It wasn’t his dream, but he was in it…

But someone else was, too. He knew the other as ‘Kitten’: marked in the sky by the two eyes. Kitten watched all the time; she – how did he know it was she? – presided over this place.

That much he knew… but nothing else. As long as he followed the furrows in the landscape, he knew he would be okay. If he deviated…well, he didn’t want to think about that. Easier to follow the path…

The other eyes – the controlling eyes in the sky – seemed always to be the same distance from him. But there were other objects that came closer as he walked.

Ahead there was an oak tree. He wondered how he knew with such certainly that it was an oak? His path seemed to be taking him there, so he relaxed and watched it get closer.

When he was close enough to touch it, the intensity of the experience changed. It seemed to welcome him and each of its branches seemed kissed by an edge of glowing gold that radiated pleasure at his proximity; as if they were reaching out to touch his skin with their light.

A new feeling came: a desire to speak…. He didn’t know why this was so special, but the tree recognised it too. It appeared to be listening to him.

He said–so clearly that it startled him, “Oak”, then “Oakworth!”

Far away, there was sound of the action signal, but this time it was making a different noise – one that suggested triumph.

Laughter filled the air. He looked up at Kitten’s blinking eyes. They were pleased. Her pleasure filled him with delight, and he felt a different kind of glow on his skin.

Then it began…again – the bit he always seemed to forget. The eyes of Kitten became a face, and the eyes of the face pulled him into the sky. He abandoned himself to the joy of flying and soared into the changing face of Kitten.

The room he could never remember was familiar. Soft white drapes moved, gently, in the summer breeze from the opened section of the glass wall. The breeze seemed to stroke his body. Directly over the bed was a monitor on which the words ‘Self realised in game sequence’ were flashing.

He tried to sit up, but the motion monitor in the virtual reality helmet reminded him, sharply, what would happen should he continue to move…

“Wonderful, darling,” said the woman sitting at the console opposite him. “That’s a major stage in our new core program. It will make everything else the gaming world has ever done seem trivial…”

She watched for his response, eyes like a cat. He dared not show disdain for what she was doing to him…that way lay the opposite of pleasure.

Despite his control, she saw and mocked his sulk.

“Well, you did break into my house, Peter Oakworth…and with wicked intentions!”

(Photo by the author)

©Stephen Tanham 2021

Stephen Tanham is a Director of the Silent Eye, a journey through the forest of personality to the dawn of Being.

http://www.thesilenteye.co.uk and http://www.suningemini.blog