8 Infinities

I walk along the cold damp pavement as newspapers sweep in front of me from the wind. “Here we go again” I think to myself as I walk along the way too familiar path. That I have to walk along  everyday to and from.

People hide in trees and bushes. They follow close behind. They don’t think I know but I do. They think me blind. When i’m not I can see that most of them left flash on. I hear their whispers and groans.

I feel they’re fright, I feel they’re judgement. I feel the wind sigh against my skin as I continue  to walk leaves and other things that litter the ground crunch under my feet.

I feel my skin cringe in disgust as I feel ,”rain drop” hit my face. I know it was the same guy as always but I chose to believe it was the rain. He sits in his same spot everyday and just waits for me everyday on the dot as I walk past him. He doesn’t even have to check his lizard skin watch to know it’s time to blow his liquified breath that always smells of tuna and feet. His hot unpleasing spit speckles my face and I think some of his lunch is in there along with the spit. Fun.

I glance down at the small news stand beside me to see the headline let me guess,”Bif walks to the store and buys milk for his house.” That’s all the world cares about is me. I’m not some kind of mega superstar. I’m an everyday guy who breath like everyone else. I’m a average guy. Who’s crazy. I’m clinically insane. Haven’t committed a crime in my life. I got all A’s in school and still do.

But yet somehow the world thinks me not some average “Joe Shmo” who had a pretty average life. But rather someone who even though is as toned as a pipe and healthy as an ox. But as someone who is “insane”, “unsafe”  to the greater good of this world. I’ve lived many lives always the same face always the same name.

I was here when the world was new. And here I am now. Seventeen and going to another therapist appointment. Who i’m going to go to same the same thing’s i’ve said to the last one and have them say the same to my officer and soon send me off again having my officer tell the newspaper who tells everyone who tells the world the same thing of how i’m unfit for human life. They never believed me. None of them. I doubt they listen. They read what the last one put write the same and in the end i’m going to a different one. Same building each time. So here I am walking along the long and lonely path. It’s 2037 and yet that helps my case none.

I get to the same building. I reach out and grasp the cold metal of the door handle. I open it slowly the bright lights from the people who waited inside for me to get here. The lady at the counter greets me with a warm welcome. i talked to her once while I waited for my doctor. Apparently she was bullied so much of her life it’s not hard for her to imagine how I feel. She doesn’t hate me but she doesn’t believe me right either though.

She is truly my only friend. I watch as her pink lips stretch across her fair face and her kind eyes blink to my make her jade green eye shine brighter than the moon. She is a beautiful woman. Her voice is soft and gentle. I’m lucky to have a friend at all and even luckier that that friend is her. I get to her desk to get a few words in with her before I go back to see who’s the next in people who don’t believe me. “I thought you got your birthday off?” She asks with a muffled giggle from her not wanting to laugh. I look at her and smile right back.

“Well for a crappy job like this apparently I didn’t put enough in advance to get the day off so they cut my pay to twice on sunday’s.” I say as we chuckle together. It truly feels amazing to be able to just have someone who I can just laugh with. Who i’m able to joke about, how because of this where it’s everyday and because i’m “insane”  i’m “unfit” to get a job of any kind. I get these unmarked  checks every now and then to get the needed stuff.

We share one last smile before I go back and talk to the new doctor regarding i’m crazy. Yep it’s my birthday I just turned seventeen. And i’m still having to some in here for the same old work. Just this time a new person. I imagine another person who get’s mad if I forget the smallest thing. Those kind annoy me. They all annoy me but those kind are the worst. I leave my only friend and head to the double doors of the large silver elevator which is right across from the men's restroom. I press the button that lights upon touch. I wait as the silver doors open and show the very red inside of the moveable room. I step into the small area. I can already smell the aroma of old books and cheap air spray.

The large doors start to close when I hear “Hold the door” followed by, “Nevermind” when they realized it was me. I look down at my feet as I mindlessly press to go up to yet another session. I look down at my feet and try to get my mind off how this is all I ever do nothing new nothing different. I need out of this life. I’m only seventeen and all I can do is live with my parents until I move out get cash in the mail from some person and help my family out with the money I get. I lose myself in the soothing elevator music  as I wait to arrive. I hear the ding as the elevator stops letting me off. The ding brings me out of my trance and I walk off to the same floor i’ve been getting off on for the past year.  

