Gold Lame' (That's le-mayy) (Gold Lame' Series)

by C. Pic Michel

  “Afternoon,” Tetta corrected him.

  “Afternoon?” the man replied in a teasing tone. “Already?”

  “Are you coming to the picnic today Hiram?” she asked.

  “I s’pose that would be a very nice way to spend my day.” Hiram stepped forward. “What ya’ got packed in that pretty basket, Miss Tetta?” The man’s accent seemed to be getting thicker and even, Amelia noted, a little overdone. She wondered what brought him to the dream with knowledge of Tetta’s name as he poked his finger under the linen that covered the basket. Leaning close, trying to see what’s inside, Hiram looked up at Amelia and winked, then extended his hand and stepped closer.

  “I’m just fooling around,” he said. “My name’s Hiram.”

  “Pleased to meet you.” Amelia shook his hand and felt more connected to the man than as if this was their first meeting. Maybe he was in my dream last night, she thought. There was no thought-reply from Tetta or anyone else. She felt she must have struck on something and decided to pay close attention to the man.

  Hiram shot a mischievous glance sideways at Tetta and let go of Amelia’s hand. “Just let me close up the store and I’ll walk the rest of the way with you.” He trotted across the pavement toward the office of the service station. Amelia looked to catch Tetta’s eye, but the old woman didn’t look. Tetta’s earlier words came back with deeper meaning now, Only you can bring what is out of bounds into focus and until then your safe place is still in the dream. Sometimes Amelia couldn’t tell if she was remembering or hearing think-speak.

  Hiram rejoined the group and the foursome walked slowly amid several other clusters of picnic-goers. Amelia marveled at how well Jojo got along with everyone. He seemed to know exactly what to say to whomever he met and was quite adept at turning on the charm to get what he wanted. Hiram seemed equally good at acclimating to his new young friend.

  “How ‘bout a round of horse shoes when we get to the park?” Hiram asked Jojo.

  “Horses wear shoes?”

  “Indeed they do little fella’. Big metal shoes shaped like the letter U.”

  “How do they get their feet in them?” Jojo danced backward in front of Hiram as he asked him questions.

  “They stand on them.”

  “Ohhh.” Jojo pretended to understand, then asked, “and then we make them around their feet?” Hiram laughed heartily at the boy.

  So he’s not exactly from the country, Amelia observed of Jojo’s knowledge of animals and horse shoes.

  At the picnic grounds, the clusters of people gathered under a classic beautiful hometown-America-style grove of apple trees with plenty of shade for everyone. A nearby group of picnic tables was central command for all of the dishes that people brought to share. As Tetta spread a blanket under the shade of a big apple tree, Hiram and Jojo advanced to the horseshoe courts while Amelia added their food to the main table.

  “I don’t know how to play horseshoes,” Jojo worried.

  “There’s nothing to it,” Hiram reassured him.

  “Don’t the horses get mad?”

  “The horses aren’t wearing these shoes anymore,” Hiram explained.

  “So where do we throw them?”

  The pair’s voices were growing softer as they got farther away from the table.

  “You try to get them to go around a little iron spike in the ground.”

  “Why?”

  “It’s like a touchdown,” Hiram compared.

  “Ooohhh.” Jojo seemed to understand for the moment.

  Amelia’s eyes rolled skyward. “Jojo has a million questions in him.” She turned toward Tetta. “We’ve been gone a long time. Shouldn’t Jojo’s mom be worried about him?”

  “We’re beyond time,” Tetta replied, removing the plastic lid from the container holding the potato salad. She shooed a fly and Binga flew from a nearby branch to chase after it.

  “Tetta, why do you think Jojo stays with me even though my dream has changed?” Amelia paused and waited for an answer that as usual, was not forthcoming. “I mean, I can see how I ended up in his dream…sort of. He was dreaming about Dumbo and I was on an elephant so we sort of bumped into each other. But now I’m in my mom’s dream. So how does Jojo stay with us?” She glanced at Tetta who glanced back while seeming distracted. Are you downloading more info from the web? Amelia thought at Tetta.

