Alternate ending for THE GATEWAY TO EDEN.

The threshold of reality

Lilly was a very special child and her parents would soon learn how special she was. Ten years had passed since the terrible accident that had left her in a vegetative condition. Her mom kneeled beside her hospital bed holding her hand tight. She had been doing this same ritual every day for the past ten years. Today was the day, the anniversary of the day it had happened and was the day they had chosen to end it. Quinn had gone over the accident in her head a million times trying to figure out if there was something she could have done differently. If she had just done something different it would never have happened. She had been told a million times that it wasn’t here fault or Walkers; it was just a simple unfortunate accident. Jackson had stood by her side through the dark years since the incident. Even now he stood by her side on this sad occasion. Everyone was there, Jackson, Sal, and Weita, her own mom Gabriella Cerra and even Curly was there although he was eleven years old. The only person absent was Walker, he had spent months and years visiting Lilly and reading to her and talking to her, but he just couldn’t bring himself to witness the end. In truth he still blamed himself. If he hadn’t spooked the horse it would never have happened, he had been careless and the horse had reared up, throwing Quinn and Lilly to the hard cobblestone path. It had been early on a crisp fall day and Quinn was taking Lilly on her first horse ride. He should have picked a different horse; he knew that Fia had a wild spirit about her so the accident was squarely his fault.

Jackson knelled beside Quinn and put his hand on top of hers and Lilly’s. He whispered in her ear, “It’s time Honey.”

The doctor and nurses stood on the other side of the bed where the life-giving machines were humming and beeping. Tubs and wires ran up along metal stands and hooks and down to the still form of the fourteen-year-old girl. Her hair was long and silky dark and her skin pale from little exposure to natural light. Her chest rose and fell with every pump of the respirator. The golden pendant rested above her heart. Quinn had given it to her that day for good luck just before the accident. It hadn’t worked. Sal and Weita stood by the door embracing each other, soft sobbing sounds escaped them. Jackson looked over at the doctor and nodded his head. The doctor, in turn, glanced at the nurses; they knew what to do without a spoken word. The only sounds were the whimpering and sobbing sounds and the steady beep-beep of the monitors and whoosh of the air pumps. Quinn lowered her head down onto the three-fold hands and tears streamed down mingling with the intertwined fingers of mother, father, and daughter. Her mind withdrew and drifted to a time long ago when she was in the Amazon with Jackson. She had had a dream of a little girl in a hospital; the girl had begged her to help her find her father before it was too late, now it was too late, she had failed her daughter.

Meanwhile, a world just as complex and expansive as any reality lived on in the unconscious mind of Lilly. She had just sent Walker back through the veil to find her real self and save her from the darkness. Afterward, she went back to the forest and ancient alien city and wandered for an untold amount of time. She wandered among the ruins of the city utterly alone. The wolves were gone and she had lost her connection to grandpa Merlin and everyone else she loved. Her only hope was that somehow Walker would succeed in his quest and remove the pendant from around the neck of her real self. It was during this endless exploration of the alien city that she gradually realized that she wasn’t alone after all. There was a presence near her yet hidden from her. It was familiar yet alien at the same time. She searched and wandered and played pretend cat and mouse with it, hoping to catch it by surprise. The presence was always just out of sight as if it was a ghost yet she knew it was there. She followed it like a child chasing an ethereal butterfly and it led her through the city by a twisting, contorting path and then away and up into the surrounding mountains until she found herself in a place that she had not seen before. She was led out onto a projecting ledge, almost like a floating aerial peninsula into a courtyard amid strange ever evolving shapes. The butterfly floated along and Lilly looked over the side as she followed.

The ancient alien city at the foot of the mountain gleamed in the bright sunlight and seemed to come alive with movement. It shifted and crawled until it took the form of the Flower of Life and from the center raised a flat section. It was the central circular courtyard. It floated upward and stopped parallel and flush with the rocky peninsula. A silvery layer of energy surrounded it where it stopped just a few steps from the mountain. Lilly came to a sudden stop as the presence that had led her to this place appeared before her. It took the form of a beautiful Butterfly of living water, swirling and dancing around in fluid motion. It hovered at an upright angle and its wings twisted and curled and wrapped around its body in a kind of reverse metamorphosis. It glowed with a brilliant light so bright that she had to avert her eyes and when it was done and the light had faded, a tall man in a brown robe stood in its place. He had his back turned to Lilly and she dared not speak for fear of losing the vision.