I get off and look for a door marked, ”Dr. John” I walk along the long hallway looking for this Dr. John.  Five minutes with them and i’ll have them in the chair.  I laugh a little and someone sees. I watch her lean into her friend and whisper ,”He just laughed and no one said anything… he really is crazy.” I take no offence to her words for it’s true no one said anything but yet I laughed. That’s just me the only time you see me smile in public is when I think something funny. I glance over and see a white door with a glass window that says,”Dr. John” and other words written across it. I look down at the brownish gold doorknob. I  lace my fingers around the chilling metal. With a twist of my wrist I push the door open.

To be met with an older woman about mid forties, maybe early fifties. Her grey hair tucked softly in a fragile bun on her head. Her skin is pale while her eyes are full of knowledge and wisdom. She smiles showing her age. I walk in and sit on the couch that stands right across from her and lay down. She looks at me then at her pen and paper. “Your name please?” She says opening a folder that laid delightly beside her.

“Bif Summers” I reply. She nods in response to my answer. I feel like I can’t remember anything.  Whenever I get yet another therapist I know everything to do. But here is different it’s as if this is my first time in therapy. I feel shy, nervous, and my palms are a clammy.

“Do I make you nervous Mr. Summers?” Dr. John asks with a wicked grin. I don’t know what to say in response to her question. It’ll be embarrassing to say yes even though it’s the truth. But she wouldn’t of asked if not noticed the fact that i am.

“Why?” I asked not sure how I was to respond to her weird way of asking. She stands up and walks to her bookshelf. Many old books covered in a thick layer of dust stand tall on the really purple shelf. I follow her with my eyes. When I see her by the books I groan internally

thought of having to read. People read to trap themselves in someone else’s life so they don’t have to worry about their own. People read because they’re afraid to admit they have talent just as good as who even has written the book.

“You’re going to make me read aren’t you?” I ask as she waves me off to keep her tight grip on the books as she examined each one carefully.

“Can you trust me.” She ask me rhetorical then questioned. And once again i’m confused. I’m starting think she’s the one who should be on the couch not me.

“In all respect ma’am…” I begin and swallow the fear as it creeps in my throat. “You scare me a lot and you haven’t given me a reason to not. You are my doctor therefore my life is in your hands. In all honesty i’m scared where this is going.” I reply trying to hide the fear in my voice. Why am I scared of her?  She looks at me cold in the eyes. Her  winter’s arctic blue piercing my soul going right through my grey eyes. It sends shivers down my spin. I can’t say no who would believe me? I’m crazy.  

She slowly removes the silver hair pin that kept her hair tight on her head. Her grey head of hair falls straight down past her bony shoulders that poke through her shirt. She takes the small piece of delicate metal and slowly pushes it in between two books on the shelf. With the flick of her weary old wrist she turns it still in between the books. Not knowing what to excpect next my fingers grip the leather couch until my knuckels are white. She then takes a step back and the room starts to shake. The books that were once right beside each other were now far apart as the shelf splits as if it was never supposed to be like it was in the first place. Time stop the air thicken and the the lights flash off and on. Until all at once the room is filled with a thickening dark.

Soon where the bookshelf once was a calming glow of gray light fills the room. Dr. John stands where she once did still staring off into the blank space from which the light’s origin is from.  She looks at me her evilly grin still plastered on her face. She reaches out her boney old finger to me and telling me to come. She walks in the hole, that is now in the wall. I still sit stuck to my seat.
I’m terrified to move. My fingers still gripped to the seat. I’m frozen still praying this is all a dream and i’ll wake up soon. I feel a slow cold drop move it’s way down my forehead. Dr. John then sticks her head back through the hole facing me. She looks mad. Her soft voice speaks not at all matching her scowl ”I said follow me. Doctors orders!” She says and doesn’t even flinch until I finally get up and follow her. I stand up and practically melt through the floor. My feet are cement to the ground.

I shake with every step until I reach the wall’s hole. I expect the gray light to glow brighter and brighter with every step towards the hole, I was wrong. AS I got to the hole the light glowed softer and softer until a calming white light took it’s place. I step through. Small tablets litter the wall. The only light is from little white lights that illuminate from the ceiling above. My feet that were once cement  are like feathers. I glide without a worry. I’m now a few hundred feet away from the entrance to this narrow hallway. Just in front I can faintly see Dr. John. She walks without a worry or care as if she has been here a million times. By the dust that dances in the light. She stops and I keep walk. I hear her yell back to me,”Hurry up, from here it gets dark from here i’ll wait for you hurry we don’t have much time.” She says. I stop in my track. My heart starts beating faster and faster. I can’t breath. I don’t know how but her words fill me with fear.

