(200 words)
Exploding, scintillating lights – purple, orange, yellow …. Karl felt them filling his head. Visions began to appear. Strange creatures with grotesque bodies and long necks, twisted anguished faces, skin blistering, burning, voices roaring, screeching. He covered his face. Stop, please!
Then he was gliding over an alien landscape – dark fathomless canyons, volcanoes hurling spume to enormous heights, gigantic crashing waves in a chemical ocean.
Suddenly, stillness, complete silence.
He found himself in a long tunnel of golden light, terminating in a small room. He floated down into it and onto a yellow-cushioned native wooden chair. Everything else was white, including the coat of the man facing him. A badge read ‘Doctor K. Lamont.’
The phone rang. The man answered, “Psychotherapy, Doctor Lamont … yeah, he’s here, just been on a little trip, hold on … for you.” He held the phone out.
Karl reached out to take it but it passed through his hand and the scene dissolved.
Now, he stood on a deserted beach, watching small waves breaking softly.
A familiar white-coated figure approached along the sand. Nearing, the man proffered a green pill and a flask. “Hey Karl, this’ll help.”
Karl swallowed it. Exploding, scintillating coloured lights filled his head ….
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Featured in the book and audiobook, To Cut a Short Story Short: 111 Little Stories
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Will the real Doctor Lamont please stand up? We’ve got more than just a little trip going on here; this is a lava trek, a frenetic journey, a magic carpet ride, a full-blown close encounter of the psychedelic kind. Who is Karl? Who is Doctor Lamont? And why does his badge read “Doctor K. Lamont”? “K” … as in “Karl”? Do we have two men or one man with two minds? Is Karl a patient or a self-medicating doctor? Is he even a real doctor? I think it’s the reader’s job to determine that. It was your job, Simon, to deliver an ineffably descriptive and evocative story that took the reader for the ride of a lifetime, one that made the reader feel as though he/she was physically present, in the moment, experiencing every hallucinogenic image to the fullest – and you succeeded flawlessly. Wow! What a short strange trip it’s been. Bravo! 👏🏼👏🏼
Well, thank you, Nancy, your review was almost as long as the story – and likely better written! LOL. And you are very perceptive too. My original idea WAS that it was the good doctor himself who was ’taking a trip.’ So, yes, in my mind, the K stood for Karl …. It was a very early story and one written for Write Away when it was in the baby stages of 200 words with half a dozen members. But how and why I came to write this particular story is buried in the time of mists!
It must be that sixth sense I possess! LOL!