THE MAZE by Thomas Lipschultz, 11/7/97 "Welcome to the maze." The figure opened its eyes and looked around. It was sitting against a doorframe which separated a large, scorching, damp chamber that seemed to stretch on for miles from a small, circular, soothing gazebo. The loud voice boomed again, seemingly from all directions: "Welcome to the maze." The figure stood up and addressed the voice: "Please tell me who I am. Please identify me." The voice responded. "Your name is Laura Winslow. Your gender is female. Your race is African American. Your age is eighteen. Your occupation is considered to be that of a high school student and waitress, but in reality you are nothing more than a fictional character on an outdated American situation comedy, played by a girl who no doubt lives a completely different life than you." There was silence for a moment. Then Laura spoke: "Why am I in this form?" Somehow, the voice could be heard smiling. "You are of a gender and race which makes you a prime target for discrimination in the modern world. You are of an age in which many questions and mixed emotions may change your life forever. Your occupation provides you with an identity crisis, which will prove vital during this journey. Are there any other questions before we continue?" "No further questions. Let's go." "All right then... welcome to the maze." Laura proceeded to walk into the large chamber, curious as to its origin. With each step, more hot air burned her skin. There seemed to be no end to the path in front of her, and the temperature rose with every step. Finally, Laura simply broke down. "Wh... what is this... place?" The voice boomed an answer: "This is the ego. It serves as a supernova for the human body. It may radiate warmth for a short period of time, but soon it will become a white dwarf and merely fade away. Turn around, Laura. This path stops here. There is nothing beyond the ego." Laura looked over her shoulder and saw the doorframe. She was little more than a single step away from it. She spun in her tracks and walked through its cool boundaries into the charming little gazebo that seemed to fill her heart with a comfortable warmth that the ego could never hope to achieve. And unlike the ego, it was there to stay. "I do not wish to leave this place. Must I?" The voice boomed an answer: "The journey has just begun. You are in the philosophic potential. You will cover so much more. See the lake nearby? Jump into it. The creative potential awaits." So Laura held her fingers around her nose and dove into the lake. But without even getting wet, she found herself swimming with Mona Lisa, David, the Trix rabbit, Homer Simpson, and even herself. "I have either found myself now, or I have lost myself completely. I don't wish to stay here, although I find it an interesting diversion. What's next?" The voice boomed a reply: "Swim into yourself. We will now explore the body, starting from the top down." Laura fluttered her arms and legs until she found herself on a collision course WITH herself. The body in front of her grew larger and larger, and she found herself heading directly for its left eye. She wanted to stop, but couldn't seem to halt her movements. She was about to penetrate the pupil when she closed her own eyes, afraid of what she might see. When she opened them again, she was standing amidst rows of filing cabinets on a wooden floor. She opened the one closest to her and read its contents aloud: "Force equals mass times acceleration. Physics? This must be the brain. I somehow expected it to be more like the mind, but I suppose the two have nothing to do with each other." The voice boomed in response: "This is the brain. There is little to see here. Just remember that these are all parts of every brain, whether they be male, female, Caucasion, African American, or anything else. You know where the rest of the body is. Just look below you." Laura looked down and saw nothing more than perfectly even boards of wood. Then she realized what had to be done, and she smiled. She lifted her right leg into the air and let it slam down to the ground with full force. The boards split, and she fell through, down a long tunnel. She opened her eyes again, and saw that the tunnel was pink on one side and blue on the other. The pink side contained nothing but a securely- locked metal door. The blue side contained a scratched wooden door which stood slightly ajar. Below her feet, Laura could see a red glow that she somehow felt was the center of the maze. "Where am I now, Creator? Which door leads to the rest of my journey?" The voice boomed a reply: "Neither door leads to where you want to go. You are in the chest. The blue door leads to the male chest, and the pink door leads to the female chest. As you can see, society has securely locked the pink door, but has left the blue door open and unattended. Both doors should be gone, but I cannot change the maze, and society will shun you if YOU try. Go down from here. That is the only true way." Laura found herself sinking into the core of the maze, into the warm red glow beneath her feet. When her eyes were