Beginnings
Blackness. Everything is black. No sound. No feeling. Nothing, just a total void, like a deprivation tank. Think. I have to remember. I remember.....
The week began like any other week. Get out of bed, get dressed, go to work, and come home. Same old boring routine, same old boring me. Mind you my life wasn't bad, just very routine. I had long ago settled into a comfortable pattern of living. Made life simpler that way. Of course it could be dull at times but dull was not always terrible. I avoided problems and risks, rarely venturing beyond my own world for anything other than work.
Tuesday, however, brought an unexpected change. I decided to take the day off from work. Why? Well, I really don't know other than the day was just calling out to me - warm, blue skies, perfect for doing anything except going to work. I had the time coming so I took it. I ambled leisurely through a park that wasn't far from where I lived, stopping to feed the ducks swimming in the pond. Everything seemed to be very vibrant and alive to me. Was I just noticing it because I didn't get out very often?
Around the time for lunch, I happened upon a small cafe I had not seen before, a very cozy place with a nice outdoor patio, not visible from the outside. It was like paradise – a garden setting with cobblestones and fountains spewing water forth in great cascades. I know, cozy doesn't exactly seem to go with fountains and great amounts of water, but it really was that way. Maybe like the TARDIS in Dr. Who, smaller outside and infinite on the inside. I felt at peace here. Suddenly I felt a stabbing pain in my chest and I found myself lying on the floor. A warm blackness descended, enveloping me in a serene sleep.
I do not know how long that velvet blackness had hold of me. I had no sense of time. I opened my eyes and found I was standing, not on a solid surface but floating slightly above the surface. Funny, the garden now looked gray and ill-defined, like looking through a veil. There were shapes moving about but I could not clearly tell what they were or what was happening.
Without warning, I found myself being pulled by invisible hands. Not roughly, but I was definitely being pulled, pulled towards a shape on the cobblestone floor. I felt like I was passing through jello and I lost all sensation again.
The next thing I knew I was kneeling on the cobblestone. I didn't feel light anymore. I felt... heavy. The gray had lifted, replaced by normal colors and vision. Not only that, I was looking at my body. I stood up or should I say the body I was now in stood up. It wasn't me controlling the movement. I could feel, taste, hear, and otherwise recognize what was happening but I was not physically doing so myself. I was like a passenger going along for the ride. Technically I had a body. But who's body and why? At least I was still in a male body. I really would have freaked if I had been a woman now.
He stopped to talk to two policemen waiting outside the cafe. He told them to call the coroner and report the fatality - the guy had a heart attack. He then headed to an ambulance to go back to the firehouse. I found the experience fascinating and terrifying at the same time. Was I doomed to be nothing more than a part of this person for the rest of his life?
