White Oblivion

by Amirah Bellamy

  It seemed that I was right and that I had been in the meditation room forever because when I came out it was dark outside. I couldn’t believe just how long I had been in there! I wondered why hadn’t Doran come to get me? Did he pick Ina up? What the hell was going on?

  18

  I ran into our room to find that Doran was in the bed fast asleep bundled up under the covers the way he always did. I wondered why he hadn’t come to get me. For a moment the thought crossed my mind again that perhaps I was dead. Maybe that out-of-body experience was more than just an out-of-body experience. However, before I could settle into the idea of that thought I saw the strangest thing. There was something very different about Doran. I moved closer to see if my eyes were deceiving me.

  Then, as I approached him I got the shock of my life. The same feeling that I had when I woke up to find that I was in a different body was the same feeling that I experienced when I looked down on the bed to find that the same thing had happened to Doran.

  In a panic I immediately and vigorously shook him awake. “Doran! Doran! Doran! Wake up!!!”

  Jumping up he sat up in the bed and looked at me worried and said, “Baby, baby calm down. What’s wrong?”

  I didn’t even know how to begin to tell him. Everything was wrong! It was like the invasion of the body snatchers, like we were in some alternate universe. I couldn’t begin to tell him what was wrong because I had no idea what was happening myself. I wondered if it was the end of the world or something. It was like in one of those apocalyptic movies where all you see are white people. I always wondered about that. Why the hell are there never any black people in those movies? Do we all supposedly just disappear? I didn’t have time to explore that theory. I had to focus on finding a way to break the news to Doran.

  Knowing the deed had to be done I softly answered, “Babe, I really hate to say this, but I need for you to calmly look down at your hand. Please don’t panic babe.”

  No sooner had I said that did Doran jump up with lightening speed and run to our bathroom to look in the mirror. Speechless, he looked in the mirror eyes bulging and hands touching his face as if trying to validate that his face was real.

  “I know how you feel babe. I know,” I said trying to comfort him. Just then I heard Ina at the door. Doran must have gone to pick her up after all. I guess he didn’t want to disturb me in the mediation room.

  “Mommy! Mommy! Something’s wrong!” I heard Ina yell in a panic. In an instant Doran and I diverted our attention away from his dilemma to Ina. I ran to the door with Doran trailing close behind to see what was wrong. When I opened the door I got the shock of my life! Just when I thought I had seen it all and that things couldn’t possibly get any stranger all things rational went out the window. In that moment there was no longer such a thing as rational. I began to question what was even real anymore.

  As I opened the door wide what my eyes saw defied all ration. Ina, like Doran, had seemingly overnight gone through the same transformation that I had experienced several nights before. Watching their panic-stricken white faces staring back at me as if waiting for me to give them answers brought me all the way back into my own white body.

  I had no idea what was happening. It felt more and more like something out of a movie. It just didn’t feel real. Then again I had no idea what real even was anymore. For all I knew what I had always thought of as real wasn’t.

  Breaking the silence Ina asked with a look of panic, “Mommy, Daddy what’s happening? I went to go use the bathroom and when I looked in the mirror I saw this,” she said pointing to her now white face.

  I couldn’t believe my eyes. My once beautiful little caramel, doe-eyed, dimple-faced little girl had transformed into a blonde-haired, pale-faced, pink-lipped vanilla ghost.

  Just then I thought aloud, “That’s it! That’s it babe!”

  “What is it?,” both Doran and Ina asked simultaneously.

  “We’re all becoming ghosts! At least sort of,” I reasoned.

  “Ghosts!” they both screeched.

  “I don’t feel like a ghost,” Doran replied. “In fact, I feel very much alive. If I were a ghost I wouldn’t be feeling like crap about being in this white skinsuit!” he continued with a hint of anger.

  “Yeah mom! We’re not dead!” Ina chimed in.

  Moving over to sit on our bed I motioned for Doran and Ina to follow me so that I could explain.