a part of it, she saw a tunnel in front of her. She could hear the voice urging her forward, but with each step she took, the ceiling and walls seemed to get closer and closer, giving her less space in which to walk and less room in which to stand. Soon, she had to duck in order to continue. She began to panic. "Am I near the end? Why does this place torture me so? Please, help me!" The voice seemed to smile again. "You have found the center of the maze: the heart. Unfortunately, the heart is also the center of prejudice and sexism. You are an African American female. This heart cannot seem to fully accept you. You need not fear, however. There are laws to protect you from being crushed. But there are no laws to protect you from having to duck. These are obstacles you must deal with on your own. Tell me, Laura, how does your own heart feel right now?" Laura pondered this for a moment. "It's... confused. I think this heart I'm walking through is just as confused as my own. Perhaps I feel sympathy for it, and mine is reacting to that sympathy. I can sense that this place both loves me and hates me. It wishes to hug me... and it wishes to kill me." The voice smiled again. "Continue, Laura. You're approaching the end of your journey." Laura emerged from the heart on all fours and dropped to the ground. She forced herself back up after a moment of rest and looked around. She was in a mid-sized pyramid, reminiscent of the tombs built by ancient Egyptians. Coating the walls at the very top were solid white granules and large gray clumps. The walls below that were apparently made of fertile soil, and had various forms of plant life growing upon them. Below THAT, the walls were made of straw and oat. The smell in the pyramid was both foul and appealing at the same time. The floor was coated in an acidic substance which burned Laura's feet, causing her to walk in circles without ever stopping. The acid was apparently melting the walls. "Quickly, Creator, lead me away from here! I do not wish to melt with these walls!" The voice boomed a response: "That is all you can do, Laura. In order to continue your quest, you MUST melt with the walls. Fear not, it is painless. When you are in this, the stomach, you can no longer feel pain." Although a bit skeptical, Laura stood in place, watching her feet melt away, followed by her legs, her stomach, her heart, her neck, and finally... her eyes. She felt as though she should be blind, but instead saw herself sliding through a long tube, miles in length. The voice quickly resounded again: "You cannot continue on this path, Laura! These are the intestines, and where they lead you do not wish to go! Quickly, try to break out!" Laura immediately began to panic again, and started kicking and punching the walls of the tube around her. It didn't take much force to break through, but stopping the natural course of gravity long enough to break through and successfully fall out was a difficult task indeed. Eventually, through little more than blind luck, Laura managed to lodge herself in place with her arms. She proceeded to kick a hole through the tube, then dislodged her arms and fell through. She landed with a metallic clang. "Remember, Laura, the maze is not all about pleasant emotions. Some parts of it are very unpleasant indeed. But nearly every part is the same for everyone. Always remember this." Laura picked herself off the ground and examined her surroundings. She was standing in the middle of a very small room with three trap doors in the ground. The trap door on each end was made of wood. The door in the middle was painted half pink and half blue, and was very tightly sealed. "Ah, society does not like that part of the maze either. But without it, society wouldn't even exist. Such irony exists in this place!" The voice responded: "The two legs are on either side of you. Your journey will be over soon. Pick either door and slip through." Laura chose the door on the right. She opened it and leapt inside. Again she fell down a long tube, but she knew that this was the end of the maze, so she was no longer frightened by it. As she awaited the bottom of the tube, she addressed the voice again: "Tell me, Creator, this maze I am in... whose body is it?" The voice laughed now. "Laura, this is everyone's body. I have told you all along that all bodies are the same with only minor differences. You have just been exploring humanity in general, not the livelihood of a single individual." There was a moment of silence, then Laura spoke again: "Creator... who are YOU?" The voice laughed again. "I am an author. I am a young boy of eighteen years, sitting in front of a computer screen, creating your life with keystrokes. I can end your life at any time, then start it anew. I am the god of this world, but I am merely a speck in reality. But sometimes, it only takes one speck to change the course of history. And even one speck can create life, if only in words. Do you understand, Laura?" There was silence for a long time. Then Laura grinned from ear to ear. "Welcome to the maze," she said. And then she hit bottom. "Welcome to the maze."