The Last Days, and On 



The Dreams 

I’d always dreamt of flying. Just like Superman did in the comics yet, not with the powers he had, or the strength. Just the ability to rise from the ground and soar up into any direction he wanted to go. You know, just like Christopher Reeves did in the movies. He always made it seem so simple. God I loved special effects! 

I’d be walking to school, or driving to work, or just be sitting somewhere and I would start to think of flying. Watching the hawks, and turkey vultures in the sky above sometimes, circling overhead and riding the thermal streams of air. How I would love to have been able to do that, I often thought. 

The closest I’d ever come to flying, was while jumping out of a perfectly good airplane at some 13,500 feet off the ground. A tandem jump with an instructor, but it was still awesome. I got to glide the parachute, and us, through a cloud. I never forgot that for as long as I lived. 

I always had another dream too. I was always fascinated with space and the planets and stars. I always read stories in the paper, about a new planetary system, or an approaching comet, or meteors closely passing Earth. But Earth, that was my main fascination! I wanted to go up in a shuttle and see that great big blue marble from the outside, to witness my home, where it was I came from. I often said, If I ever won a big enough lottery, I would spend the 20 million it cost, to go! I always watched the shuttles go up. In fact, I always remembered where it was I was standing when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded. And I would have even gone up in the next shuttle launch. 

I miss those. 



In The Beginning 


Beep! Beep! Beep! Just like every morning, an unwanted sound playing for me to ignore. My alarm clock always did go off with plenty of time for me to get to work. The bad thing was that it didn’t actually pull me out of bed. Therefore, I laid there, ‘til the last minute and jump out in a hurry. Rush the shower, get dressed, and run downstairs out to the car and leave without breakfast. It was always that way, my boring life. 

One of the days leading to the last was just like any other day. Showing up to work six minutes late. Not wanting to do the job for such little pay. Wishing I was doing what I had gone to school for. Yet, I showed up anyways. Nothing really stood out on that day. I did my normal four hours before lunch. Went to lunch at the nearby mall by myself, as usual. And then, came back to work to finish my last four hours of a fun filled eight hour work day. But on the way home, I didn’t realize it until the last day, but this was the beginning of the end. I drove home from a closing shift, which was totally normal at the Home Depot for me. I lived about 25 minutes from work, just north of the air force base. As I made a right onto Moody Drive, where the complex of houses was located, I looked to the left out of my driver side window. I always did. I liked looking into the southern sky and look briefly at the stars or at the jets taking off at night. But when I looked this time, everything was black. I mean pitch black. No stars, no Air Force light tower, not even Turkey Point Nuclear Plant. And the plant was normally lit up at night. Yet, when I turned back to look ahead of me at the road, everything was fine. I looked back to my left and again it was solid black. Then a flash of something, I wasn’t even sure if it was a flash of light. It just flashed and the Nuclear Plant, the air force base, and the stars just reappeared! I didn’t know what to make of it, and I mean it was weird! I never even told my mom or anyone for that matter, they probably would have laughed or just thought I was pulling one of my usual jokes. Maybe I should have, looking back. Hindsight is always twenty twenty. 

I remember later on that night as well; I awoke scared and feeling afloat. As if I were off the ground or off my bed. Yet, I felt the covers on me, and the bed below me. Almost like those dreams people describe, where they fall and awake with their hands or feet in the air. It was just hard to describe, so I never did. A day or two later I was just zoning, staring at a blank wall, and I started to remember the dream I had. I had floated outside of my body, and simply rose above myself. Like in the movies where it shows someone’s soul leaving their body. It was just like that, but I wasn’t going anywhere! I just floated around the room, up to the ceiling, and then back down. When I woke up, I was breathless. Like I had run for miles. After that instance, I remember it was a creepy feeling, but not scary or painful. More so of an unexplainable act or feeling. 

