The Wanderer on a Barque

Ann and Kat were at a Horton’s coffee shop. They enjoyed the escape to a comfort zone where they were anonymous and carefree. They had met when they were seven and they knew each other well. Over the years, they had endured years of school, partners, progeny, near deaths and deaths.

Ann was down and out. She stated, “Today has been the worst day ever.”

The phrase had been uttered repeatedly over the past forty years. Kat knew she had to guard her words to be a support. Truthfully, problems do accumulate and cannot be undone, just perhaps resolved. Ann knew what dark, dreary, and desolate meant. Kat herelf was no stranger to when days are hard. She uttered, “By guess and by golly, we get over challenges or don't. Remember that good dreams and calm can happen, as well as the terrors and chaos.”

“Thank god that my days have almost run out,” muttered Ann. My cerebral contacts are too loose—what could happen tomorrow does not offer me comfort today.”

“You have too many synapses and see through smokescreens. You are brave enough to accept the woe begotten story caused by the years of unease of your ancestors. You are understandably sad to face the fact that we are subjected to suffer a death sentence. You are smarter than many, and strong enough to face the many struggles you see. You cope better than most,” stated Kat.

Ann nodded, then responded. “Show me the path to joy and watch me stumble over the holes. The absent parts make bumps that always mess me up."

Kat added, “My preference leans towards the concept that the absent parts are gateways. Energy can move back and forth between outer space and me. As long as my heart pumps and maybe even longer, the gateways, the absent parts, the empty space, can attract, hold, repel or deflect darkness. These portals can make the mundane or muddled open to a path to the next place."

“ My gate holds only darkness,” growled Ann.

Kat responded. “ Setbacks can cause sadness , or equally can lead to unknown other events, that supply joy. We cannot always control how to adjust, control, and reprogram the space between the ears. Our genes and what surrounds us tends to make us favour a response. We start off as neutral creatures. As an uncharged object. When we encounter turbulence, the force of a magnet attracts and pulls us close. When we make contact . We learn and then once we get grounded, we are repelled. We fly off to enter another level of order, that goes beyond what was known.”

“When you start your jargon, you make me crazy,” sneered Ann. Her eyebrows looked angry.

Kat spoke slowly. “My muse does not cease, but the subject can be dropped.”

The threat was brushed off. “Oh, don’t stop - but cut the jargon” retorted Ann.

"Would you have chosen another road?" asked Kat.

“Why? We can’t change the past, nor do we have the chance to opt for a preference,” stated Ann.

“True enough," Kat mumbled. "But now that we have reached elder status, because of our age, we should enjoy, tolerate or get used to the present we have. The present has no exact place but now. You must have noted how, when you look at an old photo, you often look better than what seemed to be the case, at that moment the photo was taken,” noted Kat.

“What a present- the treasure of a moment whose value augments after the fact” reflected Ann.

Kat stated, "A bad day occurs when the joy of the present seems out of reach, or we do not or cannot opt to enjoy thought or no thought, what we do or we do not do."

“You and your fuzzy thoughts. For me, thank the Lord that the U.S. electoral events are on the news. That saves me,” stated Ann.

“We are not at all the same. From what can be understood through TV programs and the news, the state of the government holds more unknowns than the state of mystery of my muse,” muttered Kat. She rambled on. “Humans often depend on the news. What we are told by contemporary peers, or networks, goads and prods us to agree upon some urban myth. My preferred propaganda focuses on what we carry of our ancestors that helps us tolerate the present.

“Humans are not aware of the natural senses. They are downplayed when they need to be decoded. Across land and water, beyond sea and sky, we are creatures, connected through stardust, to the forces that were present before the stars were born. The facts support that a chemo-electro-magneto- automated network travels through the heavens to and from the Earth, yet they are expelled as some sort of new-age concept.

"We repeatedly move on a trajectory that goes around the sun. The solar force fluctuates and acts as a beacon. The presence and absence of energy creates a gateway, where punctuated codes can be used by the concealed eye, tucked between the cerebral spaces.

"Under the control of the master gland, rhythms and cycles are controlled. Schools of salmon go upstream to mate, many beasts creep onto sandy shores to mate at the new or full moon, or lay eggs that hatch when new food sources emerge. Humans are unaware as they are led to what dreams may come true.

"Each person becomes a vessel, say a wanderer on a barque, no, a barge, that holds the seat of the nascent soul. The soul deduces how to use the past embedded messages, to respond to what pagan, secular and non-secular spheres speak of as a force. By the assessment of coherent patterns that are sensed, and the removal of embedded codes of the psyche, the soul can apply data to foresee probable future needs, then lay a course that cuts across space, through the waves of the cone formed by rays of the sun.

"As the barge randomly floats, or gets towed along the path of the curved space, synchronous events bombard each moment. The barge hovers when waves converge, and an ephemeral harmony forms. However, external forces eventually set off a spark, that release an ember, that subsequently flames the soul that creates a force that blows the barge to the boundary of the unknown. The barge must transform and evolve to accommodate the gusts.”

Ann stared at Kat, then spoke, “You and your dreamy ways. They don’t apply to the day-to-day.”

Kat answered, “Just suspend doubt for the moment. Breath. Rest easy. Dream for just a moment. Tell me what you want.”

“To get a free donut” shrugged Ann.

“Roll up the paper cup edge,” commanded Kat.

Ann read the words, “Free donut," then laughed out loud. "What the heck!"”

Kat scoffed. “ Hocus pocus. You got lucky. What chance. For fun, dare to make two more sweet dreams.”

Ann got her donut then responded, “OK. To see someone from the past and hmmm…to hear from Maureen.”

Ann pulled at the crust and ate the donut. When she stood up and gathered the trash, she stopped. An old buddy strutted through the entrance. He stated that he had a sudden urge to get a coffee. As they chatted, the phone rang. Maureen called and left the message, “Just wanted to say hello.”

Kat shrugged. “When random chance does happen, doesn’t that make a case for what we can conjure or foretell- good or bad? Perhaps we can know or control our fate. Maybe our thoughts are connected. Who knows, a part of how we work could be that we can create or attract synergy– when events seem to cooperate and synch up - to be more than the sum of the parts.

For all of Ann’s doubt, she respected Kat’s strange talents. Kat had beaten the odds as a successful soothsayer. Kat always stated that she just channeled her sub-cerebral submerged awareness to unleash her repressed beastly talents as a prophetess, doomsayer, sorcerer or fortune-teller. She would recount what she saw from a glance at tea leaves, coffee grounds and tarot cards and those glances often held truth.

Kat mused, “To have good dreams come true, depends on openness to accept what happens, regardless of hopes or what you expect. Doubt, fear, and worry can block awareness of the present factors. To connect to what we are unaware, may demand that we have to assume an alternate complex truth can occur. As factors collude, the result often goes beyond what can be expected, assumed, or proven.”

Ann shrugged. “Perhaps. Even false hope or remotely probable hope may be better than no hope.”

The two females stood up to leave. As Kat walked to the car parked across from Ann’s, she gave her farewells. “Love that we could get together and chat. Try to focus on when good dreams happen. See you soon,” sang Kat .

“You’ll get an update on the polls,” chuckled Ann, apparently much less heavy- hearted after the get together.