City Of Phase

by George Willson

  “While it is possible that your place in the universe is somewhere other than where you left,” Blake said softly, maintaining an eerie calm as if he had done this many times before - just like a psychiatrist might, “the Maze is never a destination - only a byway.”

  “Like a clinic,” she said with a cynical smirk, looking at at her hands which she wrung together nervously. She thought she had him figured since clearly, this was some kind of recovery program.

  “If that will make you feel better about it, then you can consider it that way, but you’ll quickly find that the Maze is not a clinic.”

  Michelle leaned back in the chair with a sigh and crossed her arms in a defensive stance, looking at them. “So what are these scenarios?” she asked. She was not ready to accept this, but she was gathering that she may not have a choice.

  “Oh, yes, that’s where the fun comes in,” Perry jumped in for the first time. “The Maze has this sort of sick sense of humor in thinking that sending us all over the universe to do stuff will sort us out and make us learn who we are.”

  “That’s weird,” Michelle said, assuming his reference to the universe was an exaggeration. “And is it working out that way for you?”

  “I don’t know yet,” Perry replied. “I’m still here.”

  “Doesn’t seem very effective then, does it?”

  “That is the case though,” Blake said. “We have things to do here, and when the time comes, you’ll see what that’s all about.”

  “You called yourself a guide,” she noted.

  “THE Guide,” Perry corrected.

  “Whatever,” she replied.

  “Yes, I was selected to guide you both as well as myself,” Blake said.

  “And who selected you?”

  “The Maze did.”

  “You talk about it like it’s alive.”

  “I suppose I do.”

  “Is it?”

  “That may depend upon whether you and I have the same definition of life.”

  “Is this going to make sense eventually?”

  “Hopefully.”

  “So who’s in charge?”

  “Of?”

  “This ... Maze.”

  “I don’t know,” Blake admitted with a shrug. Michelle glanced to Perry who shrugged and shook his head. Michelle stared at Blake for a long moment, now really trying to sort out what kid of a person he was as well as what she managed to get herself into. At the very least, she knew that the elevator had to be the way out, and whoever was in charge sent them on errands or something to redeem themselves. It all sounded rather stupid to her, and upon further reflection, it sounded more like a chain gang in prison. Still, anything called a “maze” would probably be difficult to leave. Add to this that their warden or whatever just orders them around expecting blind compliance.

  “How can you not know who is charge?” she finally asked. Blake looked as if he were thinking very hard about this question. Finally, he smiled.

  “It is simply not information we are privy to, nor is it something we really need to know.”

  “I want to know,” she said.

  “Want and need are two vastly different things,” Blake said. “We want to know how the universe was created, but do we need to know?” She supposed he was right. Even if they did know who was in charge, nothing would change. It might help her motivation to know why she is working for someone, or what the end result is, but in the end, she supposed it would not matter. Then he added, “It is for our protection as well as the Maze’s.”

  She stared at him, dumbfounded once more. Protection? From what? She felt, however, that asking him anything would lead to another cryptic response. His answers did not come off as rude, but more like a teacher doling out pieces of information what his students could handle, saving bigger pieces for when they were able to process them.

  She looked at Perry, who did not appear uncomfortable, but he did not contribute to anything else Blake had to say beyond the scenarios. He noticed her staring at him and sat up a bit straighter.

  “So what about you?” she asked him.

  “What about me?”

  “Well, I played touch and go with your friend here. Can you tell me anything about yourself?”

  “Oh you know, bad side of the tracks, did a job to try and save my butt, and it backfired spectacularly,” he said casually. She glanced at Blake who smirked and sat back as Perry stared at a corner of the room to find his words. “A poorly thought out effort to make things better made it all so much worse. I was beaten pretty badly when the elevator doors opened next to me. He likes to say we choose to enter the Maze, but I was in bad shape, and wasn’t really sure what I was doing.”

  “So you were at the end of your rope then,” she said.

  “Just like you,” Perry nodded.

  “And you?” she asked, turning to Blake.

  “I tried to run and ended up at a dead end,” Blake said. “The doors opened, and I decided that it was better than getting caught. Unlike you two, I was conscious when I walked out into this room. I had no idea what was going on, but I also have no regrets.”

  “We all went through stuff in our times,” Perry said. “We all found ourselves lost and desperate, but this place decided, through its own devices, that we deserved a second chance. We needed to find that thing that we’d lost through the years to discover that our lives are worth living again.”

  “How long have you been here?” Michelle asked Perry.

  “Six months.”

  Her mouth dropped open. Six months? Would she be here for six months or more? After all, Perry did not act like he was leaving anytime soon. She looked at Blake.

  “And why are you the Guide?” she asked.

  “I told you,” he began, but she interrupted him.

  “No, I mean what makes you more qualified to be the Guide than Perry?”

  “Just been around a bit longer, I guess,” he replied with a shrug.

  “When I arrived, there was another woman here,” Perry said, “and when she left, we got another woman who went home right before you arrived. I don’t remember how long the first one was here...”

