Image by DreamStudio
Beyond the Red Sky
By Nadia Giordana
Siray pressed her face against the surface of the translucent barrier separating her and the vast red skies of her home behind her from the hazy darkness on the other side in front of her. She marveled at her surroundings, spending hours looking up and watching the ever-changing, morphing heavens with their orange and pink clouds against the all-encompassing red during the periods when their sun was shining. But when she pressed her face against the invisible barrier, she could see beyond the crimson heavens into a darker vastness that the best scientists of her day could only call “the beyondness.” It wasn’t always dark in the beyondness. Sometimes, it was lighter, and although it was somewhat predictable, there were times when a sudden illumination would last an indeterminate length of time. Siray was especially fascinated by these flares emanating from what everyone called the second sun because she could see more of the beyondness, a realm so mysterious, she had no words.
“Mom! Come look at this. The giants are moving around.”
“Oh honey, come away from there. Swim over by me. You will have nightmares again tonight if you keep watching. You know, the one with the big green eyes and sharp-looking teeth frightens you. When your face is up against the barrier, I swear it can see you. We don’t know what could happen. Stay back from the shield at least a few feet, please.”
Siray’s mother shimmered and wavered in the liquid redness around her like she always did when she got excited. She inhaled deeply and widened her gills to refresh herself with life-sustaining red liquid. For the most part, she knew that she and her community, the Luminites, were safe in their world so long as the outside universe stayed on the other side of the barrier.
Siray swam over to her mother and hugged her. “I’m going over to the other side of town to hang out with my friends.” She turned and drifted towards the bottom of the enclosure.
In the Beyondness:
Looking in on Janet and her husband, Jack, who lived an ordinary life in a small apartment in Cincinnati, Ohio. They had a mostly white cat with a dapple or two of orange/yellow around its face and back, with a solitary splash of black on its haunches. They were expecting their first child.
We can see a lava lamp atop a delicately carved, vintage wooden table. Its glass enclosure is filled with a Swirling vision of colorful red liquid and pink and orange blobs bobbing and flowing up and down. Unbeknownst to the young couple who owned the lamp, within its depths existed a microcosm, a bustling society of translucent, miniature beings so well camouflaged in their environment that to the creatures in the beyondness, they were invisible.
Back to Siray and her family:
Within this tiny realm, life pulsed with vibrant energy. Microscopic creatures known as Luminites roamed the molten landscapes, their translucent bodies illuminated by the ever-shifting colors of their lava lamps. At the base of each was a portal to their other-dimensional city. Each family of Luminites had a lamp as their living quarters. They traveled in and out and around their world, using these portals. Their forebearers had created a society built upon the principles of harmony and cooperation, each member contributing to the greater good of their community, and all was peaceful.
For generations, the Luminites had lived in isolation, their entire lives confined within the glass walls of their network of lava lamps. They never tired of enjoying the beauty of the swirling patterns of light and color, believing it to be the extent of their existence. Young Luminites were taught from birth that the lava lamps were their world, and although they could see beyond, the two worlds could never interconnect. They were content with that knowledge.
Among the Luminites was a curious soul named Siray, whom we met earlier. Unlike her peers, Siray harbored a restless spirit and a burning desire to explore beyond the confines of her tiny domain. She spent countless cycles studying the intricate patterns of the lava lamp, searching for clues that might unravel the mysteries of the world beyond it. What or who are those monstrous giants? she wondered. Are they some other form of Luminite? Are they dangerous? She shuddered.
On this day, we can see the young couple has decided to rearrange their apartment. In the process, the lava lamp was moved to a new position. In an instant, Siray and her family, once they adjusted to the blinding white light from the appearance of yet a third sun, gazed upon an entirely new, outside world—a beyondness beyond recognition. At first they were bewildered. Towering metal and glass structures loomed in the unfathomable distance while multitudes of the mysterious bipedal giants scurried about on the ground far below, sometimes riding in speeding capsules.
The Luminite family gathered around the edges of the lava lamp, their tiny faces reflecting fear and fascination, their fish-like tails fluttering to maintain their positions. For the first time in their existence, they realized that the beyondness was much larger than their scientists had theorized. Their known world was but a speck within an expansive and terrifying universe. Siray’s chest pounded with excitement as she beheld the spectacle before her, her mind buzzing with questions. She had never seen a beyondness like this, even when visiting her friends, who each had a different view from their lamps.
As cycles turned into multi-cycles, the Luminites, unaware that their new position was what the giants called a windowsill, keenly observed the comings and goings of the apartment’s inhabitants, unaware of the terror to come. They watched as the young couple came home with and cared for their new child, played with their mischievous pet, and continued their daily routines. Each discovery filled Siray with wonder and awe, igniting a hunger to know more.
But as time went on, a sense of unease crept into the hearts of the Luminites. They huddled in horror as the female giant moved the lava lamp again, this time to a dark corner of the room where the outside world became invisible. All three suns extinguished, Siray and her family floated in semi-suspension. They could not know they were in what the giants would have called a closet. Fearful whispers spread among the family members, fueled by rumors of other stories they had heard. They stifled their feelings of impending doom and catastrophe. Would the light ever come again? they wondered.
Siray refused to succumb to despair. Drawing upon her courage and determination, she rallied her family to action. Together, they embarked on a daring quest to seek out and uncover the secrets of their ever-changing world. They ventured deep into the base of the lava lamp, going far beyond the authorized portal linking them to the community, braving treacherous currents and swirling eddies of giant rivers of molten wax.
Their journey led them to a hidden chamber at the center of the intra-dimensional community of lava lamps, where they discovered a pulsating crystal of pure blue light, a legendary portal. With trembling hands, Siray reached out and touched the crystal as per inscribed instructions on a plaque at the base, and at that moment, she was filled with a profound sense of clarity and understanding. She withdrew her hand, still glowing with a blue luminescence, and turned to her family. Siray said, “We can go home.”
On their journey home, Siray told her family, “The crystal revealed the true nature of our existence—our world. It is interconnected and interdependent in ways we can never fully understand. Our place in this world is inescapable.
Armed with this newfound knowledge, Siray and her family returned to their comfortable surroundings and friends, their curiosity satisfied. Together, they vowed to embrace the ever-changing nature of their lives and to face whatever challenges lay ahead.
And so, the Luminites continued to thrive within their lava lamp community, their view of the universe forever changed. And though their world may be small, their spirits burned bright with the understanding that their tiny domain was where they belonged. And they were safe in it.