Flying on the Orange Planet - My Afterlife Experience (Chapter 3)
In an afterlife with unlimited possibilities, I visit an orange planet to forget Earth. Make it make sense!
Afterlife keeps getting weirder
If you missed the previous “Afterlife” episode, please read that first. If you’re new, start at the beginning of the story in chapter one.
She explained the procedure of entering a new realm and what feels like possessing a temporary body. It’s about intensely focusing on the destination, on the world, the location within the world, the chosen time, and the being you are about to inhabit. Apparently, from my new perspective, time is not linear, but something I can rewind and enter at will when playing around in the mini realms. As weird as it all sounds, this afterlife is starting to look rather appealing.
It took me a while to get the hang of it. I couldn’t concentrate for very long and kept losing focus. I had imagined entering my new body and was instructed to focus on how it feels and looks from the first-person perspective. I was to become that being in my mind before I could possess the empty body. I should only open my eyes when fully immersed in the scene. This is how one hops from one reality to the next. It’s not as easy as it sounds, and while my guide to the afterlife promised it would get easier, I’m not sure I believed her.
“Are you ready?” she asked. “I’m right here with you. Does it feel real yet? When you have a clear picture, open your eyes.”
I took a deep mental breath. I still took those and opened my eyes. Everything was foggy. I was blinded by a bright light. When my focus returned, I was gobsmacked by all the bloody orange! I’m not talking about Mars orange, but eye-watering orange. Unnatural orange!
“What the hell?!” I exclaimed. “How can it be so orange?”
“Well, it is the Orange realm, so…” she was being smirky.
“Sure, but this is some very unrealistic shit, ma’am.”
“That was the whole point of taking you down here. Think of this world as an experiment in trying to break your mental barriers. You are still clinging to Earth being the ultimate and only reality. We must free you from that belief.”
“Whatever you say.”
“How does it feel to be in this body?”
“Oh, yes. I forgot! Let me see,” I said and tried moving. I thought it would feel awkward, robotic, and unnatural, but no. It felt like my body. As if I was born with it and had a lifetime of experience possessing it. “How is this possible?” I asked.
She laughed and suggested, “Do you want to try flying?”
“What do you mean?” I asked, looking around for anything resembling a plane.
“Do. You. Want. To. Fly.” she repeated as if saying it slowly made it any more rational.
“I. Would. Love. To,” I replied in kind.
“Then fly!”
“With what? I can fly?”
“Oh, but you can, old friend,” she said, and somehow, I knew she was being serious.
“Okay. Sure. Let’s fly. How do I …?”
“The same way you would run as a human. Don’t think too much and just do it,” she instructed and flew away as effortlessly as if the laws of gravity weren’t governing this orange planet. “On this planet, flying is as natural as running on Earth.”
“Wait for me!” I yelled, and then suddenly, as I reached for her, I was flying. It really was as simple as walking or running. It felt natural, the action and moving my body. Not the perspective, though. That was something else.
“This is nuts!” I cried as tears of joy slid down my face. “I’m flying!”
“I knew you’d like it,” she replied. “Follow me. I know a special place.”
I followed her, slicing effortlessly through the air. Was that even air? It felt like air. I hadn’t even thought of breathing, but it felt natural, so I wasn’t paying much attention. I was flying, for Christ’s sake! Flying! Who cares about breathing?
We rose higher and higher, and still, there was only a never-ending orange landscape as far as the eyes could see. An orange sand of sorts, with orange streams running slowly. They reminded me of lava. It was a surreal experience. I think she knew it would mess with my head, as this world was a bit like Earth but different in the things that I knew wouldn’t be possible there. The less sense anything made, the more I began accepting this new reality. Clever girl, this one.
The sky was covered with clouds. No, these weren’t orange but ordinary-looking clouds. They felt moist and cold as we flew through them. I felt wet like I would on a foggy morning in my hometown. What a surreal experience! I felt happy for the first time in an eternity. Perhaps dying wasn’t so bad. If this is the afterlife, I might have hit the jackpot!