  “Ten months, seventeen days,” Blake said without hesitation. Perry looked at him incredulously and then shook his head in disbelief. Michelle smiled at the interaction.

  “Yeah, but apparently, she was ready to go back to her own time,” Perry continued. “I guess the second one was ready sooner than me.”

  “Some people have further to travel than others,” Blake said.

  “So how do I get back home,” Michelle asked.

  “I thought you didn’t want to go back home.”

  “I don’t feel like I have anything there, but you never know how you’re going to feel as time goes on.” She paused for a moment and then shrugged. “There are things I love there, I guess, and maybe I will find myself here to the point that maybe I can handle whatever the world throws at me. I just want to know how to do it when the time comes.”

  “All I can tell you is that you’ll see,” Blake said.

  “That’s it?”

  “Not much more I can say. We don’t decide when the time is right, but somewhere inside you - and I mean deep down inside you - you’ll know when you’re ready, and once that moment comes, the Maze will take you back to your home time and place.”

  “You keep saying time and place,” Michelle noted. “Why is that?”

  Blake only smiled and stood up. “Another time. Anyone want breakfast?” He walked to the kitchen, and she guessed the discussion was over at that point. Whatever else she needed to know she figured she would learn in due time.

  She and Perry walked to the counter near the window into the kitchen and sat down as Blake served the eggs and sausage he had made through the window before he joined them at the counter to eat. He was a good cook. She had to admit that she had rarely eaten a breakfast as tasty as his turned out, although she did not eat much of it. Over their breakfast, the discussion turned
to food, as it tends to do, and they talked about favorite foods with the questions mostly revolving around Michelle as the newcomer.

  She learned that Perry was a meat and potatoes kind of guy with little interest in fruits or vegetables where Blake had a tendency to eat some of everything. Their individual eggs were made differently in that Perry’s appeared very plain while Blake had colored his up with all manner of garnish and flavorings. Michelle rode the middle of the road in that she did not eat everything, but liked her salads and similar ingredients, so she had asked if Blake had more of his version.

  Almost as soon as Blake had cleared the dishes from the counter, the elevator dinged. Its doors rumbled open on a track that was a stark contrast to the swishing to the rest of the environment. It sounded like any of the elevators in her rickety old office building – the kind that sounded like they might drop their passengers twenty flights at any moment. Once the doors opened, they stayed open and waited. Behind them was a standard elevator car with well tread carpeting, faux wood walls, and small lights on the ceiling. She walked to the threshold of the doors, but did not enter. She turned back to Blake and Perry.

  “What’s this all about then?” Michelle asked, pointing to the elevator. She noticed that the television on the wall had moved its screensaver logo to the lower right hand corner of the screen and displayed a picture of a grassy landscape dotted with only a few trees and a town in the distance. Along the left and top edges, it showed a variety of numerical figures that included a temperature of seventy-six degrees, a series of high and low temperatures for the next week as well as some upcoming weather patterns. Like a name on a slide, the top left hand corner read “Mondaise.”

  “Not too bad, it looks like,” Perry said, standing next to Blake with his arms folded, looking at the screen.

  “I don’t see a need for heavy clothing or anything else,” Blake noted. He looked at Michelle staring at the screen from beside the elevator. She caught his gaze. “What do you think?”

  “What do I think of what?” she asked, honestly having no idea what was going on.

  “It’s time to go,” he said.

  “Go where?”

  “Mondaise, apparently,” Perry said. “Sometimes, we’re lucky enough to know its name.”

  “This is the other part of the Maze,” Blake said. “There is something on Mondaise that we need to do.”

  “What is it?” she asked. "Where is it?"

  "It's a planet," Blake said. "At least I think it's a planet. Sometimes, they give us a city or country, but that looks like a planet."

  “As for what to do, we really never know until we get there,” Perry said. He walked past Blake and stood in the elevator, waiting.

  “Do I have to go?” she asked hesitantly.

  “No,” Blake said. She was surprised. She fully expected him to insist she go with them. “You can remain here as long as you wish. You never have to pass through these doors, but taking the elevator is the only way you’ll ever find your way home. The only way you can overcome the pain that led you to crawl through these doors in the beginning is to cross that threshold again. If you’re not ready for this, then you are welcome to stay. When you are ready, you’re welcome to join us on a future outing.”

  Michelle shook her head and backed away from the elevator door. Blake nodded his understanding, took a long, grey, wool overcoat from a coat rack near the elevator, and walked past her to stand next to Perry. Blake pressed a button next to the door on the inside of the car, and the doors closed, leaving Michelle in this very strange place. Part of her really wanted to go to satisfy her curiosity, but in the end, she could not do it. She did not want to be alone here, but at the same time, she wanted to feel safe. It did not take long before she wished she had gone.

