Tuesday 31 March 2015

Worlds



The hall is astoundingly huge - a polyhedron of impossible dimensions formed of some sort of semi-transparent crystal.  Through the glass-like surfaces stars and galaxies wheel in a spectrum of incandescence... and every surface is covered in doors.  Wooden doors and metal doors, opaque glass doors and even some stone doors.  There is no clue to where they might lead, no marking or symbol upon them.  There is no guide in the hall, nothing but vast empty space between them.  It is not until you find the key that you notice the key-holes...
But which door to use the key on?
You walk to a stone door and peer through.  Beyond is a planet of orange and red swirling clouds, its moons slowly spinning around one another.  You look through the next door, black glass, and see a rocky, lifeless world, cratered and grey.  You walk a few paces before seeing what lies behind a wooden door - this one is a bright mass of blue and green with rings encircling its waist.
Each door you look through shows you a new world.  Some you know are not places you should go - whether they are meant for others or no one you can't tell, but you are certain they are not meant for you.  With others the only thing that stops you from turning the key in the lock and stepping through there and then is the niggling feeling that another door might hold a better world - might be a better match.
You walk and walk and look and look, telling yourself that when you see your world, the path that was meant for you, you'll know, and then, and only then will you use the key.
But you're never certain.  There are too many doors to see them all - and you know that by the time you have walked the length of the hall you would have forgotten what you had seen at the start anyway. You stop and look back and forth, trying to decide on how many more doors you should look through until you choose.
You know that whichever you do choose, you will always wonder what lay beyond a different door.
But still, better to see a world in all its glory and life and magnificence than to always stand on the edge...
Time to make the choice.  

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