(When we last saw our hero Stacey, she had resolved to finish the task her recently dead sister had begun; to conquer the wall that divided them from a better world)
.Stacey packed her special embroidery floss, a hoop, a smallish piece of muslin, a toothbrush, some beef jerky and a change of clothes for her long trip. She had readied everything the night before, and now, lying in bed facing the new morning and her task, she contemplated beginning her journey. The early birds were on the vine and the sun had not yet crested the tall trees of the eastern forest.
She had resolved the night before to try once and for all to subvert the massive angry wall that had killed her sister. Whilst the smell of roses from the garden had permeated her room, she had had a strange dream. In it she recalled an ancient and otherworldly skill her family happened to possess. Legend had it that the only person to utilize the gift was Stacey's great great great great grandmother the time she found herself entrapped on all sides by a solid steel box. She had focused her attention and turned her gaze inward to look upon her highest secret self. And in this state she remade her physical body into a haze of golden light. Stacey's great great etc. grandmother stood up from her squatting position and, facing a solid, insurmountable section of the box, simply walked right through it. Yes to freedom!
And this was the brave Stacey's plan, this is the manner she had elected to try. She was sure it would work.
She gathered her provisions and stepped out into the grey.
Coming around the back of the house, she passed through the rose garden, and, stopping to smell a coral colored beauty, she thought she heard her sister's voice.
"Hurry Stacey! The window will close, the time is now!"
"Sister? Is that you?"
"Yes Stacey, of course it's me! Strip this rose of it's petals and put them in your pocket and then hurry to the wall! Stand directly in front of the hole that I gouged in it, and then squat down. You will know how to do the rest. But hurry, you haven't much time!"
As she rushed to the place her sister's voice had described, Stacey recalled that the family's legend had placed her great (etc.) grandmother's trial at just before sunrise. That gave her a little more than 10 minutes to walk through that wall!
Seeing the gouged hole her sister had made in the wall gave Stacey a small shiver of despair and loneliness. She missed her so much!
Once her sister had been a vibrant human girl, laughing and singing. Now she was a disembodied voice coming out of a rose! It wasn't fair. She put a finger in the hole, it was cold and hard. But by keeping her eye on it, she was able to position herself directly in front of it. She knelt into the soft, wet grass.
Nothing seemed to happen at first. Her eyes were closed, but it seemed as if a curtain were slowly being raised. The light coming through her eyelids was growing brighter and brighter.
"Concentrate!" Her sister's voice spoke from the petals in her pocket. "You are gold! You are made of earth, you are gold. Gold is made of earth, you are gold.." the tiny voice urged.
"I am gold. I am made of earth, I am gold. Gold is made of earth, I am gold.."
And as Stacey spiraled ever inward, she became the earth and erased her self and she was no longer the little sister or the mongoloid or even "Stacey" at all but she was her highest self and she was GOLD.
Standing slowly, she possessed a grace that was unusual and new. Her eyes closed still, she moved toward the wall, her hand outstretched as if clasping the hand of a loved one. The wall seemed to move to meet her, so sure was her movement toward it. And upon reaching it, Stacey the brightest of golden spirits, moved effortlessly through it. As through warm water, as though relaxing into a lover's arms she passed through and into the other side, leaving her home behind.
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to be continued......
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