Chapter 3 of Stuart's Adventures
The first thing Stuart was aware of was the absense of any light or sound except for the pounding in his head. He could feel the throbbing of his heartbeat since he was hanging upside down. As he hung upside down in the dark, his new found confidence began to waver in this mysterious place. When he pulled up to try and release his feet he found nothing holding him. It was as though he were floating even though he felt the pull of gravity. Stuart remembered that he had on one of those watches with a backlight so he pressed the button for light. He could see that he was in the middle of an immense room. It surprised him that he was able to see so well with just a watch light, but he was becoming accustomed to surprises lately. On the wall to his left was a type of portal which was closed. At about waist level next to the portal was a flat gray button. There were no other identifiable objects that Stuart could find.
He released the button on his watch and hung there in the dark to try and figure a way out of this situation. Stuart figured that the button next to the door must be a release for the door or his invisible shackles or both. All the contents of his pockets consisting of some quarters, a small pocket knife, his wallet, and several pieces of bubblegum had spilled to the floor below him. Since he couldn’t reach these he removed a shoe and threw it at the button by the portal which caused the portal to open, revealing a brightly lit hallway.Stuart was amazed that he had hit the button at least 25 feet away in the dark, but he was still stuck upside down and had to concentrate on getting free from his shackles.
Looking out into the hallway, Stuart could see no controls on the opposite wall so he decided the release controls must be on the wall just outside the portal. This posed an even bigger problem for Stuart since he couldn’t throw around a corner or even look to see where his target was. Common sense told him that the outside controls would probably be in the same place as the button inside the room so he thought he would try a basketball bank shot off the other side of the hallway. Sports had never been easy for Stuart, but he was finding new skills by the minute. He aimed high on the other wall to compensate for gravity and then threw his other shoe hard and straight. The throw had been so hard that his tennis shoe bounced between the walls like a ping-pong ball and took a few moments to descend to the level of the button. At last the shoe lost its energy and fell to the floor and just as Stuart was starting to feel that he missed the button, he slowly sank to the floor.
After gathering his belongings and putting his shoes back on, Stuart went to find out where he was and how long he had been here. He had no idea of how far he actually was from home, but he would soon find out...