Helen took her usual seat just near the bottom of the escalator. She really didn't come to the mall to walk anyway...this was her favorite pastime. Every Wednesday, Rosewood Retirement and Assisted Living facility would load up those who could still load up, and graciously dump them all off at the mall. Getting out was supposed to do them good...hhhmmmppp. Usually it was the same group of seniors...those who had no surviving family, which simply put, meant those who never had children. Helen not only never had any children, she had never married, and that made her an instant outcast among her "friends." Oh sure, they were polite enough, but being a spinster...she may as well have had a Scarlett Letter tattooed on her forehead. Many thought she was strange, a lesbian maybe, or crazy...truth was, Helen had always been a loner, even in her youth. She only ever had one best girlfriend, and breast cancer had taken her at the tender age of forty-nine. She kept to herself in the twilight of her years never really letting anyone get close. She had been madly in love only once, but it went unrequited. The experience was so devastating to her heart that she vowed never to let anyone in again. Stubborn as a bull and true to herself, she lived by those words and now here she sat...alone...in a mall...sitting on a hard concrete bench...watching people riding up and down the escalator.
She watched mothers strolling their infants with envy. She cringed at the young girls with their indecent wardrobe and loose behavior. Up and down the escalator...she watched life unfold around her. It made her especially melancholy to see elderly couples. One day, she sat watching as a distinguished older man gently guided his beloved onto the escalator...so careful and tender he was taking her elbow and placing a steady hand on her lower back. She watched them travel all the way up, and he never let go of her. He stayed firmly planted until they reached the top, and then he ushered her off the same way he had ushered her on...with tenderness and a loving hand. Her whole life she had imagined a love that would last forever...that even in the sunset of her life he would still care for her, look at her, and love her the way he did when they first met. A single tear rolled down her thin, wrinkled cheek as she thought of the man she once loved so dearly...even after so many years the emotion was still remarkably strong. She cleared her throat, sniffed, wiped the tear away, pushed her glasses back up on her nose, and turned her attention back to the escalator....her favorite pastime.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
The Escalator
Larry was amazed how quickly and efficiently everybody was moving. There was no sense of panic, but looking at the faces of his co-workers in that cramped stairwell as they methodically descended floor after floor he could sense the urgency. He began playing a little game in his mind to take his focus off the severity of the situation. He thought of his four year old daughter, and the way she greeted him every day when he got home from work...Daaaddy! You're hooome...I missed yooouu...she would say in her sweet little sing-song voice. So...with every turn of the stairwell he looked for the number on the wall, and counted them down in a little sing-song voice of his own...fifty-niiine, fifty-eiiight. He had to remain positive. He was going to see his family again.
After counting down forty floors or more, Larry began to grow anxious. The line of bodies in front of him began to slow causing a human pile up of sorts. What had been an orderly egress had suddenly turned into a traffic jam. A moment ago, the only audible noises were the hushed voices echoing throughout the concrete hallows of the stairwell, the shuffling of hundreds of feet making their way to safety, and his own mental game of sing-song. He could hear voices from below rising to crescendo with every passing second...people from behind began to push...bodies were pressed together like sardines...it was hot...and it was about to reach panic mode he feared. Things only got worse when firefighters began racing past with all of their gear in hand. The line would slow or stop so heroes could ascend...start again when the wave of men had raced past...stop...start. It was necessary he knew, but time seemed to be running out. He wouldn't feel safe until he was on his way down the escalator. Once he reached the bottom of it...he was home free.
Larry had lost track of what floor he was on, and suddenly he did panic. He yelled out...what floor is this? Unseen faces from the stairs beneath him shouted back...eleven! Larry shifted his feet nervously, and craned his neck around the woman in front of him...why weren't they moving...he wondered....we're so close to being out of here. Just then, fear gripped Larry's heart. A gut wrenching, sickening, pounding was coming from above...bam...bam...bam...bam. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and sighed. In the midst of utter, unimaginable hell, Larry held a vision in his mind's eye. He saw himself riding down that escalator, walking across the pristine white marble lobby, out the door into the arms of his beloved, and being greeted by an angel with a sing-song voice.
After counting down forty floors or more, Larry began to grow anxious. The line of bodies in front of him began to slow causing a human pile up of sorts. What had been an orderly egress had suddenly turned into a traffic jam. A moment ago, the only audible noises were the hushed voices echoing throughout the concrete hallows of the stairwell, the shuffling of hundreds of feet making their way to safety, and his own mental game of sing-song. He could hear voices from below rising to crescendo with every passing second...people from behind began to push...bodies were pressed together like sardines...it was hot...and it was about to reach panic mode he feared. Things only got worse when firefighters began racing past with all of their gear in hand. The line would slow or stop so heroes could ascend...start again when the wave of men had raced past...stop...start. It was necessary he knew, but time seemed to be running out. He wouldn't feel safe until he was on his way down the escalator. Once he reached the bottom of it...he was home free.
