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Future Views Magazine

DOM PEARDENE

Lyle pays a visit

"CASTLE" Children's Paradise Garden


 

Dom Peardene

 

The Rooms

 

(6,000 words)

 

The young lady took me through the hall and up two flights of stairs.

 

She showed me to my room, it was more like an apartment. I showered and changed into the clothes that were laid out.

 

Forty minutes later she returned. I followed her along several corridors until she stopped.

 

The corridor continued to her right and at the end of it there was a door. She indicated the door and left.

 

I approached the door not knowing what to expect. My instructions were simple: spend a few minutes in each of the first small chambers and three or four hours in the rooms beyond. I was going to be in "The Dump" (Dom Peardene) longer than I had bargained for.

 

TEN ROOMS

 

WIND

At the end of the short corridor I opened the door. I found myself in a cubicle with wood panelling; there was another door directly ahead. I closed the door behind me and opened the next door; I was greeted by a blast of wind and the door slammed shut. The wind came down through vents in the ceiling and was sucked away through the grill that made up the floor. It was like being in a force ten gale. I stood in the centre of the chamber, the walls were lined with bare steel. The wind changed direction, coming down from one corner, then from another. I was buffeted to and fro by its force.

 

I stood in this strange room, bewildered by what was going on, for several minutes. If it was a joke, I didn't find it very funny and if it was intended as therapy I couldn't see the point. The wind was relentless and at one stage was so powerful I could not have opened the other door even if I had tried - I doubt I could even have reached it.

 

After several minutes of this constant blasting wind it died down. I opened the other door and entered another wood panelled chamber. Those few minutes had been like an eternity and I was relieved to be in a normal space again.

 

WATERFALL

I opened the door to the next chamber, and stopped: water poured down the walls. I had entered the "Waterfall Room". I stepped forward and stood in the centre of the chamber. Around me billowed the soft spray. Water poured down the walls on all sides, including either side of the doors at each end; it fell through the grilled floor into a giant duct. Along the tops of the walls bright lights shone through the water. Looking down I could see the water boiling and foaming beneath me, it sometimes seemed as though it would spill up through the grill and wet my feet but it never quite came near enough. My ears were filled with the roar of the rushing water. I had never been this close to a waterfall before and I had to remind myself that I was actually inside a house, two floors up.

 

After several minutes I left by the opposite door and entered another wood-panelled cubicle. I walked straight through and entered the next chamber.

 

LIGHT

It was pitch dark and very cold. I walked slowly towards where I thought the centre would be and waited. I could hear my breath echoing off metallic or glass walls but could see nothing at all.

 

Suddenly I was standing amidst a blaze of white light. The entire ceiling was filled with lamps, as were the walls.

 

The floor was made of glass tiles through which more lamps shone. Even the doors were fitted with lamps. After a while my eyes became accustomed to the brightness, all I could see was bright, white light, I could barely make out the gaps between the lamps. I kept my eyes open as much as possible, it was like standing in the centre of the sun.

 

After several minutes the lights died down to a dull orange glow. The air was warm but not hot, small vents between the lamps kept the air cool.

 

SOUND

The next chamber was quite dark inside, though I could dimly discern my hands and the walls. It was very quiet, as if the walls were of padded material. I heard a noise, like something expensive and delicate made of glass being broken. It gave me the fright of my life. Thousands of tiny pin-pricks of light appeared at random all over the walls and the doors.

 

I heard a long, low note; I didn't notice it at first, it was barely above the threshold of hearing. A row of large maroon lights glowed along the foot of the walls then faded away again. Gradually, a crackling sound built up to a crescendo until my ears were filled with white noise; thousands of tiny coloured lights flashed brightly from every surface.

 

The white noise changed to a musical sound which swirled around the chamber and seemed to jump through the air, the lights in the walls following its journey. For a moment I felt as though it were a physical ball that moved of its own accord; the "sound ball" spun and disappeared off into a corner. The lights moved in waves up the walls and gradually new sounds began.

