Upside-down

I came home from work one day and found my brother hanging upside-down from the ceiling.

“It’s great,” he said.

“Really?” I asked.

“Yeah. You should try it.”

I resisted for a few days, but when a week passed and he hadn’t come down, I decided it couldn’t hurt to see what it was like.

The blood all rushed to my head immediately.

“I’m uncomfortable,” I said, breathing heavily.

He nodded. “I know,” he said. “Just give it some time.”

Of course, he was right, and after a few hours I felt an unexpected freshness in my limbs.

“Can you sleep like this?” I asked.

“To be honest,” he said, “I’m not sure if I could sleep lying down anymore.”

I was a little hesitant to get into such a strange habit, but I closed my eyes anyway for a nap. When I awoke I felt like I had truly slept for the first time in my life.

“That was amazing,” I said. “How long did I sleep for?”

He looked at his watch. “About two days,” he said.

“Two days?”

He patted his stomach and looked toward the kitchen. “Have you eaten anything since coming up here?”

“No,” I said, noticing my hunger. It felt different from the usual, upright sort of hunger, and I had to consciously connect the feeling with the need for food.

“There might be some leftovers from when you had Chinese food the other night,” he said. “Or if not, I could cook us some pasta.”

“You can cook like this?” I asked.

“Sure,” he said, and began to swing back and forth in the direction of the refrigerator. After a few minutes, he reached the handle and pulled the door open. He peered inside and continued swinging. “There are a few pot stickers. Why don’t I make us some macaroni and cheese, too?”

“That sounds great,” I said, and watched in awe as he maneuvered his way through the kitchen, easily utilizing all of its functions. When he had finished, everything was neatly prepared and set on plates. He filled two glasses with water and swung it all over to the table.

The food was so delicious that it almost overwhelmed me completely. It was as though my senses had been cleansed, and I could feel the nutrients entering my body and providing me with sustenance.

“How did you get so good at cooking?” I asked him when the meal was over.

“Oh,” he said, “just practice. It’s actually easier to cook like this.”

He was right, and given a few days I was moving through the kitchen with the same ease. Cooking had never seemed so easy or fun standing right side-up.

Over time I began to feel smarter and more alert. Though we had never spoken of such things before, my brother and I started discussing politics and philosophy on a regular basis. I noticed, to my surprise, that we were both making a number of profound and interesting points.

Books that had long remained shelved and unread were removed as we filled our days with more wholesome activities than had ever seemed possible. My brother took up painting with remarkable success.

I can safely say that I had never before felt so at ease. It was as though, hanging upside-down, I was seeing the world at face value and becoming one with the passage of time. The veils obscuring true happiness were falling away around me.

Weeks turned into months and I had begun to forget about my former miserable, complicated life on the ground.

One morning I awoke and my brother was standing upright. I blinked to make sure that I wasn’t hallucinating (I had hallucinated a few times before while hanging upside-down).

“What are you doing?” I asked.

He shrugged. “It’s time to move on with my life,” he said.

“But everything’s so wonderful upside-down!”

“I know,” he said. He put on his coat and went to the door. “You should probably come down, too.” He opened the door and walked out, shutting it lightly behind him.

He was right. I unstuck my legs and fell to the ground, using my arms to break the fall. In a daze, I walked to the bathroom and turned on the shower.