BBB Club: The Kingdom Eternal Part Four
Greg Palmer
Read Part One Here --> https://www.bitesizeblogs.co.uk/post/bbb-club-the-kingdom-eternal-part-one
Read Part Two Here -->
Read Part Three Here -->
Elias looked at his clock flashing ‘12:00’ on his side table… ‘Shit…’ he thought to himself as his phone started to vibrate with the name Lucas flashing across it backed by the picture of a potato… it always made him laugh, ‘Lucas the Potato’… he couldn’t help but let out a chuckle as he answered…
“I know… I know… I’m sorry Lucas, I need to take the day, I’m not feeling great…” Elias gravelled his voice and let out a couple of coughs hoping Lucas hadn’t heard the chuckle that escaped him at the start of the call…
“Fine Elias, we’ll sort a return to work meeting Wednesday” Lucas the Potato replied…
Elias smiled…
‘Right!’ Elias thought to himself… ‘Quick shower then a stretch of the legs… some fresh air would do you good!’
With that, he placed his phone on top of the Wizard of Oz and hopped into the bathroom… with more of a skip than he’d really planned, followed by a quite jovial dance like motion out of his pyjamas and into the shower… a jovial motion that turned into crazed flailing of arms and legs as freezing cold water blasted his body…
‘Don’t forget to let the shower heat up!’ He could hear his mother saying…
At least he was awake!
Not one to hide away when feigning sickness, Elias put on his best disguise and ventured outside. Elias had an apartment about a ten minute walk from Central Park, and his office was in quite the other direction. He could lose himself for hours in that park, particularly in and around Belvedere Castle, a structure he liked to believe was hundreds of years old as he pictured dragons and knights fighting around the miniature structure. As was his curious imagination.
Walking with the same jovial skip in his step from earlier Elias entered the park and started his mini trek towards the castle.
There was a slight breeze in the air, and Elias could almost smell Bethesda Fountain as he rounded some trees to see a sea of NYC locals grabbing a morning coffee and chilling by the fountain…
There was something different today though, a wealth of colour flashed into view, dancers, performing to ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’, the music only now registering in Elias’s ears…
No one was really watching, people just glanced in passing, sipped their coffee and moved on…
The voice was beautiful, young, soulful, was it a recording, live?! Was there someone here singing…
“Beautiful…” Elias found himself saying… “What is?!” Came the pleasant voice of a young lady sat just to one side… Elias pulled his gaze away from the show so as not to be rude… “The dancers… the music… that voice…” he continued with a smile…
There was an uncomfortable pause…
“er… what dancers? What music? …… what voice?!” The lady replied, a strange look on her face as she looked beyond Elias toward the fountain…
Elias smiled in disbelief only to realise the silence… well, the lack of music in the harsh cacophony of New Yorkers on phones or in deep discussion as they went about their day.
His smile left him…
“You ok?” The lady enquired…
Elias paused for thought… “sure” he chuckled… “there’s something musical about the park at this time of day…”
The woman smiled, Elias smiled back… “Have a pleasant day” he continued as he walked to the fountain, unaware of the now disappointed woman whose flirtatious smile had been completely missed.
He strode towards the castle, his mind racing.
It wasn’t long before he was there, he’d lost track of time anyway as his thoughts were of the dancers and the voice that seemed distant, faded, like a memory soon to be forgotten.
It was relatively quiet at the castle, but it was early, he could hear more music from the direction of the Delacorte Theatre, the open air theatre that held the castle as its back drop.
He closed his eyes, tried to lock onto the melody… ‘…someday I’ll wish upon a star… and wake up……’ he found his heart was racing, and his feet had already taken charge as he took off at pace to the theatre.
He darted between people, running at full pace, as the music got louder and the voice returned…. No longer a strange memory…
He skidded to a stop at the top of the tiered seating… on the stage were the dancers, a wealth of colour, ribbons, feathers… peacock feathers… Elias’s mind was racing!
Centre stage, a woman, beautiful… her voice carrying above the music… she was looking up at Elias… “Away above the chimney tops, that’s where you’ll find me…” as Elias went to take a seat a blinding light reflected off a mirror just behind the woman… he squinted as the voice faded, the music died and the dancers disappeared… the stage was empty… bar the mirror…
Elias stood and wondered to the stage, he was alone, he could hear the parks inhabitants, but here he was alone… he stepped onto the stage, the mirror shimmered in the sunlight.
A smaller distorted image of himself stared back at him, smiling… it lifted a hand towards him and waited…
Elias stepped forward, his heart beating out of his chest, his eyes locked on the image of himself, his mouth dry… the mirror shimmered again, the smiling figure looked up at him…
He could hear a voice in his head…
‘You know of the veil… you just need to step through it…’
With that Elias offered his hand, and stepped forward, into the mirror…
Comments