Three days later, another episode happened. This time I realized it as soon as I woke up. I remembered everything. Where it was I floated or flew too. What I looked at and passed by. I even felt as if it really happened, not a real dream. But, I actually left my body and moved about my room and into the hallway of the second floor of my mom’s house. The weird thing though, was that my cats acknowledged me. They stared at me; even Mr. Biggles followed me to the top of the stairs at the end of the hallway. If this wasn’t a dream and I was leaving my body, how did the cats know or see me? I never found out how they did it. I just assumed that their senses were keener than ours.
These dreams or episodes continued. They were longer in time. From the first episode, which was a couple of hours, to when they started to become regular, and lasted the entire night. I never felt tired in the morning; nor did I suffer from a lack of sleep. I ate regularly, if you can call it that. And I continued my daily activities. The only thing that really changed was the nights of endless dreaming. 

I got to the point in my dreams, where I dictated what I did and where in the house I floated. Weeks of this went on. Some nights I would just float or fly, whichever you want to call it, from one wall to the next. I would then turn around and float down the hallway. I even tried flying the way Superman did in the comics. One arm bent and held to my chest while the other was straight out in front of me. My left leg bent and the other out behind me. I often wondered if that was comfortable or not, flying like that. Well, I came to the quick conclusion that it was not comfortable at all! 

One morning, I sat up in my bed and was looking out the bedroom window and it came to me, the question to myself that started things rolling in a big way. Why wasn’t I ever outside or able to go through walls or doors or windows? If I was leaving my body, wasn’t I then a sort of ghost? That night would show a lot. 


The Next Step 

That night I went to bed determined on going outside and attempting a few things. Would I be able to go as high as I wanted? Would I feel cold or heat? Could I actually fly through things, or would I hit the object and feel the pain of bumping my head on, say, a window or wall? Those were the things I thought of as I laid down to bed. 

I was getting into bed and my two cats started to play and chase each other. Of course, it was nighttime and they wanted to play then. Well, it drove me nuts and I wasn’t about to let them run in and out of my room. So, I closed the door and had them stay out in the hallway where they wouldn’t bother my sleep. 

I fell asleep, as normal. I also left my body actually pretty quick. I remember feeling excited about wanting to answer all the questions I had for myself. So, out of my body I went and up into the air I floated. I turned to the door and headed for it head first. As I approached it, I stopped. No hit, no pain or thump, I just stopped. I even sat there and tried to concentrate on going through it. Where there is a will, there is a way, right? Well, not that night. Not any other night either. I tried the window and the wall. I even tried the closet louvered doors. Still there was no way I was going to get through solid matter. And because of the cats driving me nuts just before falling asleep, I locked myself in the room. I found I couldn’t grab things or push objects or flow through them. I was going to have to wait ‘til the following night to finish answering my curiosity. Damn cats. 

So, that morning I woke up and called in to work. I was off the day after and figured two days off would let me get a lot accomplished. It was still dark out, the sun hadn’t rose yet. I was looking out the window next to my bed as I hung the phone up. It had dawned on me; I didn’t need the door of my room open. I just needed my window open. And since my bedroom was on the second floor, this was going to test how high I could actually go. So I reached over and opened the window fully, then wasted no time falling back to sleep. It seemed, this time that sleep came in an instant. But no matter, I was asleep and I had risen out of my body once again. I rose up and floated in the center of my room for a second. Focusing on what was about to happen. I was either going to go through the window and fall. Or, I was going to fly through that window in front of me, and just keep on climbing! I remember it felt like time stood still at that moment. I lost sight of everything but the window frame and everything inside the frame. The palm trees that lined the back end of the pool, the wooden fence right behind the palm trees, and the lights coming from the house on the other side of the fence. Then I just went for it. 

