A.J. Walker

writerer

Corridors and Doorways

Corridos
Mid Week Flash #204 - 16.06.21

Corridors and Doorways


Have you ever seen the corridors of the forest? Not those slender links of woodland to woodland; those ecological corridors we’ve attempted to help the environment with. No, the corridors of light and dark hidden in plain site deep in the woodlands and forests and built out of the fabric of time itself. These are more common than you may think. Indeed you may never have seen one even if you walk past them every day. They meld into that background. Fooling you through the bending of light and the building of darkness. They can look like nothing more than warped trees, but their essence is of time itself. They are the best thing in the world if you can find them: and more importantly know how to use them. Incorrect or accidental use may result in little observable result. You may not notice if you’ve gone through one and it operated. You could move moments or metres in time and place. But what’s a few seconds or minutes in a forest dappled with light and dark? Would you notice?

But you’d notice if you went through one end of the corridor and out through another and days had gone, if time had gone backwards - or forwards: on the other side of the mountains. You’d know then. And once you could learn to operate it like a professional you could travel miles - and decades. It’s the only way to travel. I’ve been everywhere and every-when through these ancient portals. I call them Ancient Portals, but I don’t know if they are ancient, maybe they are some alien artefact to help visitors to the planet travel around. It’s not like they are stamped as Made in Sheffield, or Hecho En Mexico. The materials all seem natural. Warped by design maybe, but natural.

I’m trying to learn all I can about them: to become a master of them. I’m not there yet. Though I’ve gone back further and forward less than intended on occasion the accidental big lunges through the decades or centuries are getting rarer. I’ve come out in places far removed from the forest I started in and I’ve met animals that have probably been long extinct – and I’ve seen men & women dressed as if from another planet: though I’ve never been one for following fashion.

I’m becoming a man of no fixed abode or fixed time. Suddenly long extinct animals aren’t extinct at all as I can go and see them in their natural habitat. These things that are gone aren’t gone at all. It’s just a different route to find them.

Once I’ve learned all I can I will pass the knowledge on: become a teacher. Well, that’s what I’d been thinking. Now I am not sure. I’ve been to so many bad times and seen some awful things that man can do - to the environment, and to his fellow man. I travel as a tourist through time and space on this planet now, “Leaving Only Footprints” as the travel guides in my original time suggested. Seeing things that not many men could have seen within one lifetime.

These portals are truly remarkable. Sometimes - not often - I’ve seen people nearby and I wonder if they have travelled like me. But I’ve never observed people actually use it. Not that there’s much to see. Someone disappearing in the dark shadows of the forest, or appearing into the light. Eyes play tricks. Most people wouldn’t truly see it even if they saw it; if you catch my drift.

Now I’m having doubts. What if I pass the information on to the wrong person or people? What if it gets written down, passed around and used by those that would abuse their fellows and this world? I wouldn’t want the responsibility or blame for any time travelling mayhem. Perhaps these portals prevent the undesirable people and items getting through; I’ve not tried taking weapons or technology through them so I don’t know. Perhaps I should try, just to learn if it has such rules. But what if I tried it and then it never let me use these corridors again? No. At the moment I am minded to travel all I can and learn as much as I can about these hauntingly beautiful edifices and the time & space I can explore. I’ll become an unknown Master of the Portals, and perhaps their secrets will pass into dust along with me when my time comes. Wherever and whenever that may be.

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WC: 749