It had been a long time since the Wildman had appeared before her and she feared that it was not but a dream. In fact, it had been a long time since she had dreamed; she was afraid that if she dreamed she would be lost forever and never find her way home. She had been in control of her reality since the moment she had entered it, up until the moment that the presence came. It had been unexpected and that was what had sparked the childlike interest within her. She didn’t know it, but it was the beginning of a long road before her and she had unwittingly taken the first steps. The robed figure slowly turned toward her and a wide grin spread across his face as he beheld her.

“Lilly, my child, there you are, I told you we would see each other again, remember?” he said.

“Gr..Gr..Grandpa Merlin, is it really you?” she stammered.

“I am who I am, child, do you not remember?”

Lilly suddenly burst forward and ran to the Wildman and hugged him around the waist. A soft sob escaped her lips as she spoke. “I remember Grandpa, but why are you here now?

“Lilly, my child, I am here for you. It is time for you to choose, will you open the purple door? Will you step over the threshold of reality? Or will you stay here and fade away till your spirit is set free to wander the expanse of the void forever.

“But, what…”

The Wildman cut her off and turned pointing to the center of the platform as the pearlescent energy grew upward taking the shape of a door frame and an old weathered purple door appeared within it. The Wildman walked to the door and beckoned Lilly to follow. She stayed rooted where she was. “Come, Lilly, I cannot make the choice for you and the door is for you alone, I cannot open it.”

Lilly wanted to know, more than anything, what was on the other side of the door because she couldn’t see beyond it as she could with the other doors in this place. But her fear of losing this reality fought with her instinctual curiosity. Now as it turns out, there is a funny thing concerning human beings, curiosity always wins over fear. The need to know what’s around the corner or over the hill or on the other side of the universe is so overwhelming that we lose all thought of being afraid. And so it was that Lilly found herself walking toward Grandpa Merlin and the door. She felt no fear as she stopped and looked up at the Wildman. He smiled and she smelled the familiar scent of the blanket that he had left for her as a new-born baby. His eyes sparkled with secrets that she would never know and within their depths lay the knowledge of the universe. He gestured toward the door and she looked at it closely. It reminded her of the door to her bedroom at home as a little girl. It seemed like an age ago that she had last seen it. She could still picture Annabel standing in the open doorway, hands on hips and giving her weird looks as she played with her puzzles and toys. And Curly would trot back and forth through that door every day trying to get her attention and if the door was closed he would scratch at it like a badger digging a burrow. Lilly smiled at the memories of long ago. Deep down in her soul, she wished she could go back and relive them and forget all about the Darkness and the rest.

She reached out and turned the antique brass knob and opened the door a crack. She looked at her Grandpa Merlin expecting his approval but he had vanished and unknown to her, the rest of her reality would soon follow, because unknown to her she had already made the decision to open the door and once it was open there was no turning back. Deep down in her soul, she felt that she would see him again someday though. She turned back to the door and all thoughts of the Wildman of the Woods faded from her mind, replaced with thoughts of what she would find on the other side. Even in her wildest dreams, she would never have imagined what she would find there. Or maybe what happened next was because of her wildest dreams. She yanked the door wide and stepped into the brightly lit room beyond. It was a kind of anti-chamber with a single opening on the other side where beads of diamond hung like falling rain. None of this was particularly surprising to Lilly, but what was on the other side of that curtain would change her for the rest of her life.

She could hear a sound coming from the other side and it was so alien to her reality that she had no idea what it was. It was a steady and slow beeping like the sound of a machine or timer counting down. The sound only served to intensify her curiosity with its strangeness and with that, all remaining remnants of fear fled from her mind. She reached out to the curtain and within a micro-second, she was transferred to another reality. She found herself back outside under a bright sun. The grass was green and a large mushroom sprouted from it a few feet away. It was white with a large brownish cap with red spots on it. The cap was far enough above her head that she couldn’t see over it so she didn’t realize that she wasn’t alone. She examined the trunk of the fungi and found nothing unusual other than its size. So she turned her attention to her other surroundings. The first thing that drew her attention was the large insects flying around. They had long skinny bodies and four iridescent wings like a dragonfly. They were one of her favorite creatures. She stood rooted and mesmerized by their hypnotic pattern of flight until one flew close by and stopped, hovering just out of reach. It turned and faced her with its eyes sparkling and long body turned downward and that made her look down for the first time and she realized that she was floating or rather the ground she was on was floating high above the earth below.

