Ribbons of Waves

 

The first time he saw them, they were light blue. Wallace had just finished taking a shower, and still damp, he was shaving. He apparently had not noticed the cord, but a single strand of wire had somehow snuck out through the rubber coating. The next thing he remembered was waking up upon the bathroom floor, his wife, Angela, looking down at him, her face ashen, eyes wide. But the thing that really struck Wallace as unusual, was the light blue ribbon gently waving, as if touched, ever so gently, by a slight breeze, emanating from Angela's head and fluttering in his direction. She helped him to his feet and to the edge of the bed, in a sitting position.

After overcoming the initial confusion, Wallace was eventually able to speak. “What happened,” he managed to stutter out. 

“I was in bed, just waking up, and you had just finished showering, when I heard your razor start and then abruptly stop, followed by a heavy thud, you hitting the floor I assume,” she spoke, the sound of her voice matching the gray color of her face. “When I came into the bathroom, you were lying on the floor.”

It was then that the full picture was finally realized by Wallace. Not only was there a wavy blue thread connecting he and Angela's head, Angela had literally millions of multi-colored thread projecting from every inch of her body, a veritable walking rainbow. 

“You're looking at me oddly, Wallace,” his wife uttered, her color slowly returning to normal. “Help me to the mirror,” he urged, “in the bathroom.” What he saw in his reflection, arguably, should have been surprising. On one hand, Wallace was shocked at seeing the same phenomena coming from his own body, but at the same time, he was not alarmed at all, for it was nearly identical to Angela's. Wallace sat back down.

I think I need to lie down for a minute,” he said. “I must have hit my head pretty hard. My vision is doing weird things.”

He had never seen his wife move so fast as the words left his mouth. Quickly getting dressed, she dropped the car keys into her pocket, shoved a sweatshirt over Wallace’s head and helped him to his feet.

“If you’re saying it, it must be serious,” she said. “The dark tenor returning to her voice with a tremble.

Pulling up to the emergency room main entrance, Wallace was torn between keeping his eyes closed versus looking around with the hope that his vision was normalizing. As the car stopped, he leaned forward and looked through the large sliding glass doors into the ER. Opening the door and swinging his feet out, his wife helped him into a wheelchair and he marveled at the literal millions of colorful threads that filled the waiting room. Ribbons of all sizes and shapes flowing off of the heads and bodies of every single person in the room. But then he saw something that deeply troubled him. Two men, not connected in any shape or form, sat across from him. One, clearly very wealthy and the other obviously homeless, had no color whatsoever. Both of these men, radically different, yet both emitting only black. 

Leaning back in his seat, he closed his eyes and hoped for the best. It was then that the litany of profanity started. The wealthy man had grabbed a bypassing nurse's arm and began complaining about the filthy, stinking, homeless man with whom he shared a row of seats. “He stinks!” the man yelled. “Get him out of here. What a disgusting waste of humanity. I don’t even want to breathe the same air as him.”

“Sir, please let go of my arm,” the nurse protested. “Everyone here needs help. Go sit somewhere else if this is a real problem.” Jerking her arm free, she continued on her way. Approaching the check-in counter, she grabbed a folder and called out Wallace’s name. Opening his eyes, he raised his hand and made eye contact with the woman. As he did, he noticed something very peculiar. As he looked at her, he watched a single thin golden thread weave from her and connect to a point in the center of his chest. Following her into the examination room, he noticed that the more they spoke and interacted, the thicker the thread between them became. 

The nurse left the room and the doctor entered immediately behind her and the situation between him and the doctor was a near replication of that with the nurse. Checking his pulse and his eyes, the doctor asked a number of questions and Wallace marveled as the golden thread continued to grow. 

“Well, Wallace, you seem to be just fine. I don’t see anything alarming or even slightly troubling. Do you have any pain at all, anywhere?” he asked.

“No, sir, I don’t,” Wallace answered, knowing full well he could not share this strange visual phenomenon. 

“Let’s try one more thing,” the doctor said. “Walk slowly across the room, touch the wall and then turn and walk back toward me.” Wallace did as he was told, steady on his feet and feeling as normal as ever, except of course, for the thousands of ribbons filling the room.

“Hmm, you seem perfectly fine. There is nothing else I can do for you,” the doctor said. “I see no reason for any concern. Have a good rest of your day.” It was at that point that Wallace knew something other than visual confusion was taking place, he just didn’t know what. Slipping on his jacket, he and his wife left the ER and drove him. It was a silent ride as he marveled at the millions and millions of colorful ribbons that flowed through every open space. 

Pulling into their driveway, he hesitated for a moment and of course his wife noticed his pause immediately.

“What’s wrong, Wallace?” she asked.

“Oh nothing, nothing at all. As soon as I stepped out of the car I realized that I didn’t tell work what was going on. I should probably hurry in.”

“No, don’t worry about that,” she said. “I called your boss while you were in the exam room with the doctor. Your boss said it was no problem at all and that Jerry would cover for you today and tomorrow.”

“Two days?” Wallace asked. “They said I could have two days off? Wow…. You know, it’s really nice out, how about we take a little walk?”

“A walk? Really?” his wife said. “Are you sure you’re up to it?”

“Yes, absolutely,” he answered. “The doctor said I was perfectly fine. Come on, it’ll be nice.” Without even going into the house, they started down the sidewalk and Wallace began to notice details and patterns in those they passed on the street. The variety of colors was the first thing he noticed and the size of the ribbons differed the more they knew the people. The occasional person would pass who carried no color whatsoever, just black and gray and remembering the man in the waiting room, he could only assume what sort of people these were.

As they approached downtown, a homeless man approached them, smelling strongly of body odor, asking for money. Wallace looked at the man and could only see gray and dull red. Pulling his wife closer to himself, Wallace quickened his pace and ignored the man.

Stopping at a large storefront, his wife became enamored with the jewelry on display. Wallace watched as her attention was drawn to the window and her threads began to change into more of a brown color. Wrapping his arm around her waist, he gave her a firm tug and changed the conversation. Happy to see her colors even back out, they passed two more storefronts and entered a restaurant. 

“Feel like a snack?” Wallace asked.

“Well, I’m not really hungry but maybe a cup of tea would be nice,” she said.

Sitting down at one of the tables, they waited a moment until the waitress appeared.

“Good afternoon,” she said, “can I get you started with something to drink?”

“Actually, we’ll just have some tea. Nothing to eat,” Wallace said.

“Are you sure, honey,” the waitress said, reaching out and touching Wallace’s hand. Looking up at the woman, he could only see various shades of red.

“Uh, sir, sir? Are you okay?” she asked.

“Wallace, what’s the matter?” his wife asked.

“Uh, nothing, nothing. Maybe we’ll take the tea to go. Thank you,” he answered. Hurrying his wife out of the shop, the two of them quickly moved back up the sidewalk toward their home.

“My goodness, Wallace,” she said. “What is the sudden big hurry to get home?”

“I think I need to lie down,” he said, not really understanding what was taking place. Hurrying into the house, he laid down on the couch and closed his eyes, hoping it would all go away.

Waking with a start, he realized that he had slept the entire night on the couch. Getting up, he climbed the stairs and found his wife still asleep in bed and, much to his delight, lacking any colorful ribbons whatsoever. Snuggling in next to her under the covers, she turned and cracked open her eyes.

“There you are, sleepy head,” she said smiling.

“Do you ever get a weird feeling when you see some people?” he asked.