We hadn’t delved deep enough yet to know if the small cliffside villages were occupied or not, and by whom. The blue door was found first, and it led to a deep valley lake, with short white houses cut into the cliff sides around the lakeshore. Thus it took us two weeks to find three of the doors and explore a little bit of what was beyond each. Originally, it was just in fun we would giggle and chant and listen with rapt excitement and attention at the visual story the girl who was traveling that day would spin for us, finding all manner of animals and plants in the “forest.” We respected the hunt for the doors no one was eager to slip a discovery into their story until it felt right or made sense.
![shaky camera paint the town red game shaky camera paint the town red game](https://karlfisherphotography.com/img/s/v-10/p2779474891-5.jpg)
We only had 45 minute lunches, so we would usually only have time for one person to go under per day. They were scattered, and usually the goal of each session was to find a door, open it, catalogue what was inside of it and get back “safely” to the “entry point”, or the clearing in the woods that all of us originally arrived in when it was our turn to travel. Within the woods were seven doors, each one a different color there was red, blue, green, yellow, orange, purple, and white. Usually every “session” like this started in a forest similar to the one we played in, except that the girl who was “traveling” would be alone. The girl lying on the ground would begin telling us what she saw, describing what she was doing, even where she was walking. What do you see? Where are you? Do you smell or hear anything? All leading sensory questions that would paint a picture of a location in the mind's eye. The girl who’s hands were cupped over the first girls eyes would ask her questions after we chanted for a few minutes. We would all circle around them, seated on the forest floor, and chant softly, “Seven doors, seven doors, seven doors…” etc.
![shaky camera paint the town red game shaky camera paint the town red game](http://ladislavhanka.com/Ladislav_Hanka_Etchings/Sobota_text_files/droppedImage.jpg)
I’m not sure how we started, or who had the idea first, but when I was in middle school I had a group of friends who would all go into the woods together past the race track and play a game we called “Seven Doors.” This game involved one girl laying her head on the lap of another the second girl would cup her hands over the eyes of the first girl to block as much light as possible from shining through their eyelids.