There was a nagging feeling in her gut, growing and growing. She shouldn’t go inside the tent right? She was supposed to be running the booth not trying it out correct? But the idea of it – that’s what pulled her in. She needed to know what these people were talking about when they came out with their faces aglow, giggling as if they were back in their middle school years when their crush had just passed them a note. There was something about the idea of it that made her want to try – as silly as it made the ‘victims’ of the booth seem, if you could even really call them that. After all this time spent battling sadness, grief, and anger on her own, she deserved a little break – didn’t she?
Her curiosity took over and before she knew what she was doing, her hand was on the door into the booth, and she was stepping inside. For a moment she thought that she was going blind. Everything was white – a bright white that burned her eyes as she tried to adjust to the new lighting compared to the dirty grey of the sky outside. Her body quivered slightly – the feeling of warmth suddenly coming over her. And then her eyes slowly gave way to the light and she could see. Clouds. Clouds covered the entirety of the booth – something which seemed to dissipate now that she was here. Priscilla could no longer even see the entrance or exit – instead she was just floating in utter oblivion.
Something which would have previously terrified her now sent her into a fit of giggles. The idea that she was stuck among the clouds was hilarious to the girl. The room seemed to shimmer around her with the light bouncing off the clouds casting various rainbows around her. Had it just rained? She began to laugh again thinking about how silly the idea was considering she was technically indoors – that was at least until she saw them.
Small particles of color had begun to draw together before her eyes, and then before she knew it they were forming into a celestial like body, then two bodies. Her breath caught in her throat as she realized who these creatures were – her parents. She should have begun to sob and cry. The people whom she had craved to see before her, the people she begged for each night to just walk into her front door were now here, and all she felt was warmth. It wasn’t the stinging heat that she had felt when her angry tears rushed down her face after their death. It was something completely different. Something that she could not remember the last time she had felt. The warmth she felt completely encapsulated her, but it was light and calming.
As her parent’s began their descent down to her, she felt her body grow lighter. There were no words exchanged between them, only smiles. Smiles that seemed to glow and shimmer. Her parents – they were angelic. Her parents, though they had always been attractive to Priscilla, seemed to be an even more perfect version of themselves. But she did not dwell on these things, all she could think about was their presence and the feeling they were giving her. And then they were there, only centimeters apart, and she could reach out and grasp them. But for whatever reason, Priscilla hesitated. Her smile glowing even more brightly, her eyes just focused in on the warm hues of her parents’. They just stood there in utter bliss before her parents made the first move. Their arms reached out, wrapping around her, but instead of feeling the steady pressure that she was so used to when they hugged her, she watched as they evaporated back into oblivion. Where they had touched her, a bright warmth hit, soon spiraling out into the rest of her body, blooming and growing until the light of the booth became far too bright for her to see anything but white again, and the sounds of her own laughter filled the room.
And then it was over. Her eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness, her hands and knees feeling the slight dampness of the mushy grass underneath. She was back by the exit again, but although the effects of the booth had ended, in that moment as she rose to her feet and exited the room, all she could feel was euphoria.