 

For several minutes I listened to exhilarating music while the lights flickered, glowed and danced creating myriads of colours and patterns, brightly illuminating the chamber.

 

When it was over the many lights dimmed to a glow and pulsed slowly, brighter and dimmer. It was as though I were surrounded by multi-coloured 'living wallpaper', and it was watching me.

 

As I opened the far door I felt buoyant and refreshed, my fingertips tingled, I was walking on air.

 

                                               

 

PINK

At the end of a short corridor I opened another door. I found myself in a comfortably furnished vestibule.

 

I took off my clothes and put on the garments and slippers which were laid out for me. They were pink.

 

I opened a second door at the opposite end of the vestibule and entered a large room.

 

The carpet was pink. The walls were pink. The ceiling was pink. There was a three piece suite with a satin finish; it was pink. There was a chandelier in the centre of the ceiling, it had four bulbs; they were pink. There was a standard lamp beside the settee, it was pink with a pink lamp-shade and a pink light-bulb.

 

There was a table, which was pink, and a chair which was also pink. In front of the windows there were transparent pull-down blinds which were pink. There was a grand piano which was entirely pink, even the keys were a uniform pink.

 

I thought I could hear a sound but wasn't sure whether it was a real sound or just the colour playing a trick on my hearing. It was like someone humming a single, low note, quite softly. It faded, then returned. I noticed a second note, a little higher and a little louder, it was definitely the sound of people humming. A third note joined the first two, then a fourth, louder, higher and more distinct. The four voices hummed a slow, rhythmical melody, their sound matched perfectly the atmosphere of the room. After about ten minutes they grew quieter and gradually faded away. I strained to hear if they were still there but the voices had gone.

 

I presumed there were hidden loudspeakers somewhere.

 

Close to one corner of the room there stood a pink dome with a round opening. I went over and looked in.

 

Inside there was a sphere made of frosted glass lightly tinted with pink and inside that sphere I could see the wavy pink rays from a plasma-ball.

 

I put my hands onto the pink sphere, cool air blew down onto them and faint, tinkly music played. The rays of light emanating from the plasma ball inside the sphere started dancing and weaving in response to my touch. I felt very relaxed. In my hands I felt something a bit like pins and needles, the sensation crept up my arms and soon my whole body was tingling. It was a pleasant, soothing sensation.

 

A painful memory came to mind, it gave me a jolt. I looked down at the plasma ball, I was frowning and tense. Other memories began to surface, painful and difficult: the rage of being beaten up and childhood humiliations. I felt as though the buried traumas formed a lump inside me and rose from the pit of my stomach; the 'lump' entered my shoulders and then slid down through my arms, as if it were a living thing. It disappeared, I imagined it had been eaten by this quasi-living, 'Electronic Monster.'

 

I sighed and felt relaxed once more, something had left me, I felt a deeper sense of peace than before.

 

I went over and sat on the settee. I gazed dreamily around the room, examining little details. Everything was pink, there was no respite. My eyes hungrily sought other colours but there were none. I felt as though I ought not to be able to differentiate between objects yet I could.

 

The pink saturated my eyes; pinkness entered my nostrils as I breathed and I could almost taste 'pink' in my mouth.

 

The sounds were pink, the soft pink colour permeated my entire being.

 

I went over to the armchair and began reading a book by the light of the standard lamp. The pages appeared to be pink.

 

The book was a romantic love story set in a world where everything was pink: the sky, the sun, the trees and bushes, the people, the animals, the houses - everything. There were no other colours in this other land, only numerous shades of pink.

 

I read for an hour, then sat at the table. I wrote a letter, the paper was pink. It was a long letter, I wrote for over an hour. It was a letter to the young lady who had led me here and in it I described my experiences of the pink room.

 

When I had finished I stretched out on the settee and allowed myself to be completely saturated by the colour. I was wholly immersed in purest pink. I had been in the room for over three hours.

 

I stood and looked out the window, it was almost like the land in the book, but not quite.

 

I left the pink room by the opposite door. I found myself in another vestibule.

