The button.

I stood in the middle of the room. The Alien merely shimmered in that crazy half zone it lived in, where it looked semi solid, but etherial in nature. It had shown me marvels beyond imagination on the way into this tiny red room.

Red is an injustice to the decor. Perhaps, being inside a Ruby would be closer, all cut edges and crimson. Even the air seemed crystalized in a soft pink haze. I could still breathe, even tho everything I saw had taken my breath away. So I guess that is metaphorical and not literal.

“You must stay here for an hour. You have one, and only one, restriction. Do not touch the button.”

“What button?”

The Alien floated - maybe it walked, but if it did, it moved the way a lace curtain does under a draft from the South. It stopped next to a small table. On it was a single button. Innocuous looking. Just an ordinary button…like that one on TV shows of my youth, where you slammed the “Easy Button” and everything worked out.

Unlike everything else in the room that went from Red, to Ruby, to Rose, the button was a very soft blue. Like a Robin’s egg, or maybe an early morning sky before the sun started showing off.

“So, what does the button do?”

The Alien smiled as it lace curtained its way out of the room, like smoke from a barbecue drifting into the tree branches above it.

“We hope you never find out. Do not push the button. Your hour…starts…NOW.”

Fifty two minutes later, curiosity struck …hard.

I pushed the button.