Written By Suhani Khemka (Grade 7)
After a weary school day, I went up to the laundry to wash my dirty clothes. As the machine stopped, I opened the door to find grey smoke come around and fill the room. All my clothes were gone and in shock, I peeped into the machine when all of a sudden, a force pulled me in.
After traveling through a lot of smoke I landed on stable land, plain gray again. There was nothing around me except smoke figures, all different shades of gray. Questions swirled around my head just like the figures swirled around me. They had hands, legs, and a head just like humans, except there were all gray and made of smoke. One of them came and stood beside me. Chills ran down my spine and not knowing what to do I turned around to look at it. With a bewildered expression printed on my face, I touched the figure, which was medium grey, curious to know what it was. It turned into sparks and when I closed my eyes, I heard a voice reciting words with a note of merriment. ‘’Curious and passionate, trustworthy yet secretive, determined but distracted, honest but reserved. Conveys the thoughts but not feelings, afraid of judgment, and doesn’t be themselves around most people. Emotionally vulnerable and scared to be left alone. Doesn’t express a true opinion on most things,’’ said the voice. At once I understood it was my inner character described correctly in just a few words. A true reflection of what I was. This made it clear that all the other figures were just reflections of the feelings of people, some dark, some light. This fact made me curious and left me surprised. It also made me aware of my true self.
Never had I thought my washing machine could be a portal to another world, a dimension of smoky feelings. Before I could take another step, the force pulled me back and I stood in my laundry room, my questions and thoughts disturbed by the machine’s beep. My clothes were there, fresh, and dry. It was hard to believe the events of the day and I considered it to be a reverie but whatever it would have been, it helped me find myself.
Featured Image Courtesy – The Spruce