 

                                               

 

GOLD

I took off my pink clothes and put on the garments and slippers which were laid out for me. They were golden. I opened the door at the opposite end of the vestibule and entered the gold room.

 

The room was spacious and round with a domed ceiling.

 

There were three windows, two on my left and one, larger, on my right. They had transparent gold-tinted blinds pulled down over them. The carpet was golden; the walls were gold, the ceiling was gold and there was a gold trim running round the room. The furniture was all gold, as were the lights.

 

There were gold plates and cups on a golden sideboard. There was a gold sink with gold taps. There were vases and ornaments made of a pure golden material.

 

I took out a loaf which was honey yellow on the outside and yellow inside. I cut several slices of bread with a gold-plated knife. I spread yellow butter and added some slices of yellow cheese.

 

I had a glass of apple juice, the glass was tinted gold. I sat at the gold coloured table and looked out of the window as I ate. I had banana, peach slices, pineapple chunks and custard with cream for desert.

 

Afterwards I sat in the gold satin armchair under the golden yellow lamp and read a magazine. The subject was gold, the mining, valuing, selling, and working of gold. It had many illustrations of worked gold. There was a short story about a city made of gold, all the buildings and the streets were gold-plated and people dressed in shimmering golden garments. The cars were shiny gold, the lampposts and traffic lights were all finished in gold. The stonework of the banks, shops and public buildings were impregnated with gold dust.

 

I read for over an hour. There was a writing bureau in natural wood; it was honey-gold in colour. I sat at the matching chair and opened the lid. Inside there was a gold-coloured computer.

 

I wrote for over an hour, the words were a bright golden colour against a pale yellow background. I wrote a sequel to the story I had read in the magazine describing a world where there was only golden light; everything was made up of shades of yellow and gold. I felt how my body was saturated with the colour gold, even my thoughts turned to gold - it was uncanny. I 'became' completely gold through and through.

 

Afterwards I paced the room. I paused and examined a large painting in a gold frame, it was a painting of the room. It was strange, like looking into a mirror that did not move. It was very well done. Then I realised it was moulded in relief and plated with real gold. I ran my fingers gently over its surface. Every detail was carefully represented.

 

My fingers rested on a spherical ornament, I looked round and saw it at the far side of the room. I had not noticed it before.

 

I went over to the sphere, it was mounted on an ornate stand on a small table. I touched it, then immediately drew my hand away - I thought I had experienced an electric shock. I put my hand back, it was just very, very cold. I put both hands onto it, the room was warm and the icy cold sphere had a strange effect on me. I thought of my parents and my childhood, memories came flooding to mind, irritations and upsets burst forward and then receded into trivial events that ceased to have any importance. My body went through a series of shocks as fears rose up and then burst, harmlessly dissipating.

 

I breathed deeply and looked around with renewed vision. The room was exactly the same, yet I felt that something had changed. I kept my hands on the sphere a few moments longer, then I noticed that the coldness was beginning to creep up my wrists. It seemed as though my hands were now stuck to the gold sphere, I was reluctant to take them off. After a few deep breaths I let go of the sphere and rubbed my hands together until they warmed up.

 

I went over to the sink and washed my hands and face. The water appeared to be pure gold. I dried myself on a golden towel.

 

I had been in the room for almost four hours.

 

I left by the opposite door and found myself in another vestibule. As with the others, there was a third door which, I discovered, led to lavatories and an exit to the main building.

 

                                               

 

BLUE

I took off my golden clothes and put on the garments and slippers which were laid out for me. They were blue.

 

I entered the blue room. The carpet was a deep, rich blue. The walls and ceiling were an identical shade of blue. There were thick, deep blue transparent blinds over the windows. There was a chandelier with blue light-bulbs and a lamp-stand with a blue lamp-shade and blue bulb.

 

A sideboard painted in heavy blue gloss had many dark blue bottles, glasses, jugs, bowls and plates on it.

 

There was a lot of light in the room, yet it appeared dark.

 

Outside I knew it was daylight but it looked like night.

 

There were two large mirrors on the walls, opposite each other. I stood between them and watched how the room seemed to race away to either side down never ending tunnels.

