Stepping out of the car, James looked up fondly at his grandparents house. He had many great memories here over the years. His grandmother has passed away and her funeral had been a little over a week ago by now. James had been the only one to offer to start sorting through her things. Well he had plenty of free time for it anyways now that he quit his job.
He was, or used to be, a software developer, and a good one at that. Things had been getting stressful at work. It was a crappy project from the very start. There was just problem after problem popping up and he was sick of always being the person everyone went to looking for a fix. The stress of work and the stress of dealing with his illness led to James quitting. A few months off might be enough to get his head in order. He had told his parents that he may stay here for a while as there was a lot to sort out, but to himself James was thinking it was a good excuse to get away from everyone for a while and in the progress do a good deed.
“Well better get to it.” James said and started walking for the door.
The days passed quickly and he was making good progress, but it was time to tackle the basement. He’d left it till last as from what he remembered it was a dusty mess down there. Opening the basement door it was exactly as he remembered it. There was old tables and chairs and lots of random ornaments all over the place. Some were covered with sheets and others were covered by old books and junk. This was going to take a while, James said to himself.
He saw a bookcase near the back and was intrigued. James had recently become an avid reader. He mostly enjoyed sci fi novels. It was a good way to escape reality for a while. So he shoved the chairs and odd looking side tables out of his way and stood inspecting the bookcase. The bookcase was taller than James’s six foot one. It was old and not moved it a long time. There must have been about an inch of dust covering the books and other stuff on the shelves. The books were an odd mixture of more modern novels and much older books.
His eye wandered to the top left corner of the book shelf and there he saw there was something behind it. Maybe it’s an interesting painting or something. It certainly looked like it might be a picture frame. Interested to know what it was. He quickly cleared the bookshelf and pushed the bookshelf to the side.
“It’s a doorway!” James said in bewildered tone. Why would there be a doorway here. There’s just solid earth behind this wall. He grabbed the knob and swung the door open and was almost blinded. Light poured into the basement from the open door.
“What the fuck!” He said just as a cool breeze blew in through the door. “This has to be some kind of a joke.” He reached out with his hand into the open doorway, fully expecting it hit a screen or barrier. But all he could feel was open, if slightly cool, fresh air.
Without thinking James suddenly stepped through the doorway and into a forest. He looked around him with an insane expression. He took one step back and was back the basement. Looking through the doorway he could see the forest where he’d just been. It was like someone put a TV behind the door playing a forest scene. He stepped forward once again and was back in the forest. The ground was a mix of dew covered moss and brown leaves. Massive trees of oak and ash and a few he didn’t recognise surrounded him. It must be the spring wherever this place was because he could see buds on the end of branches; which was odd because it was currently fall where he was. He glanced behind him and sure enough he could see the basement through a door sized rectangle just free floating a couple of inches off the ground. Then suddenly it sparked out of existence like when you switch off one of those big, old tube TV’s.
“Amazing!” James exclaimed out loud. It was breezy and kind of chilly, but at least it was sunny which was lucky for James as he was only wearing jeans, a shirt and a light zip through hoodie and his sneakers were not exactly ideal for hiking through a forest. Looking up, the sun appeared to be high in the sky to it must be close to midday. Then worry began to set in. What just happened? Where the hell was he? How can I get back? He looked around frantically and shook his head as if he was trying to wake up from some crazy dream.
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Then the problem solving part of his brain kicked in. He quickly checked his pockets and pulled out his phone, which luckily for him was almost fully charged. He opened up the maps app and turned on the gps receiver, but there was no signal. He gave it another few seconds, but still there was no signal. Okay so that’s broken, he thought. He turned off the gps and tried calling a few different people a number of times but on every occasion it never even got as far as dialing.
Emptying his pockets all he found was his wallet, with some cash in it, a useless phone and some keys with a swiss army knife keyring, which might turn out to be useful. He put everything except the army knife back in his pockets and used it to mark a tree close to the closed doorway so he could find his way back here at some point. He picked a direction at random and started walking, being careful to mark a tree every few minutes. Getting lost in the forest trying to get back to the doorway would not have been a good idea.
It was a dense forest but easy to navigate. The hiking was easy going except for a few streams and a couple of big outcroppings of rocks every now and then. After about 20 minutes of walking he could start to see open countryside through the trees. James pressed ahead and upon exiting the forest he looked upon lush green grass and rolling hills, with what seemed to be a large snow topped mountain range and yet more forests in the distance. A beautiful view all things considered. Before pressing on he was careful to leave a fairly visible marking on a nearby tree. Continuing across the lush green field ahead of him, he soon came across a loose stone wall. A very good sign. There must be people nearby. Hopping across, he found himself on a well trodden dirt path.
Left or right? He reached into his jean pocket and pulled out a coin. “Heads for left, tails for right”. Flipping the coin and catching it. “Left it is”. Proceeding to walk, James was trying to figure out where he was. The loose stone wall suggested somewhere in Europe. The plants and landscape also added some validity to that theory. He had never been to Europe despite planning to go on multiple occasions, but it never worked out. But from pictures it looked like he could be anywhere in north western Europe.
James kept walking. He hadn’t expected to be doing so much walking today, and was glad he kept himself moderately fit. He was no athlete but liked to jog for a while most days. The land gradually started to level out and he could see people out in the surrounding fields. Given the time of year and the fact that the soil looked fertile. I guess they must be ploughing the land and sowing seeds. James thought. It seems kinda odd to be doing it by hand. They looked to be wearing kinda shabby clothes too. I suppose you can’t be out working the fields in your sunday best. They started looking and pointing in my direction. Maybe I should talk to them and ask where I am. He started walking their way.
Just past the people in the fields was their house. It looked like a thatched cottage. It was quite small with uneven, rectangular walls and there seemed to be smoke just coming out of the roof. Hopefully it’s not the roof that’s on fire. He was almost at the edge of the fields by know and started waving over at them. One of the men stood up and started to walk his way. He was a short, at least compared to James, slim fella with long hair.
“Hello there sir,” the man said. “Don’t remember seeing you round here. What you want anyways?” The man looked James up and down, giving him a strange look.
“Hi!” James replied. “I’m just wondering if you could tell me where I am? I seem to have lost my way.”
“Well.... you’re about 25 minutes walk from Newlake if you keep going south and a few days walk away from anything in the other direction.”
“Oh! Okay.” Newlake must be the local town or village. For some reason James was fairly certain he wasn’t going to be getting much more information out of this guy. “I should keep going the way I was going then. Thanks!”
Walking on James was more confused than before. Never heard of a place called Newlake before. Maybe there will be some way to get back home there. The dirt road seemed to be getting wider as he was walking on.
There were other people walking ahead of him. He could see them now. They were dressed similarly to those farmers. He had been passing more and more cottages and farmsteads. Must be getting close to that town. I hope they take dollars.