Larry had lost track of what floor he was on, and suddenly he did panic. He yelled out...what floor is this? Unseen faces from the stairs beneath him shouted back...eleven! Larry shifted his feet nervously, and craned his neck around the woman in front of him...why weren't they moving...he wondered....we're so close to being out of here. Just then, fear gripped Larry's heart. A gut wrenching, sickening, pounding was coming from above...bam...bam...bam...bam. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and sighed. In the midst of utter, unimaginable hell, Larry held a vision in his mind's eye. He saw himself riding down that escalator, walking across the pristine white marble lobby, out the door into the arms of his beloved, and being greeted by an angel with a sing-song voice.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
The Escalator
She couldn't feel her body, so she knew she must be dreaming. She looked down at her feet, wiggled her toes...nothing. It was as though her feet weren't even on solid ground, and she smiled radiantly. I'm floating on a cloud...she thought...what a surreal feeling! She wasn't afraid so much as confused...how did she get here in this strangely beautiful place? She got the feeling she was not alone, but there was no one else in sight. A soft ray of light penetrated the veil ahead of her, and she no more had to think about moving toward it than she was there. The ray of light turned out to be a golden escalator rising up through the cloud. Though she felt disconnected from her physical body, her mind was focused and clear, and she knew what she had to do next. At least it's going up...she thought nervously...and stepped on.
As in all dreams, time seemed to have no meaning. One second she was putting her unfeeling feet onto the slow moving escalator, and the next she was standing before the most beautifully carved antique wooden door she'd ever seen. Again, as if a gentle unseen hand was guiding her, she opened the door and stepped over the threshold. She was in blackness for a moment...like being in an underground cavern with your eyes open, but not being able to see. Then a voice whispered...open your eyes...and what she saw took her breath away. No words could describe the absolute perfection of the garden she was standing in. Suddenly she was very aware, her senses heightened, no longer disconnected. She felt peace and joy beyond anything she had ever known. She walked the grounds taking in all that she could, and when she spied a wrought iron bench smack dab in the center of this paradise, she sat.
The feeling of being alone, but not really alone, began to take on a whole new meaning for her when she saw someone standing in the forest just off the footpath at the edge of the garden. She knew who he was even before he stepped out of the shadows and into the brilliant sunlight. His face seemed to be the brilliance, and she bowed her head and wept. She didn't hear Him approach, but she saw His sandals through her tears and felt His hand on her shoulder. It was then that she raised her head and looked into the eyes of her Savior. They sat together on that bench for what seemed to be a very long time in "dream" time...then she turned to him and asked...what am I supposed to do? He placed His loving hand on the side of her cheek and said only two words...just be. It was then she knew her time was up, she had to go. They got up, shared an embrace and a smile and she watched sadly as He walked back into the forest. She wanted so much to stay in that place forever, but something inside her knew she'd be back one day.
Time went into fast forward, and in a flash, she was back through the garden, the cavernous blackness, over the threshold, down the escalator, and falling through the cloud. With a start, she opened her eyes and was right back where she'd started...in her room, laying on her bed. She looked at the clock on the nightstand...scarcely twenty minutes had passed though she felt like she'd been gone much longer. From that day forward...she never spent another moment in fear...never wasted a moment on worry...and lived and loved with all of her heart and soul. She knew the dream was special. It remained as vivid in her mind as the day she dreamt it, for all the years of her life. One night as she drifted off into a deep sleep, she felt the serenity of knowing...and off in the distance she saw a shining ray of light...she whispered...my escalator, and smiled radiantly.
As in all dreams, time seemed to have no meaning. One second she was putting her unfeeling feet onto the slow moving escalator, and the next she was standing before the most beautifully carved antique wooden door she'd ever seen. Again, as if a gentle unseen hand was guiding her, she opened the door and stepped over the threshold. She was in blackness for a moment...like being in an underground cavern with your eyes open, but not being able to see. Then a voice whispered...open your eyes...and what she saw took her breath away. No words could describe the absolute perfection of the garden she was standing in. Suddenly she was very aware, her senses heightened, no longer disconnected. She felt peace and joy beyond anything she had ever known. She walked the grounds taking in all that she could, and when she spied a wrought iron bench smack dab in the center of this paradise, she sat.
The feeling of being alone, but not really alone, began to take on a whole new meaning for her when she saw someone standing in the forest just off the footpath at the edge of the garden. She knew who he was even before he stepped out of the shadows and into the brilliant sunlight. His face seemed to be the brilliance, and she bowed her head and wept. She didn't hear Him approach, but she saw His sandals through her tears and felt His hand on her shoulder. It was then that she raised her head and looked into the eyes of her Savior. They sat together on that bench for what seemed to be a very long time in "dream" time...then she turned to him and asked...what am I supposed to do? He placed His loving hand on the side of her cheek and said only two words...just be. It was then she knew her time was up, she had to go. They got up, shared an embrace and a smile and she watched sadly as He walked back into the forest. She wanted so much to stay in that place forever, but something inside her knew she'd be back one day.
Time went into fast forward, and in a flash, she was back through the garden, the cavernous blackness, over the threshold, down the escalator, and falling through the cloud. With a start, she opened her eyes and was right back where she'd started...in her room, laying on her bed. She looked at the clock on the nightstand...scarcely twenty minutes had passed though she felt like she'd been gone much longer. From that day forward...she never spent another moment in fear...never wasted a moment on worry...and lived and loved with all of her heart and soul. She knew the dream was special. It remained as vivid in her mind as the day she dreamt it, for all the years of her life. One night as she drifted off into a deep sleep, she felt the serenity of knowing...and off in the distance she saw a shining ray of light...she whispered...my escalator, and smiled radiantly.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
