Coming Back

“I don’t know why you would want to leave this place,” her friend, Babu said with finality. “Silly Scilla, silly Scilla,” he taunted as he left her room and went outside to greet the guests that had already arrived. She plopped down on the small velvet chair and gazed at her 24 year-old image in the wavering mirror.

“I will so leave this place,” she said turning to throw the words over her shoulder. She sniffled and lifted her head and gazed into the misty reflection of her uncertain eyes.

“Do you have it in you? Do you really have it in you?” she asked her beseeching face.
A brisk knock on the door pulled her from her reverie, and she knew she had just seconds to answer her own question.

“Yes,” she said to the mirror, pushed back her chair, and dashed around the room, searching for any tool or amulet that would help in the contest.

“Come in,” she said after concealing her finds among the folds of her dress. The door was slowly and deliberately pushed open. “It is time,” Mamm said, filling the doorway with her commanding figure and flowing dress.

Walking through the cavernous granite hall, she passed by the two lines of smiling faces and well wishers. “Good luck,” one said. “I know you will succeed,” another said. She smiled at these wonderful souls, but had to force back tears, for she knew she might have to wait a long time to see them again.

Then she and ten others were released into the garden. She watched as some sang, danced or stood still and chanted. Then she remembered the seeds she’d taken from her room. The mustard seed she said to herself. All of life’s answers can be found within that tiny seed. She let each seed fall onto the earth, blessing each one with a heart-felt prayer. She plucked a few violets and placed them in her hair. My own reward, come what may, she said to herself. She absentmindedly poked the ground with her toes as she strolled the garden and watched the others.

Then she felt it. Something hard in the dirt. She knelt and scooped aside the dirt. A small purse, she whispered, her eyes widening.

Mamm walked around the garden, enjoying the contest, then glanced over at Scilla. “It is time,” she said.

Scilla rose, walked to the revered hall and joined the line of ten that stood before the Grand Seven. The well wishers, thousands of them, sat around the hall. Each of the contestants in their turn now had the coveted opportunity to present their find to the grand seven.

Why am I doing this? Scilla asked herself. But, she knew the answer. It was her destiny. She knew the purpose of the contest. And she knew her reward was one of the most coveted in the universe. She also knew that among the innumerable rewards, the challenges would sometimes appear impossible to confront.

Am I really going back? Will I really have to forget all this, except for just a few fleeting moments?How could I ever forget this?

“Next,” said the Grand Seven in unison. She stepped forward.

“Little Scilla, you understand what you have chosen?” they asked. She nodded.

“Then show us all what you have found in the garden,” they requested.

She pulled the tiny purse from the folds in her dress. It shimmered as if alive. The whole crowd gasped.

“Open it,” the Grand Seven requested.

With trembling fingers, she undid the clasp. She peered in, but as she did, a rainbow of colors and gold light flew from the purse, throwing her hair back and nearly blinding her. The crowd gasped again, as the brilliant light swirled and coalesced, becoming an all encompassing vision.
It was a life. A little girl’s life. They all watched as the girl was born, grew, became old and wise, then lay down to pass over – and return.

“We’ll see you in eighty seven years, Scilla,” they all said.

And she was gone, like the memory of a kiss in the wind.

THE END