The Beginning of the Vision

The Beginning of the Vision marks the second chapter of Season One and the first of many shifts in author. The story takes a turn from the previous, beginning by describing Ezra's dream-like state of mind, which is a vision instead of an actual occurrence in the timeline of the story. The vision implies horrific future events ahead, which refer to the story's antagonist who will appear in the following episode, and lays out the theme that the rest of the series will largely follow. A new recurring character, Pete Marshall, a deputy principal of Ezra's school, and a friend of his father, is introduced. An unnamed student also appears but is as of yet not associated with Ezra and will likely not appear again. Ezra's house, a possible main setting, is introduced towards the end of the episode.

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That is when he saw them. Visions. Terrible visions. Dark, smokey figures, with the most devilish-looking faces. They were all over the place. A place that was indiscernible but discernible at the same time, but he felt it was where he had once belonged. A feeling of de ja vu swept through his mind. The feeling, in conjunction with these abstract visions, aroused a strong sense of fear and remorse; a feeling so unbearable Ezra desperately tried to block it out, but it just intensified even further. Ezra struggled to get a grip, he was dreaming, or was he facing death itself in the face? The visions began to sedate, with what was darkness and perpetual evil now dissolving away, revealing nothing but white mist, with what seemed to represent calm and clarity.

Ezra focused further into these visions, now feeling more confident doom wasn’t surrounding him. A face began to form in the mist. No, a mirror. Ezra was staring right at himself! A tear dripped down the left eye of the face, then the face slowly began to deform and melt, revealing only white mist. Just less this time. The mist began to blow away, revealing a whole different image- a room, with solid, grey walls, and a floor so well polished it reflected the lighting which began to form towards the top of the room. Well positioned desks and easels scattered the room. To the side were windowsills, impeccably clean windowsills. A world slowly began to form, and Ezra began to feel like he was being pulled. He didn’t like that, and tried to squirm his way out of it. Suddenly, a feeling of shakiness and uneasiness took over. He felt as if he was being tossed and shaken, forced out of a mad trance. Then.. snap.

THUMP, THUMP, THUMP.

“Ezra!!! Wake up!”

Ezra raised his head. Everything was clear once more, except where he was.

Ezra moaned.

“What’s happening?” he mumbled.

“MY CLASS IS WHAT’S HAPPENING. You call this industrious work? What on earth is this?!” Miss Tanen barked.

Ezra turned his head to find Miss Tanen standing right over his shoulder. He was still in art class. Ezra glanced at his watch.

“It’s 9:50AM... don’t I have Politics now?” He looked to his right at Dane, who had a face as blank as a mule.

“No! Did you not listen! Incompetence!” Miss Tanen marched up to the front of the room, in front of a whiteboard, and pulled out a large cane, which extended to a length that exceeded the whiteboard. She stepped away from the whiteboard, and began tapping madly. “If you were AWAKE, you would’ve heard! Or maybe not... anyway, your Politics teacher, Mr. Matthewson, is absent. Why?! The “flu”, he says. Sad excuse, nonetheless, you will remain here until half-way through recess.”

The whole class groaned.

“Miss Tanen!” Dane called softly.

“RAISE YOUR HAND! Who do you think I am, your associate?” Miss Tanen turned her back to the class, facing the whiteboard, and began erasing a chart she had ruled up.

Dane sat there with his hand in the air, waiting restlessly for a response. Thirty seconds later, Miss Tanen turned her back, and scanned her eyes across the room, until they finally landed on Dane again.

Miss Tanen stepped over in front of Dane. “Yes, Dane? Can I help you?”

Dane twitched irritantly. “Miss..Tanen, why don’t we get to go out to recess on time?”

Miss Tanen stared up at the ceiling, then turned her back again, and slowly paced the room.

“Because.. Ezra here told me, at the start of the class, that when I was absent the last term last year, all of you missed out a bit of work.”

Another student, sitting on the other side of the room, raised his hand. “Miss Tanen, the relief didn’t know where to find the glaze for your clay models, it wasn’t our fault.”

