Two times Two

This was written as a short for a "Write or Shut up" post in Aspiring Novelists, a Face book group I belong to. Go ahead. It's just some flash fiction...


“Two times one is two. Two times two is four. Two times three is six…”

The voice droned on just slightly. Allison was quite sure that her own voice was the one that was speaking, but sometimes she wasn’t sure. She was currently in the twos and she had been repeating them for a while now. As she rode the bus, she was sure that she would eventually reach her destination, but she was not sure if she should have been going there in the first place. She thought really hard for a moment and the counting stopped. Was she really going to go this time? She shook her head in quiet disbelief and the quiet counting started once more.

The bus continued along, jolting every time it hit a dip or pothole in the asphalt that made up the road. Allison pulled her thin jacket around her just a little tighter. Even though the sun was trying it’s best to shine through the foggy morning cloud buildup in the sky, Allison still felt as if it was the dead center of winter rather than the chilly beginnings of spring. There was no way that this weather could be real. She refused to acknowledge it, as if hoping it was warmer would make it warmer.

Allison continued to mumble to herself, “Two times ten is twenty. Two times eleven is twenty-two. Two times twelve is twenty-four. Two times one is two.”

The mindless repetition made her appear crazy, but she paid no mind to that. She was headed towards her destination with quiet determination and counting numbers, to be more precise counting her twos, made her feel better. As to why she was on the bus, she couldn’t quite remember. There was a fog over her thoughts that seemed to quietly hover in her mind whenever she tried to remember. It was like a quiet thunderstorm that would only rage when she got too close to a certain destination.

She shook her head and continued to count in circles. The bus rolled to a stop for a moment and Allison heard the shuffle of people getting on and off. She continued to count and knew that soon she would be at the destination, whatever it was. For now, she would just have to simply be content with not knowing and counting. A woman sat next to her and set a rather large bag full of apples on the ground in between her feet. The woman eyed Allison carefully, but Allison continued to count. A few more stops rolled by before Allison stood up. As she did, the woman pulled out an apple and handed it to the strange girl. Allison smiled and took the apple with muted thanks.

As Allison stepped off the bus, the incessant need to count seemed to evaporate and she began walking forwards with a rather large sense of purpose. She walked down the cracked sidewalk towards what appeared to be an abandoned railroad track that led into the woods. As she saw the track she realized that she had somehow managed to make it all the way to the other side of town. That was to be ignored however as she finally realized where she was going. She followed the track down through the winding areas of trees and dirt and twisted metal from the tracks and soon she saw it, the gaping black maw rising in front of her like a monstrous gullet preparing to swallow her down.

The hole was brick on either side of itself; a slowly sloping arch enclosed it from the ground up. Swirling eddies of darkness seemed to pour forth from the hole that she remembered to be called a tunnel. The mortar was slowly crumbling away into a distant powder and it was here that she knew she had found what she was looking for. She looked at the bricks, taking in all the graffiti and other such tags that had been placed upon the bricks until she saw it. There in small black numbers, sprayed in the bottom corner of the massive arch was a question.

2 x 2 = ?
Allison knelt down in front of the small section of words and after a moment, used her hands to try to wipe off the grime from the bricks. There was a moment of silence and then the whole world seemed to hiss around her. Allison jerked backwards and watched as the space in between the train tunnel entrance took on a gentle blue hue as colors began to pour outwards from all manner of directions. Hundreds of thousands of colors swirled in a vortex of lights and sounds that filled only the central part of the arch way. Allison stared at it with amazement and a sort of wonder and slowly her hand raised itself into the air and she moved forwards to place a hand on it. Her whole body seemed to sing out in joy and pleasure as soon as she moved towards the shimmering wall.
She placed a hand in and saw her hand vanish into the strange cacophony of senses. She smiled to herself. This was where she had wanted, no, needed to be. She pushed her hand in further and felt nothing and then looked at the space behind her. There was no one there. She smiled and spoke to herself in a very low voice and said, “Four.” She smiled. It was only a moment, but there was a flash of incandescent light and then, the tunnel was just a tunnel again.

Allison was nowhere to be seen.