Parallel Worlds

The tailcoat was electric blue, and being pressed up against the car, covered the window.

I’d seen something close to the tailcoat’s color in a peacock’s feathers, a shade less similar in a highland weaver’s threads, and a mild resemblance in the shimmering breast of a hummingbird flitting in and out of the sun, but that was as close as my last year’s memory could get to what smothered my field of view.

The tailcoat’s electric blue was a color not found in nature.

Before I could recoil, the tailcoat slid away, replaced by the smooth black silk of a top hat, which was even more disorienting that the electric blue coat.

The car door swung open and the doorman’s face appeared around it.

In my disconnected state of mind, his dark skin, shaved head, large white teeth and broad smile created the aura of a voodoo priest assassin from an early James Bond adventure, beckoning me into his lair.

His arm swept forward and he said, “Welcome. Please, this way…”

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