郭晉汝
Constantly feeling unfit for ordinary rules of life, I grew up with the
sense that some part of me belongs to another world - another world not
so far away from where I』m standing.
It
was one of those school outings we took all the way to Cornwall, Britain
to see Boscawen – Un Stone Circle. And just when everybody was
mesmerized by the mystery of its very existence on earth, I alone
entered the other world it leads to. On the open prairie, 19 evenly
spaced stones formed an ellipse hidden by a high envelope of gorse.
One single menhir was located near the centre of the ring and protruded
from the ground angled at 53° to the horizontal, pointing towards the
midsummer sunrise. A gap in the western arc seemed to serve as an
entrance to the ring.
We
camped that evening beside the stone circle. The midsummer heat kept me
awake all night, so I thought a walk outside the tent would be a lot
more interesting than observing my friends』 sleeping positions. I
stepped towards the ring of stones, sat down at its western gap facing
the very furthest sky to where the centre menhir was pointing at. Just
when the mist started to rise from the meadow, I glimpsed a distant
light from the eastern horizon that seemed to be forever glimmering. I
was drawn to its magical charm till it fainted from my eyesight in the
twilight of a new day.
A
year passed. My family moved around during this year and I hardly ever
thought about the Boscawen – Un Stone Circle. One midsummer night the
distant glimmer came back to haunt my dream. I woke up soaking wet in
the heat that had filled my room. I opened the window to let some chill
in, but the night air only seemed to possess a power that threatened to
swallow my conscious. The heat never left me. Ever since that night, I
was dominated by a force inside my body that punched my heart beat and
pushed me toward one certain direction.
The
spell in me grew bigger and bigger till 2 days later I spontaneously got
on the subway heading towards Bronx. I stopped 2 blocks from Yankee
Stadium, at the corner of 162nd St and River Ave, right where
the only skating park in the city,
Mullaly Park, was located.
For no reason at all, I walked into the park straight toward an old
mini-ramp. I had never been to that place, so I could not have known
about that ramp, but the moment my eyes fell upon it, a somewhat
familiar feeling toward the ramp and the whole park emerged. It was the
joy of finding one long-lost piece of me. I felt I could almost faint
right into the breath of the ground. Still, there was something else
that I could feel in my veins but I simply could not put my finger on it
then.
Several kids of my age who were on the top of the ramp seemed to be
amplified in my vision. The sight became so irresistible that I was
charmed . I stood beside the ramp staring up, feeling an urge to utter
certain words. Magically a soft sound slipped out of my mouth,
「Jesse…」 I wasn』t sure if he could possibly hear me or it was just a
coincidence, the guy sitting at the edge looked down at me. I looked at
him, he looked at me stunningly with an open mouth. He reached out his
hand for the girl behind him without moving his eyes off me, 「What?
Jesse?」 The girl in the back moved next to him and that』s when I saw
her - with my eyes, my mouth, my everything except the clothes. We
stared at each other for 5 seconds. I was so sure we both felt the
chill coming out from our bodies. The mutual recognition seemed to
freeze time at that point.
A
parallel world is connected with the present world by the same time
formula they share. Very few people ever get the chance to glimpse the
ever shining light from the other world. Fewer would believe what they
see to be what it is. Even fewer would be able to meet face to face
with the parallel world.
Yet
they came back and explain the awkward moments to be the result of an
attack of fever.