All I wanted to do was check out the new show at the planetarium. I've always been fascinated by space and the new show sounded incredible - they even encorporated new shots from the Mars probe so it looked like you were really there.
Unfortunately, I didn't bank on having a bunch of kids there, too. There were at least three school groups in the theater with me and besides talking over all of the info, some little...kid...was hitting the back of my seat no matter how many times his teacher told him to stop.
I wanted to get a couple DVD's from the gift shop and of course, it was flooded with kids. I made my way through, not hard with my larger size and picked out a couple IMAX shows that seemed interesting. I was about to leave when I saw some kaleidoscopes that looked really interesting. I thought maybe my neice would like one. There was one that looked really unique and I picked it up. It had a wheel attached to the main tube that allowed you to change what you were viewing in two ways. I gave it a spin and immediately felt weak, the pattern was strange and getting stranger. My feet collapsed under me and I fell to the ground.
I must have passed out becuase I definately remember opening my eyes. I didn't recognize anything around me. There was a large wall in front of me that extended up very high. I was about to move back to see how high when I ducked instinctively - I had heard what I though was a rumble of thunder. It sounded strange, though, kind of like "OOOOOOOOOPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPSSSSSSS", very high up in the sky. As I began to straighten up, something fell on top of me. It wasn't cloth, like a blanket or something, it felt stiffer. I got the impression of black and maybe green lines on a white background.
What was going on? I was about to try to make my way out from under whatever had collapsed on top of me - a sign maybe? - when my feet were knocked out from under me as whatever it was shifted and I swear I was lifted off the ground with it.
"What's going on!" I screamed, but no one seemed to be near enough to hear me. The upward movement finally stopped; boy was someone going to pay for this, but then there was downward movement almost as quickly. Then there was darkness. Whatever light had been shining through the sign or whatever had been cut off and there was total darkness. Then, the weirdest movement of all as I started moving back and forth and it didn't stop!
"Stop it!" I screamed, but it didn't stop. Well, it did, but then the ceiling or whatever was on top of whatever was surrounding me came down and I had to lay flat on the floor, then some kind of rumble from somewhere. I kept calling out, but no one heard me.
Then the damn back and forth movement again. That went on for quite a while. I was really getting worried that no one knew I was here and they'd put this sign or whatever away, that they were putting it in storage or something, but I didn't hear any voices. Then huge up and down motions knocked me down again and finally - light and the upward movement again from the beginning and then a short down. I stayed still, I could still hear a few rumbles of thunder, but even they stopped.
Once I was sure the movement had stopped, I tried to use the light to my advantage and get out of here so someone would spot me. I crawled towards what I thought was an opening. I could make out at least one thing on this sign, a huge number 1.
I emerged onto an alien landscape. There were some unidentifiable shapes in the distance. Closer, though were some long tubes or something in several colors and a huge silo or something.
There was something written on one of the tubes - but they weren't tubes, there was no opening, it wasn't hollow. I walked towards the tube shaped thing, it was at least twice as tall as I was. Maybe there'd be a marking on it, a company name maybe. I'd be sure to sue that company.
When I got closer, I began to be able to make out the word and one glance back told me what was going on. The words on the side of the tube, in letters as tall as I was was R E D. Red - it was a crayon. I looked back and saw that my 'sign' was a dollar bill. My 'alien landscape' was a desk. I had shrunk, I couldn't be more than a quarter inch tall.
And there was that thunder again. That rhythmic thunder. Of someone walking, someone who could pick up that crayon and had picked me up inside that crumped dollar bill.
to be continued