Day 320: The Place With No Name

The Place With No Name
by
Matt Zurbo

 

There’s a place you can go once you’re in bed.
(Black page.)

First the lights have to be out.
(Black page.)

Then, you have to whisper, three times, so soft you can’t tell if you’re awake or asleep;
“Bedtime… bedtime… bedtime…”
(Bedtime words on black page.)

At first, it will feel like you’re in a tunnel… or you’re falling…
(Kid, from behind, in PJs, looking at black surrounds.)

Then lights will appear. Warm things, in the dark.
(Small red and orange and yellow and green circles with things in them we can’t quite make out. Kid watching them, puzzled.)

Each light will look like a dome, with its own hue, and stories inside.
(Kid standing in front of a “wall” of them. One has dragons, another bullies. One had kid skimming rocks, another has a monster casually talking to kid, etc…)

But as you get closer, you’re realise each dome is a door.
(Kid bending to crawl through entrance of place with lots of orange light, and dragons.)

A door to wondrous places!
(Kid in rough sea in a shoebox boat, with mermaids swimming about. Clouds making ocean waterfalls. Flying fish.)

Amazing sensations…
(Kid flying/gliding.)

Strange moments…
(Kid, looking a bit startled, as everyone else around kid, human and a few cute monsters, are casually walking on their hands.)

Adventures…
(Kid climbing down a rope in a well with tiger above him, and Medieval knights waiting at bottom.)

Sometimes, scary moments.
(Running from bed shaped like a monster.)

Sometimes you’ll feel like a giant…
(Kid giant compared to friends.)

Sometimes you’ll feel hopeless…
(Kid wading through quicksand.)

It’s almost as if you have no say in it, as if each door choses you.
(Kid standing in middle of four circles. One has tentacles reaching out, the other has kids playing in pile of dead leaves, etc…)

Along the way you’ll meet all sorts… 
(Kid walking along with a line-up of big and small, mostly friendly creatures, people, monsters, living furry toys, etc…)

Some you won’t like, some you will… some you will love!
(Big, hairy thing turning its nose up, as kid and little hairy creature smile and hug with great affection!)

You’ll be so sure that each person or creature or adventure or nightmare, is real!
(Giant eagle claw lifting desk kid is doing homework on. Teacher, unfazed.)

That you are in the real world.
(Three kids and two monsters, and friendly small hairy creature from earlier, casually walking/on skateboards. Half of them on footpath, other half going up wall in front of them.)

And, while you sleep, that will be true.
(Kid and small hairy creature smiling. Kid walking, holding ankles of creature, which is standing on his shoulders, holding an umbrella.)

But then you’ll bend and you’ll dip and you’ll slide…
(Kid sliding down, through the dark…)

Sometimes through other doors.
(Kid falling through circle with Saturn and several other planets in it.)

Sometimes into the deep, floating void.
(Kid floating in blackness again. Content expression on face)

Either way, you’ll whisper, “Home… home… home…” so softly, you’ll wake.
(Black page, other than for the words, small: “Home… home… home…”)

And bring some of those moments and creatures with you, in your head.
(Kid falling feet first into bed. Some of the characters from the story melting into mist from his back and shoulders.)

They’ll be slippery. They don’t like daylight, the “real world”.
(Kid in bed, on dawn, sitting up, rubbing eyes. Characters from dream running, hiding under bed, into cracks, etc…)

Some you’ll remember, some will wait for the next night, the next journey.
(Kid, looking puzzled, at their doll that looks just like one of characters.)

Some you’ll never see again…
(Small, hairy creature, surrounded by a circle with stuff inside it, which is in turn surrounded by lack. It has its back turned, as if entering the circle, waving good-bye.)

Either way, this place without a name, will always be there for you…
Always!
Full of amazing life…!
Warm…
(Black but for text.)

The End.