text: Wake Up... John K felt a furious breeze against his skin. “What is this,” he thought. “It's so cold.” The feeling was completely foreign. It was agony. Just a moment before this, John K thought of pure bliss, caressed in a complete vacuum. What changed? John loosened his tense muscles. Instantly he rolled onto his back. His arms and legs shot up vertically above his torso, shaping his body into a U shape. Something else was there. He felt encapsulated in it. The quick loss of bodily control caused John's eyes open. For the first time there was light. Blinding light. After a few moments, his eyes acclimated and he took his first view of the world. The colors, they are so vibrant. I've never seen so many blues before. The pallet of colors across the sky overwhelmed John and he began to tear up. I've never seen anything so marvelous, so vivid, and alive. John focused his gaze on the sharp divide between the heavenly blues and dark greens. He traced the spherical border between the two colors 360 degrees with his eyes. There was something about the green sphere. It looked stable. So substantial. Something within all the chaos that would feel warm. He reached out with his arms to hold the soft green orb but quickly realized it was too far away. Suddenly, John's mind was overcome with a ferocious roar. Alien noises invaded his brain. It sounded like a star being ripped apart. The death of a star screaming through the universe unwilling to let the vacuum re capture it without a fight. But there was no star. The sound came from inside his head. John's body convulsed in response to the disquieting noise. He grabbed his head with both hands but the noise would not go away. In the cold rush of sound, John's body flipped back over. He was looking straight down and saw nothing but green plots of land for miles on the gigantic sphere. The longer he looked, the closer the squares looked, and the quitter to noise sounded. “Focus,” John thought to himself. John thought as though he could look at the marvelously concentric fields for a lifetime, but in the breathless moments of staring down, John finally realized what was going on. He was falling through the sky. He closed his eyes. In hysterics, John shook his head violently back and forth trying to wake himself up. There's no way this is happening. It's impossible. He hit himself in an attempt to go back to the dream from which he came. Anywhere was better than this, he thought. "Wake up, wake up," he yelled to himself while punching his head. But deep within his mind he already knew there was no going back. This was his life. There is no more infinity. This was real, and the approaching ground was real. John K became fully conscious of his situation. Just take deep breathes and think. Look around. Is there anyone out there that can help me. I can't be alone. John shouted into the air, "Help me. Anybody, help me." There was no response. Even if there was one, due to the violent wind, John wouldn't have been able to hear it. He scanned the air high and low but saw no one. Johns stomach began to buckle as he found himself completely alone. It sent a creep through the spinal cord to his brain. The message was received. John's body quivered, and his skin began to sweat as vomit spewed from his mouth. His body was just as upset as his mind. The vomit spewed all over his face at terminal velocity speeds. The stench from the vomit was atrocious. How depressing. I'm plummeting through the sky and it still gets worse. What's next? John sensed he might have to throw up a second time, but there was nothing left in his stomach and instead he just gagged. It was followed by a nervous laughter. Time to regain composure. John wiped off his face and opened up his eyes. I'm need to find a way to survive this. He focused on the ground. It was still getting closer and closer. Think, what can I do? He felt along his chest looking for a parachute. Come on, where is it. Wait... what the hell. It didn't take John long to notice that there was no such back pack, or shirt. He felt lower and lower. John was completely naked. The severity of the situation was overwhelming. He thought about everything, but nothing in particular. No solid thought could help him out. Everything was too distorted to make sense. But his chaotic befuddlement was not an accident. It was a technique. John was in hysterics trying to think of anything that could keep the inevitable question from coming up in his mind. He knew what was going to happen, but did not want to admit it. Eventually, John could not distort his mind any longer. The torturous pain he was trying so hard repress final came out. Theres nothing to save me from hitting the ground. Soon, I will hit, explode into thousands of tiny pieces and die. John knew he was going to think it, but it still surprised him when he eventually thought it. He began to understand the seriousness of the situation. I've only got a few minutes left. The ground looks even closer now than before. He could see the divisions between one crop and another. A red dot showed up in his vision. John was in dismay over the fate at hand, but also possessed an odd comfort. A sense of