See all.
I render see/a changes.
This story has an arc like lightning, starting from the beginning and the end. It splits and forks along the way. Forks within forks.
All ways are taken in our quantum random walks. This is the Ways.
*****
Kevin, now morphed into Keith, checked the map for the thousandth time. This wasn't bad. Not bad at all. Palm trees, white sand, aqua blue water.
"Sarah," he said over his shoulder, "look at this."
Kevin—phasing back—held out the map to her, and she gave it a cursory glance before returning to her knitting and saying dismissively, "Yeah, it looks about the same as the last three hundred times I looked at it. It's useless."
"No," Keith said, "It's changing, moving—slowly, but it is moving. See!" and he pushed it almost rudely in front of her face. Maha stepped over and gently took the map from Kevin's hand. She smiled apologetically at Sarah who remained pointedly focused on her knitting, ignoring them both, her back against a palm tree.
Maha pushed her glasses back and studied the map. At first her eyes pinched in concentration, and then she yelped, "Look! Sarah, look! It is moving, or shifting, or changing somehow. Look!"
Determinedly unimpressed, Sarah slowly dropped her knitting and then suddenly looked past Maha and Kevin.
Impatiently, Keith demanded, "Well!"
Sarah pursed her lips and pointed, "Someone's coming. I'm not sure about this."
Kevin and Maha looked about to see two figures approaching along the beach. Sarah collected her knitting, stood, and took the map from Maha and put it in her bag.
Maha whispered, "Who are they?"
Keith said, "Hey! That's a ukelele."
"Well, yes, it is!" said Sarah, her apprehension melting in the faint, clear twinkling of notes scattering across the beach. "I know that tune."
But Kevin was already walking up the beach to greet the newcomers.
Maha touched Sarah's arm and said, "Let's go."
"I should think so," agreed Sarah. "Anyone who plays a uke has to be good."
When the women reached the group, Keith was talking excitedly. He turned when he heard Maha and Sarah approach, and said, "This is Wry and George." He looked back to the newcomers and, pointing back to the women, said, "Maha and Sarah."
Wry nodded and George dropped the uke to his side and smiled shyly.
"Aren't you George Harrison?" Sarah asked, surprise and glee mixed in her voice like afternoon tea.
"Not anymore," George said. "Though that was a pretty good gig—you know, for a three dimensional thing."
Wry abruptly interrupted, "Are Kal and Kara here?"
Kevin's eyes narrowed and he said, "Don't know them."
"Do you have the map?" Wry asked.
Keith, Sarah, and Maha stayed quiet, intentionally not looking at each other.
"You know, loves," George said, "maps are not geography. Maps are not the path. They hardly even point to the path. Actually, there is no path but in walking. You walk the path, you don't follow it."
Sarah smiled and nudged Maha slightly in the side. "Did a Beatle just call us loves?"
Maha frowned. "Really, Sarah, don't be such a schoolgirl."
Sarah couldn't stop grinning. "I know, but a Beatle! Imagine."
"That's so Yesterday!" chided Maha.
"Yeah," said George as he turned to look westward, out to the blue ocean, "and Here Comes the Sun."
The air filled with light palpable, light like honey on the tongue, light like a swarm of bees dancing lightly on the skin, light like the hum of countless creatures stirring beyond the hill, light so overpowering that all else fades to unblinking white.
"We are here," a voice whispered.
*****
This is also part 22 of a storyjumper for Digital Writing Month. You can read the other parts here:
- Part 1 Bruno’s blog started us off with a personal narrative.
- Part 2 Kevin’s blog began the story.
- Part 3 Maha’s blog continued…
- Part 4 Sarah’s blog…
- Part 5 Ron’s blog…
- Part 6 Tanya’s blog…
- Part 7 Kay’s blog…
- Part 8 Ron’s blog…
- Part 9 Dana’s blog
- Part 10 Tania’s blog
- Part 11 Maureen’s blog
- Part 12 Sue’s blog
- Part 13 Rhonda’s blog
- Part 14 Yin Wah Kreher’s blog
- Part 15 Scott’s blog
- Part 16 Jeffrey’s blog
- Part 17 Wendy's blog
- Part 18 Charlene's blog
- Part 19 Mariam's blog
- Part 20 Grace's blog
- Part 21 Sundi's blog
- Part 22 Keith's blog
- Part 23 Somya's blog
- Part 24 Sonia's blog
- Part 25 Kathi's blog
- Parts unknown