“Hello,” she blurted out. And the insect reacted with a startled dart just as a long tongue streaked through the air and it vanished in a flash.

“Yummy, yummy, yummy,” said a loud croaky voice behind her and she swiftly swiveled to face the intruder. The mushroom towered before her and she looked around and up to the cap and there was a large frog sitting with its front hands clinging to the edge of the cap. It looked down at her and hidden lids blinked over the golden specked orbs then the black irises focused in on her. Lilly swooned and fell flat on her butt as the ground shifted and tilted.

“Hold on little one,” the frog suggested. “It’s the end of the world ya know,” it continued.

“Hello Mr. Frog,” Lilly replied.

“Hello little blossom, croak, croak, ha-ha, that’s funny, a Frog and a Lilly at the end of all things, who would have thunked it?”

Lilly scrunched her eyebrows together and suddenly laughed at the absurdity of the whole situation. “Ha ha ha Mr. Frog, you’re the funny one. It’s not the end of the world.”

“Oh yes it is little flower, oh yes it is. Look, we are going there croak, croak. The day and the night are at war and we are caught in the middle.” He raised one shiny sticky hand and pointed away behind Lilly. She followed his gesture and saw for the first time where they were going. “I don’t know about you little flower but I plan on catching as many flies as I can before we get sucked into that, croak, croak.”

Lilly stared in wonder and disbelief at the view before them. Dragonflies and other insects zoomed around and she saw other floating islands drifting toward the far horizon where the Darkness erupted from the earth, forming a huge cloud of tendrils in the sky. The tendrils curled and waved and attempted to ensnare and strangle the light within it. The light had ripped a gash in the Darkness and from the gash there flowed a river of pure water in the form of a beautiful waterfall just like her mom used to tell her about. The sound of beeping continued and with each bleep the light pulsed and shrank a bit more.

Lilly’s island suddenly lurched forcing forward and over the edge. The giant frog flew through the air overhead, toward another nearby island with its own mushrooms. And as it flew, its long tongue whipped out and snagged another insect. The island righted itself and Lilly clung to the overhanging tall turf on the edge. She felt strangely weak and the beeping began to increase in speed. Her hands began to slip and she dug in deeper, then the grass began to pull free from the earth. She looked down at the ground below. Everything seemed so small from her vantage point. She wished that Fia was there to take her away.

“Quickly little one…grab my tail…if you wissssh to live.”

Lilly lifted her head to see who was talking so strangely and saw a huge green snake. It had its body wrapped around the trunk of the mushroom with its head facing her with green diamond like eyes and its tail protruded out toward her along the ground where it lay a foot away swishing back and forth. She dug in deeper with her left hand and stretched out with the other to grab the snake. She had no fear of snakes. Her mom had always told her the story of when she had gone to the Amazon rainforest and the beautiful snakes there and she had taught her to never fear them but to always respect them.

The snake contracted its tail around her arm as she reached out for it and she used it to pull herself to safety. She lay on her back breathing heavily and listening to the incessant beeping. Finally, she sat up and crossed her legs and sat facing the giant green snake.

She stared into the eyes of the snake for quite some time, while her senses tried to make sense out of this new reality. She noticed the beeping speeding up and then inexplicably slowing down. Then she realized that with each bleep the Darkness had reached out and snagged a flying island or creature or some other part of this new reality and snuffed it out as if it had never existed. Then she noticed the flying rabbits like the ones they had seen on the mysterious island. They jumped about among the tall grass and flew from island to island and sometimes the Darkness would ensnare one and “bleep” it would go.

Then Lilly suddenly realized that she was seeing all this through the eyes of the snake, its head only a few feet from her face.

“You have begun to glimpssse the truth little one,” the snake said. “But if you wisssh to underssstand fully, you mussst accept the kisss of the Ssserpent of Truth. Will you accept my kisss and let thisss reality be revealed once and for all, before it’sss too late?” The snake continued to stare into her eyes with its own golden emerald colored ones.

