Scrivenings of the King-Beyond-The-Wall

Travel Marvel #42

“I want to show you something,” I told Dennis, ushering him to the storage shed out back behind my house.

He followed me as I unfastened the lock and threw open the door.

Dennis looked at me, confused, as the only things in the relatively small room were another door against the far wall, and what looked like a smart thermostat panel next to it. There was also a smart watch on a hook near the door, which I strapped onto my wrist.

“What am I missing?” Dennis asked.

I smiled as I walked over to the panel and started typing something in.

“I finally did it,” I said, with a not insubstantial amount of pride in my voice. “I figured out the ERB issue.”

When I finished inputting the data, I looked over at him as I moved to the door and opened it. Instead of the door opening out onto the back of the shed, or the wall of my yard, or the yard beyond, it opened onto a side street that looked like it was near some sort of European city center.

“Come on,” I encouraged, heading through the door.

We stepped out onto the cobblestones of the back alley, and I shut the door behind me. It instantly dissolved into a regular doorway. Waving for Dennis to follow me, we moved out into the center of a busy plaza. All of the signs were in Italian, as was the conversation that carried on the air around us. Dennis stared at me in disbelief.

“Rome,” I replied. “Somewhere near Della Vittoria if I’m not mistaken.”

“Are you kidding me?!?” Dennis exclaimed. “This is incredible!”

It took a few more visits for Dennis to fully appreciate what I had accomplished, although I suspect a few of those were just so he could see places that he’d always dreamed about visiting. Each time, I’d input the coordinates into the panel near the door and it would open up in a corresponding doorway somewhere else in the world. To get back, I just needed to use the app on my smartwatch to reopen the door when we were ready to return.

“Where else can we go?” Dennis asked eagerly when we had returned to the shed from Thailand. We had already been to France, Australia, Japan, and the Irish countryside.

“I have an idea,” I replied, typing coordinates into the pad by the door. When I opened it, a blast of cold air hit us both as we looked out over a majestic mountain range.

I indicated for Dennis to go first and followed behind as we stepped out onto a Himalayan mountaintop. It had been difficult to find a potential doorway out here in the middle of nowhere, but had been fortunate to find an old abandoned shack that was used by sherpas long ago, before this particular mountain was deemed too unstable to climb any longer. It made for the perfect place to get a unique view of the world unobstructed by any human presence. The closest settlement was probably hundreds of miles away, down the mountain.

As Dennis took in the breathtaking sights and started snapping pictures with his phone, I quietly stepped back through the doorway.

“Hey Dennis,” I said, causing him to turn around. He registered that I was standing inside the shed and he was on the outside.

“Next time you’re looking to sleep around, maybe don’t do it with my wife.”

His eyes widened.

“Wait!” he shouted as I started to close the door. “You’ve got the wrong idea! Where’s Lisa? Let’s talk about this!”

“Lisa’s currently exploring the majesty of the Kalahari Desert, from the very middle of it. Enjoy the view.”

Dennis’ screams were carried away on the Himalayan winds as I closed the door on him.


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(636 words)


Prompt: What if you could travel anywhere by the flip of a switch?