So, like a forgotten fire, a childhood can always flare up again within us. – Gaston Bachelard

The child Flash looked sad, so adult Flash spoke to him. “Don’t be afraid. I am you from the future. I’ve come back to let you know that you will be ok. We made it.”

The image in the light just stared, wide eyed, and Flash wondered if he could hear him. As he thought this, the boy reached out from the shaft of light, and took his hand. This was not a hologram, but a real boy. Flash knelt down and hugged the child that he had been. “I’m so glad to find you again.”

When Flash looked at the child, he looked into his own eyes. It wasn’t like a mirror, this was a real person, someone different than him. Different and yet the same. This was him before all of the influences. Before the doubts and disappointments. This was a child just building his self image. Flash remembered the feeling, and hugged him again. “I love you,” Flash said, “I love you exactly as you are.”

It’s true. Flash loved this innocent version of himself, and wanted to provide him with everything he needed. Everything he needed to hear. “I am going to take care of you,” Flash reassured.

There was never a day when Flash changed into an adult. Every day of his life, he looked like he had the day before. Somehow, those imperceptible changes added up to a slow moving transformation.

“I want to bring you home with me.”

“Just remember I am inside you,” the boy said with a giggle. “I’ll go with you in your heart.”

If his life were a book, this child would remain in the early chapters. No matter how far he read in the story, his childhood self would remain, safe and indelibly printed on the first pages. He just needed to flip back, and he would see it there.

If this cave represented his life, the opening still sat at the other end, waiting for his return. With the options sealed off, he could see life for what it was. A straight journey from one end to the other.

If Olo were a painting of his life, the initial brushstrokes still lay at the core. As each step toward the surface expanded like tree rings or like layers of pigment, each one was a little larger than the last.

He could never leave this child, and this child would always be there for him.

The boy yawned and looked sleepy. Flash scooped him up and sat with his back against the wall. He cradled him, telling him happy stories about his life… their life.

In the soft white glow of the crystal, Flash fell asleep. Both parts of him slipped into a dream together. They dug for buried treasure in a sandbox. They pretended they were horses galloping through the playground. They drew lines in the dirt, creating the floor plan of a house they could live in together.

In his dream, the school bell rang. Little Flash ran into the building, and big Flash awoke in the tunnel.

When he stepped into the glowing white pillar, he was swept up at great speed, and found himself standing once again on the surface of Olo, beneath a rainbow arch.

“Sorry I took so long,” he said to Luuu, who sat on the bottom crystal. He sat next to him, and put his arm around his grandson’s shoulder.

“I just sat down,” Luuu said, smiling.