At least
it brought me back to reality. I had a shop to run. For all I knew
there could have been a line of customers all eager to buy the latest
in communication innovations.
I opened the toilet door.
I was blinded; it was as though someone had shone a torch into my
face. There was no escape. Even when I looked behind, where once the
toilet had been, all I saw was light; pure white light.
Then it was gone, although it took a few seconds for my eyes to readjust.
When I regained my sight I discovered I was in a room; black walls
and light green floor which appeared to glow. Through the glass roof
above I could see the ceiling of the shop, although now it looked
a long way away. Outside I could see the door from which seconds ago
I had exited towering over my head, its handle distant.
I investigated the room. To my left was what appeared to be a building
block. On my right were five more, although one kept disappearing
and reappearing right before my eyes. Then, once again looking up
through the glass roof I could make out the words – in mirror
writing – RubyCell.
As I stared up at the writing, more words began appearing, again in
mirror writing: ‘Text your final wish to 1111.’
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Now
all but three of the blocks had disappeared to my right, and I noticed
the one to my left didn’t look quite as solid as it had earlier,
as though it was beginning to dematerialise. I guessed that the
signal was weakening and the charge was beginning to diminish. I
fell to my knees. It was then I noticed a sliver of light along
one of the walls. Through the crack I could just make out about
a dozen black buttons. Having nothing to lose, I squeezed through
the gap: first my left shoulder, then my head, and, with one last
effort, my right shoulder, finally rolling around among the array
of buttons as I fell through.
Above me was a sort of translucent rubber roof, with bubbles raised
over each button. I was stood next to the biggest, guessing this
was the ‘menu’ key. The rest had numbers embossed into
them, all in mirror-writing. To my right above me was the figure
1. Then directly ahead was 2, along with the three letters a, b
and c. And to my left 3 with d, e and f. Further along were the
numbers 4 to 9 each followed by the letters of the alphabet. Finally,
at the furthest end, zero between a large asterix and hash mark.
It was a long shot, but I knew what I had to do.
On all fours I crawled around the floor. First I punched with my
fist button number 7 four times: I hoped the letter ‘S’
was appearing on the roof of the glass room. Then I hit button 3
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