  “I don’t mean ghost in the literal sense. It’s just that I had an epiphany while I was meditating earlier. I felt like this body was a previous version of myself. It was like a lower form of me that existed before I went on to evolve into a higher self. It was mind-blowing. I mean it felt like I was floating on the clouds,” I began to explain as they both looked at me more confused than ever and still panicked about their own situations.

  “I know it sounds crazy, but these bodies are like hosts. We aren’t meant to stay in them forever. I think that we are evolving,” I continued.

  “Evolving into what? A higher form? Are you saying these white bodies are a higher form than our black ones? What you’re saying makes no sense,” Doran said with a hint of irritation.

  “Actually, what I’m saying is just the opposite. This transformation is our regression back to a lower form. It’s like we’ve come full circle and are now on the verge of evolving into another, higher level of ourselves. I know that sounds crazy babe but its true. It’s the truth I am realizing right now in this very moment. I don’t even know how I’m coming up with this stuff. It’s like I’ve been here before and this is all coming back to me now,” I explained.

  “So you think this is happening to all of us?” Ina asked.

  “Yes baby, I do. In fact, I’d bet money on it,” I answered. Then before I could complete my thought Doran’s cell phone rang. I looked at the clock to see that it was 2:17am. I wondered who was calling him at that hour. He went to grab his phone from the dresser and then my cell phone rang. Doran and I looked at each other both wondering what was going on as we went to answer our phones.

  I looked down at my phone and saw that it was Cre calling. I quickly answered, wondering if everything was okay with her. “Hey girl! Is everything alright?”

  “Netty! Netty! Girl I turned white! I mean really! My ass is a white girl! I woke up to go to the bathroom, looked in the mirror and got the shock of my damn life! I don’t know what is happening! This is some freaky shit! How the hell did this happen?” Cre yelled into the phone buzzing 90 miles a minute.

  Interrupting I stopped her, “Cre I know. It’s happening to all of us.” I listened on the phone for her response and for a brief moment it was quiet enough to hear ants crawling as Cre processed what I had just told her.

  “What do you mean girl? This happened to ya’ll too!” Cre exclaimed.

  “Yeah. It’s happening all over the world. In fact, I’d bet that by now the world is probably white from the sounds of it. Seems that sometime this morning it happened while we slept. It actually happened to me about a week ago. I didn’t tell anyone and Doran suggested I act like I’m some distant cousin by marriage visiting. So that’s what I’ve been doing. I figured if I said anything to anyone else about it they’d think I was crazy. But we all went through the same shock that you’re going through right now,” I explained feeling that Cre was still in shock.

  “Girl this is crazy. None of it makes sense. I think I must still be asleep and that I’ll wake up in a little while to find that this is all a bad dream,” Cre reasoned.

  “I know it’s difficult to accept, but this is real. You’re not dreaming. You’re evolving. We all are,” I said hesitantly, not sure how deep to delve into the rabbit hole with Cre.

  Cre was cool and my best friend, but she wasn’t the most open-minded person I knew. So there were certain things that I just didn’t share with her. In fact, the only one I’d ever discussed such things with was Doran. He and I were like-minded in that way. I could discuss anything with him no matter how outlandish it
may seem to others. Doran got me.

  Momentarily I listened on to hear that Doran was talking to our son, J. Seems J was discovering his new body as well and had called Doran for answers. The two of them were very close and would often have long discussions about metaphysics and consciousness so I wasn’t surprised that J called Doran rather than me. He often sought Doran’s advice and considered him to be his wise council.

  I looked at Doran and shook my head silently letting him know that Cre was on the line experiencing the same dilemma. We both continued to counsel them as best we could in the midst of taking calls that started to pour in as our other lines buzzed. Everyone was calling. It was like they all needed to validate that what was happening to them individually was happening to all of us. We must have spent hours on the phone. Eventually, Ina had fallen back to sleep on our bed. Since we had a large king-sized bed she was able to stretch out in the middle and still sleep comfortably.

