Katie's Fantastic Journey Into Outer Space And The Kingdom of Heaven

One small step for Katie, one giant crest of a wave for her and Aunty Alice

It had been a long, long day of typing up her last adventure with her old Aunty Alice down at Sandbanks and Katie was ever so tired. She had been hard at it since five o'clock in the morning and now it was well past dusk. Katie glanced across to the old mahogany grandmother clock on the shelf, right next to her favourite ornamental white dove on a Juniper plant. It was one minute to midnight.

Katie felt her eyes getting heavy and decided to take a nap on the antique bed her old Aunty Alice had gifted her for her last birthday. Of course, Katie knew it was more than a short nap she needed, but forty winks was all she wanted as she just wanted to get to the end of her latest tale.

Katie's head fell back on her duck down pillow and before she knew it she was almost fast asleep. Normally, when Katie was this tired she fell into a deep, dreamless sleep that she wouldn't wake from for at least ten hours. Only this time it was different. As Katie stretched out her long slender legs her eyes began to flicker.

Perhaps it was seeing lots of awe inspiring posts on the highly popular social platform Twitter by Sir Elton Dusk, the handsome, visionary, space adventurer, or maybe it was just Katie's over fertile creative mind. Or it could have been the mushroom soup Mrs Bunburry brought around at lunchtime. It wasn't unknown for Mrs Bunburry to go to the local woods to collect whatever wild fungi she could find to make some homemade soup. Whatever it was Katie, was soon off on a journey into outer space and beyond.

Katie found herself on board a fully automated Space-flex spacecraft and was awestruck as she looked out of the window at the beauty of the earth in the far away distance.

Katie raised her hand to the window and waved a greeting to the sun just as it was about to dip below the horizon. For a brief moment, Katie smiled at the idea that maybe it was a wave for her Aunty Alice in her sailing dingy 'Wonderland' bobbing about in the Atlantic ocean far below. “ This one's for you, Alice in Wonderland,” Katie said softly as she smiled a little at her own good hearted joke.

After a brief pause at the window, trying to take in the ginormous, humbling magnificence of the cosmos, Katie turned to take in her surroundings on board the Space-flex.

The Space-flex didn't appear to be that big inside, being little more than one single work space and a flight deck. In terms of creature comforts it was minimal to say the least. No sign of a bed or sofa, nothing that could be described as comfortable.

What Katie was soon to realise was that the Space-flex was simply a shuttle craft to take her to something much, much bigger!

Suddenly the Space-flex started to shake a little and Katie, more than little alarmed, raced over to a side window. Outside Katie could see that the Space-flex was entering some sort of beautiful, but eerily spooky, pink and blue cosmic field. Thousands of brilliant points of light shone through the mist and some sort of geometric matrix.

"This," thought Katie. "must be what they call the Higgs Field. And if that is what it is then somewhere around here was the Higgs Bosun, or God Particle, as it was affectionately known in quantum physics circles."

Katies physics classes with Professor Stefan Ignacious Gifford Hawk (Sigh, for short)at Oxford began to tumble back into her forethoughts. And these thoughts were accompanied by an ever changing, ever spectacular vista of astounding images through every window of the Space-flex.

"All quantum fields have a fundamental particle associated with them." said Professor Hawk. "The Higgs Field particle is called the Higgs Bosun. It is this which gives everything in our universe its mass."

In other words, thought Katie, this could be the closest to God I have ever been in my life ! And this theory were true, thought Katie, then this must be the beginning of the Kingdom of Heaven.

The pink and blue mist shrouded Matrix Katie had seen was in fact some sort of space station orbiting heaven only knows what system of planets. And a sudden loud, metallic clang told Katie that the Space-flex had just docked somewhere deep inside the Matrix.

The entrance door of the Space-flex opened automatically with a slight hiss of air and the winding down sound of its Phaeton Pulsed Fusion Motors.

