The morning was magnificent. The sun was bright and the sky was clear and blue as a robin's egg. My monsters had been put to rest.
Melanie and I were out enjoying the day. She was driving the Saab and I was following behind the car on my bicycle. My bicycle helmet was wired with a cell phone and Melanie and I were yakking away about how much fun it was to be out in the country going down the road.
We sped along for a while and then it seemed to me we were headed into the little town of Loomis, where my grandparents had homesteaded in the 1920's. This greatly surprised me as Loomis was a very small town in Eastern Washington and I thought we had started our day in Michigan.
As we pulled into Loomis there was a young girl on my left riding her bicycle. At first she was apprehensive of me but she then realized it was safe to befriend me and she started to weave about on her bicycle just the way I have always done while riding my bicycle. Even as an adult I have always managed to be playful while riding and this young girl seemed to have the same fun I do while riding. She told me her name was Grace and she seemed to be the composite of all the younger sisters of my teenage girlfriends. She was sort of cute, smart and very observant. Being observant seemed to be the main focus of her life. As we rode along I lost sight of Melanie and my phone would no longer contact her.
After about ten minutes of riding with no hands and weaving about on the bicycles Grace challenged me to a race and she took off pedaling furiously. I followed after her for quite sometime and then I recognized that she was steering into the driveway of a high school friend of mine named Nancy.
Nancy had been a close friend of my girlfriend Susan and I had spent many a weekend double dating with her and her boyfriend Steven. I had always been friendly with Nancy but I did not trust her too much because she was always conflicted about her relationships and I was never interested in making my life that complex.
Grace was laughing and calling out to me and she then told me she was Nancy's little sister and that Nancy was waiting for me in the back yard. Grace and I pulled up on the lawn and stayed on our bikes to speak to Nancy. Nancy was lying on a chaise lounge in the buff. Her long brown hair was wound around her body to cover her up. Her beatific face smiled at me and she did not seem surprised to see me after all of these years. Nancy was still 18 but she seemed frozen in place almost and hardly moved any part of her body except to speak to me. Nancy wanted to get together with me after her sunbathing was over and she suggested that Grace show me the labyrinth her father had built in the back yard.
Grace excitedly agreed to show me the labyrinth and we took off on the bikes to view it.
Out in the woods behind the house was this monolithic structure that was part living space and part jungle gym adventure space where you climbed up walls and down secret passageways for sport. Grace and I spent quite some time traversing this cavernous building and as we walked to the end of the structure there was a very large room where many people had gathered to meet with me.
All of the people who have been integral in my life's journey where there. My parent's and their parents were standing in the crowd. My in-laws and cousins and friends and teachers were all there to speak with me. Even the best of my enemies were there before me marveling that they had not deterred me from making it this far in life.
The crowd started to form a semi-circle around me and as these people began to come closer together someone began to take photographs of everyone and the shots began to look eerily like the cover of the Beatles album Sgt. Peppers.
Grace stood before me and her face morphed 40 years in age from 11 to 51 and she started to challenge me. She said that Nancy wasn't coming because Nancy had been alarmed that I was so much older now and what had happened to me. I had never fulfilled my promise of an evolved being. Grace asked me if I looked deep inside myself and if I had a soul. As she asked these questions she became more and more like a grand inquisitor and she finally said that in the end am I a good person or not. The challenge is between the truth and lies. Then as the crowd began to press in towards me to see if I was good or bad Grace told me that I needed to work harder on developing my intelligence because I really needed to prosper using my mind. I had to stop only thinking of enjoying myself and looking for the easy way out. Now was the time to develop my mind and my skills or else my demons were going to destroy my talented intellect.
With each passing moment Grace's features turned phoenix bird like and she told me that I had no choice now at this point in my life and I needed to act with passion. Grace turned her head towards the crowd with a bird like stare and they all shouted with agreement and they all looked at me as if I had spent my entire life disappointing them. Grace lifted off the ground and flew away and I was left with all of these people who demanded more discipline from myself. They all expected so much from me.
The evening was magnificent.