  By about 6am the phones stopped ringing. Everyone had by then compared notes with enough people and were no doubt exhausted and coming down from the adrenaline rush of it all.

  Then, as if things couldn’t get any weirder…..

  19

  Exhausted from the morning’s events Doran, Ina and I had all dozed off to sleep and were all sprawled out on the bed when we each jumped up simultaneously looking at each other in sheer amazement.

  As we slept the strangest thing happened. The same thing that had happened earlier during my meditation had happened to all of us and we were all aware of it. There was a bright beam of light shining that scared us so that as fast as we left our bodies we returned. For the split second that we had done so we each looked around and saw one another looking down on ourselves. Yet, we were looking down on our physical bodies from our other bodies, which looked so strange that it scared us back into our white bodies.

  “What the hell was that?” I asked Doran.

  “I don’t know, but I’m assuming you saw the same thing that I did when I looked at the two of you,” he replied.

  “Yeah, what the hell was that?” I inquired still in a state of shock.

  Ina sat looking at both of us in silence no doubt as shocked as we were.

  “I don’t know, but it looked like a beam of light. It was so blinding that I couldn’t even look at it directly. I’m assuming that you too saw that same thing?” he inquired.

  “Man that was crazy! I had a similar experience earlier when I was meditating. Well, at least the feeling of it was similar. I guess I didn’t see what I just saw because it was just me. Wow! That was incredible. What does this mean? What is happening to us?” I asked Doran.

  “Hmmm… I need a moment to digest it all. I’ll be back,” Doran said as he got up to leave the room.

  Looking over at me Ina said, “I think I know what it is mom.” As she spoke she looked at me intensely and knowingly as if she knew something that I didn’t.

  Ina often listened on as Doran and I engaged in long conversations concerning things of a metaphysical nature so I wondered if what she had to say was along those lines.

  She paused before continuing on as if waiting to see how I would react.

  “Oh wow Ina. Well, I’d love to hear your take on this. What are your thoughts?” I asked eager to hear.

  It was so strange seeing my little girl in this strange body. It was even stranger hearing her speak the way that she did. There was something different in the way that she spoke to me. She suddenly seemed so much older and wiser than her years. As she spoke she took on a very mature tone. I almost forgot it was Ina who was speaking.

  “We are all changing mom,” she said blankly before pausing again while looking at me intensely.

  Just then Doran came back into the room looking way more calm then when he had left carrying 3 bottles of water.

  “What’s going on?” he asked sensing the seriousness of the tone now dominating the room as he handed Ina and I a bottle of water.

  “Ina has an idea about what’s going on and she was just about to share her thoughts on it with me,” I answered looking at Ina. “Go ahead and continue buttercup,” I said.

  “Mom and Dad we’re changing, but not how you think. Our bodies are changing to a lower form. But then we have a spiritual body and it’s turning into light. So we’re like two people trying to become one and the more we let go and let it happen the lighter we’ll be. But the more we hold on to what we were the more we’ll be the lower form and we can get even lower than this. So we have to do something fast because if we don’t we will get lower and lower and it’ll be harder to get out. To get out we need a pure heart, all of us. We have to let go,” Ina explained.

  I couldn’t believe my ears. Ina spoke with such intelligence that I momentarily forgot that she was just 10 years old. Doran apparently was thinking the same thing because he looked over at me with the same look of surprise.

  “How do you know all of this,” I inquired.

  “You won’t believe this, but this same thing happened in a show that I watch. It’s a cartoon called “White Oblivion,” Ina replied.

  “Yeah I heard about that cartoon!” Doran exclaimed. “It’s about the world turning white then all the people evolve into some type of angels. Salim and I were just talking about it. I thought it was interesting how they depicted themselves as us, if you know what I mean,” Doran said looking at me matter-of-factly.

  “Oh yeah, how come I haven’t seen it yet? Guess I need to catch up. It’s funny though because earlier when I had my little experience while meditating I was seeing how similar this all was to those apocalyptic movies where you don’t see any black people. I guess that show you’re talking about is similar,” I responded.

