Chapter 1 – A Feeling of Return

I had not yet begun to succumb to the ways of the world, yet I still wish to accept them. So many concepts, there are, but only one I have. However, there is one question I still have to answer about that. What exactly is my point of view?

I know my name, proper English manipulation, words' spellings and a few general topics in Calculus. Still, there is just that I need to know, and I'll probably live happy knowing that.

I apologize for not yet properly introducing myself. My name is Arlene, and I'm actually a member of a moderately large band. I play the clarinet; I know what to do to help others, highly portrayed by my placement in what our band calls the "Executive Board," and I'm just a girl trying to figure out what she really wants.

It appears though I have had so many hindrances in my life. Including my internal affections, of course, which might be a bit annoying sometimes.

"Excuse me, guys," said our band director, Charley Godwin, "I want this to be done as soon as possible. Arlene, help them set up."

Yes, that's what I do, living in this plain ordinary world. I just wish I knew what it was like to have a different life. Still, I love this life, and I'm never going to change it.

I began to help the band set up, when a tiny voice began trying to speak. It was indistinct, and looking around, no one else seemed to have heard it. It was not really the familiar voice, but I felt some kind of longing.

I don't only have the life of a clarinet player in the band. I seem to also have other interests of my own.

Soon, I finished setting up the class and we got ready to do what we usually did: play our songs multiple times until it was the end of class.

Our drum major, Michelle Cabe, got the students ready to begin. "Band, Horns Up!" So we did the command.

She was beginning to begin the song, when I began to get a bit thirsty and disillusioned from everything that went on. I simply couldn't resist that calling, to fall down and sleep. I tried to abstain from doing so, but the resistance seemed futile as everything got dark and I could feel a tug on my right arm. Soon, I could hear nothing but exclaim and surprise.

After what seemed like a few hours, I felt like I'm waking up, but there was one question I really wanted answered: Where am I?

All around me was not an area that was familiar to me, but of partial haze that surrounded where I was and a rocky ground, much like an undisturbed terrain of nature. I was alone there, and I wanted to return back to where I was.

That fact heated in me more and more as I got up and paced around, to what seemed like no end. It felt so negative in this space that I even had doubts of my return home.

I kept on going, blinded by the constant haze trying to wither my will, until a particularly huge object was sighted near me.

I was afraid to touch anything here, in fear, but blinded, I touched the object in front of me.

It seemed to be an ancient brick wall, with something carved into it. Seemed to be Braille, but I didn't completely remember the equivalents of what each letter felt like. I felt around this wall, and it seemed to be deciphering something.

All I understood from this wall's markings were: "Stay in a place, or come face to face with a spread."

What place? What will be encountered here? I didn't know, but I willed to return to where I was, in the band room, where I loved to be.

There seemed to be no exit here, and I kept on praying, for something to return me, and as the minutes pass by, my desperation made it feel so long in this negative space.

All in my mind was the faces of smiling friends looking on me, graceful upon my return and that mysterious deciphering.

I thought of it, when it came to a point where I fainted once again.

Lying there still, I inhaled the haze around me, now unaware of what will happen to me in the near future.