What happened next is difficult for me to explain, it seems that I had misjudged the distance, because the grove seemed to me to be moving away instead of getting closer.
Already exhausted I stopped, I had to rest, I had no breath, I left the backpack on the floor and sat next to him.
It was impossible for me to go a step further, I don’t know how long I had been running, I only know that those trees, which at first seemed close to me, were still there, far away, in the same place.
The truth is that they looked good, but as much as I had tried, I had not managed to shorten the distance that I was missing to get to where they were, what had happened? Where was I? Why was everything so dark?
I tried to force my gaze, to see what was happening, I could not distinguish anything from what must have around me, of course I immediately noticed that I was not in the middle of that road, where I remember perfectly that I had stopped.
With a quick wave of my hand, I tried to see if I was fine, I don’t know, it was an instantaneous impulse, but what was it?
I could not move, the arm when trying to move had experienced a jerk, something prevented me from moving, I immediately deduced that it must be tied, immobilized in some way, but by whom? Why?
If I hadn’t done anything, and I hadn’t seen anyone around, what had happened to me?
The first thing I had to find out was where I was, this was not in the middle of nowhere, I felt that not even a blade of air was running, so I deduced that it must be indoors.
I thought quickly of that tremendous noise I had heard, that caused me so much fear, the one that had made me run, surely it must have been caused by someone, who in the end reached and caught me, but what did it do? Will it have transported me too? And how far?
My head hurt, I realized at that very moment, why would it be? Maybe they beat me before taking me as a prisoner, yes, that must have been and that’s why I didn’t remember anything that had happened.
How long had I been there? I had lost track of time, who would have done that to me? Determined to clarify it, I wanted to start talking, I had to discover something of what was happening, but even though I tried, I could not pronounce a single word. That left me perplexed, I didn’t even hear my own voice, and I think it did shriek, but nothing, no matter how hard I tried, there was no way I could hear my own shriek, that was really weird. Was I deaf?
Now that I realized, I hadn’t heard any sound since I woke up or whatever. Maybe it wasn’t a dream, but rather that I was conscious again, after the blow they should have given me, but why was everything so dark?
I don’t remember ever being in place like that. I tried to calm down so I could focus on something else. What did it smell like?
Yes, I noticed something, the smell was pleasant, like flowers, I wouldn’t know how to explain, but I would say that not far away, there must have been several flowers, because it wasn’t just one class of them, that smell that I was perceiving, but rather, the one who can give off a bouquet, made up of various kinds, but that would be very rare, that someone would have put me in a hole, because that is the conclusion, that in those moments I had more at hand, that someone had kidnapped me hitting me on my head, and it would have taken me to some dark and remote place, but if it had a bouquet of flowers there, it didn’t seem logical to me.
Suddenly I noticed something approaching me, it was… I don’t know, I felt as if someone was breathing next to me at that moment, but no matter how hard I tried, nothing, I saw absolutely nothing, but I felt something touching me and I jumped at that moment, it is as if the contact with that had produced me an electric shock.
What a strange feeling! I could not explain it, it was something unexpected, unpleasant, everything around me lit up, it was as if someone had turned on a very powerful light, but despite that enormous clarity, I still did not see anyone. Or is it that there was not anything nearby?
I could not say it for sure, only that my eyes hurt because there was so much light and I closed them immediately. That’s what I remember, and then I don’t know what happened. How long have I been I like this? No idea. Minutes ? Hours? Days? I don´t know.
In a moment, I moved and felt something, the wind hitting my face. How could that be?
I could not explain it to myself, I remember that before nothing was noticed, perhaps someone would have opened a nearby window, because each time I could see it with more intensity. I opened my eyes and astonished I looked at the place where I was. I was on the ground, with my head resting on the backpack, with a posture of having been sleeping. Was I asleep?
That was impossible. I would never have gone to sleep in the middle of a road, but there I was, without being able to suppose what had happened to me.
I got up, slowly, doubting if I should do it, I don’t know, I was so amazed that the first thing I thought was, “Surely from the race I had to take, I was so tired, that when I sat down to rest, the tiredness beat me, and I fell asleep without even realizing where I was.”
Absentmindedly I ran my hand over my face, when something I touched on it left me again with another doubt. My face, which I perfectly remembered shaving this morning, before leaving the hotel, was now covered in hair.
It could not be possible! It does not grow so fast, in fact I can spend several days without shaving my face and it is hardly noticeable, but now I ran my hand again to verify what I had just noticed, and yes, I had a beard of at least a week or more, that couldn’t be possible! How had it grown so much in just a little while?
Without leaving my amazement, I took the backpack to put it on my back and a foul smell suddenly gave me. What could that be?
I put it back on the ground and opened it, and what would not be my surprise, when I saw that the fruit, the one I always carry when I go out into the field, was all spoiled.
After looking at her, and looking at her a couple of times, to see that what was in front of her was true, incredulous, I threw the bag in which she was carrying it. How could she have put herself like this?
I don’t know, an apple, well… But all of them? And that way?
It seemed that they had been several days in which they were no longer edible. With that idea in mind I put the backpack on my back, and turning around, I headed for the place I remembered coming. I wanted to return.
I looked for the last time at those trees in the distance, and I thought, “It may be that they are further away than I thought” but really, it seemed that they were close, almost, you could almost touch them with your hand. I would say they weren’t even half a kilometer away and look that I’m used to walking distances and I already have the measurements in my head and I’m not usually wrong, but this time I don’t know what had happened, I still remembered the great race I had had and nothing, I couldn’t get to those trees.
Well, now I did not want to think about any of that. I was going to head back to the town and lie down for a while, they surely were astonished last night because I did not return, although thankfully I am a foresight and that I had already warned them that sometime when I find a nice landscape I like to spend the night in it.
So when I get there, I will tell them that I have done that, that I have spent the night looking at the stars, although now that I think about it, I don’t even know if it was a starry night.
Well, then, I will only tell them that I wanted to spend the night in the countryside, lest it be one of those nights when it is cloudy and nothing is seen, and strange people ask me where I have been and I do not know what to answer.
When I got to town, I noticed something strange in the people who were meeting me, they looked at me, I don’t know, as if I were a strange bug. Suddenly some children approached me, so much that they even touched me and then ran away. What was happening?
It was not normal.