Shorts

            When I woke up, my space was tall.

            My space had always been my size. A little wider than me, a little longer than me, and just a little deeper than me. All I did was lay there, in my space. When I went to sleep last time, I wondered what it would be like to stand up. And when I woke up this morning, I found out.

            My space had evened out. Even though it was still as wide as me, it was now as tall as I was long. For a moment, my space seemed strangely unfamiliar. When I opened my eyes and saw the top of my space farther away, I couldn’t believe it. I reached up with my hands to touch the distant top, and as I reached, I saw my hands for the first time.

Only with darting glances around my shoulders had I ever seen my hands, and now, there they were, right in front of me. I moved my fingers before my eyes, and held my arms out away from me. They stretched so far, straight out. I looked down past my hands, at my feet. With a thought, my right foot lifted up on my leg, becoming clear to me. I had never even seen my heel. And now, there it was.

            I spent a long time just exploring my body, with both my eyes and my hands. I could see so much now. But my eyes were constantly pulled towards the top of my space. With some hesitancy, I pushed myself up along the bottom of my space and pressed against the sides. My back felt the same against the side of my space as it did against the bottom side. Now, my body was bent. My back was against the side of my space, while my legs were straight out before me. I was sitting.

            I sat, looking at my new space. It was my space, but it was different. It was as wide as it had always been, and as long. But now, it was tall. I moved my hands, wrapping them around my legs which I pulled up near me for the first time ever. I hugged my legs to me, smiling as I looked around at my space.

            When I woke up, I was still sitting. I looked around at my space, seeing that it was still the same size as it had been before I went to sleep. I looked across at the distant side of my space, then up at the top. With resolve and a quick breath, I pushed off the bottom side with my feet.

            I stood up.

            For a moment, the change dizzied me. I was so far away from my feet, much farther it seemed than I was lying on the bottom. I had to steady myself against the side of my space. My head hovered just by the top. I pushed up with my toes, gently bumping the top of my head against it, making me smile. Then, the other side loomed before me.

            I put my hands on the side of my space as I took a deep breath. Putting my left foot forward, I stepped towards the other side.

            I found myself in the middle of my space. I looked back over my shoulder to see the side I had left behind. It seemed so far away, just like the side before me was so far away. I kept my hands on the sides that came to my shoulders and I stepped forward again.

            I came right up against the side, my face, pressing into it. I smiled. Stepping was fun. I looked back over my shoulder as I steadied myself with my hands. Stepping backwards with my left foot, I reversed my motions, taking two steps back towards the first side. With my second step, my heel banged against the side. I couldn’t see where I was going.

            I walked back to the front side that I had been facing. I looked over my shoulders at the rear side. As I turned my head, I noticed my body turned as well. I turned a bit more and my left foot turned with it. I turned around completely. Now the rear was the front and the front had become the rear.

            I walked to the front, turned around, and walked to the rear that had become the front. Back and forth. I walked endlessly. I had never felt so free. But my hands never left the sides. And as I walked, I looked at the sides. If only they were wider; as wide as my space was tall and long.

            When I woke up, my space was enormous.

            It was completely even on every side. It was as long as it was tall as it was wide. At first, I didn’t even recognize it. I couldn’t even tell which side was the front or the rear. I even had some trouble at times remembering which one was top and which was bottom.

            I walked around the sides for a long time. My hands skimming the sides as I walked. I walked forwards and backwards, to my right, and to my left. It took me dozens of times before I finally left the sides behind.

            It’s not that I was afraid of falling. I had lived with my back on the bottom. I knew what it was like. And I knew that I could sit up or stand up again. But the sides would be so far away.

            I stood in the joining of what I thought was the front and one of the sides, and faced the rear and the other side. I took a deep breath and stepped forward with my left leg. The step felt no different, but all of a sudden I was away from the sides.

            I stood in the center for so long. I turned to my right and to my left. I turned around completely and back again. I became so lost in that space, in my space. The sides were so far away. I had turned so much, I forgot which one was really the front and which was the back and which two were the sides. Now, the only two sides I was touching were the bottom and the top. No others. And as I stood there, I looked up, staring at the top.

            When I woke up, the top was gone.

            Lying in the middle of the space, I opened my eyes to see that the top had disappeared. The four sides around me extended up away from the bottom side, disappearing past where I could see. Their size scared me and I pushed up against one of the sides. I didn’t know if it was the front or the rear or which side, but I pushed against it and stared up at where the top should have been.

            As I stood up, there was something that I had never noticed before. Cold. The giant opening that had been formed by the top disappearing was colder than when top had been there. Now, cold air drifted down onto me from where the top had been.

            I stood up on my toes like before, but the top wasn’t there to stop me. I bounced up, pushing off the bottom with my toes. For a brief instant, I left the bottom side behind and I became taller than I normally was. But even with that sudden, brief height, the top was still gone.

            I looked at where the top had been and the cold air that drifted down, then I looked at the four sides.

            When I woke up, I was alone.

            The sides were gone. The top was gone. Only the bottom side remained. And even it barely looked how it had been. The space was endless, with only the bottom side around me. So far and so wide, the space was everywhere. But the sides were nowhere to be seen. Cold air grabbed hold of me as I tried to find the sides. I walked. I tried to grow, like when I looked for the top. I walked as fast as I could. I walked so fast that only one foot was on the bottom side at a time. But the sides were nowhere to be found.

            I laid down on the bottom, shivering in the cold. I huddled in close to myself, closing my eyes. At least I had the bottom. I looked around the emptiness that was everywhere. I wondered where the top and the sides had gone. There was no cold with them around. I thought about what it would be like to have them again.