accomplishment. It surprised John, but there was no denying it. It felt good to accept his fate. To not hide from the thought but rather embrace it. Admitting it removed the anxiety from denying the truth. But it still doesn't explain anything he thought. I want some answers. John peered into the infinite horizon and spoke to no one, "Why me? How the hell did I get here?" This was a marginally futile demand. Such perplexing questions have been asked by countless beings for centuries, and John wanted answers while falling through the sky. Why John? Why Anybody? Why anything? What is it that makes(allows?) someone become self-conscious? I must have upset a god. How else would I have ended up naked falling through the sky. An image rushed through his head of a god picking him up, observing with disgust and immediately tossing him over his shoulder. Like an insufferable infested rat on the land. What could I have done to make his so discussed with me? Did he even think about how I would feel? Did he wonder if maybe it was wrong? Focus John. What are you saying. In his short period of life, John saw nothing that would determine it was a magical being who was pulling the strings. There has to be an objective reason why I'm was falling. It has to have been an airplane. A perfectly reasonable explanation with no magic involved. But this only opened more questions. Why don't I remember anything that happened before? And why am I naked? Who would do this to me? The more he thought about it, the more holes he found in this argument. The more it sounded just as magical as a God throwing him away. While thinking about his situation, John was simultaneously adjusting to his environment. He became relatively talented at controlling his position through the air. No longer was it a conflict to stay in one position. Rather than just falling, John learned to steer himself. Through subtle changes in body position, he was able to turn left, right, and fly. A slight bend to the right and away he went. Turn left to get around this cloud. I don't want to fall through it and spoil the view. He could make out the rows of corn. The red dot gained definition. It was a house, that had children running around outside. He wasn't alone. The greater definition of ground features only made the inevitable crash more prevalent in John's mind. What will happen to me after I crash? I hope it only hurts for a second. John hoped there was no god, for if there was, he thought he'd be in for more suffering in the next life. No one that could care so little about me in this life would care about me more in the next. John pondered the bleak outlook he had upon death. What if it's a test? What if I have to suffer this death? If I take it in good spirits the next life will be easier. I'll be able to laugh at what I had to go through. John liked that answer more and decided that's what has to happen, but deep down he felt the true answer was different. He couldn't fool himself. This was just a nice dream. He was pretty certain that nothing would happen to him. He would fall and then the lights would go out again. No one will notice that he lived or that he died. I will vanish as fast as I came. As long as it was only a hope, John knew that he would never be settled with answers of the afterlife and would always worry if it really would be over when he hit. Time was running out fast, and nothing John could do would get him the answers he was looking for. What's the point? Why do I care so much? John closed his eyes. How good I had it when I was 15,000 feet higher. It feels like I had the world in my hands back then. A depression fell over John. I wasted all that time worrying about what was and will be that I forgot to think about what is. He finally noticed the beauty that surrounded him. The birds sailed along the air currents. The same currents that caused the trees to dance. With a deep breathe, he smelled the air. Life was meant for the present. John contorted his body to tumble around and take in all the sights. Why worry about what was? John felt a sense of freedom, one with his surroundings. Only with the acceptance of death can one take in the beauty of life. The same wind that blows the trees blows on me. I am a part of this world, and I effect it just as much as it effects me. The pain of death was numbed. It didn't matter anymore. All that mattered was the here and now. The red house was fast approaching. The fence was made of solid wood. It wrapped around the house to keep the families golden retriever from running away. The children were playing tag around the swing set in the backyard. John prepared for what would be his last moments. He bent to the right to make sure he would avoid the house and land alone in one of the fields. I hope those kids don't see what's about to happen. The time was here. Just a few seconds remained. John curled into a ball for protection from the impact. He knew full well it was not going to help but didn't want to go out without a fight. He closed his eyes and and with the last seconds left prayed to God for help. It took 5 minutes and 34 seconds for John K to hit the ground, but for John it felt like a lifetime.