Author: Philip G Hostetler

You’re in a city, it’s not that it’s deserted or abandoned, it’s that it’s been built entirely for you. It’s completely devoid of vehicles, people and animals though all of your needs and desires were present, just lying in wait. You passed by an empty coffee shop, you wanted to smell coffee, so you did, it wafted like the most perfectly brewed cup of coffee you’d ever smelt. This conjured a barista for only the moment that you desired the coffee, man bun, strong wrists, gaudy suspenders and all, pulling the lever to an espresso machine. As soon as the hiss of the machine faded, so too did he.

You leave the coffee shop and look up at a skyscraper, you’d always wondered what the top floor was like but never had access before. So up you went, you took an elevator from the lobby and on the ride up the elevator played all of the music you loved as a young teenager, the music that became a part of you as ‘you’, became ‘You’. Once you got to the top of the sky scraper you walked into a white collar board room. There were suits and ties, business dresses, all animated and moving as though there were bodies inside of them, but no bodies could be seen. The clothes gesticulated madly, picking papers up and throwing them about, slamming non-existent hands upon oak tables and firing an imaginary intern. You excused yourself and stopped by a water cooler and had a drink when you heard a photocopier running from a room nearby and went to explore. You found no one in there but there were printouts in the tray. You picked it up and appraised some mysterious person’s butt, you giggled and kept it as a memento. You decided you’d had enough of the white collar world and appraised the view out the window, the city went on and on into the horizon as far as you could see. No planes, trains or buses, just ghostly buildings tick-tacking at various heights. You took the elevator back down to ground level, no music this time, just a comfortable silence that you took solace in. As you left the building, a security guard materialized at the lobby checkpoint, raised a cup of coffee at you and said, “thanks for stopping by!”, before you stepped back out into the city.

You kept walking. Of the people you had encountered, none of them knew you and both served your impulsive interests. You found yourself wanting company and sat down at a bench, you love a good bench. As soon as you sat down, a person materialized. ‘Person’, was a stretch, what appeared before you was a human whose facial features and skin were phasing between every kind of person imaginable, not ‘one man’, not ‘one woman’, but all men and all women.

“Do you like it?”, they asked. You nodded,
“Yes, it’s quite nice, but who built it?”
“I did!”, they said.
“What for? It’s so empty and only sporadically jumps to life, like only when I naturally expect it too.”
“Yes that’s what I wanted, for it to come to life for you!” You think they smiled proudly, but couldn’t tell for their constantly shifting expressions and facial features.
“Hmm, how did I get here?”
“You asked to be here, you wanted a place of your own and I felt obliged to give it to you, but I wouldn’t have been able to build it without you being who you are. All of the experiences of your life were a schematic for me to draw from. All that you’ve found meaningful or beautiful will materialize for you in unexpected ways.” Though this person was a physical mystery, you felt as though you could trust them implicitly, and that they knew you as well as you know yourself. You looked over at your mystery friend and cocked an eyebrow at them,

“I have just one more question…” the mystery friend gestured and said,
“Yeah, please, ask it!” You held up a piece of paper and said,
“Is this your butt?”
“Pa-hah! Ahem, yep, yeah- that’s my butt…”, you appraised it again and nodded knowingly,
“It’s a good butt.” You and your mystery friend enjoyed a laugh for a moment, before you pondered aloud,
“I wonder what it’s like to dream in a place like this?”
“Fall asleep and see!”

Suddenly you became very tired and rested your head on their lap. You felt the warm sort of safety and comfort that insomniacs cry for on sleepless nights. You drifted off, and began to dream.