I remember that day; it was after watching Sesame Street that I went to Ocean Park. It was some evening event. Its specifics elude me now, but it was definitely not Halloween Fest, because there were no ghosts, and the crowd was not huge. So, I had the chance to slip through a wooden door marked with the forbidding words “No Unauthorised Entry.”
“No Unauthorised Entry”. Just as the moon has its dark side, every amusement park harbours such enigmatic gateways. On one side of the door were dolphins, dolphin toys, dolphin-themed trash bins, dolphin-looking entertainers abound… But what lies beyond the other side? That remains a mystery. To my younger self, this door seemed like a portal to another world, floating mid-air in my imagination, bathed in a pale blue light of mystery. Step through, and you’d find yourself amidst dungeons, demons, and droids. If the amusement park is a fantasy within the real world, then what lies beyond this door is a fantasy within a fantasy. The “No Unauthorised Entry” sign symbolised such an enigmatic threshold.
So, under the guise of a hazy night with few passersby, while a nearby staff member was preoccupied with a crying child, I trespassed into this forbidden realm.
The door closed behind me. Contrasting my too-fantastic imagination, this other world was a wasteland. Overgrown weeds sprawled everywhere, and a sinister aura emanated from a distant tin shack. Beyond that, just walls. Nothing more.
Or so I thought, until I saw something. Something transparent, lying silently on the barren ground, as if awaiting a hero’s arrival. As my eyes gradually adjusted to the dim moonlight, I saw it – a giraffe, curled up under a tree. Nearby, a large, clumsy elephant submerged its trunk in water. There were also pandas, crocodiles… They appeared animalistic yet were not animals, for they had no substance, merely outlines drawn by moonlight.
They were waiting for me.
I drew closer, touched them, and realised all their skins felt the same, akin the texture of wrapping plastic. Inside this plastic were thousands of tiny LED lights. Suddenly, I stumbled over something – nearly falling – and saw it was a bundle of cables. The cables connected the animals on one end and the tin shack on the other. Approaching the shack, I found a metal handle connected to the cables, currently set to “off”.
I grasped the handle, trembling. Despite the summer night, a chill ran from my palm to my heart. Sweat streamed down my temples like rivers. I knew I should turn back, but the animals called out to me. Their souls had been captured by a malevolent deity; they were desperate for my salvation.
I lifted the handle.
“Click.”
But nothing happened.
And still, nothing happened – looking back, that’s how I grew up, bit by bit, into adulthood.