The Journey

The Looking Glass

Christopher Hedge

The Looking Glass is a story about obsessive curiosity and imagination. Most elements have been recorded in 3-D to reproduce the spatial reality of scenes within the story. For the best effect, headphone listening is recommended.

Dedicated with infinite love and eternal friendship to Sharon and my children.

Part 1

The Looking Glass Overture

Jonathan Baum was dreaming, walking through the streets of St. George, England, with his four year old boy Nicholas. It was just after dark on May first, 1912. It had begun to rain. Thunder rolled up into the hills.

Jon and Nicholas were out looking for a gift for Marie, Jon's wife. They wandered into a dark shop with hundreds of tiny windows and the words "Magic Shop" carved on the door. Somehow, something in the air changed as they entered, as if delicate machinery were put in motion. Inside, the shop was crowded with magic objects but Jon's attention was drawn to a crystal sphere, a looking glass on an ornate shelf. No longer aware of Nicholas, Jon was entranced by beautiful images that he saw within the sphere. Nicholas saw his fathers attention being consumed by the glass and called to him. At that instant, the looking glass sent a spark into Jon's eyes and seized him like a puppet. Jon turned on Nicholas and commanded him with his eyes. Nicholas tugged on his arm and called to him again. With each interruption the sphere's hold on Jon became stronger, propelled by Jon's intense curiosity. Nicholas's third call was inaudible to Jon, the hold was complete and Jon was pulled into the looking glass, into a world of absolute light, twisted reality and confusion.

In Air

Jon was sailing through the air in a predawn haze. The land beneath him was still blue from the night but Jon could see details of valleys and the outline of mountains. He rose to a hill with the ruins of a castle at the crest. There were scattered bands of people in procession up the hill chanting for the sun.

"Cre doe Reda cre doe Ra ku Aria ohm"

As their melody rose to a peak, the first beam of sunlight broke through and Jon slid down that beam like a child, rolling and pouring through the morning air. The air pulsed against his face as he circled low over a mountain lake and touched the water. He continued upward toward the mountain over a series of deep cut gorges and a ladder of waterfalls. He settled into a slow spiral with the blackbirds and descended to a pool beside the falls.

First Morning

Jon slowly opened his eyes to see a paradise before him. The grasses were so green that they cast a yellow glow into the morning mists. Bright angels danced along the surface of the pool at the base of the falls. Jon rose to look into the pool and saw that his features were pure light. As he gazed into the water, a beautiful golden fish came to the surface and searched Jon's face for recognition. There was something haunting about the eyes of the fish, something he had forgotten. Before he could identify his feelings, the sound of a drum disturbed the surface of the water. Jon looked to the top of the falls and saw a small brown man playing a leather drum and drawing a whirlwind of leaves, angels and wildlife behind him.

Floating just before him, was the crystal sphere, the looking glass. At the memory of it, Jon was drawn through the air into the joyous vortex behind the drummer. He was led out of the stream bed and down the side of the mountain along the ladder of waterfalls. The last gorge opened out into a meadow and they took a well traveled road to the east. They spoke little but Jon began to think of Titos the drummer as the keeper of the looking glass and his guide.

Woodcut

Behind low hills at the east edge of the meadow, there was a collection of cottages with beautiful gardens. At the center was a travelers inn with hundreds of tiny windows, and beautiful porches all around. Jon entered the inn and although it was a bright spring morning when he was outside, it was a cool fall evening inside. Everything was just as Jon would have pictured a renaissance inn, with a blazing fire and travelers telling adventures over bread and ale.

Jon listened to a minstrel tell a story about the obsessive love of a disfigured man, a land-owner and recluse, for a beautiful girl who never knew him. A second traveler told a story about his life among the wreckage and waste of a million civilizations in a vast city in space. The city had been deserted for centuries and he spent his solitude searching among the myriad devises of war, passion and diversion. He began to absently describe that, the inn, Jon and everyone in it, were a part of a dream that he had designed in a fantastic alien machine.

This caused great confusion in Jon because he believed that all these characters were part of his own dream. With the realization that this entire world was infinitely relative to each person in it, the room began to dissolve into confusion. Jon was left staring into the embers of the fire and fragments of his life began to return to him. He knew that he had forgotten something, something very dear to him.

The Dark

As the last embers died out, Jon was left in an abyss of darkness and disorientation. Who was he? Where should he go? The feeling reminded him of once when he was left alone in a strange country as a boy. He had a vision of himself standing in the dark, waiting for his father to find him.

"I can't find you...I know you were just here.

I was saying to the dark...I know you will be back."

At the same time he envisioned Nicholas in his place. He could feel the loneliness and fear of a four year old child. He wanted to somehow reach out to Nicholas and let him know he was there, that he would be back, if he could find the way.

The image of Nicholas dissolved into the sphere of the looking glass floating in the dark. Jon knew the crystal to be a portal and truly believed it to be the way home. With that thought, the darkness was complete and Jon fell into a dreamless sleep.

The Land of Eiderdown

Jon awoke in the folds of a huge feather bed with brilliant sun beaming in through a garden window. Bird song filled the air like candy. The warmth and peace of the moment set his imagination in motion. He pretended that the covers on the bed were the hills and valleys of another land. As he surveyed his new world, he began to see details that mirrored the land that he had adventured through just the day before. As he looked down the slope of his chest, he could see the ladder of waterfalls, the meadow and finally a spot of light that he knew to be the looking glass suspended in air above the hands of Titos.

