emerged into another realm, the ancient world of an abandoned attic.

The attic was rustic and gloomy, lit only by the natural light of the sun, which shined through a broken glass window centered on the farthest wall away from the entrance of the attic. The air had a musty smell to it and was saturated with filthy clouds of dust and an unbearably humidity.  Almost the entirety of all four walls was cluttered with a network of intricate shelving, and each and every shelf was filled with long forgotten knick-knacks, greasy old tools, and countess novelties.  The floor was covered with massive heaps of boxes, stacked endlessly high, and spread out over nearly every square foot of the attic floor.  Only the way of a narrow path fenced on both sides by a wall of boxes was left unburied by the siege of storage.  At the end of the path was an old wooden desk, and behind it, a crumbling brick chimney flue ran up the wall like a stony vine.

As Noah began to make his way down the path, every step he took was echoed by the sound of bowed and knotted old floor boards creaking below his feet.  Barreling through the gloomy interior of the musty old attic, he headed down the path and toward the desk at the other side.  After Noah reached his destination, he pulled out a hard wooden chair from underneath the desk.  Brushing the dust off the chair to the best of his ability, Noah sat down and began to visually digest the clutter atop the desk.

Every square inch of the desk was covered with a massive mess of mayhem.  Two small drawers complemented it on each side, and below the desk top was another wide, shallow, drawer. Intrigued by the barrage of rubbish lying on the desktop above, Noah began to filter his way through the clutter.  He came across several books covered in a dusty film. Many of the books had worn and damaged bindings, and others had torn and stained pages.  Buried under the library of books was a large table top calendar marked heavily with words and numbers and the days of yesteryear.  Finished with searching through the rubble above, Noah altered his attention the drawers below.  Tugging on each drawer, he found that they were all locked until he came across the shallow drawer underneath the surface of the desk.  Pulling it open, Noah's eyes fell into an empty space immune to the dusty world around it.  Disappointed in what he found, Noah started to close the drawer when, to his surprise, his eyes caught a glimpse of something veiled in the dark isolation of the drawer.  Noah picked up the mysterious item and examined it in the half-light of the attic.  Upon his examination, Noah realized that the item hidden in the drawer was a photo.  The photo was visibly old, and the back of it was stained yellow with age.  Gazing at the photo, Noah became enchanted by its imagery, and soon he was overwhelmed as his imagination ran rapid.

Suddenly, the room began to transform before his eyes, and the light shining through the broken glass window started to glow as brightly as the sun, temporarily blinding Noah's vision.  He closed his eyes tightly and shielded them with his hands and arms and turned his head away from the light.  When his eyes sensed that the light was dimming, he lowered his arms and hands, turned his head back around, and slowly opened his eyes once more.  To Noah's amazement, he was no longer in a gloomy attic but standing in the unknown wilderness portrayed in the photo he had found.  Noise began to rush into Noah's ears, and the once dead calm of the gloomy attic had erupted into an amphitheater of sound.  Wild and tame, loud and soft, near and far, every sound muffled and merged together as one.  The musty air of the attic had dissipated, and Noah's nose began to notice that the air was now filled with countless scents and smells.  Some were the sweet fragrances of pines, pollens, and wild berries.  Others reminded him of flowing rivers and warm lakes shifting in a pool of currents, tides and waves.

Several feet in front of him, through a small thicket of bushes, Noah could see a road, and pushing his way through the flora, he finally stepped out into the open.  The road was earthen, narrow, and felt very soft under his feet.  Along the side of the road, wild grass grew long and tall, and each side of the road was complemented with a rustic split rail fence.  Beyond the fence on both sides were wildflowers and blueberry bushes.  Beyond those, trees merged together to from a glowing, green array of forestry.

As Noah began to travel down the road, he could hear the faint sound of running water.  The road quickly came to a sharp curve, and after rounding the curve Noah could see a small bridge in the distance.  The bridge was small and built of hand cut stone.  Both sides of the bridge were guarded by a short, broad stone wall rising up from below.  Approaching closer to the bridge, Noah took notice of four large blossoming apple trees, each of them growing at one of the four corners of the bridge.  Blossoms from the apple trees rained down on the stone surface of the bridge forming a layer of flowery snow, and Noah's nose became flooded with their sweet-smelling scent.  Looking down over the sides of the bridge as he crossed it, he could see a small creek whose waters flowed gently under the bridge and with its flow, carried countless blossoms that had fallen down upon the current.

After making his way across the bridge, Noah suddenly could feel the sun's radiant warmth dissipating from his body.  Looking up to see where the sun had gone, Noah realized he was immersed in shadow and looking up, he saw the presence of great and giant oak tree.  Just a few feet above the ground, the giant base of the oak tree split into two massive stems which expanded upright into a jungle of smaller branches and leaves.  Each leaf of the giant oak was gorgeously illuminated by sunlight, and the tree spoke out to Noah in a mysterious language of leaves rustling in the wind.  As Noah put the oak behind him, he soon left its giant shadow and could feel the warmth of the sun slowly return to his body.

From there, the road began to ascend uphill, and after his ascension, Noah discovered the existence of a beautiful field of wildflowers basking in the sun, and from within the field, every color of the rainbow shined into his eyes like a heavenly aurora of Mother Nature.  Walking down the other side of the hill, he descended into the heart of the wildflowers, and all around Noah dozens upon dozens of bees and butterflies flew through the air, pollinating their way from flower to flower.  Crossing through the field, Noah could see in the distance yet another beautiful vista. 

Sunlight was glistening off the waters of a large lake, and at the very end of the road, a small wooden dock extended out onto the water.  When Noah reached the dock, he walked out onto it, and with each step the dock rose and fell as it floated peacefully on the surface of the water. Standing at the end of the dock, Noah gazed at the waters and followed a stream of light flowing across the crest of the lake spanning its entire length, until finally, the stream of light ended and Noah's eyes yielded to a green and blue horizon.

Standing at the edge of the dock, Noah peered down into the water below.  Taking a deep breath, he leapt up into the air and plunged face first into the water, breaking the water's surface with splashes and ripples.  Submerged in the warm, refreshing water of the lake, Noah swam down through the currents and as he descended, his eyes chased dozens of fish swimming through the lakes natural aquarium.  Diving deeper into the water, he could see only the muddy brown floor of the lake, and soon Noah's lungs began to scream for oxygen.  Slowly, Noah kicked his way through the water and began his ascent back to the waterless world above. Looking up at the surface, Noah's eyes were filled with the glow of sunlight flittering through the water's crest, piercing deeply into the watery depts.  When Noah came close to the glowing surface above, he closed his eyes, and with a great splash of water, he broke free of the aquatic world below him.  As Noah opened his eyes, he was shocked and disquieted, for all the scents and smells, all the sounds, all the vibrate colors and rays of light of the world around him had vanished with the opening of an eye.  Noah, once more in an old wooden chair sat staring at the photo he had found in the half-light of a gloomy, abandoned attic.