Part 3 Out the Door

Part 3 Out the Door

I stayed put for a few moments after Claudia ran out on me. I shifted my gaze back to the ball. Encapsulated clouds swirled and became dark and threatening. The rock rolled off its stand to the floor, across the room, down the hallway to my bedroom. I followed and stuffed it into the green canvas backpack on my bed.

What was here to keep me?—my books?—records? Things; only things. The people I wanted to love didn’t care; didn’t feel—innards as hard as rocks. The curio shelf held scattered rough mined stones—amethyst, quartz, shale—I swept them into a side pocket.

The inanimate object mirrored my need to leave; to roll down a hallway or maybe a highway. It wouldn’t be long now.

Part 3 Out the Door

Part 2 Crystal Clarity

Part 2 Crystal Clarity

“Psychic power is a bunch of hooey” Claudia said nonchalantly as she took another bite of her pastrami on rye.

I pushed back from the pink Formica kitchen table and set my empty plate in the sink. “I’m sure I feel something when I tune in, especially if my crystal ball is near,” I responded.

I love Claudia more than anyone else. She is smart and pretty. Her feet are tiny as if they had been wrapped from birth—like they used to do in China. Her toes curl up and her strides are short. No matter what she wears she looks perfect—at least to me. I hang on her every word, completely ignoring her cruelty. I blame myself for not measuring up. I’m lucky to be her friend. I’m considered somebody because she lets me hang out—popularity by association. I know if I put up with the digs that somehow I’ll become like her—self-assured.

“Okay, so let’s go get it and you show me what you see,” she said handing me her now empty plate. “Clear off the table and bring in that Ouija board we played around with last year. You said that would work too and the thing didn’t budge. Seriously, Elaine, you are so full of shit.”

I pretended I didn’t hear the last remark and dutifully retrieved both my ball and the Hasbro game from my bedroom. As I carried it back, I thought about how much I wanted Claudia’s mother, Carolyn, to be my mother. She wasn’t pretty in a physical sense, but she carried herself with dignity and style. She had taste and was so kind to me when I waited forever on weekday mornings for Claudia to get ready for school. She talked to me as if I knew something, that I was smart and what I thought mattered.

“Okay set it here, “Claudia commanded. “Where’s the ball?”

Once again I pretended not to hear the impatience and carefully unpacked the board and flat plastic pointer— its triangular shape designed for three sets of fingers—we’d have to make two work. I set my crystal ball nearby.

“You sit there,” I said pointing to a side chair as I took the opposite position. “I’ll start it going.”

“What do you mean, going?” Claudia laughed.

“Watch. I’ve been practicing,” I whispered as I placed my fingertips on one side of the planchette. “And you’ve got to believe or it won’t work.”

After a few moments, I could feel slight burning in my hands and feet. I glanced at my ball and it was cloudy with a milky haze. The triangle began to move. It spelled out Doss.

“What the hell is Doss?” Claudia mumbled and glanced around the room. “What’s happening? I don’t like this—there’s something here.”

I looked towards my tiny crystal globe and saw a boy’s face with long straight hair. Claudia grabbed for her jacket that had fallen on the floor and headed towards the door.

“I’m going home,” was all she said as she left. Neither of us knew that within two years’ time, my name would be Elaine Doss.

 

 

Part 2 Crystal Clarity

Crystal Ball

Crystal Ball

Now smooth and round, I was once the center of a rough and un-tumbled rocky crag. For centuries I lived in darkness deep in a cavernous earthly vein. No light flowed to meet my gorgeous essence so I sat accepting all that was me. I don’t remember my Jurassic birthday, but I remember the day I was mined and exposed to light and vision.I remember the day human hands broke me from my wall and machined me rounded and clear as only a ball can be. Placed on a pedestal others gazed into me for vision. Sometimes I could see what they were, wanted to be or could be—other times clouds filled their soul and consciousness—not ready to see or be seen.

Human desire is new to this place—born recently to the planet. Yet humans love and hate with a vengeance that is strong and unclear. The earth’s desire is ageless and resourceful. Human’s may try and destroy me, but I am resilient. I adapt and wait for an opportunity to strike back with earthquakes, storms and floods. The stress brings wars, famines and man-made destruction—until I win and humanity is gone.

It goes, unless child-like visionaries see my light and my love. An infant’s eyes see my potential. The world is born anew with their re-birth. A toddler becomes my friend and I heal. The toddler ages into a seer. The seer keeps me on a shelf, easily within reach. I am a crystal ball—prism of light.

Photo courtesy of Blake Webster

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Crystal Ball