Category: Short Stories

The alarm sings; it’s 6am and still dark outside. Slowly pulling the covers over her head she blindly reaches over to the phone and after 4 attempts, hits snooze. Dreaming the same beautiful dream again, happy that she is right where she left off, it happens again. The alarm rings with the song by Coldplay called “Paradise”. “Impossible,” she thinks to herself, “I will never remember that song I’ve been dreaming of every morning for the last month.”

Forgetting about the elusive dream’s song, back in her office, once again in the routine malaise. Looking out the window thinking about starting the calls again, she always finds small relief from the monotony when she listens to the entertaining geese. They have mini battles with the incoming geese as they protect their territory. Hilarious. The ducks are usually also beautifully flying to the lake with their orange feet gliding into the water with their blue-green feathers on their backs. Not a bad view, she notices and appreciates whole-heartedly.

She decides to light one of her candles to pray for His Kingdom Come. Lighting a purple candle for advent, and remembering the gift she just recently received, happily pulls out of the drawer a mesmeric delicate purple amethyst rosary. It was birthday gift from her sweetie. “Peace” she prays, “Let there be peace on earth, Lord.”

Looking to the left, she sees rolls of shiny red and green paper, ready to be used for the last gifts that were yet to be made beautiful. Waiting patiently are three rolls of scotch tape and scissors. Then, looking straight ahead, she catches a glimpse of her own reflection in the picture of her husband; she kisses into the air towards him. In the same manner, seeing her reflection in the Divine Mercy image in the frame to the right, lines up her lips to his forehead, tells Jesus she loves him and blows Him a kiss. There is hope in the world, there is still good, there must be a way. Yes, love is the way. Just then a breathtaking white crane flew by her window on the second floor. Her head was outstretched straight with the feet flowing behind as her long wings swept the air gracefully. “Luck, it must mean good luck.” Her mood turned as she smiled a tired grin.

I have to get back to this; she pushed herself to resume the calling. Staring at the computer’s screen saver, a golden majestic lion, she slowly blinks three times. Call after call, burnt out and feeling like taking a nap, not ready to work another day, she falls into the purple love seat with the cream blanket her mother gave last year for Christmas. The long knitted blanket wrapped around her body is so soft it feels like a warm hug from someone you love. Yes, it’s as if her mom was there in the office, hugging her, telling her everything is going be all right.

Music playing in the background on shuffle she hears: one of her favorites, “Major Tom” by William Shatner.

“T minus 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, zero… ignition. Lift off… Lift off…. all systems are go… the computer has the evidence.”

Thinking to herself and to God that, if not now, then when? What do we need to do to get ready? The computer has the evidence; we are calling out for your return. Pondering what we need to do to prepare for lift off, she closed her eyes.

In that instant, she remembers the dream’s song. She heard it clearly. It’s an entire heavenly orchestra of thousands playing all types of stringed instruments, synthesizers, drums and tambourines. In the dream’s song her voice is melodious and actually in tune, “which would be a miracle”, she laughs. Somehow she was singing in another language but also understood in her mind. The words were something along the lines of “Yes, now is the time for His return. Look away from your sin and turn. Look up and get ready for the eternal party. It’s going to be amazing and you won’t want to miss out! RSVP to this great party! Come one, come all… please don’t fall. Watch your step and walk this way.”

Having out-of-the-box thought: “If only dreams could come true. What could I do? Could you use me, Lord? If you’re up to something, I want to be a part of it! Well, anything’s possible. With God, all things are possible.”

Looking up above on the wall, she’s reminded by the sunflower picture with the Red background. It read, “It’s a God Thing.” So, I guess, I’ll just have to be patient. I’ll never understand his ways. Funny how he always tells her, “I am the author of time. It is my divine timing. I’ve got this.”

As she looked back to that telephone waiting on her, she mustered up the energy. Now, back to work. Argh.