(This piece is the expanded and improved edition of this original post.)
OTHER-WORLDLY
My hands move to the pulse of the music, and make the sparkles hanging in the air swirl and spin, leaving streaks of glittering colours all around us. I look over at my friend Clara dancing next to me, her fairy wings gracefully flapping behind her as she sways to the beat. We are standing on the edge of a grassy purple island that’s suspended in the air and overlooks a vast landscape of soft rolling hills and valleys. Wispy pink and orange clouds drift slowly across the backdrop.
I am giddy, enchanted by the sights and sounds.
“Look,” Clara points to a smaller island floating high above us. “Let’s go there.”
“Yes!” my own feathery wings flap and we lift off our island and start soaring through the air. I feel powerful, free. The rules are different here. Everything is different here. And yet the same. Why does it all feel so real?
Before we reach the small island, I look down in mid-air and the big island is now just a tiny shape against the dreamy backdrop, the glittering streaks we left are faint smears and our other fairy friends are just dots. Occasionally one of them comes zooming past us, on their way to another corner of the scenery. We complete our ascent and land softly on the edge of this new island.
Pink fluorescent flowers are planted in the grass here. I reach down to pick one and before I can close my hand around it, it disappears in a flash, leaving a cartoonish poof in its place, as if the world is being cheeky with me. Clara tries and the same thing happens. We break down laughing and the next time I look, the grass is replanted with fresh flowers.
“Come on,” Clara waves me over, “I really want to show you this other world. It’s so much fun.”
“What is it?”
“It’s a surprise. You’ll see.”
“Okay, cool! Let’s do it.”
“I’ll open a portal.” Clara conjures a glowing green orb that floats in the air between us. I connect myself