this is a continuation of the previously posted nonsense regarding the UnAmusement Park of life.
The clown's mouth looks like a bloody gash cut into his pasty face, and as you are thinking about this he says, "which key do you want to use?" You snap out of your focus on his gaping maw, and look down at you hand. "Which one should I use?" you say, looking at the gold colored key and the silver colored key. Other than the color they look pretty much the same. "Depends on what you want," he replies," the easy way or the hard way" You ponder this for just a moment- he's staring at you with that crushed strawberry mouth and sky blue eyes and grease paint white face, it's making you nervous. "I...I....I guess i want the hard way...", you squeak out, "my mom says anything worth having is worth working for." "You sure about that?" he says as he leans under the pink glass fo the ticket booth, moving that mouth even closer, moving his jaws like the eel you saw at the aquatic center last summer. eeeeww. "Yes." you say firmly, "I'm sure" "Weeel, alrighty then, pup. You take that gold colored key you got there, and open up that there lock on that there gate, and go on in", he says, grinning, saliva glistening in the corners of his mouth, turning white like powdered sugar. He holds his hands up, palms out in an I-Give_up gesture, and backs away from the glass. You turn away, toward the gates, and then call back to him, "What is the other key for then?", as you turn your head. But the ticket booth is gone, and so is the Eel clown. You skae your head, close your eyes and opent hem again. No, it's still gone. "Weird", you think as you turn back toward the gates. This time, the gates look three times higher thatn they were before, and as you are comtemplating this, dark clouds bow across the sun, darkening everything for just a moment, and then it's bright and hot again. You are not stupid and have read many books ahead of your class. "Clouds across the sun are never a good sign," you think. But what else can you do but go ahead?
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Here's mine, from the gates:
You step forward cautiously, the gold key in your meaty little paw. The sun feels like a warm hand on your back, pushing you forward, so you reach the key toward the lock, half-expecting it not to fit, but it slides into place easily. The lock catches for a moment as you turn it to the left first, and then the right. The gates are so large, and you expect to strain pushing them open, but as soon as you feel the key slide the tumbler open, the gates begin to slide away from you on their own. You look behind you again. No clown, no car, no one. Everywhere is empty, everyone is gone, and you must decide how to move forward, how to proceed on your own. The gates click into place with a loud thud, and you place the silver key—the one you didn’t use—into your pocket. The gold key was taken away with the gates, and you look over to see if you can retrieve it, but even the gates have disappeared, or been morphed into something else. All that remains now is a huge opening in a dark wall, and you begin to wonder if you should have tried harder to hold onto that key. But the decision is made now, and no going back. You look down at your feet, wondering if the key might have slipped out of the lock as it glided out of your grasp and fallen out on the ground somewhere; you are stunned to find your shadow stretching out in front of you, like a friend waiting for you to decide which fork in the road to take. So still, it waits, as you decide where to step from here, and when you step, it will follow, you know this. It seems comforting to have that shadow, like you don’t have to make this journey alone after all.
The park itself seems familiar, even though you’re not sure where to begin. You wish you had asked the eel clown where to begin, although it’s possible he wouldn’t have known anyway. You wish the guy in the car would come back, but perhaps even he wouldn’t have been able to help. The map feels heavier in your hands now, and you open it, expecting to find a colorful cartoon-like drawing of a small, enclosed area with arrows to point you in the right direction, like when you went to Disneyland. But this map is different, and you have the distinct feeling that this won’t be like Disneyland at all.
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