I can’t stop i know she’s expecting me. I finally catch up to her. She’s standing by a staircase. As if this couldn’t get anymore confusing or crazy. She puts her cold bony fingers on my back and with no hesitation she pushes me. I don’t go tumbling down like i thought I would but  rather through.

It was a wall.

A wall you can walk through. No door, no it was a wall. I thought it was stairs but it was a wall that wasn’t even there. It was a wall that look as if it was there but why? I ask myself as I look around what surrounds me. There’s people, many or all of whom i don’t know.

I’m dumbfounded by what's before me. People at desks typing. People in white lab coats looking at screens. So many screens. Computers, laptops, flat screen.

I glance over and see a larger white bored of some sort with pictures of me, words about me. I don’t know how to feel. I keep seeing me but not 2037 i see old timey photos, from different centuries and eras, I don’t know what’s going on but if there’s a tween fan club out there of sad girls trying to prove to their parents their not a sad loser by supporting me…. than i want to leave before the leader of this tween tribe comes.  I turn on my heels terrified by this whole day.

“Halt!” A loud voice booms from far away and stops me in my tracks, before i am able to  take one step in my new direction. The voice is deep but sweet. My bones continue to shake in fright as i try to figure out how scared i should be. I don’t know this place very well. It’s large and cold and very metal. From the floor to the catwalks above.

I am then turned around as my brain tries to wrap around this place, this day, this week.

I turn and see Dr. John and a few others. They are all dressed the same. Grey tank tops, black skin tight pants, red gloves, and black combat boots. There are three people other than Dr. John. A short brunette with blonde tips. Her stature might not be much but heck the first women up the Warped wall on American Ninja Warrior was four feet. I still remember my mom using how excited her mom was to see it happen as an excuse to not like the women.

“What’s American Ninja Warrior?” I hear one of them question. It was the short male. He five feet easily. He was slender yet borad. Very intimidating. His voice is a deep squeak. It took me off guard.

I then speak “ Ok is this some kind of “mutants do exist” because i’m not one and i don’t dream of joining the X-men.” I say with a scuff. I try to turn again but am stopped after the first time I should've known. I look at them as a slight chuckle leaves my lips and they look more confused than I. And one more person adds to  their gang of three. Person I say, but person he doesn’t look.

He’s tall for a male, slender, and very unique. His skin is a reptile green and his hair is like a bone. It’s a crown, a purple headband like thing. He than has “hair” but it looks like he plucked a purple peacock and glued it to his scalp. I reach out an arm and as a greeting to my new lab X friend say, “Hi, you must be Max Sinclair.” He looks at me with dead angry eyes. I sense being here is not a welcoming one so I try and leave. I am not as lucky. Actually i’m as lukey as I was with my other attempts.

Like before i’m turned and met by the face of an angry Dr. John. “BIF!” she exclaims in the most unflattering way. Her nose scrunched and her eyes glared. “I have brought you here for a reason. You’re crazy remember no one will believe you and if anyone was to, we would have to kill them.” I frown at remembering that no, except that tween fanbase would remember.  She continues, “Bif ,Welcome to Arbitrary.” She says with a smile as she out reaches her left arm to show the place in which I stand. The people in which I have yet to fully meet take unison steps back. I purse my lips together confused still. Maybe I am crazy, so crazy it’s affecting my knowledge.

“These,” She says pointing to the lab rats in front of me, “are others like you.” I repeat head can not comprehend this, day, week, or any of what Dr. John is saying.

I scratch the back of my head as she beams. “I raise my hand as I step forward. “Umm so what is this Arbitrary? And why am I here?”

“Bif, you’re here because of what you know. You’re a God send. You’re you. You are the first anything to appear on this Earth.” I stand my ground as I back up. I ask questions to get clarity. But the answers only give me more questions.  “These,” She says gesturing to the fine unknowns in front of me, “are the others who joined you. Maliki, For example, She begins as the  giant Moves into view. He had to be at least eight feet tall. “Was put upon this earth a tree and was than changed and became him and hasn't changed. Hes has old as the earth. Some might say you are Adam and Clare is Eve.” She says pointing to the girl.

“So we're like the fantastic’s?” I interrupt. But “Clare” shushes me.

“IF you are going to speak wait. You dumb little-” She says in an angry tone. Wow she dosen’t like me. Weird because i’m starting to go along with this. But thankfully the annoying little girl shuts her trap as Dr, John raises a hand.

“Bif, you need to understand how important all of this is.” Her old lips pull to a smile and I look down feeling a coal burn to ash in my throat. She just has this way of making everything come in perspective. But what does she mean this? How can I understand if I don't know what this is?

