The Adventures of Brian (cont)
Emily, who was the same age as Liam, was his cousin. She was a pleasant young lady, remarkably knowledgeable for her age. She played with the boys frequently and had joined their online team on numerous occasions. When Brian and Liam saw her during their last Christmas vacation, she was wearing the same blue jeans and red sweater. She shared with them that she had woken up in the Hall of Mirrors with a guest invitation, just like the ones received by all the boys. She told them that when she woke up she found herself in the Hall of Mirrors with a guest invitation similar to those received by all the boys. "I am surprised, but strangely not afraid. I kinda like it here," she told the boys. Everyone proceeded to share and explain their stories to Emily. At the entrance, Emily discovered a small engraved sign tacked to the door bidding the children welcome. The familiar wispy cloud signature and the confirming authentication hologram of Brian’s puppy Sheba appeared after they finished reading the note, encouraging them to come in.
Inside mirrors abounded. The ceiling, walls, and even the floor were all made of mirrors. Myriads of tall columns, chandeliers, tables, and even the chairs were mirror-made. Emily and the boys observed their reflections everywhere and reflected from every object in the hall. A single step was multiplied into millions of reflections, moving in bewildering and various different directions. When each person turned, they saw hundreds and thousands of their friend's reflections in the mirrors. They became disoriented, suddenly engulfed in reflections, and their friends seemed to vanish into a world of mirrors.
Emily explained to everyone that, based upon the recent book she had read, this Hall of Mirrors was designed by a team of scientists with inputs from the latest Deep Learning-based robotic computer system to test the transmissivity of light and the quantum characteristics of time. However, the design did not achieve its intended objective and instead transformed into this clever hall. Brian pondered quietly on what Emily had said and his understanding of artificial intelligence and its pitfalls but did not say anything.
Lucas realized he was lost when he found himself talking to Brian's reflections on one of the walls instead of Brian himself. He reached out, trying to touch Brian's hand, and grabbed a mirrored reflection instead. Brian's and the other boys' reflections were everywhere. He walked forward and found out that he had been, somehow, walking upside down on the ceiling. When he stepped back he was on the left wall. It was an amazing sensation of falling into a strange world. Forward was up, left was back, right was down, and up was forward. He became upset but not fearful, anxious but not panicked, and analytical to resolve his escape. He remembered the sign at the door saying ‘Go forward and be rewarded’. "Up becomes forward," Lucas reasoned, "then I must have to try to go 'up' to go forward." As he jumped up he went forward and disappeared inside the Hall of Mirrors.
Emily, Aiden, and Liam turned around and found out the other two boys were gone. Their reflections were everywhere. Liam screamed for Brian several times. His energetic echoes vibrated the mirror columns and the chandeliers, shaking the reflections into millions of tiny mirroring fragments. The echoes eventually died down. The silence allowed Emily and the boys to notice that they somehow were inside a vast mirror round space with columns and chandeliers originating from the center of the room which also was the center of the mirror sphere. Everywhere they walked they could see at a distance the center of the mirror sphere where all the columns and chandeliers were from. "It is weird", Aiden said "we are inside this sphere where everything is straight with respect to the sphere center, but crooked if observed from afar. All movements seem to bring inactivity, and nothing seems to be what it is supposed to be."
As they walked, Liam dragging the dragon kite, they felt the 'flatness' of the floor as if the sphere rolled along with their walk to flatten out the space. There were no doors or windows. The only opening to the outside seemed to be the center of the sphere, which was definitely inside the sphere. Liam dropped the kite on the floor; the trio sat down, confused, and silently looked up to the opening inside the sphere that led to the outside. As quietude and inactivity settled in the trio, motion and movements started around them. The dragon kite gently came to life by itself, purposely and powerfully. Its head moved softly as if trying to fly. The more quiet Emily, Liam and Aiden became, the more life the kite had. Emily suggested that they all grab ahold of the kite; it could be their way out of the sphere. The kite slowly grew in size, becoming alive and gently floated upwards with its head up. Liam and Aiden instinctively grabbed the sides of the floating dragon kite and Emily grabbed its tail. They were sure it would carry them outside the sphere back to their friends and to the garden outside the Hall of Mirrors.
When Brian realized that his friends disappeared, he did not panic. His sword was with him and he felt very confident. His friends' reflections were still somehow everywhere on the mirror walls even though Brian knew that they had gone outside. Suddenly when he turned back, looking at his and his friends’ reflections on the mirrors, he saw that the reflections had turned into moving videos of their past. Each mirror from the closest to the farthest displayed video slices of their lives from most recent to the time they were born and beyond. Brian choked up with emotion looking at the mirror that was near the farthest one and recognized the video slice of his life as a one year old baby carried in his mother’s arm. Eventually, all the videos gradually faded away and disappeared.
There were mirror tunnels everywhere, leading to places unknown. "Which tunnel is the right one? Which one am I supposed to go in for my adventure?" Brian asked himself. He thought about it for a brief moment and stepped forward to a tunnel to his right. He realized that since all tunnels were alike, without any clue to the right one, any tunnel could be the right one. A sudden steep drop inside the tunnel and a misstep threw Brian down a precipice. It was dark and windy as he fell. The winds got more and more violent, howling as he was tumbling and free-falling into Lucas. As soon as he was able to grab Lucas’ hand and pull his sword up, he willed it to fly. The free-fall stopped. Hanging carefully onto the sword handle, both friends flew into an opening to the side of the endless bottom pit they had been falling into moments ago.
Emily, Liam,, and Aiden were waiting for Brian and Lucas outside the other end of the opening at the back of the Hall of Mirrors. They were lying on the grass next to their paper kite laughing and chatting excitedly about their adventure inside. When Brian’s magic sword gently descended and dropped Brian and Lucas down, their friends jumped up, rushed over, and happily hugged both of them. They all were happy to reunite after the earlier adventure. Brian quietly realized that the adventure was a maturing opportunity to overcome his fears and that rational thinking is powerful and valuable in all situations.
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