Miss Tanen paused for a moment, then hummed indignantly. Without a second thought, she scurried over to the large door and bolted it shut.

“This is ridiculous,” Dane whispered to Ezra. “Ezra, you look like a stunned mullet. What was up with you? Night terrors?”

“Err.. what are you talking about? I got 6 hours sleep, I was a bit exci-”

“OUT!!!!!!” a familiar voice echoed across the room. Miss Tanen stood at the door, her straight shadow towering the doorway.

Ezra packed his belongings and stepped through the door, not bothering to acknowledge the whole class had their heads turned to him, sharp-eyed. He felt relieved the moment he was out of the class. As he was walking towards the school’s admin, he bumped into one of the deputy principals. He looked up, shocked, but once again felt relieved, as he saw it was good old Pete, an old friend of his father.

“Heyy, Ezra, how’s it going man? Hey, you feeling well?”

“Just a bit.. dizzy..” Ezra grunted.

“Hey man, you know the way to the sick bay? Just stay there and I’ll call your parents. I’ll see you, man!” Pete shouted down the hall as he swung his merry body around the sharp corner, just across from the art room.

Ezra managed a smirk, as he stepped into the administration and packed his belongings into a vault, and awaited the arrival of his father, who was currently off the job. Ezra rested his suddenly weary head on the pancake-flat pillow of the sick bay bed, and dozed off within seconds. What seemed like seconds later, a soft voice fell into Ezra’s ear. “Ezra.. Ezra, man, do you hear me?” Ezra perched his head up to see his dad’s warm face.

Ezra spent the rest of the day in his favourite, dim-lit spare room of the house. His own room had poor ventilation, and was hot throughout the day, forcing him to stay out of it most of the time. As soon as the clock hit 4:30PM, when he knew Dane would have arrived home, he reached for the phone, and dialled his number.

“EZRA MAN!!!” The voice inside the phone answered. “Hey, you have no idea what you missed out on! I hooked up with two cheerleaders, yes, two, at the school’s opening festival. The other one had no one else- but it could’ve been you! But no, you had to fake sick, didn’t you!”

Ezra sighed. “Not funny, Dane. I know the last breast you touched and ever will touch is your mum’s, when she breastfed you.”

Dane laughed hysterically. “That’s a good one! Where did you get that one from? funny junk? Oh yeah, now tell me what was up? You’ve never fallen asleep in class like that? And you slept like you were possessed or something, man! Never seen you like that.”

Ezra’s voice went slightly high-pitched. “Really? Well, there’s something I should tell you. You’ll probably think I’m crazy, but it was so real.”

For the next 15 minutes, Ezra explained in as much detail as possible what he had seen. They related their conversation to visions of the future, out-of-body-experiences and more. At the end of the session, Dane was quiet.

“Wow.. just wow.” He stuttered.

“Hey, you’re not gonna hang up are you? We’re still friends, right?!” Ezra heard a thud, as the phone hit the bench. “DAMN IT!”

As Ezra was about to hang up, Dane’s voice filled the speaker again. “Just kidding, man! I believe you! I’ve read about this sort of stuff before! You never know! Just don’t fret. Hey, my big sis’ needs to use the phone, she has to organise her stupid prom with her sleazy boyfriend. Uh oh, she heard me. Talk tomorrow! Be there or be square!”

BEEEP.

Ezra fell back onto his bed as if it were a giant cloud. He felt understood, which he hadn’t felt in a while. Dane was always listening to what he had said. It seemed unreal for Ezra, that Dane was the only one who seemed to understand everything he told him, no matter what it was.

Well... it’s getting late, Ezra thought. He slipped on his PJs, and walked over to close the blinds. It’s then that he glimpsed something that shattered the clarity of his afternoon. It was the large car that hit him in his dream.

Characters

 * Ezra White
 * Dane Young
 * Margaret Tanen
 * Pete Marshall

Trivia

 * Pete's first physical appearance takes place in this episode. His next appearance takes place in one of Ezra's dreams.