“I’m not afraid of you snake, so kiss me if you must.” Lilly stared intensely at the giant head, it moved about in a hypnotic pattern and she began to feel woozy. The world began to swirl around her and she felt like she was floating and the snake struck out through the fog and distortion.

It happened so fast that Lilly had no time to react and wouldn’t have anyway because the feeling of the soft lips on her forehead brought back memories of home, memories of how her mom would kiss her mom and dad would kiss her good night. She had forgotten those memories until now.

The Serpent of Truth kissed Lilly softly on the forehead and her eyes closed of their own accord as she fell to the soft turf. The Serpent knew its time and its task was over, it was up to Lilly and the Great Protector to continue the journey from here.

Lilly opened her eyes and realized that she was lying prone on the ground. She searched around for the snake but there was no sign of it. She wiped her eyes and realized that she had been crying, she remembered the last time she had cried, it was the night before her first horse ride, her dad had scolded her for talking about Grandpa Merlin and she had run to her room crying. Then he had said he was sorry and hugged her. That night she had slept for the first time without Grandpa Merlin entering her dreams. The following morning she saw her dad but he was busy working on the computer or something, but her mom was taking her on a horse ride so it was ok. The thought of Fia shocked her back to her reality and she wasn’t sure why.

She looked around and noticed for the first time that the beeping had become very slow and that all but a few of the floating islands were left and her own was drawing very close to the Darkness. It was aiming straight for what was left of the gash if light. The waterfall and river had shrunk to a mere stream. She got up in a panic and ran around the giant mushroom to the other side of her small island. There was nothing left of her reality on that side. She looked over the edge and the ground far below was only darkness now. She ran to the front of the island facing the Darkness and Tiny bit of light. She realized the beeping had stopped and the light was failing, then she felt a familiar presence and turned to look up at the cap of the mushroom. A great black jaguar stared down at her with sad eyes.

“You’re the protector, why can’t you save me? I don’t want to die. I don’t blame Fia or my mom or Walker, it wasn’t their fault, I’m so sorry for being a bad daughter, I want to see my mommy and daddy again.” The great cat raised its eyebrows in astonishment and knew that its task would soon be finished. It turned its back to Lilly and jumped down, landing heavily on the back of the island. The front where Lilly stood suddenly rose up.

Lilly threw herself to the ground with her head just at the edge of the island where she could see over and she held on for her life as the island began to skim through her reality. It banked right and then left as tendrils of the Darkness tried to snag it and finally straightened out as it drew near to the light. It came within feet of the failing light and trickling stream and the Darkness grabbed it. The great Jaguar was ready, it had anticipated such a thing and to protect Lilly it bounced over the mushroom and when its front feet hit the ground it snagged her with its knife-like fangs on the back of the neck. And by the time its back feet had hit the ground its front feet were over the edge and it sprang with all of the wound up energy it had saved for this moment. All the way from the time that the Great Mother had first given it its mission. She sailed through the air and the Darkness reached for her and she threw Lilly as the final bleep sounded. Lilly opened her eyes as she heard the beep and all was silent. One tendril of light reached out and snagged her from her reality and with it, she crossed the threshold.

Quinn stood up and leaned over her daughter and kissed her one last time on the forehead and unknown to her, Lilly felt that kiss and it began a certain chain of events. Then Jackson rose up and kissed Lilly on the forehead like he had always done when they were tucking her in for the night. It was fitting goodbye. He looked down at her as a single tear escaped her closed lids. The final beep came and he knew it was over. Quinn hugged Lilly and began to sob. Jackson put his hand on her shoulder. He listened to the others in the room quietly leaving to give them their space. The doctor and nurses began to disconnect the wires and tubes from the still form of the teenage girl. It had been a long road for everyone and as one of the nurses removed a sensor from Lilly’s right index finger, it twitched. The nurse shook her head and frowned then looked one last time at the calm face of the girl. Her eyes were open. She had been with Lilly the whole ten years since she had come to the hospital and not once had she ever seen those beautiful green eyes with golden specks. She was a bit confused and was trying to rationalize what she was seeing when the monitors suddenly went haywire. A single silent word escaped her lips, “alive.”

Sometimes the end can be a new beginning.