Knocking on Reality's Door
The Chronicles of Clark Wilson
by Karl Williams
Copyright 2012 by Karl Williams
All rights reserved including the right to reproduce this book or any portion thereof in any form or by electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems without permission from the author, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.
The characters and events portrayed in this book are a work of fiction or are used fictitiously by the author. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead is strictly coincidental and is not intended by the author.
Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.
-Albert Einstein
A short stocky man in a long bulky coat walked through the gloom of the deserted street. He approached the entrance door to the rundown apartment building. Bricks from the six-story structure lay crumbling on the sidewalk where they had fallen from above. The building had not seen any maintenance in many years; if it was in a better part of town it would have surely been condemned years ago. But its dilapidated look was not out of place in this section of the city. He climbed the steps to the door and pushed it open into the dirty entrance way. As the door closed there was a loud click from it and the lights became noticeably brighter, showing the graffiti covered walls in the 6 by 6 room. In front of the man, the inner door into the building was splotchy brown with grime and filth. Rust stains showing through the dirt in places. On the left wall were rows of locked mailboxes for all the apartments in the building, eighteen in total, three per floor. Everything about the entrance way showed that the building had seen better days. Sixty years earlier when this was the up and coming section of the city, the apartments were rented out to couples on the rise or small families trying to save a buck. Since that time there had been many years of neglect and abuse to help the apartment building achieve its present look.
The man took out a key ring and selected a small key and inserted it into the mailbox with the number 13 on the front of it. Opening the mailbox he revealed nothing but an aged flier for the Grand Opening of a now defunct supermarket. The man reached up and slide his right hand under the flier; the flier lit up from underneath as the biometric scanner read the palm print of the man. A beep sounded and there came a loud clunk from the interior metal door. After removing his hand he shut the mailbox and pulled open the inner door walking into the vacant foyer. The musty odor of mildew and dust assailed the man’s nose as he started up the dilapidated staircase. Reaching the second floor he walked past a door on the right with a large 4 just to the left of the door on the same level as the peephole in the door. Casually reaching up and running his finger over the top of the 4 as if inspecting for dust, he activated a switch hidden there. Continuing down the hall past number 5 where he pressed the doorbell button in passing. Upon reaching number 6 he inserted his key into the lock and turned it at the same time as he pressed the doorbell button. The door unlocked and he pushed into the apartment beyond. Closing the door he reached to the left and flipped up the light switch he found there, turning on the single overhead bulb. The dim light emanating from the bulb showed the first room in an unremarkable three room apartment, he walked through the front room and into the kitchen on the right. Going straight to the sink he flipped on the garbage disposal switch. With a swish of air the refrigerator pivoted out from the wall revealing a doorway into apartment number five. Had he failed to hit any of the switches on the way in the hidden doorway would not have opened, his secret den would not have been revealed.
He walked into his home and sealed the door behind him, breathing a sigh of relief. "Safe at last." He said to the empty room. Throwing off his coat he sat down at the desk, the desktop lit up from within revealing the fact that the whole desk was a computer with the top being the monitor. Sliding his hands across the top caused a holographic keyboard to appear under his hands and he began to type.
'It has been a year now and looking back things are starting to get foggy, I have decided it is best to write down what has happened to me before I forget it all. It’s hard to believe so much can happen in so short a time; if anyone had told me a year ago what was in store for me I would have laughed at them and told them they were nuts.
At one time I craved an adventurous life, if I had only known; I would gladly go back to a boring life. I'm really not writing this for anyone but myself, but I also know that at some point it will make its way out to the worlds and others will see it. As you read this you will think I am crazy and living in a fantasy world. I have trouble believing it myself sometimes. But as much as I would like it to be a dream I have come to know that it is the reality that I live with.
So read on and prepare to be amazed, because the world you live in is not as it seems.....'