 

I sat in the armchair and was surprised to find I could read quite easily under the blue lamp.

 

I read about a deep sea creature that lived in a world of blue light; its eyes could not respond to any other colour. There were blue fish, blue sharks and blue whales. The sea creature was a cross between a giant squid, a crab and an oyster; it had a large shiny blue shell protecting its back and underside, long blue spidery legs that reached out to either side and eight blue tentacles with blue suckers stretching out around its mouth. Its large beady blue eyes surveyed the blue underwater world in which it lived. Tall fronds of blue kelp swayed gently in the blue waters like a forest, shoals of shiny blue fish darted this way and that.

 

When threatened, the sea creature withdrew completely into the safety of its shell and lay like a polished jewel on the sea bed.

 

When I had finished the story I felt deeply rested. I expected to feel cold but the room was warm. I turned my head expecting to see some other colour, pink or gold, but there was only more blue.

 

There was a table against one wall made entirely of solid blue glass with a matching chair.

 

I went over to the table. It was an eerie feeling walking through the blue room, I felt as if I were the deep-sea creature. The air was almost tangible. I had turned deep blue both inside and out. I looked at my hands, I knew they were skin coloured but now they were distinctly blue. I sat at the blue glass table, I could see my knees through it. There was a blue ink-well and a blue pen against the wall and a pad of blue paper in one corner. I switched on the wall lamp directly above and wrote about a diver who went in search of the blue sea creature. After a while I felt as if there had never been any other colour in my life, I quickly recalled the previous two rooms and gave a sigh of relief.

 

It was then that I noticed the large blue bowl. I went over to it. It was exactly semi-spherical and had its own stand of ornate blue glass. It was about three feet in diameter. I put my hands on the sides and gazed down into it, it was two thirds filled with water. I looked at my reflection and peered beyond, I could just about see my feet underneath. I let my thoughts stray a while and then suddenly I burst out crying. I tried to look back into the water but my eyes were all watered up.

 

I threw myself into the big armchair and sobbed, my body was shaking and I didn't even know what for. I cried for what seemed like ages though it was probably only a couple of minutes. This wasn't like me at all. I struggled to control my emotions and took a number of deep breaths.

 

Ten minutes later I cried again.

 

I let myself have a good sob and then went over to the sink and cleaned myself up.

 

I felt better afterwards and in minutes I was laughing, I had a really good laugh at some funny thought that popped into my mind.

 

                                               

 

GREEN

I spent four hours in the blue room and then entered the next vestibule. The new outfit was green.

 

In the green room there was a large four-poster bed with green bed-covers, green sheets, green pillow-cases and a green canopy.

 

The four posts were made of green wrought iron. There was a green bedside lamp on a green bedside table.

 

The carpet was green, the walls were green, the ceiling was green and the windows had green wooden shutters across them. The centre lights were green. The seats were green. The woodwork was painted in gloss green.

 

I had a meal of fresh lettuce, cucumber, avocado, peas and other greens in a light dressing on a green plate using green enamelled cutlery. I had sliced pear, apple and a slice of lime with a green syrup for desert and afterwards I drank green tea from a green china tea cup.

 

I explored the room, everything I examined in minute detail and much there was to see.

 

What had happened this day? Surely not a lot and yet, I had traversed worlds. Worlds within and worlds without.

 

Sleep called.

 

I went to bed.

 

When I awoke the shutters had been opened and green transparent blinds drawn down over the windows. The many shades of green seemed much lighter than they had been the previous evening.

 

Falling asleep and waking up in pure green was a strange experience.

 

I had a very pleasant breakfast. I spent another two hours in the green room, reading, writing, and taking in the surroundings. I recorded as many dreams as I could remember and described other things that came to mind. I sat in the high-backed green armchair and read a green leather-bound book about green fields, green forests and detailed descriptions of the structure of green leaves.

 

I went through to the next vestibule.

 

                                                  

 

SPECKLED

I exchanged my garments for those I found there. They were quite different from any previous outfit. I entered the room.