  “Yeah, but it’s different, because in the show the people in the world don’t exactly turn into white humans. They’re look more like an alien race of people who happen to be white,” Ina clarified.

  “Yeah she’s right. You could say that they were light beings. In fact, a lot like what we all just saw when we we looked at one another,” Doran added.

  “Hmmm so you’re saying that we are an alien race?” I asked shocked by what I was hearing.

  “No mom, we’re not aliens. We’re just sort of…. evolving. That’s the best way to explain it,” Ina said.

  Just then we heard someone come through the front door. Doran looked at Ina and I then smiled knowing who it was.

  Then I heard a familiar voice. “Mom, Dad, Ina! I’m here!”

  It was J. He must have taken the first flight out to make his way home. In all of the commotion I hadn’t gotten a chance to ask Doran how J was dealing with everything.

  Ina and I quickly jumped up and trailed behind Doran making our way to the living room. We all looked at J and he looked at us strangely as our changed appearances made it difficult to express the joy that we would have normally expressed during such a homecoming.

  “Peace son!” Doran said hurrying to greet J eagerly.

  J’s changed appearance didn’t at all affect Doran’s joy. We hadn’t seen J in over 6 months and Doran more than any of us seemed so excited to have him return home.

  “Peace Dad!” J said hugging Doran.

  Ina and I ran up and hugged him also until we were all in a group hug. It was so good to have J home. Though it was just as weird seeing J the way he was he still felt very much like my son.

  It was funny because though Doran wasn’t J’s biological father, in our white skinsuits they looked more like father and son than they did before. They were both tall, broad-shouldered, brunettes with the whole 5 o’clock shadow beard thing going. It was so funny to see.

  “So have you all figured out what’s going on? Everybody is talking about it. It’s all I heard on the plane ride here. Have you all been out yet? The whole world is white now. I mean the whole world! They’re saying it’s like a scene out of some cartoon called “White Oblivion.” Have you all heard of it?” J asked

  We each looked at him and laughed.
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  “Yeah, Ina was just filling us in on that. Apparently it’s some new kids show that’s out. But how does something from someone’s imagination in a kids show end up being our reality? That must be one hell of a show!” I exclaimed.

  “Well people are all saying that the writer for that show is a black woman who is apparently one hell of a channeler. Her name is….. Connie..” J said before Doran chimed in.

  “Murphy!” Doran said completing J’s sentence.

  “Yeah! How did you know?” J asked.

  “We just attended an event where she spoke on this whole phenomenon. But I had no idea that she had anything to do with that show. Hmmmm very interesting,” Doran said deep in thought looking like his mind was racing.

  “Yeah, apparently she has become one heavily sought after woman. The government and the media is trying to track her down now to try to get some answers,” J continued.

  “Well I doubt they’re gonna find her. She probably doesn’t want to be found. This is rather interesting though because at the event that we went to she told us that we would be reverting back to our true selves. I had no idea that this is what she meant,” Doran said before looking over at me. “What about you baby, did you picture this as what she was saying?”

  “Not by a long shot. This is crazy. But you know after hearing what you’ve all just told me and remembering what Connie said about the whole predator, prey thing I see that the hunt is on because now we have the best camouflage ever,” I sneered.

  “Not only does this skinsuit level the playing field, but it more clearly defines our roles. It makes clear who the true parasites of the world are. It eliminates the distraction of racial issues and forces us as the natural predators that we are to go within and figure this out. Once the dust from this settles we’ll come into our true form. We won’t have to any longer deal with our black boys being murdered by cops. We won’t be distracted by our own internal divisions such as black man versus black woman, light skin versus dark skin and all the other nonsense we waste our time obsessing over. We can start to focus on what matters, which is our evolution. Like Ina said, what this is is our evolution. We are evolving and it’s happening this way so that we do,” I further explained.