Paradise

 

As if my feet were attached in some other dimension and would go there without the slightest indication that my body wanted to do so, they practically glided through the doorway.

The smell threw me back a stride and for a second I had to catch my breath. Except I knew what would await me if I stepped into the dark shadows of the room. Behind the curtains, inside the toy bin, beside the small bookcase of children's books. It was there. It was everywhere. But my legs didn't care, and apparently neither did my brain.

I might as well have jumped right off a four-hundred foot cliff, than go into that room. My heart skipped beats and I knew this because I could hear them in my ears. My body throbbed and my eyes spun. They couldn't take in everything, something, anything. I was in a complete daze and things were beginning to get fuzzy.

I could just make out dolls with bulging eyes lining one wall, sitting atop dark mahogany shelves. Row after row, they stared. They watched me as I roamed blindly. The small rocking horse creaked slowly, back and forth, back and forth, with fading childish colors. Teddy bears with missing buttons and worn bows sat sprawled carelessly in random places on the the horrid green carpet. The walls were engulfed by jungle designs: one wall had gorillas and monkeys hanging aimlessly from tall trees, another with bamboo plants and other unrecognizable plants. The third wall had exotic birds feeding their young, taking up very bit of that wall. And the fourth wall... The fourth wall had.... Had...