“Bewilderment” Part 1: The Story Begins

Our story starts in the ethereal plane!

Just in case you didn’t know – this is the place in which new souls appear, briefly waiting for the right unborn child to travel to and become a part of.

But… when the soul that will become our hero is formed, something unseen prevents it from finding its unborn child.  And so there it remains in limbo for many years, until eventually it finds its match and enters the child.

The baby is born a boy, somewhere in England, in 1974.  His name is Pete Chronos.

As Pete grows up, he develops strong feelings of not belonging.  A misfit.  As he gets into his teens and into music, it is the music of the ’60s above all else that he finds that he loves.  Whenever he watches film footage from the ’60s he finds that he relates strongly to it, almost as if he was there.  He feels as though the ’60s is “where” he should have been at this stage of his life.  Pete comes to the conclusion that he was born thirty years too late.

Pete learns to play the guitar along the way and eventually goes off to university.  Then, one day, in 1994, 20 year old Pete comes across a little back street guitar shop that almost seems to have sprung up overnight.  The shopkeeper appears at the door to encourage him inside.  Pete browses the small but interesting and varied selection of guitars, whilst the shopkeeper gives his patter.

After a while, the shopkeeper tells Pete that he has a special guitar he’d like to show him and after disappearing into a back room, he produces a very strange and very old looking guitar.  Pete has never seen one like it.  It seems hand made and despite appearing to pre-date any guitar he’s ever seen, it has pick ups and a lead input that seem to be original features.  The shopkeeper encourages Pete to have a go on it and plugs it in.  Pete sits down, picks up the guitar, selects a pick and strums a chord.

The sound of the chord rings out through the amplifier, but then the sound seems to distort and bend up and down, faster and faster.  The room becomes hazy and blurred and with a blinding flash of light, Pete is suddenly thrown into a swirling vortex of hypnotic, coloured lights.  Apparently falling and becoming dizzier and dizzier, Pete feels as though he’s drifting into unconsciousness, but the moment he does so, immediately it all stops.  Pete is still sat down and is still holding the guitar.  But, as he opens his eyes, he realises that he is no longer in the shop where he started, and it’s an astonishing sight that greets him…..

 

Check back soon to find out what has happened to Pete.