There we were living in poverty in a decrepit, dirty old place, in a beaten down area on the wrong side of town, very different than any before. Joyce and I were settling in when I decided to take a break and look around our new surroundings. I opened a door and found a large room that was all cluttered with broken furniture, old windows that had been salvaged from an even older place and sheets of discarded plywood and old board planks.
I started to clear some of it to see how the floor was underneath the debris. When I did, I found a 3 foot diameter hole and it exposed another floor down below. I lowered myself through the hole to the floor below. That room was nearly empty but it had 2 nice windows looking out over another worn out building and the other side of the room had a set of stairs up to another opening. I climbed the stairs and it appeared to be an exit to an exterior observation platform. When I got to the top, I stepped out on the platform and when I did, the platform slowly descended and everything seemed to change. The shabby neighborhood where we were living was transformed into a beautiful area where everything I saw was bright, clean brick homes with trees and shrubs around them and all the landscaping was meticulously maintained. Surrounding the homes were verdant green pastures and woodlands. The cars in driveways were all new and sleek models without gas tanks, just electric plugins.
I was so excited I had to just walk around to see it all. Passing by different homes people were waving and saying hello and welcome to the neighborhood. It was thrilling to see and experience all that was there. I was ecstatic with what I saw and soon headed back to tell Joyce about all the wonderful things that I had just experienced. I walked back to whence I started and I saw the platform had risen back up to the window high above so I had no way of getting back. I tried to go through the front door where we had originally entered, but the now new, fancy door opened and there was a whole new and different family living there. They looked at me suspiciously and did not understand what I was talking about. They said there was no apartment above them and no holes in the floors and they asked me to kindly leave because I was frightening the children with my wild story.
I left them and went back out to the open area. I wondered how I would ever return to Joyce? ……..
Copyright Bill Weber 2018 and beyond.
I started to clear some of it to see how the floor was underneath the debris. When I did, I found a 3 foot diameter hole and it exposed another floor down below. I lowered myself through the hole to the floor below. That room was nearly empty but it had 2 nice windows looking out over another worn out building and the other side of the room had a set of stairs up to another opening. I climbed the stairs and it appeared to be an exit to an exterior observation platform. When I got to the top, I stepped out on the platform and when I did, the platform slowly descended and everything seemed to change. The shabby neighborhood where we were living was transformed into a beautiful area where everything I saw was bright, clean brick homes with trees and shrubs around them and all the landscaping was meticulously maintained. Surrounding the homes were verdant green pastures and woodlands. The cars in driveways were all new and sleek models without gas tanks, just electric plugins.
I was so excited I had to just walk around to see it all. Passing by different homes people were waving and saying hello and welcome to the neighborhood. It was thrilling to see and experience all that was there. I was ecstatic with what I saw and soon headed back to tell Joyce about all the wonderful things that I had just experienced. I walked back to whence I started and I saw the platform had risen back up to the window high above so I had no way of getting back. I tried to go through the front door where we had originally entered, but the now new, fancy door opened and there was a whole new and different family living there. They looked at me suspiciously and did not understand what I was talking about. They said there was no apartment above them and no holes in the floors and they asked me to kindly leave because I was frightening the children with my wild story.
I left them and went back out to the open area. I wondered how I would ever return to Joyce? ……..
Copyright Bill Weber 2018 and beyond.
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