“Wow! What the hell? How is this even possible?” I said in shock as I stared at a city above the clouds. It was a high-tech city with tall buildings and clean architecture, but there was also something magical about it, almost fairytale-like. I can’t explain. You should have been there. Hell, perhaps one day you will see it for yourself. When you die, you should definitely visit!
“I knew you’d like it!” she said. “After all, you made it!”
“What? How? When? What do you mean?” I asked in awe of this wonder before my eyes. I couldn’t see where the city was anchored other than the clouds, which wasn’t possible. It was built atop a floating island. The island was full of lush green forests and rivers with waterfalls. I couldn’t see the end of it. It must have stretched for miles and miles.
“This is your creation. It’s been here for quite some time. Your own little slice of paradise, you used to call it,” she explained.
“It’s beautiful! But how is it just hovering above the clouds? How can this be?”
“You’re still stuck on Earth’s realm and its laws. Those don’t apply here. On this planet, gravity is arbitrary not enforced by the laws of nature. That’s how you and I can fly.”
I forgot about that. Did I mention I was flying? It didn’t feel like flying. It wasn’t adrenaline-infused, even special anymore. It was normal, and I just can’t understand why.
“You’re saying I built this place? All of it?”
“Yes. The whole little floating, self-sustaining island city ecosystem was imagined into reality by you. Along with most of the architecture and life.”
“Life? We haven’t seen anything alive yet. Where is everyone?”
“It’s a surprise,” she said with a smile.
We flew over the city and onto the top terrace of one of the highest buildings overlooking the floating island. I wasn’t sure if she was messing with me, but somehow, I felt this was perfection. If I were ever to design anything, it could very well be similar. It looked like something from a fantasy, but it felt like home. I could easily see myself sipping my morning coffee with this for a view. Talk about heaven.
It was a perfect mixture of waterfalls, rivers, fountains, and greenery amid beautiful, perfectly integrated architecture. An island, a castle, a city, all in one harmonious whole. When I zoomed down, it was brimming with life. Bird-like creatures of all possible colors. Fluorescent animals in the water, shining like colorful diamonds. And then there were the inhabitants of this city. Now, that was one colorful bunch.
“Can I offer you some coffee?” a gentle voice behind me asked.
I turned around, surprised but not startled, and then I saw her. The most beautiful woman I had ever seen. So perfect, in fact, that I had married her in my previous life.
“I made it just the way you like it, my love,” she said, handing me the coffee with a smile ornamenting her flawless face. The aroma of the coffee cemented the feeling of familiarity.
I stood there, frozen in shock. My eyes burned with salty tears. I could barely keep them open. I didn’t dare close them, terrified that she might disappear again. My love, my one true love. Here, with me. In this magical place, that made no sense, with this perfect coffee in my hand. She was as beautiful as I remembered from when we met almost sixty years ago. How can this be? How can any of this be?
“One last coffee as our former selves,” she said. “It’s good to see you again, my love.”
“How? What? Is that really you?” I muttered, hoping she would say yes, fearing a deception.
“It’s me.” she confirmed and then turned to my guide and said, “Thank you (something unpronounceable and undefinable; my guide’s name perhaps). I’ll take it from here.”
“Very well. Good luck to you both. Have fun, kids. I’ll see you around,” the woman who wasn’t a woman said and flew away as effortlessly as a leaf dances in the wind.
None of this made sense, but I wasn’t going to question it. This was heaven - period! This place, this woman. I couldn’t have imagined a better afterlife. I took a sip of the black gold, absorbing the intoxicating aroma as fully as possible, filling my lungs, if I indeed had them, with all the magic of that bitter elixir I loved so much. Then I hugged her as if I’d never let her go again!
To be continued…
The whole series thus far:
Flying on the Orange Planet - My Afterlife Experience (Chapter 3)
Reunion in the Sky City - My Afterlife Experience (Chapter 4)
I Can Be Whoever I Want? - My Afterlife Experience (Chapter 5)
The Shock and the Happy Ending, or Was It? - My Afterlife Experience (Chapters 6&7)
I Made a Grave Mistake! - My Afterlife Experience (Bonus Chapter)
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