I found myself lying in a courtyard in the middle of some old and aged apartment complex.  The courtyard was gated in by brick walls and objects such as old gas cans and yard working equipment scattered the yard.  All rusty, the laid still but seemed to be inhabitants of the courtyards, like animals in pins, giving off somewhat of an atmosphere to the area around me.  It was around dusk, the dark blue of the nights sky was slowly finishing it’s chase of the day’s bright blue out of the sky.  A cool breeze rustled the grass around me it felt very refreshing.  I was a bit puzzled by the situation, all because I seemed to be completely alone in the world, or…felt so at the moment.  But with this feeling of solitude I was not bothered because I don’t think I’ve ever known anything other than it, or at least, this feeling of aloneness didn’t seem to bring any nostalgic feelings of unity with anyone number of persons.  I got up from the grass, brushed off and looked around from the exit; my curiosity tingled to explore my surroundings.  To my right, a small alleyway with light protruding from it caught my eye and I curiously approached it.  But before I could fully get to an angle to even see the other end, she blissfully popped through it’s opening in front of me.  A warm blanket of some unexplainable comfortableness engulfed my heart by just the site of her.  Her facial expression upon seeing me brightened to the most gleeful smile as she pressed upon me and hugged me.  I hesitated at first in kind of shock at the suddenness of the situation, but I soon returned the hug back.  My whole body and mind seemed to rediscover a whole new disposition of enlightenment as she hugged me.  I felt as though I was sinking into her arms, but as the feeling became a welcomed one, she let go and the feeling blew away.  But my mind and body were still at their point of enlightenment by just her presence.  She greeted me with kind and endearing words and told me that we were going somewhere, pointing towards the light alleyway.  I happily obliged her motive and she grabbed my hand and led me down the alleyway.  I was lead out onto a street in what looked like an aged suburbia, but with hints of new age and time mingled within it.  In the distance a large city loomed with lights shining out of it as if the stars were living within its domain.  I let go of her hand and strayed about the street observing the sites around me, all of it was foreign to me.  The buildings lining the streets all appeared to be town houses, with small modules on the door that didn’t appear to be of the same age as the house.  And in various places around the street, TVs hung on the streetlights and on the corners of buildings, along with modules, about the size of mail bins sitting randomly beside certain buildings.  But at the current point in the time, every one of these devices appeared to be off.  The TVs remained dormant and blank along with the other modules showing no signs of operation.  The whole area we were in seemed dead and bereft of life, not another single person, apart from ourselves seemed to inhabit the area.  I strolled back over to her and reached out my hand to her shoulder, but where the contact between my hand and her shoulder should of happened, my hand idly passed through her as if I was just grabbing air.  In the point of passing through her, a sensation of icy cold engulfed my hand and she quickly turned around and smiled warmly, not appearing to be affected by it at all by it.  She didn’t even seem to know it happened.  I was shocked and a bit and pushed back at the fact I wasn’t able to touch her.   A cold feeling began stirring in my chest but slowly died down as her warm look reached my eyes.  She pointed towards the city in the near distance with great enthusiasm and took hold of my hand again leading me down the street.   The sun seemed to be setting fast as the horizons light diminished minute by minute.  We continued to stroll down the street observing the empty alleyways and quite sanctum of the streets.  She stopped a little ways in our observing and let go of my hand and looked around a bit.  “What’s up?” I asked in puzzlement.  It seemed as though she didn’t hear me or was choosing to ignore me because she didn’t even flinch or show notice that I had even spoken and continued to stare about the area.  After about a second of observation she turned back around to me and told me it was time to join the others.  I was kind of puzzled to whom the “others” were, but gladly accepted her motive.  I reached out to grab her hand so that we could continue on to wherever the “others” were, but my hand passed smoothly through hers causing me to stumble forward a bit.  The cold feeling again stirred in my stomach at my confusion at not being able to touch her at all, but without missing a beat, where my hand had missed her hand, she quickly took hold of mine and pulled me with her down the street.  Darkness had almost completely engulfed the area we were in so that the only light protruding the area was that of the city in the distance.  We strolled and skipped our way down the street together towards the looming city in the distance, it’s illuminating pillars of light shooting up into the sky above like that of a blooming flower.  It seemed to take us almost an hour to get to where we reached the ledge of piercing lights radiating from the city.  The whole way down we had casually talked about life and the now even though, I had no idea or remembrance of what I was actually talking about.  