 

The carpet was multicoloured, it had stripes, squares, dots and irregular shapes in bold blue, green, pink, yellow, purple, red, turquoise and grey. There was a sideboard which had been painted with diagonal stripes of white and red. There was a chair which had many different coloured shapes like a kaleidoscope. The table was splattered with thousands of tiny streaks of coloured paint. The chair had green, blue and red paint combed across it in wavy lines against a white base.

 

The settee had different sizes of round dots across it in all the different colours. Each light-bulb was a different colour.

 

There were eight small square windows, each divided into four square panes. Each pane of glass was a different colour. The windows were arranged in twos, one above, one below.

 

I looked out through the windows, moving my head from one pane to the next and watching as the colours changed.

 

There were two large windows in one wall which had diamond shaped leaded panes, each one a different colour.

 

The clothes I was wearing had multi-coloured stripes and flecks, the slippers had furry pom-poms on the ends, one blue the other pink.

 

There was an ornamental palace about four feet high made of coloured glass, it had several turrets that had stripes of red, green, blue, purple, maroon, yellow and white twisting up to the points of the onion-tops, the walls were a creamy white with different coloured glass fanning through them. It was highly detailed and illuminated from within. It stood on a colourful and embellished cabinet, also made entirely out of coloured glass. It looked like candy rock.

 

There were several large spheres of coloured glass as big as footballs and beach balls, illuminated from inside. They had spiralling stripes, flecks and colourful patterns on them.

 

I sat in the settee and looked around, observing the strange effects of the interaction between the patterns and colours.

 

I spent a little over an hour and a half in the 'Speckled Room' before entering the next vestibule.

 

                                                 

 

GLASS

I put on shiny white silk garments and a pair of white satin slippers with thick, soft soles.

 

I entered the Glass Room. It was as large as the pink, gold, blue and green rooms put together. Everything was glass. The walls were made of mirrors with frost and flower patterns engraved into them. The floor was tiled with thick, hardened glass and mirrored underneath; each tile had a colourful patterned design laid into its base akin to those found in paperweights. The tiles were laid out in patterns which radiated around the floor.

 

The settee was made of clear glass and the cushions were made of inflated transparent plastic. The lamp-stands were of solid, clear glass and the lamp-shades were made of a lattice-work of thin glass, intricately engraved and shaped. The ceiling was one large mirror with many fine designs engraved upon it. Along the wall there were lamps every three feet, each with a unique clear-glass lamp-shade; some were like shells, some had interlocking squares, others were highly complex or very plain and simple.

 

There were three giant chandeliers hanging from the ceiling with hundreds of cut glass filaments surrounding a single bright white lamp.

 

There were six glass columns in two rows of three, each shaped differently. The first was round, the second square; the third was octagonal, the fourth fluted; the fifth was ornamented with abstract shapes crawling around it and the last column was like a tall rod of ice with many dripping, 'melting,' overlapping layers.

 

Three six-foot wide windows reached almost up to the ceiling. The panes were made up of cut glass, variously shaped prisms, and many kinds of lenses arranged so as to create spectacular designs. Patterns of coloured light were thrown up around the room. In some of the lenses the gardens beyond could be seen in miniature, like delicate paintings.

 

A glass telescope on a glass stand pointed at a round, flat, distortion-free window-pane. I looked through it and studied the building on which it was focused: it was a glass-walled office-block far in the distance and I could see both the reflections and the interior. There was an ornate cabinet made of glass with cut crystal-ware inside. There was a chest of drawers made of glass, the contents were made of glass or transparent plastic. There was a small commode made entirely of finely engraved and shaped glass, on it stood an ornate clock, also made of shaped and engraved glass.

 

I returned my attention to the room around me.

 

There was a glass desk with a glass chair and a glass table-lamp. There was a glass telephone, a glass clock with no visible workings apart from the hands and through the desk-top I could see a glass ruler, a glass pen, a glass calculator and various other items inside the top drawer.