With that realization, he was instantly transported into that miniature world, across a land as beautiful as his imagination could create. Once again, he danced in the swirling vortex behind Titos.

Friends of Titos

They traveled into flatter land, through countries as diverse as their people. All along their road, children gathered to gaze at them and to throw flowers and handmade toys before them.

As the sun deepened to a rose gold, they came to a ridge of sharp hills that seemed to border the edge of the land. It was here that Titos was among his own people and a great celebration gathered with their arrival. Exotic foods were prepared and laughing and feasting began.

Part 2

Ritual of Fire

As the dusk settled, the people began to gather into a long procession out of their village. They moved up the hill towards the ruins that Jon had seen the day before. This time, however, their ceremony was quiet different.

They approached the summit of the hill and Titos set a flame in the center courtyard of the castle remains. With the striking of the fire, the sun cast it's last light through the mountain in the west. The crystal sphere rose above the flames and with it rose the moon, pale and clear as the glass. The people began speaking in a droning ritual and calling the flames into the form of an intoxicating woman.

"Om doe khana Om doe otta Quando hkaley ash do ah"

Jon was so taken by the intensity of her that he was drawn to the fire and toward the sphere. The flames of her hair followed the sphere back toward the mouth of a cave, defended by a rushing fountain. Just as he passed through the water the woman and the sphere were lost. He was left in the immense darkness of the cave.

The Caves

Jon's first reaction was to run, blindly into the darkness. The weight of the silence created a pressure against his head. The roar of his own senses created visions where none were possible. The greatest uncertainty that Jon faced was whether he was standing or falling, whether he was screaming or silent. He had always felt that life was a balance, that you walked a fine line between heaven and hell. The oppression around him compounded until Jon finally sank to the ground and held tight to his knees.

The fear eventually passed into numbing silence, leaving Jon alone with only the memory of Nicholas to cling to. He wandered through chamber after chamber until his path opened out into a huge chasm with an immense vaulted ceiling like a cathedral. The thought of his home began to feel as though it were only another of his dreams. He called silently to the thought of Nicholas and Marie.

With his last waking thought, the silence screamed at him like a siren. The oppression of the dead cast light knocked him from his feet back into his worst fear, that he was and would remain, alone.

Blue

When next Jon opened his eyes, he could see a faint spot of light that didn't have the pallid gray that was so uniform everywhere else. He moved toward it and as he did, it took on a deep amber hue. The first sound of air penetrated the silence and the air conformed to the movement of a great body of water. Jon's path opened out to a balcony on a steep cliff.

Below, the horizon filled with open sea. Great ocean mammals rose in gentle ballet to the surface only to pass under like the movement of deep waves. Sea birds chattered in myriad patterns of sound. Jon felt the currents of the entire body of air like a single breath. The beach was primitive and somehow felt more natural than anything Jon had experienced in the land. Jon tried to grasp that familiarity, the presence. The mere recognition of reality should somehow give him passage.

The Blue Ships

Suddenly, a brilliant teardrop of luminous blue light shot from the horizon to hang in the air above Jon. Instantly, two others flanked it on either side. Massive ships in the shape of the sphere, rolled like oil, like gyroscopes as they remained suspended. Jon was lifted into the center of the first, the energy pulsing against his face. Something asked him a question but he could make out neither the source or the meaning of the words. As if the question had been satisfied, the great ship was accelerated across the water at blinding speed.

Jon felt the excitement rise through him with the increase in speed. He sensed that this indeed was his passage, his whole mind was convinced of his need to return.

The ships were propelled across the water with such force that they were moving back into the daylight. The deeper blue and rose of sunset gave way to the oceanic marine blue of the ships. Across the water, Jon could see the outline of an island on the horizon. They approached and swung into a wide arc above the craggy cliffs that circled the perimeter. It appeared from above to be a huge crater struck in the center of this broad sea. The bowl of its' interior was filled with water except for a central island that glowed with the towers of a glass city.

The City and the Stars

They circled above the marvelous city until a stream of tiny ruby lights directed them downward. Jon was lowered to a crowded walkway that led to intricate metal doors which opened with a metallic snap. He was confronted with an immense courtyard. Above all, and dominating the attention of everyone present was the looking glass, although massive, and suspended above the city.

Jon could see visions of infinite beauty within, and it pulled him in waves of emotion. He felt small, as if he needed only to relax for an instant to experience paradise for the rest of time. But somewhere within him he remembered the image of Nicholas standing alone in the cave and with it came the realization that if he accepted eternity now that everything that he was, everything that he could create for his family and his world, would be lost.

Jon made his decision. And with it, there came a change in the crystal. The images of eternity closed within and an even light filled the sphere. A beautiful spectral ring formed at the center and spread outward until it circled above the mountains of the crater. The white light of the sphere rose slowly upward, drawing Jon with it into the clouds. Jon was again surrounded by the infinitely complex brilliance that had carried him into the land but his whole heart was focused on the love that he felt for Nicholas, his family, his world and his life.

The light dissipated into a numbness around his cheeks and hands. He could smell the fabric of his gray coat and the rain that had soaked into it. On his finger he could feel the tug of a small hand. He opened his eyes with the quiet thunder outdoors and to the dusty shop within. There at his right, was Nicholas... calm, still inspecting the crystal sphere with gentle curiosity. His bright eyes turned upward to Jon.

" Daddy, can we go home now?"

"Yes, Nico... Let's go home."