I leaned forward and putting my hands out in front of me, sort of by nature, I went through the window opening. I squinted my eyes as to wait for a reaction to me being two stories in the air. No reaction came though. I looked to the sky and pointed my hands up and away I flew. I had a weird feeling just at that moment. That feeling not too many people feel in their life. Of being able to say they did or had the chance to do what they had dreamt of all their life, to fulfill a dream. I kept climbing higher and higher, looking back every so often to see where the ground was. Not paying attention to my surroundings, but only focusing on what lied ahead, I all of a sudden started moving to the left at a high rate of speed. The sudden movement didn’t hurt me, nor did it affect anything about me. I just didn’t realize it at the time, but I flew up and right in the path of a Boeing-747 airplane. The area of the sky I flew up into was always filled with planes. This was the area where planes would start their circling and prepare for their descent into the airport. I lived about five hundred yards from the air force base, and I also lived about forty-five minutes from the International Airport in Miami. When I realized what happened and pushed myself out of the way of the plane, I suddenly realized I had been pushed miles from where I was! It sucked, I remember. Because I had to lower myself towards the ground, find familiar surroundings and then head back home. Then I tried it one more time, this time looking about making sure I didn’t get in the way of any moving objects. This time I went high. I mean really really high! I got to a point where I stopped rising and I just looked down. I was looking at planes below me! Planes circling around making their final approaches, some higher than others waiting their turn to land. Then I focused on the ground below them and it was bent, just like in those panoramic pictures. I was high enough to see the curvature of the earth. And at the height I stopped at, I saw the one image I had never thought I would be able to see in my lifetime. I stared to the east at this yellow and orange and magenta light. The clouds and the sun swirled together like sherbet. The water glistened in the same colors and I was in awe for a while. I won’t ever forget that site for as long as I go on. 

Not realizing, as I had stayed in one spot watching the sunrise, I looked down and I was no longer over land, I was out over the water. Since I had nothing holding me or taking me with the actual planet. I stood, figuratively speaking, in one spot and the Earth moved west from me. It was quite weird yet cool. You never realize that when you are down on the surface of the planet walking around and doing such, which not only is the planet rotating; it is also revolving around the sun. We just take that for granted I guess. 

I thought to myself, Maybe I’ve done enough today. And then started back down to the window I had used to escape my bedroom. I had floated back in, laid down, and then came to. I sat up in bed and just stared at the window for a few minutes. Letting the emotions, actions, and reaction to sink in and settle. I had seen things and done things in a day that it would take some people, hell most people, a lifetime to accomplish. I had seen things, felt things, which most will never see or feel. I was in awe and just had to do something normal. I chuckled to myself for a second and then turned on the TV. 

I got out of bed and slid on some sweat pants. Walked into the bathroom, and then brushed my teeth. I stood there afterwards and just looking into the mirror at myself, but not really at myself. I wasn’t thinking of anything, just sort of zoned out for a minute or two. But, what brought me back to reality was basically what started the beginning of my ending of what most people perceived as my life. It’s funny how a few well-known words and a theme song changed the remainder of my life. 


To Boldly Go 


I stood there at the sink in the bathroom. A light smile approached my face and I knew what the next step for me was. The theme song for a famous television show played faintly in the background from my bedroom. Then, the words that every American knows from age seven up came from the television. Space, the final frontier, those familiar words spoken from William Shatner at the beginning of every episode of the original Star Trek. As if a friend placing a warm hand on my shoulder letting me know everything is all right. And I knew where I was headed at that very moment! 

I walked out of the bathroom and sat down on the bed watching the beginning of the show. Listening to the words and music. And I just wished that I could do that, what they did in that show. Go from planet to planet, seeing stars glow, watching nebulas. Witnessing comets and meteors in their natural environment. I wanted to go boldly where no man had gone before and see things no one in my lifetime will ever see without the help of a telescope or a machine. I just had no idea what was to come and what the consequences were of me trying this. Yet, I was going to do it no matter what and whatever happened, I lived my life the way I wanted to. Not many can say that they have done that. 

