Jonathan stood up in a field of lilies. The blue sky overhead was cloudless. A symphony played The Seal Lullabye nearby. Jon followed the sounds of piano and wind instruments until he found a lone chair in front of the 15 piece orchestra. Jon sat down and felt the music flow into his pores.
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
Jonathan is swept up into the sky, through the ozone layer, and up into space. Then he swirls around two galaxies back to Earth. He is seated in front of his bed. The alarm is blaring. Jon opens his eyes and turns the alarm off.
“Until tomorrow, my friends,” Jon stares up at his ceiling.
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Jon sits down in front of his bed. He checks his phone – 9:15am.
“Let’s go.”
Crossing his legs and laying his arms on his legs, Jon begins a timer for 20 minutes. He shuts his eyes and breathes deeply through his nose. Out his mouth. In through his nose. Out his mouth. He begins to feel the pull upward. He smiles. Breathe in. Breathe out. Jon ejects his current physical being and travels at four times the speed of light into an identical Jonathan. But this one is on a beach. Jonathan stares at the tide. Waves crash in and roll out. The sun is setting.
Jonathan observes this scene for several minutes. There is nothing except waves in and out and the sun. Jonathan blinks. In the span of four milliseconds that it takes to blink, Jonathan sees a wave of U.S. Marines in green tunics swarm the beach. They are joined by amphibious tanks. Behind him, Japanese soldiers charge onto the beach with bayonets extended.
Jonathan widens his eyes. The waves are still the water is not moving. He turns around. The tropical trees are untouched by the wind. There is no wind. Jon grasps a handful of sand. He drops the sand and observes its lack of movement. It remains in a ball. Beyond, the sun suddenly dips below the horizon. Jon hears a roar. The surf suddenly retreats into the sea. He spots the remains of burnt-out tanks and landing craft. In the far off distance, a wave travels at over two hundred miles an hour. Jonathan fumbles for a light. He points the flashlight towards the sea and his eyes explode in fear.
“Breathe in. Breathe out,” Jonathan hears from somewhere.
Jon settles into his chair. He takes a deep breath in. Exhale. Breath in. Exhale. The roaring begins to soften. Jon continues his breathing. He focuses on the way the air moves through his body. Cold in his nose, filling his lungs, warm on the exhale and teasing his nose hairs. He can hear the waves once more rolling in lazily and going out. The roar is gone.
Jonathan opens his eyes. A woman, twenty-five and naked is in front of him. She kneels in front of him but does not speak. Jonathan pokes her arm. She nods slowly.
“You must keep your breathing in rhythm or we die,” the naked woman says.
She is absolutely gorgeous. She has brown eyes and browned skin from years on the island wearing nothing. She touches Jon’s leg.
“Rhythm, Jon.”
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
Jon slams his alarm off. He clutches his leg where the woman touched him.
“Who was that?” He asks himself.
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