This word I like... We architect our life...
A song, a sigh... developing words that linger...
Through fields of green, through open eyes... It's for us to see.
Interanimate: To animate or inspire mutually

Monday, July 16, 2012

The Dais - Part 5 of 7

Dedicated to William Henry Anderson 1920-2012
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A Brighter sun

Looking below the dais, Dorothy felt a new, unfamiliar sense of warmth and purpose. The fear and uncertainty that had gripped her since she could remember was giving way to calm. In front and below her now she could clearly see dozens of people standing and facing her, watching, seemingly waiting or expecting something. They all wore green clothes and variously shaped hats. Many of the men wore huge hats that reminded her of pictures she'd seen of French soldiers, pointed at the front and back, high and arching over the top. These large-hatted men were just below her and they faced the others. The men held long wooden poles in their hands which they kept in front, creating a barrier preventing others from approaching the Dais. Another group of men, interspersed throughout the crowd wore round hats she had seen worn by Spanish people in one of her school textbooks. Their jackets were lighter green that the rest and had sleeves that ended puffing about the shoulders. Women that were with these men were wearing full head dresses and robes that only allowed their faces to show. She had seen pictures of women dressed like this who lived in Palestine. One of the robed women below her a short distance away held in her arms a beautiful Siamese cat with fierce blue eyes. Next to this woman was a man dressed in a forest green jacket over nickers with high tops. The man had his arm around the woman and his other arm around a blond headed boy. Dorothy knew this man. Dorothy knew this boy, her brother. The man, Daddy, her father, smiled at her with the ear to ear grin she had missed for so long. She felt her heart racing and she wanted to run to him. To them. Just then the woman with the blue-eyed cat pulled down her head dress to reveal a gliding, tumbling shock of red hair. She recognized her mother. Dorothy had been slow to recognize Maddie because she looked so different than from recent memory. Maddie's cheeks were blush, skin glowing, eyes sparkling with life. The three were looking at her from a distance that seemed both unfathomably long and achingly short. Toto was in the courtyard and had found them. Dorothy had a great urgency to leap from the dais herself and run towards her family, but she could not. For one thing, there were a number of large men with huge hats that not only blocked others from her, but probably blocked her, for the moment, from the people below. Another thing held Dorothy on the Dais, a spectacle rapidly unfolding in the sky and horizon just within her view. She felt like she had to watch. The golden sun, that had been high overhead for as long as she could remember, had reached the edge of the horizon. As it touched the top of the low rising fields of green and gold, the reddened setting hue sparked bright against the earth; sending out long streams of multicolored beams arcing across the land and high overhead. High above the horizon Dorothy saw thousands of large bluish birds flying in a clockwise direction and upwards, forming a curious spiral column from the ground to the heavens. The indigo-gossamer birds were all crying out as they flew upwards, each vocal burst a short low to high pitch crescendo followed by silence. When the birds reached some seemingly predetermined height, they quickly dove out and down, away from the circle and towards the setting sun. She wondered if they might be enacting a ritual to both mimic and honor the setting of the golden sun. A warm breeze brushed Dorothy's face. The breeze, the wonderfully color-fed rainbows arcing overhead, and the gaze of every person below, all swept away now from the golden orb to the west, towards what was happening on the eastern horizon. The Dais upon which Dorothy stood had become well elevated and she could see through and above the glistening emerald silos and surrounding trees swaying in the now cooling breeze. She knew she had missed part of it, but her gaze came down and connected; to the entrance of another sun rising in the east. A brighter sun. She recognized this as the sun in her dreams. As far as she could see on either side of this sun, the horizon supported hundreds of flocks of a different, and very large, white bird. These birds were magnificently proportioned with white wings that almost touched those belonging to those of its neighbors, as they gracefully folded together first upwards, then downwards. Their peaceful, graceful motion and quiet voices were in stark contrast to that of their predecessors to the west. Dorothy's awe was compounded by what she saw directly overhead. Against the rainbow that stretched horizon to horizon touching the edge of both suns, there looked to be a tailless kite, only it was free of any tether. The kite was similar in shape to 8 other objects she had seen in the courtyard below the Dais. Each object formed what was best described as an 8 pointed star, each star tip piercing a circular wheel that held each point in place. From a distance, a simple wagon wheel with illuminated emeralds clustered around the junction of the spokes. The eight emeralds circled a much larger emerald making up the hub. Yes, several of these star wheels were in the courtyard below, arranged in four pairs. The pairs appeared to be framing passageways between the courtyard and places she could not see.

Dorothy's eyes came to rest again upon her family below. The Dais was again just above the people in the courtyard. All the people had come to rest their eyes upon her. Lion, Tin Man and Scarecrow were gone. She knew they would be uncomfortable with what was happening now. She could try to explain to them what she was seeing but she would not be able to make them understand what she could not. The only motion in the courtyard was Toto. The only sound in the courtyard was Toto. Toto was positioned below her mothers arms, which were a little outstretched holding the cat. Toto was barking furiously at the cat directly above him. The cat was not alarmed. With a timing out of step with his barking, Toto was repeatedly jumping straight up, snapping his jaws close to the cat's dangling tail, missing, twisting around, and returning to the ground. Both the cat and Maddie ignored Toto and gazed intently at Dorothy. She wanted so much to vault the rail surrounding her dais and run to her family. But she saw, beyond the courtyard of her family to the east, the arrival of several of the magnificent white birds that flew ahead in advance of the brighter sun. Many of them flew over the courtyard and landed gracefully next to the people standing there. It was clear the only thing these creatures had in common with birds were their wings. The wings were obviously attached behind two shoulders, shoulders that supported long and supple arms and hands. Between the shoulders each sprouted a neck and head adorned with all the features Dorothy expected to see; a nose, two eyes, a mouth, two ears. Not to be disappointed, Dorothy saw that each had two legs and a long torso connecting them. Each winged person matched the gender of the person they stood next to. Mommy Em's winged friend stood behind her. She was a beautiful middle aged woman with long flowing red hair. Daddy's friend stood by his side but was a little shorter than her father. Like all the new friends in the courtyard, he also wore a bright white robe down to his ankles. Just then she heard and felt a fluttering of air from above. She turned her eyes up and watched a beautiful lady with golden curly hair alight beside her on the Dais. She wore a pink gown down to her feet. Her face was hidden for a moment as she looked out over the courtyard and seemed to silently greet everyone. Her face was glowing radiantly as she turned towards Dorothy. Dorothy was swept with a sudden warmth and understanding. She knew this wonderful lady, but not by name. Dorothy's attention was almost immediately captured by the beautiful cargo that her friend was holding in her arms; dozens of clear yellow roses, wrapped in green and gold ribbons. No words were spoken. Dorothy turned to look at her family in the courtyard for their reaction to what was happening. She could see their mouths move silently in unison, "We Love You".

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