The Accounting.

    The constant clicking was the first thing I noticed. A continuous din in the distance that bore no discernible pattern or reason.  The sound roused me from a slumber that I had no memory of starting. Come to think of it, I was unable to recall any memories of events or times past. I remained where I was in a state of bewilderment. I thought to myself that there must be something missing. I had these ideas of sounds and concepts, yet I was unable to mark a source that began this knowledge. It simply was. I simply was.

    This sudden awareness of knowing yet not having a foundation to rest it upon brought a wave of panic across me. Wave after wave of information flooded my senses as I opened my eyes and became more aware of my surroundings. I found myself in a small room with smooth, grey walls. I recognized what these things were, but they brought me no comfort as they were all foreign to anything I failed to recall. 

    Before I could regain any composure, the angles of the room shifted in orientation. The sensation of weight pressed itself upon me from a different direction, and I realized that I was standing. I had not made any conscious effort to bring this to pass. Further sensations spread and I began feeling what I recognized as touch, temperature, movement. I felt the clothing I was wearing. A pair of pants made from a thin, blue material. A garment covering my torso that wrapped around and fastened in the front with a simple string and sleeves for my arms.

    Suddenly, a wave of what I knew to be electric energy pulsed over the surface of my exterior. The floor I was standing on rose up to meet my face in what seemed to be a blatant display of all the greying glory it could muster. A burst of pain bloomed in every place of me where the electricity receded. A mechanical voice from an unseen location within the room rose over the constant din of distant clicks and clattering. 

    "Upload complete. Please proceed. Upload complete. Please proceed. Upload complete. Please proceed."

    The mechanical voice stopped as abruptly as it had began. The distant clicking still remained as constant as when I has first noticed it. Gradually the pain ebbed away, and I lifted myself from my prone position. I took inventory of the small room I had found myself in. Flat grey walls about two arms span apart with a ceiling that seemed to be the same distance. A small platform that I knew to be a cot was against the wall behind me. I assumed this is where my confusion began. The light still radiated softly from the ceiling. I was unable to make out any features and it was too far away to touch. 

    Near the cot against the wall I noticed a small semi-circle recess about the height of my middle. I stepped over to take a closer look. I bent over slightly and peered into the small recess. There was nothing to be seen inside the recess other than some more of the same grey colour as the surface. I cautiously placed a few of my fingers into the empty space in the wall to probe its depth only to find a hard surface about half a finger in. I ran my fingers along the curved surface only to be similarly disappointed.

    I then ran my fingers across the flat surface of the semi-circle. A loud beep resounded through the small area causing me to startle and reflexively snap my hand away. The semi-circle spun around so the flat side of the recess faced the opposite direction. A portion of the wall moved away into the larger remainder. The constant clicking that had seemed so distant now increased in magnitude to the point where I used my hands to block the noise.

    I looked into the new space that had been opened to me. An area just over my arms width apart with the same flat, grey features as before. I cautiously moved into the new room. after taking a few steps I turned around only to find that the room I had previously occupied had been replaced by another smooth wall. Probably the section of wall that had moved before was returned by the same unseen force that had moved in the first time. With only one way to go, I continued further into the longer, narrower room.

    I had taken about twenty steps away from my previous position when the narrow room opened on my left hand side. I turned and peered into this new region only to be amazed by the scene unfolding before me. A hunched  figure of a man rested on a wooden stool in the midst of three walls built from thousands of coloured beads suspended on wires between small wooden slats. Long silver hair flowed down the back of garments that appeared to be similar to my own only black in colour. There was some kind of motion creating a blur around the hunched figure, the beads seeming to move on their own accord. Abruptly, the motion stopped and the delicate hands of the figure were plainly visible.

    The figure slowly brought his hands to its front and out of my sight. Slowly, the figure stood to its feet, turned around toward me, and used the stool to straighten out its bent posture. The man's face was filled with wrinkles and speckled with time. I looked intently into eyes with irises to match the shimmering strands descending from the top of his head. The old man mouthed some words that I was unable to make out clearly. He then raised his hands to his ears and then slowly brought them down in front of him. That was when I realized that I was still covering my own ears to block out a sound that was no longer present.

    "I see that you have come." 

    The man spoke with a dry rasp in his throat.
   
    "Time is shorter than I have read. So be it."

    The old man tucked his hands into his sleeves as he turned around and slowly returned to his roost on the wooden stool.

    "Come.", the man implored. "There is much work to do. Much that you must learn."

     He extended his hands from the sleeves and extended them toward the strange walls. His fingers reached out and caressed a wire, coaxing a faintly sad note from the strand. Motion exploded all around the man while his arms became a blur. The room filled with the sound of a million pebbles raining down, and the beads again moved as by some unseen force.