The warm morning sun streamed in through the sheer drapes, caressed her closed eyelids pleading with them to open and greet the day.
She opened her eyes slowly, and taking stock as best she could, was ambushed by the fact that there was no pain….No lower back pain, no muscular pain in the leg and groin…no pain at all. She slowly emerged from under the covers, feet on the floor and raised to a standing position…”Nature” was beckoning insistantly, so she headed toward the adjoining bathroom thinking ,”Well this is going to be a good day”. Then noticing something odd, very odd, she stopped still and glanced over her shoulder at the room. It was NOT HER ROOM!
The need to relieve herself was VERY insistant now so lowering herself on the toilet, she let nature take it’s course while she darted her eyes around the bathroom looking for a clue. Had she fallen? Was this a hospital room? no…too domestic..Someone’s guset room? Maybe but how did she get here? Is this how alzheimers starts? Lord she was only 69! You can’t be a Red Hat lady having lunch out with the gals one day and a lost blithering idiot the next! That’s not how it works
She got up, sprang up actually, and looked into the mirror, and startled, looked behind her. No one there…! and yet, in the mirror, there WAS someone…a young girl about 14 or 15 looks like, and no sign of the 69 year old matron who should be there.!
Breathing hard now, Linda jumped when a loud vouce cried out, “Marcie, are you going to lay up in that bed all day?” Slowly padding accross the floor she opened te door and peering down the hall, saw a middle aged woman in jeans and an apron holding a dishtowel and some plates staring back at her.
Cautiously approaching the kitchen, she was guided to a seat with a plate set out with certainly was a heartier breakfast than she was used to. Realizing she WAS hungry, she silently began eating grateful not to have to talk while she chewed and thought wild thoughts…
“Marcie as soon as you are finished there I was hoping you would help me in tthe garden, Please”, the woman entreated, ” I only have this one day off this week and the weeds are choking everything I would be most grateful if ou would be my good girl and help me?
With a mouth full of bacon and scrambled eggs Linda just grunted and shook her head ,”yes”
“Marcie’s Mom handed her a pair of garden gloves at the end of the meal and they headed out to the yard where it was true there was a huge garden overgrown with weeds. Linda very carefully attempted to kneel and the realizing it was no chore got right into the work..no pain no strain.. The weeds came out easiily and landed in a pile behind her as she moved from plant to plant, luxuriating in the sof rich soil, and troweling up around the inch highr little veggies ever so tenderly. It was a true pleasure to be able to do this again and for awhile she forgot about the extrordinary circumtances that had undolded. Marcie’s mom stole a glance or two from her own work and smiled to herself, “Who knew the girl was a natural born gardener”?
As the sun moved accross the morning, and the work went on, a peculuar thing happened. “Linda” sort of faded and Marcie became clearer and clearer. When they had at last made a neat and pretty patch of the chaos, Marcie got the rake and the cart and picked up all the weeds heading for the trash.
Passing the “guest House (renovated Garage) she spied her grandmother at her easel, rapt in the completion of her latest work.
“Hi Gran, how are you today?” she asked staring at the painting….A landscape that wasnt quite a landscape, trees, luminous that weren’t quite trees, and entitiy (was that an entitiy?) that wasn’t quite an entity but made you thin maybe it was…facinating….
“Gran, I had the strangest dearm last night, well this morning actually, I dreamed I was an old lady. A really old lady with alot of aches and pains and my name was Linda. It was really a weird dream”
The painter put down her brush, and turned to look at her grandaughter. “Maybe it wasn’t a dream” she said softly. An old “bohemian” gal, “Metaphysical” to the max and worldy wise, she was the confident that Marcie relied on….
“Did you ever dream you were an old lady?” Marcie asked, to which her granmother laughed and answered, “Oh yes and see my dreams have all come true!” And then on a serious note, she went on.” Yes I have had that dream a long time ago, only the old lady I saw was me, it was a premonition of who I would become. Yours seems to be a little different, She IS you but not this time around. Do you understand what I am telling you?
“Yes I think I understand, She was me in my NEXT life. But Gran, why am I seeing her now? was the query.
“Marcie, you and I are the special ones in this family. We have been given a glimpse of the immortal scope of life…The “Long View”, when you are blessed enough to get a glimpse of the “Long View” it adjusts your priorities in this life. You have the tendancy to make sure you do the best you can here in this time so that it will even get better the next time around.
Marcie just sat for a moment or two trying to get a glimpse of “Linda” but it was harder and harder…so she decided she was hungry for lunch….and thought she would suggest to her mother that they plant some flowers around the front porch, together……..
Lesleafs 