The whale and its riders were dwarfed by the towering castle walls as they sailed through the open gate. Seeing the beauty of the architecture, Flash forgot how tired he was. Embedded within the walls, were intricate mosaics depicting not only life on Olo, but images from his own journey as well. The mosaics were not cemented onto the surface of the walls, but the crystals that formed the images were the walls themselves. Light shown through them like stained glass, only massive in depth.
The air within the castle’s courtyard danced with projected images that interacted with each other. Olo’s history was told in holograms that seemed to come to life as the whale moved. It went right through a 3-D image of Olo, and Flash was reminded of the whales he had seen from the mother ship crashing through Olo’s crust.
Buffy and Skip said “You go rest,” and they slid down the whale’s pectoral flipper to the ground. They waved as Flash was taken high above to a tower balcony which opened onto a suite of rooms. That flipper became a ramp and Flash stepped across the dizzying height to the solid veranda and into the apartment. He found a room hung in tapestries that blocked the light, and it contained a large bed. On the foot of the bed, partially covered by a blanket, lay his friend Lem.
Knowing she was safe, Flash collapsed into the bedding and fell into a deep sleep.
Sleep was a portal to other worlds. Other possibilities. And so the travel continued. The journey of self discovery never stopped. Not even by physical exhaustion.
Flash returned, in his dream, to his childhood, where he was able to observe the times that had caused him pain. Those people who had offended the young Flash, had been fighting their own battles that he had not seen, or not cared to notice. They were not bad people, and meant no harm. He himself had been inconsiderate and self centered. It is easy to forgive ourselves, and difficult to give others the same consideration.
Unconditional love means love without any conditions. Not “I love you, but I wish you could see this from my perspective.” Not “I love you, but you owe me an apology.” Just “I love you.”
In his dream , a long line of people formed, and they waited their turns to greet Flash. Old friends and acquaintances shook his hand or hugged him. Even as they met, more people joined the line. Crowds funneled into the queue, and a roar of voices grew up from the throng. Everyone Flash had ever known or encountered was here. Everyone he knew, as well as everyone he had seen was here. Everyone who had attended every concert, every church service, everyone that had waited on him in a restaurant or store, as well as everyone else who had dined or shopped at the same time as him.
Some embraced him, some shook his hand. Some glanced and nodded, and some just looked away. Some made unkind gestures or slapped him.
It didn’t matter. Their responses to him were not about him any more than his grudges based on perceived wrongs were about them. No one had to make amends. The slate was clean.
When Flash eventually woke, Lem was still by his side. He didn’t get up right away, but continued to lay still in the low light of the room. Rainbow colors crept in around the drapes. The undulating hues danced silently along the floor and in the corners of the room, and it reminded him of when he plunged into the sea on the ocean planet. The bed was soft, and the blankets were fluffy. At last he moved, just to stretch his arm. Lem looked at him and asked, “Are you awake?”
“I can never be sure.”
When Flash finally arose from the bed, he drew the curtains back. Light shot through the crystals that composed the exterior wall of the room, and the focused beams shot through the air like lasers. A hologram of a forest appeared to be growing up from the bed. Rumpled blankets gave way to shaded thickets, and sprinkled throughout the scene, there rose tall, ancient looking pines, which towered above the canopy of undergrowth. The three-dimensional projection looked real, and yet Flash could still make out the room through it. He could see the shape of the bed, and Lem, who appeared to be laying in the cool shadows of the boreal forest.
He looked back at the wall to make out the pattern of the gems which refracted the light to form the image. The wall, while glorious, was pieced together with such complexity that he could not comprehend it in relation to the display it created. Light passed through rubies, garnets and emeralds, blending their shades to create umber and sienna for the highlights and shadows of tree trunks. Hints of ultramarine gleamed in the dark recesses, and the whole forest shimmered in every conceivable hue.
As the light gently shifted, the scene came to life. Branches swayed, streams gurgled, and birds flew from tree to tree, drawing Flash’s eyes up. This is when he noticed something that took him by surprise. A long slender branch took on the shape of a fish. He looked closer and realized that what he had a first taken for tree limbs were definitely fish. Had they been there all along, camouflaged in the foliage? He couldn’t be sure. One fish branch hung with its mouth wide open, reminding him of earth’s basking sharks.
“Look up!” He called to Lem.
She stretched and yawned, comfortable in her forest glade.
Time was a construct that held no meaning for Flash Meridian. He had no schedule to keep, but just the present moment, and anything it might hold.