I left the TV on as I had laid back down on the bed. Kirk was talking to Bones and Spock about something. I couldn’t hear it clearly; I wasn’t really paying attention to it. I just stared at the ceiling for a few. I wasn’t sure of what I was getting ready to do. But I couldn’t stop thinking of seeing Jupiter or Mars. Getting to Mars and going to see that hill that supposedly looks like a face. I thought about all the things I could see or would want to do. And it just made me surer that this was my next step. And I closed my eyes. 

As I lifted off the bed, I turned to look at myself. Not knowing what was going to happen, not sure of anything at this point. I made a half attempt to wave at myself and then turned to leave through the window. I rolled over almost like I was doing the backstroke in the air and looked back at the window. I could see the TV still flickering and I just stared as I lifted higher into the air. I turned a couple of minutes later and looked straight ahead as the sky grew bluer and deeper blue. At first the color seemed to change gradually. From close to the surface of the planet looking up the sky seems a baby blue. The higher you get, the darker blue it gets. But all at once, when you pass that final boundary everything goes black and the only light is what is reflected off the planet itself. It scared the crap out of me. I had this butterflies in the gut sort of feeling. I just stopped and waited for something horrendous to happen to me. After all, I was in space. A void, no air, nothing! I guess it was like 5 minutes before I moved further. Nothing happened. I could float around and move just like I did in air. It was a feeling that went from freakish to exhilarating! I rotated around and just did what I had always wanted to do. I stared at the Earth, Mother Nature, from the outside. That, that blue little marble in space, is where everything I knew, everything I am, originated. I stayed there, for what seemed to be forever. I stared at the panhandle of Florida. I could see the point of Texas that sinks into the Gulf of Mexico. I could see the sun reflecting off of the Atlantic Ocean. I studied everything about the land I saw below me. Just amazed that this simple human was doing something, living one of his dreams. I then turned, rotating back to face outer space. 

I came about almost to the exact opposite direction of what I was just looking at. And I noticed this familiar shape, a huge fingernail of white before me, crescent shaped object, which was going to be my next subject to study. I leaned forward and begun my travel. Realizing that the distance between the Earth and the Moon was great, and even more so between say, Earth and Mars, I was going to have to see if I could speed things up. I pushed forward, making fists with my arms out in front of me. You know, like that seen in the first Superman movie, where Christopher Reeves is upset and he starts to fly as fast as possible. He clenches his fists out in front of him and you get this sense of him pushing forward as best he can. Well, that is what I did and to my surprise, that works! I got to the moon WAY faster than any rocket ship from the seventies did! I just knew seeing Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and the rest of the planets, weren’t going to be a problem at all. So, I pressed on to the Moon. 

I got there; it seemed, in no time! Reasonably quick considering the distance I had flown. I dropped down to the surface and just hovered about the landscape in awe. The gray dirt and hills, the gray rocks. Everything was gray or dark gray. But, with everything still one color it was absolutely beautiful at the same time. I looked over my shoulder back from where I came and saw what I had always wanted to witness in my lifetime. Anyone who has wanted to see outer space, or visit the moon, has also wanted to see the Earth from the moon. It was absolutely fantastic and another moment kept for remembering. 

I continued to study and explore the moonscape. I don’t know for how long I was there, but I know it was a while. I even came upon the Land rover and the American Flag left there. I saluted the flag before moving on. Then, at that moment I figured I had studied and explored all I needed to see on the Moon. I wanted to move on to bigger and better sights and I couldn’t wait! I lifted off and away from the Moon and headed away from Earth. I placed my fists out in front of me and clinched them tight. I pushed forward and proceeded to move on. 

Tonight on the eleven o’clock news, a young man found dead in his mother’s Miami home, came the voice from the bedroom television. Authorities say that the young man seems to have died of natural causes, an autopsy will be performed tomorrow, reads the newscaster. The young mans mother, in disbelief, states that his room door had been closed but not locked just like always.She also states that he had always closed his bedroom door when leaving, she hadn’t noticed anything wrong until his place of employment called looking for him. 

The End 



Jason R. Davis 03/20/02