  “I’m checking on availability.” Tetta held up her hand asking Amelia to wait.

  “Well?” Amelia was feeling anxious about what she might learn.

  “Well?” Tetta repeated. “You humans never cease to amaze me. Yesterday you didn’t even know information could be accessed in this manner, today it’s not fast enough for you! Do I look like a Google search engine?”

  Amelia blushed. “Sorry.” Then she had another question. “Since you refer to me as human, are you something other than human?”

  “Only humans see anything as other than,” Tetta murmured. “I am One in the Same as you are. ‘Human’ is really only another word for form. At this moment I appear to you as having a human form, but you’re dreaming right now, so you actually have no form to speak of and neither do I, and yet you think you see form. When you can explain that one to me we will continue this conversation.”

  Amelia wondered if she had insulted Tetta with her question, then she considered the delicate play on words Tetta had just employed, along with the new confusion they produced. “Sometimes I think I’m better off not asking,” she concluded.

  “Watch your words,” Tetta scolded.

  Amelia waited to see what Tetta might tell her about Jojo. The questions had brought up several issues she had not considered before. How much time was elapsing while this dream was occurring? She had heard that most remembered dreams happen in the last few minutes before a person wakes up in the morning. Days had passed in this dream but perhaps it was only a matter of moments.

  “Oh for goodness sake child!” Tetta finally interrupted Amelia’s thoughts. “Does your thinking ever stop?”

  “Oh! Shhh!” Amelia put her fingers to her lips then redirected them to her forehead tapping herself between the eyebrows. “Sorry.” Her shoulders slumped and she focused her attention on the tip of her tongue as she lightly held it between her teeth trying to be quiet.

  “It’s okay.” Tetta slowed the tempo of the conversation. “I just want you to practice the awareness that as you think so shall follow your experience. There’s no sense exchanging one flawed belief system for another.” Tetta reassured Amelia as she gently reached over and patted her hand. “That’s what I mean by giving in to the flow. Just let it Be.”

  “I’m sorry, I seem to forget some things until you remind me of them.”

  “Few people learn things perfectly the first time child. Don’t judge yourself.” Tetta paused, then smiled. “PLEASE,” she emphasized, “don’t judge yourself!”

  “Okay.” Amelia smiled back. “So where are we?”

  “I can tell you that you have a link to Jojo that is deeper than two dreams bumping into each other and this is what causes you to remain together. He is not here in the same way however. Jojo and Miguel both visit the waking dream daily while you remain in the Wait Zone.”

  “They wake up and then come back here?” Amelia clarified with excited interest, realizing also that this meant her dream was indeed taking more than a few moments.

  “When the pair disappears from your dream experience they are most likely visiting the waking dream.”

  “Miguel too? Do I also have a close tie to him?”

  “Your words, not mine.” Tetta clarified, “Miguel comes back to the dream you are presently sharing with many beings including myself and Hiram, even Binga.” Tetta shrugged her shoulders. “Each player in any part of the dreamtime may have multiple relationships playing out during any sequence.”

  “Hiram? I’ve seen Hiram before?” Amelia asked.

  “Oh for goodness sake child!” Tetta exclaimed. “What does it take to get you to see
what you’re seeing?”

  “Do these relationships all go back to the waking dream?” Amelia asked.

  “Not all. Some start in the Wait Zone.”

  “What’s the Wait Zone?”

  “Not important. That’s more information than you need right now. It’s a waiting room; no more, no less.” Tetta tried to calm Amelia’s fears.

  “What am I waiting for?” It was too late. Amelia was beginning to imagine the worst.

  “What every human waits for.” Tetta was ready to stop the question and answer session. “A reason for being.” She shook her head. “What a waste of time.”

  “It’s a waste of time to want to find out why we exist and what we’re supposed to do?” Amelia asked.

