Destined - Episode 10
Novella Thurdays
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Chapter Six
Snow-capped mountains glowing against the night’s sky. So amazingly bright and surreal that nothing else on earth looked so animated. A natural phenomenon Aaron once had the pleasure of viewing firsthand. And now, looking at this painting, watching her hand bring to life such a mesmerizing sight with every new stroke of the brush, he swore he could feel the icy coolness radiating off of the mountains as he stood beside Gloria, who seemed to display the hand of God with her talent.
He had meant to start a conversation with the woman who called herself Gloria, but as soon as his eyes had caught sight of the picture it was as if he had been caught in a trance, and so Sarah was the first to speak.
‘Breathtaking, isn’t it? My John and I felt the same way when we first set foot on these Himalayan mountains. It’s no wonder they are the gateway to such wise men.’
‘Wise men?’
‘The Tibetans, of course.’
Aaron’s heart began to race, his full attention on Sarah as she continued.
‘We had been tracking Omit for nearly a year, and it took us another six months to reach him. We were so worried his stay with the monks would come to an end before we got there, but our efforts had finally paid off, as we caught up with him not that long before his departure.’
‘Was John your husband?’
‘Is,’ Sarah corrected. ‘John is my husband.’
‘And where is he now?’
‘Searching for me, of course. In a life as vast as this one, it does take time.’
Aaron now understood why Donna and many of the other staff members on the female ward referred to Gloria as having an old soul, for even though they were near the same age, Gloria had a tone, a personality, an aura about her that reminded him of his own grandmother.
He spent the next thirty minutes or so listening to her old stories while she put the finishing touches on the painting she called Memory. A brief history of a couple who had fallen in love nearly a hundred years ago, had searched every continent for ancient knowledge that would keep them together forever, then returned home to open a small restaurant and have a child.
‘Our little Jeannie brought a whole new purpose to our lives. Before she was born it was all about us, and our pursuit to plant the seeds to our destiny. Thankfully we had that foundation in place by the time our angel came along, and from that point on our focus had shifted to providing her the best life we could.’
‘You say you and your husband planted the seeds to be together forever. How? What did you find on your world travels?’
‘Universal truth, my dear boy. Did I not tell you we finally tracked down Omit, the keeper of The Book of Truths? One thing that has not changed over time is the need to know.
‘Your generation, mine, those who have come before me. It’s all about finding our own personal truth. Discovering the bread crumbs is a gift from the universe. Following them towards enlightenment is a gift from you to your future self.’
Aaron had heard every story, every claim, every delusion he thought possible from all the patients he helped treat, but nothing as profound as this. It was as if she were speaking of this current situation. This puzzle that had been presented to him, a piece here, a piece there, by both her and Jimmy. And yet being confined to this female ward, there was no way she could have known what was going on two floors below. These mysterious clues, bread crumbs, were precisely what kept Aaron’s disbelief suspended.
As if she could hear the perplexity in his silence, Sarah shared one more piece of wisdom for him to contemplate.
‘Thought, word, and deed,’ she said as she drew a horizontal line in the snow for each word. She then connected the three with a line straight down their middle. ‘When in alignment, anything is possible.’
‘What’s going on here?!’ a familiar egotistical voice demanded to know. Aaron turned to Dr. Moran, who held his briefcase and was ready to head out for his weekend conference.
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