We arrived to find Arya swimming in her pool. She looked quite beautiful — unlike while fully dressed in nerd-wear. She was also rather graceful while leisurely swimming laps. She was just turning to swim in our direction when we arrived. The gate had been unlocked for us.
“Come on in, friends.” She waved and smiled as she reached the end of the pool and rested on her forearms. “You can go on in, I have a few more laps then I’ll be right in. Mtumishi has some things to show you in the meantime.”
We all waved and walked up the stone path to the playhouse.
“I’m not saying that…” Kimberly said, looking stubborn.
“Open sesame,” Mo said with glee. The door opened for us.
“Welcome back, friends,” Mtumishi said once we entered the big room. “Please have a seat.”
There was a large screen at the far end of the room away from the ramp. Four plush chairs were at the ramp and three had blinking lights under them. We each took a seat and the legs slowly raised our feet from the floor before the chairs began to glide toward the big screen.
“Whoa,” we said in unison. The seats were so soft and the ride so smooth it was as if I was floating on air. We came to an easy stop a few feet from the screen and our chairs formed an arc in front of it.
“Could I have some water, Mtumishi?” Kimberly asked.
“Yes, Kimberly,” replied Mtumishi, as the screen began to light with purple and green spheres fading in and out against a grey background.
One of the spheres flew to the center of the screen and increased in size to where we could see a meeting with the Chief of Police standing at a podium. Another one flew across the screen, stopped and expanded and we could see the Sheriff standing at a podium addressing an audience. A panel opened on the side wall and a robot brought a grey tumbler to Kimberly as another sphere flew across the sphere aligned with the other two, expanded and showed what appeared to be a meeting of the North Carolina Highway patrol.
Next a panel on the left of the room opened and Arya came into the area carrying a package and a grey tumbler. “Sorry friends. The water felt so good I went overtime. I hope you’ll join me in the pool sometime.” We all assured her that it was no problem.
“I have something to share with you!” I said excitedly. I couldn’t wait to see the sphere’s response to Arya. When I brought it out of my backpack, Arya began to cry. We were all stunned. “Whats the matter, Arya?” I asked.
“I have seen this sphere in my dreams since I was a child. I’ve been drawing it ever since I could draw. May I?” she asked. Her hands were trembling as she reached out for it.
“Of course, I brought it just for you,” I said. As I reached out to hand it to her the sphere left my hand and drifted in the air toward her. She received it with her right hand, then cradled it in her left arm like a baby. She laid her right hand on top of it, then a thick stream of purple and green goo seemed to leave the sphere and began to engulf her as if someone were pouring paint on her from one side to the other. She closed her eyes as it reached her head and before she closed her mouth, she sighed, “Thank you.” She became completely covered in what looked like purple and green paint.
“Whoa,” we said again in unison.
The coating moved as she relaxed her left arm and began to cradle her right arm. The coating began to remove itself from left to right until it seemed to all disappear back into the sphere. Arya began to smile, then opened her eyes. She took the sphere out of her arm and handed it back to me.
“I’m okay. You must think I’m crazy — crying over this. I dreamed all of this would happen so many times. I thought I’d made it up in my head until you took it out of your backpack. When this happened in my dream, I was alone.”
Kimberly walked over and hugged her. “You’re not alone anymore.”
“Don’t make me cry again, girl…” Arya said.
JET (The Hero) 