  “You’d be doing it if you weren’t so preoccupied with wondering what it was.” Tetta waved her hands in the air almost as soon as the words left her mouth. “Not just you. Everyone. Almost all of humanity suffers the belief that they don’t know what they’re living for when, if they would just let go of their need to know — which is a failed effort to be safe, I might add — they would do better than know. They would Be.” Amelia watched as Tetta stopped to scan the ethers.

  “I can tell you this, my dear. You have never been one to search for the meaning of life. There is a long thread of avoiding knowledge, of ignoring facts and overlooking the unpleasant in your part of the web. For you, it is most important that you address this way of staying safe, again a fruitless endeavor, if you are ever to leave the Wait Zone.”

  Amelia stared at the guru turned granny. She could tell the audience was over. She felt a familiar sense of competition rise to the perceived threat that a failure to step up might cause her to lose her freedom. She grabbed her bottle of cola and walked over to the edge of the field where she could see Jojo and Hiram playing horseshoes. The boy was throwing the heavy U-shaped pieces of iron with skill and precision. Hiram would chuckle until he had to rest his hands on his knees to catch his breath. She was sharing her dream with him but she didn’t know if he was also part of her waking life.

  She imagined Miguel being in the waking life and wondered what sort of work he did, who his friends were, where he lived. He could be from Spain. Amelia laid down on the blanket and felt the sunlight sparkle through leaves to warm her skin. She wondered what drew Miguel to her dream and whether or not it was possible to visit this so-called Wait Zone while daydreaming.

  As the shifting shapes of light and shadow moved across her closed eyelids, Amelia began to nod off in the warm summer breeze and found herself standing in the middle of heavy fog.

  Where am I? Where did everybody go? Amelia wondered. The B-rated Halloween thriller anxiety began to mount. It occurred to her that she might have lost her dream connection with Tetta and the others. I know, no others, everything’s connected, she nervously repeated her lesson with Tetta. Frantically, Amelia waved her hands in the air hoping it might clear. I could be in trouble, she thought. Then, thinking better of the manifesting qualities of that comment, she corrected herself, “No, I’m safe. I’m compleeeetly safe. In fact I don’t even need to be safe at all. There isn’t any such thing as unsafe. It’s true. So true.” Then, just for the heck of it she clicked her heels together and tried again, “There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home… nothing.”

  Amelia tried calling Zeke but there was no answer. Hrim? she thought. Again, no reply.

  “How ‘bout me?” At the sound of a strange man’s voice the fog parted and Amelia was looking at the horned manager that had appeared in her other dreams. Her eyes roll upward as her head wagged with distaste for the man and a frustrated groan filled her throat. “I’m always the last one you think about,” he grumbled.

  There could be a very good reason for that! Amelia thought, and then wondered what she meant by this statement that had come to mind so easily. Somehow the obvious interpretation she wasn’t the type to hang out with horned devils seemed to come up short.

  “I’ve been waiting and waiting for you to make up your mind and you still don’t have a clue what you want.” Amelia assessed the details of the horned manager in this dream. He was short on horns. However they were evident in his attitude. He wasn’t wearing a black cape in this dream, but he did seem to be stuck on the same question that was in the first dream in the restaurant.

  “These things take time,” Amelia said, without knowing why. “I thought it would be okay to do two things at once.”

  “But now is not the time!” The man’s voice turned anxious. He was pacing and looking out the window as if he were trying to find something. Amelia realized scenery was developing, but it wasn’t coming with her thoughts. It was a part of his thoughts. She tried to sense what she was really feeling for the manager. She felt trapped, suffocated by his controlling manner. He was impatient and demanding and she felt conflicted about wanting to make some sort of a decision and also resistant to doing so because of the way he was pressuring her.

  “I’m running out of time.” He pointed low to the ground, shaking his finger and stomping his foot. “Just take those!” Amelia couldn’t see a thing, but remained determined in her position.

  “Nope, those are definitely not me.” She replied as if she knew what he was talking about.

  “No one’s going to see them anyway.” The man practically stomped his feet. His actions and intonation all suggested he thought Amelia was being ridiculous.

