Free The Secret Lives of Emails.docx by A.J. Ramsey

The Tubes seem to love them all.
    He was now traveling through some of the smallest tubes he had seen, when he came upon a strangely shaped opening in the wall. He poked his head in to find another tube, even smaller than the one he was in. The ceiling wasn’t much taller than himself, and it was only wide enough to stretch out his hands. The opening here wasn’t round like all the other entrances. It was rectangular like a doorway to a house, albeit one without a door. He pulled his head out and peered around him. Most of the openings here were unique, either in the actual shape or with an identifier of some kind, like welcome mats or signs in front of them. Of all the tubes he had seen so far, some had looked older, wider, or taller, but they all looked generically the same. These openings were new for Emal, and he decided to venture inside, choosing one with a pleasant looking wind chime hanging over the rounded opening.
    This narrow tube was dark, and he stuck close to the wall. As he walked forward, he heard the sudden sound of rusty metal hinges. A white light began to creep out from ahead. Continuing toward it, he was suddenly bumped into the wall by someone running past. He staggered a bit before catching himself. He forgot his manners and stared, open mouthed, as naked women moved past. Hundreds of them flew by as he gawked. He kept moving toward the light, noticing with fascination that the naked women were all the same. The only thing that changed was the facial expression as they ran past. There was no water in this tube, but soon her short blond hair began to appear wet, like she was taking a shower.
    He walked closer and watched as hundreds of versions of the woman leapt into the light of the open portal. They vanished without a sound, but more kept coming. He tried to jump into the opening after the women, curious as to where they were going, but he was bounced back on his butt, landing against the wall. He watched as the flow of people created a story in front of him.
    After about twenty seconds, every other person was suddenly different. Emal observed with horror as a person with a knife appeared in the steady stream. Soon, the scene flickered back and forth between the naked woman and the person making stabbing motions with their knife. The naked woman’s expression quickly changed from pleasure to pain. She is being murdered by a psycho , Emal thought.
    Emal quickly got to his feet as the stream of people continued. What did I just see? What kind of place is this? Is this going to be my fate?
    With a strong desire to find a crowd of people, he retreated as fast as he could with the incoming traffic still pouring in, and made his way back toward larger tubes. His mind was spinning as he came to an intersection, taking a sharp right. As he sprinted along, lost in his thoughts, he suddenly bumped into a young woman with a cell phone to her ear. He did a half spin, muttering an apology, did a half spin back, and ran into someone else. He zigged past them and was soon having to move around more people because they were starting to run slower. This was rather unusual as they almost always ran faster than him. He continued on for a little ways until everyone was walking, and soon enough they were forming lines and barely moving at all. Just as quickly, it was stop-and-go traffic.
    Emal made out ahead that they were just short of a three way intersection, and he noticed that all the traffic seemed to be lining up to turn right. There was just a slow trickle of people coming back towards him. Emal had seen a few traffic jams but never anything like this. He squeezed his way out of the line and into the median, deciding to see what the holdup was about. He turned to the right and was surprised to see a brick wall filling the path.
    He studied the wall for only milliseconds before realizing it was just like the wall he had run into when he had first “woke up.” It was the same brick, and seemed to have small