  CHAPTER TWO

  As soon as the elevator doors closed, Michelle felt instantly alone. She stood in the middle of the room in front of those doors for some time, wondering what she should do next. With no one around, the sounds of the Maze became more prominent around her, and the first thing she noticed was the faint hum of machinery from somewhere. It did not sound industrial, but it was something nearby and maybe even inside wherever this maze was though she could not say whether it was above or below her. With nothing better to do, she decided to look around to see what the Maze had to offer, where this sound was coming from, and maybe even a way out.

  She started with the kitchen where the pan that Blake had used to make breakfast rested unwashed in the large, industrial sized sink. Apparently, when the elevator arrived, they needed to go as soon as possible, even if that meant leaving dirty dishes. The kitchen as a whole would rival any restaurant she had ever seen containing every appliance she could name along with many she could not along with a huge number of cabinets above and below a long countertop mounted along two of the room’s walls including its adjoining corner. The cabinets held a variety of items from dishes, glasses, and silverware to dried and canned goods from every food group.

  Other than the door through which she had entered, she found three other doors. Two of them set side by side on the wall across from her and differed in their design. One was a sliding door like all the others she had seen in the Maze, and a quick look inside revealed an enormous pantry that supplemented the non-perishable food that was in the cabinets. The other looked like a large refrigerator door which she confirmed when she pulled it open on its huge hinges and found a large amount of perishable food. She stepped in for a better look at everything and noticed a second door that would pass into a freezer.

  She returned to the kitchen and walked to the third door which whooshed open when she touched the plate next to it where she found a plain hallway that passed behind the elevator shaft in the other room. Looking down the hall, there were two more doors on the left. Cautiously, she walked down the hall towards what she initially thought was a dead end but found that the hall made a ninety-degree turn to the right to another area with even more doors.

  She glanced back to the hall behind her and then to the area ahead and wondered how deep this labyrinth persisted. She had not seen anything like a map on any of the walls so far, so she knew that she had to be careful not to lose her way since all of these halls and doors could get confusing quickly. She decided to look in the doors in the hall behind the kitchen first, and then return the way she had come to see if the other door out of the main living area led into here to make sure she would remember her way. The last thing she needed to do was get lost while Blake and Perry were gone.

  She opened the first door where the hall had turned and found an enormous library, with two levels, wood-paneled walls and carpet throughout. The shelf-lined walls were packed with an impossible number of books with more in free-standing shelves placed evenly throughout the room on both levels. Organization was familiar enough, (non-fiction by category, fiction by author), and the books were not only in English, but in a host of other languages as well. She searched for authors she enjoyed and found books she recognized by them and to her surprise, books they had not written yet. In the center of the room, there was a large reading area with end tables, lamps, and comfortable chairs. She sat in one of the chairs to take it all in and then realized that she could not hear the sound of machinery. Compared to the drone outside, it was quiet and peaceful.

  She exited out the other door from the library which placed her across from the kitchen again, and she decided to go through the kitchen to the other door that was next to the elevator. As she suspected, this door led her to where the library hall ended, but before her was what seemed like an endless hall with doors all the way down on either side.

  She went through the first door on her right, which opened up into what could only be described as a wardrobe or maybe costume room. The first part of the room had some dressing rooms, but just around the corner from this, clothes hung from rods over short chests of drawers underneath them. As she searched through the clothing hanging from the rods and packing the drawers, she saw som
e styles she recognized, both modern and antiquated, as well as a myriad of clothing that she had never seen before. It ranged in season from heavy winter coats and sweaters to the lightweight summer variety of shorts and t-shirts. The one common thread amongst all of the clothes was that spiral clock logo somewhere on the upper left side, and she wondered why it was so important that everything have this logo on it.

  She had no idea how much time she spent in that room going through all of the clothes, but since she knew she was not going anywhere, she was unconcerned with time. Hours passed, and she barely covered half the room when she felt hungry. She had mostly picked at the breakfast that Blake had offered before he and Perry left, and at the time, she honestly did not feel like eating. Hard to do right after one has somehow unintentionally lost everything, she thought, but now that she was safe and even having a bit of fun, she decided it was time to find something to eat.

  She left the wardrobe room and returned to the kitchen to find something that might suit her without being too complicated to make for now. She had no idea how long the two men she had just met would be gone, but she did not want to be in the middle of making herself something if they showed back up. After all, they might expect a little something for themselves after doing whatever it is they do here. She was not much of a cook and did not wish to demonstrate her lack of skills in their presence without knowing them.

  She opened a few cabinets hoping for something in a can that she could heat up and eat. She happened upon a can of tamales, which she had to admit was a bit of a guilty pleasure for her, but figured it would work just fine since she had no idea how long it would be until she could eat again. The last thing she wanted to be was hungry once the other two returned. Who were they anyway? Captors? Fellow prisoners? She had no idea, but figured it would all become clear in time. She placed the can on the countertop and rummaged through the drawers looking for something as simple as a can opener, and it took a lot of time to find one. There appeared to be some measure of organization to everything, and she knew she would figure it out eventually, but it would take awhile since she had never been in a kitchen this large.