"You may now disembark. Welcome to the Freedom Ark and please have a safe onward journey." said a seductive female voice with what sounded like a cultivated Trans-Atlantic accent.

Katie stepped out of the Space-Flex into what seemed like some sort of waiting area. She felt a wave of tiredness almost overcome her and rubbed her eyes as she fought to stay alert.

After a few moments Katie stood back up and made her way down a semi-lit atrium of never ending stairs not knowing in the slightest exactly where it was she was going nor what might await her at the bottom.

At the bottom Katie found herself in a totally unpopulated, pale blue transition room, the purpose of which completely eluded her.

Over to the right was a doorway which led to what seemed to be some 1960's school corridor. At the end of this Katie could at last see what appeared to be daylight.

The outdoor patio had a surreal quality to it and struck Katie as very illusory to the point that she wasn't entirely sure that it actually even existed. Is any of this real? Katie asked herself.

To the left of two blue Edwardian chairs was a grey stained oak door, the only door open for Katie to pass through.

Down a short barely lit passageway was yet another door which led to......a beautiful apartment with a panoramic ocean view window, complete with a totally white en-suite bathroom.

Clearly this was some sort of transit accommodation for anybody passing through to who knows where.

Katie went to sit on one of the white chairs in front of a chessboard and for a while just tried to take it all in. She gazed out at the ocean and wondered which ocean it might be, and if by perchance Aunty Alice might be scooting along in Wonderland.

Suddenly a voice announced in what sounded like Japanese.

“ Ofuro ga wakimashita! ”

This was quickly followed by what Katie presumed to be the same message in English.

“ Your bathtub is full of hot water and ready! ”

Katie imagined that since the Japanese were the well known masters of domestic automation that the default language, at least in this part of the Matrix, was Japanese.

Suddenly, from outside the apartment, Katie heard yet another announcement, this time in plain English right from the start.

“Will all passengers for Freedom World please make your way to your landing craft now.”

Katie rose to follow the signs for the Freedom World departure gate and found herself on a walk-a-lator. For the first time Katie could see some fellow passengers coming the other way and wondered who they might be. Neither of the two men she saw seemed inclined to connect with her not even with a nod of the head or the wink of an eye. She did wonder if in fact they were human or some sort of automatons.

Finally at the end of the walk-a-lator there was a docking area with an entrance into yet another shuttle, this time to terra firma. Katie got on board to discover that she was the only passenger. In less than a minute the door closed and the space craft began its short journey downwards.

For a few brief moments Katie thought "This is all getting just a little bit crazy, surely I must be dreaming." And yet it all seemed so real. And, when things didn't seem like they could get any more strange, just at that moment Katie could have swore she caught sight of a white dove fluttering outside the Space-flex II shuttle window. Katie closed her eyes almost hoping that any second now she would just open here eyes and be back in her own bed.

When Katie came to, she had seemingly disembarked the Space-Flex shuttle II without being conscious of it. She now found herself slowly passing through some sort of botanic carvaedium....

..........at the end of which she found herself in a stunningly beautiful ground floor apartment with redwood doors in a matching, intricately latticed frame. Outside was a patio which was so welcoming Katie felt that she could just sit and enjoy it forever.

Katie sat back in an old rocker and soon began to doze off. Not for the first time today Katie remembered what the great Edgar Allen Poe had said about what he called the hypnogogic state. It was that state of semi-consciousness between sleep and wake when some of our strangest ideas festoon our minds. Soon she was dreaming of her Aunty Alice, in 'Wonderland', and hoped she was ok.

The next thing Katie knew she was on the Sandbanks boardwalk, ambling along with none other than Sir Elton Dusk. On the road nearby Katie could see a bright red Elsa battery powered self-driving car. Katie gazed to her right far out to sea. Suddenly Katie could see what looked like her Aunty Alice in 'Wonderland' waving at her. Katie and Sir Elton waved back.

