Illustrations by Miso

"You know the dream: we all have it."

ONE

He
comes up
out of the earth. Naked.
Alone. The earth closes off below his feet, healing
itself with a faint shimmering of molecules, then it is done. He walks for a while, following the Path. And he comes to the First Place.

It is nothing much, this First Place. Just a hut, tucked into the many-folded hills by the sea. And by the hut waits an old woman. She is not tall. She is not dressed richly. She seems old, yet her eyes are quick. As she spies the naked young man coming she shifts slightly and prepares to hail him. She knows that he is called Cory. She knows everything about him.

"Traveller!" she calls, "What will you take on your journey?!"

He hesitates, looking as startled as a possum. Her question seems to have confused him. She asks again, and he answers suddenly.

"Anything else?"

Again he hesitates, as if stirred by conflicting emotions, but she smiles and waits patiently. She knows there is All the Time in the World, because she is All Time, and many other things as well.

Finally he answers, and she sends him on his way, just as the sun flares on the horizon behind. He will have all day to reach the Next Place.

And as he vanishes into the foothills another young man appears on the Path, a friend to the first. Cory’s friend. The old woman glances west, altering a few twists
in the Path. They will meet -
(how could they not?)
- but not today.