15 year old Gulliver Smith was scared. He had just broken into his big brother's secret metal box and was debating whether or not to experiment with the wide assortment of pills, small squares of paper, marijuana, and mushrooms. Suddenly he heard a car door slam shut in the garage and recalled overhearing his parents whisper about searching his brother's room and looking into the metal box with the "Legalize Marijuana" sticker. Gulliver decided to look into the box himself and was panicking now. He now had a serious decision tomake: if he put the box back where it was and his parents rummaged through the contents, they would send his brother back to the drug rehabilitation center or maybe even back to jail; but, if Gulliver were to risk his own hide, and hide it, his brother would be forevergrateful, which would make Gulliver's life quite a lot easier.
Suddenly he started shoving the drugs under his brother's mattress. Just some mushrooms, and a couple of squares of paper left. His parents were almost at the door. In one swift movement, he shoved the hallucinogens into his mouth and washed them down with his Dr. Pepper.

He put the metal box back where it was and walked out into the hall as his mom gave him a "You know better than that" look. He wandered into the living room and started watching cartoons. Gulliver had gone through quite a few changes within the hour and things were beginning to appear very different. His mom looked like a Q-Tip, with her graying, puffy hair and her tall, slim body. He strained to hold the laugh in and he knew his Mom would notice something was wrong, so he faked a cough and said he was getting sick and wanted to sleep. His Mom made some hot tea with grimacing faces swirling in the steam and she tucked him into his rolling waterbed which reminded him of a laughing, psychedelic kangaroo's belly as he slid into it's pouch. As his Mom looked at him with a concerned expression on her face, she talked and sounded like a broken turntable, skipping and changing speeds. It was all happening so fast and it scared him.

Objects were jumping in his face, changing shape and color, and spinning. Everything was spinning around him. He decided the best thing he could do is sleep it off. Maybe his wish to be dead would go away, and when he awoke he could put all of the breathing, swirly things away as a bad dream.

Suddenly he heard voices; yes, they were definitely voices coming from the plants. They were talking to him, but he could only make out a few murmurs and whispers. He came closer, and they spoke of a beautiful world of euphoria and ecstasy where nothing went wrong. No parents, no screwed-up rules of society, no fear, no regrets and no sorrows. They spoke of a world where a beautiful, fair maiden awaited his approach as he felt closer and closer to the world of his long lost dreams.

He put everything behind him now as he felt himself soaring through the vacant space of his throbbing mind, hearing and feeling strange, seductive "wong-wongs" in his ears. He felt as if he was in an immense strobe light flashing different colors to seduce his eyes. Gulliver blacked-out, and as the orange haze cleared, he could make out a small band playing on huge sunflowers. The drummer was a green and red striped pelican and the drums were apparently made out of assorted lollipop bongos. The guitarist was a hyena, the bassist a large purple gummy-bear, and the singer a six-foot tall baby boy with tattoos printed all over his body and a bottle filled with rum and Coke.

As the band played, lyrics of hate and love and sex flew out of the large baby's mouth and he became violent. He swiftly took a knife out of his diaper and began cutting his tattoos off. Rainbow-colored blood splashed everywhere and as it touched an object, the blood turned a bright, glowing red. The blood eventually started flowing and carried Gulliver for miles until he reached acres of large, rolling hills of green and blue feathers.

Gulliver suddenly started floating and he felt that by thinking of it, he could fly and glide above the beautiful countryside. He gradually became aware of a strange noise coming from somewhere around him. He listened closely, and realize it was a girl wailing and sobbing from loneliness and pain, trying not to share it with anyone and so carrying this grief within her for centuries. He tried to follow the sound as it became louder and louder, but was caught by a strong wind and, once again was carried even further into this strange world of his imaginative mind. This time, instead of letting him have his peace and letting him back on his feet, the wind grew stronger and carried him for days.

Gulliver sailed with the breeze over oceans of orange, red and blue fire, long forgotten forests of soot-stained toothpicks and fields of wildflowers. Each flower was singing its own beautiful song, attracting wandering troops of boys and swallowing them whole with only a sweep of their stems and a slight giggle.

Gulliver grew disenchanted with this world and noticed some dark clouds ahead. As he neared them he started to feel depressed. He didn't know why, but there was something about this gloomy environment that dragged out emotions that he didn't want displayed. Thoughts of this strange, hidden maiden with hate and fear and pain in her voice but with a beautiful, glowing light around and strength and experienced as her shield flew through his mind as he experienced the strongest, most beautiful emotion of all mankind.He felt as if he had known her well, perhaps all his life. Strange; but he was interrupted in his thoughts when he noticed the threatening, sharp and steep mountain tops that were barely missing him and growing higher. He shrieked as he foresaw his doomed ending.

Shapes began to appear in the mountain, which gradually formed itself into the enchantress that had haunted his mind ever since..., or had it always? He uneasily began to realize that the apparition had always been there. She was a part of himself that he had locked away in one of the many corridors of his mind. As the mountain tops grew closer, Gulliver gained a deeper knowledge of himself and maybe human nature in general. Gulliver was seemingly gaining speed,as he soared toward the sparkling emerald eyes that knew all, but shared none. He saw it coming and knew it was the one; and as it struck, Gulliver had one last revelation, which was that all of the evils of his "old" society were only evils because he created them. All of the depression, all of the pain and guilt could have easily been avoided if he had gotten to know and understand himself, instead of running...