“What is this?” I ask concern wavering in and out of my voice.

“Just get suited and get to practise that's all that matters.” She says as i’m swept away without moving my feet. I blink the room changes and i’m alone. I’m in a dark room with a beautiful smell like cologne mixed with rain in the morning that's warm when the wind is cold. I smile to myself and lay on the red sheeted bed. It's a circle and comfier than it looks. It let my mind try to understand what exactly happened today.

Just then there's a knock at my door. “Come in” I answer waiting for the doors to open. When the door collapse together to show whos wanting in my room I see an unfamiliar face.

Whoever they are walk in and speak in a soft sweet southern voice, Sweetheart it's time you know.” She says with a smile.

As she speaks she tells me of a world with many moon and dust you can’t see. IT a bunch of mumbo jumbo. “His name is G, his world has a language unique way of speaking they with a combination of proper English and french along with latin.”

“What about the rest of our languages?” I ask not really caring. I just don't care all of this makes no sense and I want away from here, this nut house gives me the creeps.  I’m guessing he added them himself. Whoever it is playing “god”.

“He actually did Bif, add them that is.” Did she just read my mind.

“Yes , I read your mind it's not hard.”

“Will I learn how to do that?” I ask eager as ever.

She nods a sweet nod and I smile suddenly becoming interested in whats all happening.

“As I was saying, His dad created our universe and our Earth and gave it to his son our God or G if you will. We know this because he made contact a few years ago and told us. Here we are now with you and the rest. You spread the rumors and information of religion. You spread the word of Jesus and got followers, you spread the word of Muhammad and got followers. Martin Luther did his thing  and religion got more scattered and misunderstood from there."  She end with a big sigh as if she's seen for herself but doesn't believe it.

"Dr. John do you not believe?" I ask in a whisper. And she laughs a cruel laugh saying she might be crazy. 

"I believe I just miss the years where we had better contact and he would show us the glory of his worlds." She says with a wry smile. 

She pushes me along to the training room. I figure i'll give this a chance. What does this G have planned for me. I push hard sweat harder and work out day after day. There's something about this in which drives me. Something that makes me want to move my feet. I don't know if it's the fact that i remember all my past lives or if it's the fact that stuff like this  always comes with a kick ass fight. Day two hundred comes along and this day starts with me getting pulled out of bed by the ankle. I'm in my brown and blue stripped boxers and my black tank top. 

"Tomorrow your blood is mine." The green creature screams and runs. It was thin with a wide deformed head. I run to Dr. Johns room and tell her what happened. 

She bites her lips and lets her hair fall on her face. "We got word that G is coming we don't know when but we know soon. IF it's true the Glaxstandar will follow and they come for blood if they don't get what they want and that will be G. After he was given the Earth or how he says it in his language ziemia, his dad was arrested for creating the universe. They will probably get suspicious and follow. I don't know what to say about your dream but all I know is you are not ready."

"Dr. John" I hear Clare scream. "We have contact." She yells as her voice gets closer and closer. She soon appears in a purple nightgown with green feathery legs. 

"Is everyone a monster but me?" I scream. 

"Shush, Clare how close was the contact?" She asks calm. But how can she be calm Clares legs are feathers. Nothing in our history supports what's going on here with any of these things. 

"He's here." She says while i'm on the floor seeing if Clare can lay eggs. 

"Biff?" I hear Dr. John question before flying across the room and hitting the hard metal wall. "Biff come on it's time to meet your father." She says while dragging me in the air with her telca-whatever power. We get to Arbitrary and there he is. G he's standing on a craft of some sort and he steps off and I faint. Its like all I've been waiting for and I faint and miss the whole thing. I wake up to G slapping me. "Wake up." I hear his  voice booms. I wake to his slaps and he continues. 

"Please stop." I say with an annoyed tone. But he continues with a smile. I grab his hands and push him as hard as I can . "I said stop." 

"You've trained him well I almost fell." G says with humor in his deep boom of a voice. I feel insulted like he had just spoken sarcasm. I feel anger welled inside me. And next thing I know i'm being waken in the ER told I just made G fly across the room and passed out from anger. I just got so angry. 

Before we can understand everything, G whose fine Is impressing everyone with his powers. 

"Ahh Biff you're awake ,again." He says with a sting in my heart. I haven't wanted to meet you until i was dragged here and given hope that i'm not crazy and you're a total jackass. 

As the days go by he doesn't stop with the jokes. Soon battle happens. It was day three hundred and because we're in New York snow just started.