Mirrors and Shadows

"Stand in front of the mirror," she says, "and tell me what you see?"

I look. "I see us," I say.

"Look harder!"

Then I see it. Our reflected forms stare back at us, my own looking slightly confused. Behind us, I see the form walking back and forth between the items of furniture. It looks, for all the world, like a silhouette of myself. It's the same height as me, the same size as me, only it is merely a shadow. I can see right through it.

I feel slightly alarmed looking at this shadow-me, but she places her hand on my arm and smiles at me and despite the prickling of the hairs on the back of my neck standing up, I feel better.

I really have no idea what this was about, or where it came from, but it was very spooky and exciting!

"Those aren't rocks"

It's cold, yet I'm standing in bright sunlight in a parched landscape. The wind is gently blowing and the odd tumbleweed or two goes rolling past.

I'm trying to get to a road that leads to a town. The term 'road' is perhaps a little generous for what is nothing more than a dirt track. Still, it's proving very hard to get to as the ground is very loose and uneven with fragments of white rocks and pale yellow sand. It literally is two steps forward, one step backwards trying to walk across this strange surface.

Suddenly my foot catches on something - a gun metal grey lump half submerged in the sand. It looks so out of place that I kneel down to take a closer look and I notice that it is in fact leather, parched dry to a rock like substance by the sun and the heat. I dust some of the sand away and it becomes clear these are in fact a pair of boots. A little more dusting and I clear the sand away from pale bones jutting out of the boots.

Blinking, I turn around to see a tall figure a little way distant sweeping sand into little mounds. I call out to him to ask about the rocks and without turning, he calls back 'Those aren't rocks. They're bones!'

I lift some up in my hands and gently finger the fragments wondering how exactly this came to pass. Were the graves really that shallow?

The end.

Testing, Testing

I'm back at my old school, which curiously seems to have grown considerably since I left. They've also updated the old Victorian buildings for spiffy new high-tech, glass creations.

I'm trying to find somewhere to test out a science experiment but no-one is willing to let me do it in their classroom. Admittedly, said experiment is a .50 calibre (12.7mm for our metric friends) handgun.

Eventually, I'm allowed to try it out in my old computer science class, providing I shoot at the old computer boxes and foam that is stacked at the front of the classroom.

Fill me with your little babies (not)

I’m in an underwater colony. Billy Idol wants me to have his children. I’m not too tempted, as he has asked pretty much everyone else in the colony before moving on to me.

Billy's looking a bit rough and his leather coat has definitely seen better days. I'm taking the next shuttle to the surface.

Luminous

A bioluminescent underground landscape covers my entire field of vision: tiny mushrooms and plants glowing in blue, white, violet and pink. These enormous caves are the home of a people who are very concerned with rites of passage. The person going through the rite is locked in a cage, where they become involved in a battle against their fear of their dark twin. The dark twin is a creature wandering the caves. When the person in the cage has won over their fear, they are released from the cage, and set out to find and kill the dark twin.

Bizarre 'Bizarre'

A small shop in a railway station has an freakishly large stock of 'Bizarre' magazine. In fact, it seems to be all they are selling so I figure I might as well pick up copy. This month, in a special festive give away, there is a mini-disc attached to the cover which is an audio book. Quite which audio book is not entirely clear as it's cover is reminiscent of the 'black' album with nothing at all visible.

I think there's something wrong with my copy though. I open the box and find the Ghostbusters sound track. I am rather pleased about this.

I did actually buy Bizarre yesterday on my way home. No audio book though, but they were playing Ghostbusters in the hotel's bar on Friday night. Last night there was a piece on vinyl records and the first one people bought. Mine was the Ghostbusters sound track.

Steamboat trips and stationery sins

It was probably a good idea to get a ride on the old steamboat, even though it is a bit pricey at SEK 2500. "But they serve excellent dinners", you say. "And all details are true to the period!" They do indeed, and they are.

Except for us, almost all the other passengers on board are white-haired old ladies and gentlemen, obviously out together on some kind of group excursion. It is a lovely day and they all seem friendly and in a good mood, easy to strike up a conversation with. Soon, we find ourselves among a fairly large group gathered around a dark oak table in the dining area, deep in excited conversations about art, literature, society and philosophy. Not everything uttered is necessarily true, but nobody can deny we are all having a very good time. They are really hanging on your words, dear friend, but I can tell you are, in fact, bullshitting a lot (and you know that I know this, you catch my eye every now and then to give me a smile and a sly conspiratory wink). But it is all in fun, and no harm done.

Meanwhile in secret, downstairs behind soft and silencing heavy velvet curtains: oh, the decadent, sinful games that can be played with paper clips.