Story - Travel Light...

 She could feel a pulling in her chest as her eyes followed the laser light along it's path. It was made visible by the smoke rolling out from behind the backdrops. Something in her longed to fly along that line of light and come out anywhere but at the noise filled auditorium, sitting next to the date from hell. He had asked her if she liked music. 

When she'd said "yes" he'd hung up before she said she loved the symphony and Celtic music, and that she could take both Jazz and Country in small quantities. So he had picked her up, looked at her little black dress strangely, shrugged and drove downtown to the amphitheater. 

 She should have taken a taxi home immediately when she saw more leather and chains in the lobby than she'd ever seen before. But she was on a date. So, finding a set of green earplugs in her purse, she stuck it out, purse clutched in her hand to keep it from being stepped on by the enthusiastic fans all around her. 

 It was supposed to be fun. But the longer she followed the lights with her eyes the more she began to think that she was stoned from the weed being smoked all around her, she swore she was being pulled out of her chair by her chest. 

Distracting herself from the noise of the hard rock concert, she allowed herself to relax and let the mysterious tug take her. She couldn't figure out how she'd ended up backstage. But the odd pulling in her chest was gone. 

Convinced that she was totally stoned, she stumbled into a stagehand standing behind the backdrop. He herded her out the back door quickly, mumbling something about 'came from nowhere'. 

 The silence outside was such a relief. Purse already in hand, she decided not to go back. He wasn't worth it. 

 It took her an entire week before she figured out what had happened. And even then she had trouble believing it. Somehow she had ridden the laser light to its end. 

A little bit of searching turned up the term Temporal Bi-Location, pen size Laser Pointers, and not much else. 

So she began to experiment. 

Trial and error proved to be a bit dangerous as she couldn't remember what she'd tried and not tried. But keeping exact records in a small spiral notebook gave her enough information to be able to determine that while any of the visible wavelengths worked, when she really focused on the feeling in her chest she could get the most distance out of the red Laser pointer. 

Day after day she practiced, gaining distance until she could ride the laser light one hundred miles, even though it's label stated that it could only be seen for ten miles. 

 But no matter how often she practiced she couldn't seem to go further than a hundred miles, and at that she usually ended up stumbling when she landed. Sometimes dropping as much as 4-5 feet. Some of this was due to terrain differences but she finally realized that it was mostly due to the curvature of the earth. 

She began experimenting. Could she interrupt the flight in the middle? Once she could do that, she tried going straight up for a few feet and then changing directions by re-aiming the pointer while falling. She learned to travel great distances by this stair-step method. 

She was exposed to the weather every time she was stepping down and re-aiming the pointer. So she learned to check the weather, check the elevation and always have zippers on her pockets. 

She knew that when she sped along a beam of light, she was not visible. She figured it was because she was moving too fast. 

Not having the equipment she couldn't test whether she was traveling at the speed of light or not. But her travel felt instantaneous, unless she was in a course correction. She learned to cross the mountains, and oceans, jungles and deserts. She had 3 old fashioned compasses on lanyards and four pocket sized laser pointers. 

 So with her passport, a pocketful of currency, and courage she learned to Travel Light... 

Gayle 

Author's note - I don't know whether it works this way or not.

But I'm hopeful. I just bought my own laser pointer thingy.        ; )

Story - There once was a Sea Monster

My daughter was 6, when I told this story for the first time. She's 19 now.



"There once was a sea monster. A not terribly big one at that. And a writer tried to tell this story about it, and couldn't."

"Why not, Mommy?" asked the little girl.

"Because she kept getting distracted, little one," Sara answered, peering into her daughter's eyes through the wispy blond hair. "The writer, had a little girl, just like you. And her little girl kept the mommy so busy that she never seemed to find time to write. Until one day, one very special day, the mommy discovered that she could turn on the tape recorder when she was telling a story."

"OK Mommy, I have a tape recorder, so what is the story today?" pleaded the little girl. "May I please have a story?"

"Are you sure you're not too tired? It's almost bedtime," said her mother, knowing what the answer would be.

"I'm not too tired."

"OK, settle down. Let me tell you the story of Seamore. Now, Seamore is a monster. A sea monster. He is blue and green with shiny sparkles. He is a different kind of a sea monster, because he has hands and a pocket," said her mother smiling at the image. The little girl smiled and slid down under her covers secure in the knowledge that her mother did indeed have a story for her.

"Let me tell you a little about Seamore. He keeps his treasures in his pocket. Shiny sea shells, pearls from the oysters that grew in the ocean, and ruby from a jewelry chest that had fallen over board many years ago. It was old, but it was bright and shiny. He loved all of his treasures. He probably also had some string and maybe a small stick of two in his pocket. Just like human children, sea monsters keep many different things in their pockets."

One day Seamore was swimming along the beach, looking for treasure when he spotted something shiny in the shallows. He was watching it so closely in the shifting waves, he didn't notice that he wasn't alone on the beach. Until his hand touched the treasure just as another hand did the same.

Shocked, Seamore looked up into the wide eyes of a human. Not a full grown human, a half size one, which he knew usually meant a child. The eyes of this child looked the way he felt. But Seamore didn't want to scare anybody, so he gently pulled his hand back and smiled. The boy smiled back. And thus began the friendship between the two.

Jackie was eight, and his pockets were bulging with empty sea shells and shiny rocks. He had long since learned not to put in frogs or living starfish because they wriggled and tickled. But he liked to keep buttons, and S-hooks and strong string in there. Because he never knew when he might need something.

The monster didn't look scary. But one never knew. But Jackie looked down at the treasure in the water, back at Seamore and bent to pick up the shiny thing. It was a bottle cap. With a timid smile, he put out his hand to give it to the monster, since he already had one. Surprised, Seamore took the treasure gently and his grin got even bigger.

In just a few moments, the two had emptied their pockets and were admiring each other's gatherings. Jack's eyes got very big when he saw the red jewel, and Seamore really wanted Jack's S-hook and buttons. And so they traded. Each quite sure that they'd gotten the better part of the deal.

It was late, time to go home. But the two of them agreed to meet the next day. And they met day after day, enjoying each other, becoming fast friends, in spite of their differences. The beach rang with laughter, and splashing.

Tune in for the further adventures of Seamore and Jack.


Gayle