 

In one corner there was a variety of glass ornaments and sculptures carefully illuminated to create the most striking effects. Some had coloured bases which gave them subtle hues, others were so large and thick it was like looking into solid water. There was a bust of a man with an orange and green fish in the centre of his head.

 

There were about a hundred transparent quartz crystals inside an alcove of thick glass with pencils of light picking them out against the dark background.

 

There was a scrying sphere mounted on a floor-standing glass hand; I gazed at it for a while but all I could make out were reflections of the room.

 

There was a glass sink with glass taps and a glass topped work surface above glass kitchen units. I poured myself a glass of water and sat at the desk; I made a telephone call to the man who had greeted me at reception and we chatted amicably for a few minutes.

 

                                                 

 

THE WATER & FIRE HALL

In the next vestibule I took off my silk clothes and put on the fashionable country outfit which was laid out for me. The garments were made of fine material. I approached the next room. As I opened the door I sensed that I was about to enter a hall.

 

I found myself standing in a round, domed, cathedral-like chamber with cool fresh air. Some twenty paces in front of me there was a waterfall. The water poured down from a pool and disappeared into a well.

 

Around the perimeter of the pool statues threw spouts of water into the air. White strobe-lights came on and the statues appeared to have strings of motionless water suspended in space above them; the speed of the strobe changed and the water globules moved slowly upwards, then reversed. The lights went off and the water sculptures returned to normal.

 

At the end furthest away from me a life-size dragon hung suspended in mid-air. It had four fearsome heads, the biggest pointing towards where I stood. The most remarkable thing about it was that a torrent of water poured from its mouth yet there was no visible means whereby the water could reach the dragon. I walked around the pool-side looking up at it but could not see how it worked.

 

Not until then did I notice that in the background there was music, the pounding of kettle drums and the strumming of a bass guitar. The music was building up to a crescendo, flames started firing from the dragon's nostrils and three of the heads raised their snouts.

 

A burst of colourful flames shot into the air from the top of the dragon's head and high above, in the apex of the domed ceiling, I saw four flying dragons against patterns of moving colours.

 

The dragon's body and wings were covered in tiny sequins that shimmered and flickered in the light of the flames.

 

The water from the dragon's mouth fell into a black cauldron that seemed to be permanently boiling but never over-flowed. The cauldron was mounted on four ornate legs and sat on a stone plinth at the end of the pool.

 

Several feet above the dragon a transparent sphere hovered and spun in mid-air, it had an intricate pattern engraved on its surface that reflected the light from the flames below.

 

The banks of the pool were lined with rock, grass, reeds and a few flowers.

 

I walked up to the waterfall and looked down, it fell some fifty feet into a narrow well. In the middle of the pond there were flames coming straight out of the water. I looked up, and saw that beneath the top of the dome there was a ball of fire, it looked like burning gas suspended a few feet from the top of the dome.

 

The domed ceiling was painted in gold and shimmered in the firelight. The walls could barely be made out in the dim light but I noticed they were painted dark blue with a gold band running round about twenty feet up.

 

It was only at this point that I noticed the people. There were over a hundred people sitting on the raked ledges that ran around the walls. They were quite still and silent, as if they did not want me to notice them.

 

I sat on one of the ledges and gazed into the flames. The seat was comfortably upholstered and I could lean back against the ledge behind me. It was very quiet.

 

Every now and again someone would get up and leave or a person would enter, and do as I had done. There was a murmuring chuckle when a man came in, examined the water and fire with intense interest, and then leapt with surprise when he saw us.

 

There were several doors around the walls, one leading to the outside world. I left by the door opposite, behind the dragon's heads. As I passed I looked closely to see if I could detect a steel cable or a hidden column but I could not make out how the gigantic dragon was kept suspended, let alone how there could be such a torrent of water pouring down from its open mouth.

 

I walked down a corridor lined with windows that looked out onto the ornamental gardens, up ahead was the conservatory.

 

 

- oOo -

 

 

                                                 

 

 

NEXT: THE DINING HALL

(but that's for later)

 

(Excerpt from: "Lyle: In The Shadow Of the King")

 

 


 

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