what he saw

Never one to arbitrarily throw out a good piece of plastic, he thoughtlessly threw the empty aspirin bottle into his back pack and didn’t give any more thought to it for several months. Upon the passing of several months he found himself needing to empty out the contents of his back pack at an airport security checkpoint one day on his way to a vacation destination of his choice. He was surprised to see the empty aspirin bottle because he hadn’t remembered packing it and he hadn’t remembered throwing it in their several months earlier. The security guards looked at the bottle and then looked at him suspiciously and then looked at each other with resignation. They turned their attention back to him and simultaneously asked him to open the bottle, which seemed strange to him because it was clearly empty. Indeed, the bottle was made with clear plastic only partially obscured by the paper used to brand which ever brand of aspirin it was that he had bought however long ago he bought it. But, always one to oblige burdenless requests he went ahead and pushed down on the cap whilst giving it a good twist to bypass the child safety feature. And as expected, the bottle opened with ease and it was as empty with the cap off as it was with the cap on. He placed the bottle and cap in the outstretched and upturned palm of the security guard to his left who grasped the bottle after emptying the cap into his other hand and brought the bottle to his right eye while squinting his left eye shut thereby allowing him to peer through the uncapped bottle. The bottom of the bottle faced his field of view and he focused on the clear bottom and then looked through until he could see out the open end that was obstructed by the other security guard’s eye that was in turn looking through the bottle from the other end. In an instant their singular eyes mutually focused on each other. The guard peering through the open end of the bottle suddenly noticed that his sight was quickened and carried through the clear plastic bottom and was carried through the empty container and also carried through the others guards eye transporting his own consciousness into the body and mind of the other security guard. Suddenly he was aware of everything about the security guard that there ever was to be aware of from his entire history, to his motivations and intentions and his feelings and insecurities about everything and everyone he ever experienced including some disturbing and also some euphoric experiences some of which disgusted him and other of which pleased him. The only thing he did not know was whether the security guard might be experiencing a reciprocal event within his own body and mind and that very thought contracted his own consciousness because he, like most people, had some private moments he didn’t want to share with any stranger even if he had suddenly become aware of that stranger’s most private moments together with his public and even mundane and routine daily events. And with that contraction of consciousness his sight within the guard’s being and life retreated and he was only left with the memory of as much of another person’s lifetime that one could remember under such circumstances. Realizing this strange moment was over he stared blankly for a moment through the empty bottle a few milliseconds more until he realized the guards were eyeing him and not the bottle any longer. They asked in unison if he was alright to which he replied with a stammer that he was. They followed up by asking if he was sure he was alright to which he gave a confident response that he was and which response dissipated any further reason for suspicion so they let him go on his way. And while on his way to the airplane terminal and on his way through the skies and while vacationing at the destination of his choosing and even upon return and for the rest of his life he reflected on that moment and everything he could remember from his experience that conveyed to him the things and intimate details about the life and existence of another human to a degree he never realized possible and never experienced again and that caused him to never look at an empty aspirin bottle the same way ever again.