The Boy Part III

The next star Jonah met was a green one and, like Madeline, this one too shone with all shades of green. It was bigger than Madeline, perhaps older, and its planets were many. All covered with green growth and water. Jonah's bed sped to the star and began to orbit slowly. Again, Jonah could feel the star's presence and mind and warmth, and he knew that it too was watching him.

He orbited the star slowly, around and around. His bed turned over and under, each side facing the star as if he were being examined. When the bed finally stopped its movements, the planets were all behind him an dhe was again facing the star. Suddenly all the dark shades of green went to the edge of Jonah's view of the star and its center was a brilliant shade of emerald green. Jonah waited patiently for it to speak, propped up against his pillows.

When the star finally did speak, its voice was strange. It was a sort of masculine voice; strong but sorrowful, but with a hint of sympathy that sounded almost motherly...

"Hello Child, I am Tristan," the star said.
"Hello. My name is Jonah," he answered, "where am i now?"
"Many miles from home Jonah. I hope that doesn't frighten you. I have been told to answer your questions. Do you have any questions?" Tristan asked.
"What is happening to me? I know that my heart has stopped beating, but I don't feel like I have died" asked Jonah, a look of genuine concern on his face.
Tristan smiled. Or at least Jonah could sense him smiling, although the star had no face or mouth. "Your life as you know it has been put on hold while you are here visiting with us. Think of it more like a dream. Time has no meaning out here and, if you should choose to return home, you will be perfectly healthy."
"Why has this happened to me?" Jonah asked.
Tristan's light strobed from bright to dull rapidly. Jonah decided that he was laughing. "I am so very glad you asked that Jonah, it's what I really need to speak with you about. I have a favor to ask of you. A task and, if your brave enough to agree to it, you will be taken far from here."
"What is the task?"
"We need your help Jonah. Not all the stars you see around you are kind or benevolent. There are bad stars out there too. One of them has put many beings in danger and he must be stopped. That is why you have been brought here. The good stars feel that you can help us and we brought you here to ask if you would. It will be dangerous and very frightening but you will have our help and all the protection we can offer you Jonah."
Jonah sat in his bed, deep in thought. He still believed that he was probably dreaming, but it was the most vivid and best dream he had ever had and it made him sad to think that it might end.

to be continued...

The Boy continued...

The first of these minutes took the boy and his bed to a blue star and he watched it pulse with every shade of blue and violet and indigo imaginable, some that can't even be imagined. He watched the star bulge and shiver, it's blue gases burning and shifting. Suddenly and unexplainably, the star turned its countenance to the boy and watched him. There was no face, no eye, just the feeling that it was somehow looking at him. The boy was startled and if his heart was still beating, it would have skipped. He felt helpless and vulnerable, but looked back at the star and then his bed was pulled to the flaming ball, until he could see nothing before him but blue fire. He felt no heat though, just the warmth of his bed sheets, that and the sense of the star's life and mind, fixated on him.

They sat like that for another eternal minute until the star showed it's face, or a face. It appeared out of the shaped gas and it was a woman, a girl really. She looked at the boy and she smiled and he caught a glimpse of the star's warmth. "She's lovely," he though to himself, and the star smiled wider.

Then he heard her voice in his mind and she asked him, "What is your name?"
"Jonah," he answered.
"Pleased to meet you," said the star. Jonah smiled and sat up straighter in his bed. It shifted under him to accomodate the new position.
"Do you want to go home Jonah?" the star asked and her flames and gases shifted to form an image of Jonah's home, and his empty room. His parents were sleeping, as was his sister. The star showed him all this and his street at night, but Jonah did not want to return.
"I don't want to go home yet," he said, because he was alive and wanted to see more of space and meet new stars and see new worlds Anything his bed or the mind guiding it wished to show him.
"Fine," the star said, smiling, "but be careful because not everyone you meet will be glad to see you."
"What do you mean?" asked Jonah.
"You'll see," she answered, "if you ever need help just call my name Jonah."
"What is your name?"
"Call me Madeline. I hope we meet again Jonah."

And then Jonah and his bed soared away from Madeline the blue star and through space. Jonah began to motice other specific stars of different colors, but no matter how far his bed took him he found he could always look and see Madeline shining blue and bright somewhere in the great map of twinkling space laid out before him....

The boy.

There was a boy once who would lay in bed and watch light move across his walls and ceiling as cars passed by on the street outside. One night while doing this, his bed began to spin, turning left and right and upside down, but all the while the boy remained firmly tucked under his sheets. His heart beat faster and faster as his bed spun around and around.
And then his heart stopped and time began. The world around him turned to stars and space and his bed transported him through galaxies and dimensions, planets and worlds. And he lay there, smiling as he watched the universe take shape before his eyes. He took no breaths because he didn't need to. He could stare forever without blinking. Hours went by and he did not grow hungry or tired. And as he stared through creation and the heavens, alone but not lonely, calm but not sad, joyful but not happy, he realized that he was now truly alive. And he loved every endless minute of his life....

to be continued?

More thoughts...

I’m a sucker for the romantic and the idealistic and everything that brings light and goodness into this world. I say a ‘sucker’ because it’s not the trendy or normal way of poetry these days. It seems that way to me at least when so much of the art I witness in the dark rooms below coffee shops is so broken and twisted…hurtful.
I saw a lady at work today who was young and pregnant and wearing a little red jumpsuit. She came in with her mother I guess and described, with the brightest face, how they were together to paint her coming baby’s room. I shared in her excitement and imagined the joy that she must be bringing her husband.
It’s a theme that’s been coming up a lot with me lately. Pregnancy, and the absolute ecstasy it must bring. I thought again about my youth and my parents and how happy I remember everyone being.
I told my dad for the first time in I don’t know how long that I admired him. I talked with friends about it the other night and how my friend, at 22 years old, should never have had to stand up to his dad almost to the point of blows. Over the way his father was treating his mother. I have my own demons of that sort but not to that extent. We talked about it and my friend sat there with this look of detachment. As if he was tired of being ashamed of his dad and tired of being hurt by it.
I understood him that night better than I had before and we talked about who we were because of these experiences and how they’ve caused us to grow so much more completely than we would have otherwise. After a while I just smiled about it all because it’s alright now…completely alright, and it has been so only by the complete grace of God. I love my father very much. And I love his wife who kissed me affectionately for the first time since I met her.
I’m going to hurt someone and disappoint them too some day. It’s a part of life and, in some ways, a beautiful part because I’m a broken person too. An imperfect person who is unstable at times and doesn’t do things the right way. I don’t do the things that are expected of me and usually have very little desire to.
I’m walking my own road, as cliché as that sounds, and I’m learning and becoming who I think God wants me to be. I drink too much and smoke too much sometimes for example, but I’ve seen the most beautiful moments between friends come at those same times and I wonder at how God uses the broken and the confusing moments of life to reveal truth and goodness to the point that sometimes I don’t see how it could be otherwise.
I slept poorly last night and woke up sensitive and frustrated and shed a tear over a movie that I had seen a number of times before. I was discontent and far from feeling the peace I always desire. But seeing that lady today with her swollen stomach and shining smile put things into perspective again. Life is good and always will be.