  Amelia stood in shock and backed away from the man. “Shouldn’t you above all people be most interested in this part?” she demanded.

  “It’s a simple decision.” He moved toward her.

  “Whether I’m a red state or a blue state?” Amelia recalled her options from the restaurant dream.

  “How long are you going to criticize me for that? I thought it would be fun.” The man’s temperament turned to fury.

  Amelia glared back. “It didn’t fit, David!” she shouted feeling simultaneously angry and thrilled that she had remembered his name.

  “It’s not rocket science, Amelia. It’s a simple decision.”

  “It all starts with this one decision,” Amelia insisted.

  “You’re doing this backward!” David argued.

  “I am not!” Amelia stomped her foot. “It all starts with the shoes and gold lame is not where I’m starting from!”

  The sound of a record needle coming to a sudden stop screeched through her mind. Amelia jumped from the ground under the tree ready to finish her argument with David. She stood alone. Out in the field, the water balloon games had begun and she saw Jojo take a big one to his back. She looked around wildly. David the horned devil had disintegrated. She searched frantically through the crowd to locate Tetta. She was nowhere to be found. It became obvious this was something she alone needed to figure out.

  Pause, pause, pause…

  4 The Other Side and the Other Other Side

  Jahni led his group of 10 dreaming apprentices to the space between a pair of glowing pillars of light, and turned to address them.

  “This is the Wait Station. It is the entry point to the Wait Zone.” Jahni made the distinction between the two places for the small group of 10 students. “Those who cross over into the Wait Zone by way of transitioning out of the physical life are usually entertaining either the last few moments of their previous dream or the dream they expected to find once they crossed over.”

  Jahni scanned the group to see that each comprehended the meaning of his words. It was often possible that students still clung to their expectations of heaven, hell and other post-3-D eternal places long after they had witnessed the multi-dimensional realm of dreams. Having never been human, Jahni could not comprehend how it felt to believe that 3-D was real and everything else was imaginary except for a possible evergreen and peaceful heaven or fire-studded hell.

  “In the Wait Zone you may help those in need reach the next level of consciousness. I must warn you, there are those who are dead and
those who are still living in this place. Since this is your first visit I would like you to refrain from working with the still living as we don’t wish to cross-over anyone who might not yet be ready.”

  “How can you tell the living from the dead?” one of the students asked.

  “Those who are ready to go to the next level of consciousness will join you easily. You are not permitted to try to convince anyone they should cross over, understood?”

  “What kind of living people are here?” asked another.

  “Those in altered states of consciousness. Those who are on drugs, for example, can have experiences here.” Jahni replied. “They may be very high on illegal or prescribed substances.” Jahni thought of an example. “Acid, or morphine. Or they may be in a coma. This is why we’re not going to work with the still living. Outside the Wait Zone are countless family and friends hoping their loved one will wake up.”

  “Are the brain-dead considered alive or dead here?” another student inquired. “I mean that’s such a controversial issue.”

  “No matter what sort of testing can be done, humans will always resist ending a life. Death is what humans are most afraid of. Most humans don’t understand how life continues or that it is concurrent in many frequencies at once.” Jahni paused as a few students exchanged some quiet comments. “While 3-D is a very special experience with limited availability, and should be protected and preserved to get the most out of the experience, it is not all there is. What may help you is to know that if a person is brain-dead, they are among the dead here and may move on. If a person is not brain-dead, they are not dead here.” The group murmured with additional discussion.

  “Then, if we are not sure that a person is brain dead in 3-D we should not turn off life support, even if their body is incapable of supporting them.” The student’s question was more of a statement clearly charged with his own beliefs.

  “Everyone dies from something. No one dies before his or her time.” Jahni paused for murmuring tones that were both relieved and doubtful as many of the apprentices had gained interest in the other side after unexpectedly losing a loved one. “It is better if you explore this for yourselves. Move out, and I will meet you at the lift in a little while.”