Then the last thing Katie noticed just before her Aunty Alice performed a Hughes turn, was a beautiful white dove perched on top of the mast of the 'Wonderland.' In a matter of a few moments, Aunty Alice disappeared from view towards what looked like a pink, blue mist on the horizon.

Sir Elton Dusk was every bit as dashing and charming as she had imagined and was highly, engagingly, very animatedly waving his arms expansively as he talked endlessly of how this was all that he had dreamed of as a young boy.

"One day Katie" he said "the whole of humanity will live here in peace and perfect harmony."

"Is this Mars?" said Katie "I thought it was more red than this."

"No,no,no....Katie" laughed Sir Elton Dusk " Mars is a long, long way off. But you know, by twenty thirty you'll be able go and live there. Don't worry my dear, I'll personally invite you, you'll be one of the first"

Before long Katie once again found herself on board Space-Flex I, bound for earth. Katie sat back in the pilots seat and fell into a deep sleep.

Katie's eyes flickered rapidly as she lay on the bed her Aunty Alice had gifted her. After a few brief moments, Katie opened her eyes to see that she was indeed back where she belonged.

Katie got up from her bed and went through to her work room. She glanced at the clock and was amazed to see that only two minutes had passed since she left the room to go and have a nap. She felt like she had been away for at least a whole day. And what's more she felt as fresh as a daisey. What puzzled Katie even more was that her beloved white dove was missing. She was beginning to wonder if in fact she was still in that dream world she thought she had just left.

Suddenly the telephone rang. At this time it could only be one person, Aunty Alice. Katie went downstairs to take the call in the entrance hall.

"Hello." said Katie, trying to sound as normal as she possibly could.

"Oh Katie darling, thank the lord it's you." said Aunty Alice with a great sigh of relief.

"You'll never believe what happened today dear. I was out scooting about in Wonderland this afternoon when suddenly the water went ever so calm it was positively eerie. Then, out of nowhere, a mist came down, but not your normal mist, oh no. This one was all pink and blue and more than a little spooky I can tell you my dear. Then everything cleared and I was back at Sandbanks, except it wasn't Sandbanks, if you know what I mean darling. This Sandbanks had a moon so close it was almost touching the beach. Then, from a short distance I saw somebody who looked just like you on the old wooden pier with a very handsome, dashing young man holding hands. Well, I gave a little wave and whoever it was did wave back. And suddenly I heard what sounded like the flapping of bird wings above me and lo and behold there was a beautiful white dove perched on top of my mast. Suddenly, the wind got up and I did a Hughes turn to go back out in the same direction I'd come from. After a short while I passed through that pink and blue mist again and came out the other side, more than a little relieved to see my usual beloved Sandbanks, I can tell you."

Katie interrupted her aunty. "And the white dove Aunty Alice, was she still with you?"

"Well now you mention it, no she wasn't dear. I think maybe she took flight as we passed through that strange coloured mist. Why do you ask darling?"

Katie went silent and put down the phone on the Emily hall stand. She opened the old oak front door just in time to see a beautiful white dove land on a nearby juniper plant. The bird fluttered its wings, as if it was flapping off the weariness of a long trip.

Katie ran upstairs and went straight to her workroom and was highly relieved not to mention amazed, to see her white ceramic dove on the juniper plant had returned. Just as incredible was the fact that when Katie looked at her desk, there right next to the old Remington typewriter was what looked like the story of her fantastic journey into outer space and the kingdom of heaven, finished and beautifully typewritten.

"It has been a long, long day of typing up my last adventure with my old Aunty Alice down at Sandbanks and I was feeling ever so tired...........

........when I looked at my desk, there right next to my old Remington typewriter was what looked like the story of my fantastic journey into outer space and the kingdom of heaven, finished and beautifully typewritten."

All Katie could do was wonder at what powerful forces might be at play when we go to sleep. And at that Katie sat down at her desk, loaded a clean sheet of paper into the Remington and began to type yet another story.

"As a writer, it has been my pleasure and privilege to travel to a great many far away places, but none quite so far away and exotic as the planet Mars............"