But a strong since of comfort and familiarity lingered around this girl, and although, the area and space around me was completely foreign, it was hard to feel scared as we walked down the streets hand in hand.  It gave me a sense of unity with her, like a warm sense of togetherness that melted away the cold whirling feelings in my stomach.  As we got closer and closer to the metropolis I became more and more astonished at the physical construct of the city.  It was like all the buildings and structures within were made of glass or crystal that glared ultraviolet colors and radiated bright hazy light.  All the buildings appeared to be so fragile that even the slightest knock or breeze would mean the death of us all.   But so as it seemed, the buildings remained firm and solitude.  As we finally found ourselves in the full entanglement of the blossoming city of light, we began to encounter life for the first time.  Slowly but surely, the city produced the aptly believable amount of life a city is expected to as our stroll became a series of scoots and pushes amongst the hustle and bustle.  I began to notice a good couple of yards ahead that the sidewalk we were walking down, along with all of the other people on it abruptly stopped, leaving only the open roads and intersections ahead.  There appeared to be no place for people to go past that point and only room for the vehicles zooming through the air and rolling on the ground to go to and fro.  I didn’t even get to ask what or why though, because at the exact moment my hand was tugged to our right to where a large platform, inside a huge tube like structure sat idle.  A good right much people were already standing on it looking to be bored and waiting, and as more stepped on, a counter on the inside of the wall ticked up one more.  As we stepped onto the platform the counter clicked up to 23 then 24.  We waited a short bit for more people to get on, and when the counter hit 30, the opening of the large tube structure closed, and the platform slowly began to lift.  I was surprised at the smoothness in which the platform raised with so many people on it.  It almost didn’t even feel as though the platform was moving at all.  The sidewalk and road became smaller and smaller below us as the platform raised gracefully higher and higher.  I pressed myself against the transparent walls of the tube and stared outward at the stream of flying ships and vehicles as we passed them at an even height.  I turned back to the girl, hoping to share my awe with her, but she appeared to be patiently staring off into space so I decided to leave her be.  Within a minute we were passed the height of flying traffic and a good ways away from the sidewalks and streets we once stood.  I felt as though I was being ascended into the heavens, as the lights radiating off the buildings around us seemed to intensify.  After about two minutes the platform smoothly came to a halt and it’s doors opened to a wide walkway stretching out into the distance and breaking off and turning every which way.  Without hesitation the crowd of people standing around us on the platform quickly began their exit of the platform onto the walkway.  The girl followed too and I ran to catch up with her, trying to snatch hold of her hand again, but only to be met with but a seemingly transparent hand.  The cold, not so foreign feeling stirred in my stomach again with frustration.  I sighed with disappointment and patiently followed her.  With no roof above us, pillars of large buildings raised in every direction around us, and the dark nights sky, contrasting against the brightness of the buildings, stared down at us through the gaps in the buildings.  I followed her closely staring around me in awe at the sites surrounded me.  The lights and structures were beyond anything I could ever possibly fathom.  After a short bit of walking, she stopped in front of a bench on the side of the railing and turned around to me.  She told me that we had to now wait on “them”.  I had almost forgotten about “them” after seeing so much of the city.  She dandily sat down on the bench and stared around in self-amusement.  In curiosity I walked over to the side railing and peered down over it.  I hadn’t been able to fully comprehend how high we had actually gone.  Through the passing and going traffic going every which way below us, the sidewalk looked to be a bold black line and the streets were but a larger and greyer duplicate.  I stayed hung over the railing staring down for a good while at the city under me.  After about a minute I raised my head and turned around, leaning my back on the sidewall.  “It’s an amazing view!” I said, turning my head to the girl.  “Mhm,” she responded staring off into space.  I felt bad because I felt as though my existence around this girl was demeaning.  As though the bond we had shared an hour ago in the abandoned slums was but a delusional attachment.  I sighed and turned back around to gaze at my surroundings.  About ten minutes of silence passed by that at least to me seemed awkward.  I heard voices directed in our direction and I turned my head around.  Four people were walking in our direction waving, two girls and two boys.  I assumed that this was the “them” I had been hearing about previously. The male who seemed to be leading the group had shoulder length black hair with a very weathered face and was dressed in matching dark and aged clothes.  Although his rough exterior he showcased a smile and a constant wave as he approached us.