The Wall
Ali hayali Polatel - 2011
As I took a sip from my tea, the room felt a bit different. Different in such a
way that it enabled me to let my unconscious take over.
The wall I was leaning against seemed to change. It was turning into a door. A
door made of small curved mirrors... All paintings on the wall faded away
slowly. There I was, left alone with a door to enter. Was this a question of
bravery? "Temptation, temptation...'' So I heard the voices sing. I must
admit, I felt kind of scared. Like a baby felt giving birth to her first mother.
Before I could change my mind, I quickly grabbed my book and opened the door. I
was expecting a divine forest, green and huge. Quite the contrary, the door led
me to another room with mirrors on all of its walls, ceiling and floor. I could
see the reflection of everything in the room but not myself. The door had
vanished and my book looked a lot different to me. What was it that I was to do
here? What exactly did I leave behind? This thought made me smile, like a mother
smiled while giving birth to her own mother...
Leaving my book in a corner of the room, I observed the mirrors. Why was my
reflection not there? In a room like this, how could I see what differences this
journey might have made in me? After a couple of minutes, I was surprised to
discover that I couldn't see the reflections of the things that "touched'' me.
My clothes, my shoes, my earring... All became visible as I took them off.
"The book!'' I said, "where is it?'' turning into the corner where I left it.
Its reflection was still there. Looking at me and smiling like my mother smiled,
giving birth to my grandmother...
Somehow, I knew the cure was in this room but where? The endlessness, which the
mirrors have formed, gave me an idea. Why was I thinking that the other side of
the mirror was inaccessible to me? "Temptation, temptation...'' So I heard
the voices sing. I must admit, I felt kind of scared. Like a warrior felt, being
slain by his new-born baby... Feeling I might have found the cure, I took a
step into the mirror. There I saw my "other'' self sitting in that room,
looking at the wall, writing a truly odd story... I can't say he was
astonished though, seeing me standing against him, naked.