A
single pulse. No drop hits the ether. Yet a circle ripples once, a
curve grooves it in twine, and a moan like a whistle and a song
escapes as the orb widens and splits apart. Knowing they were One, two
petals – one, light, the other, darker – awake.
I am,
I realize as feelings stir within. Opening my eyes, I discover Ao and
watch her change. Bliss mingles with pain as I slip out and float away.
« Oa? » she whispers.
I nod.
We drift apart and gaze at each other. I touch her as she wheels
around me, crystalline laughter rippling from her mouth. I scowl and
boom an imperious song. Playfully, she giggles back at me. I implore
her; gilded tears roll down my cheeks. Looking back, she waits for me
to catch her. Seemingly impassive, I soar away and, as a dolphin
capers around a whale, she rushes back cooing at my side. Dancing
around me, she creates a pattern of shapes and measures.
We travel across our boundless silent home.
Another pulse.
On the beat, we swing round and six-winged angels reveal themselves,
singing in a single voice. They point towards a speck of color and
disappear in glorious Holocaust. The song smoothly dies away infusing
us with shapes and thoughts. We look at each other and, smiling, we
gaze at the fleck of color lost in distances upon distances.
We set upon our journey. Thousands of ages we travel.
Closer, but still remote, the speck of color resembles an unclear mass
of shining curves. Fiery straight lines radiate from its heart,
endlessly branching out and intersecting, thinning and curling as they
draw near its translucent surface.
« Worlds within worlds, » I say. « Stars within galaxies. »
« The glowing nucleus -- » she begins.
« -- is this creature’s code, » I complete.
« And the coiling tendrils -- »
« -- are its skeleton. »
Unknowing fear, attracted by the mysterious creature, Ao dives towards
it. I follow.
As we glide down, darkness fills space in which the gigantic and
elaborate tracery shines.
A pulse, this time so strong shock waves rush through us.
The monstrosity bewitches her.
« It grows louder and louder. It calls us, » she acknowledges.
« Though stock-still, this thing beats with life. If it wants
something from us, why not simply ask? »
« Perhaps it is nothing more than a pounding heart. »
I remain silent.
« Come! It looks harmless enough. Let us take a closer look. »
She dives into the darkness, circling down towards a white and blue
spiral.
Or perhaps it does not want us to know its desires. Perhaps it hungers
and simply wants to eat us. Sighing, I follow
her.
We hover above what seems to be its skin – a thickless shell,
intangible and invisible, that isolates it from our home. Peering
through, we behold a maze of tiny entwined braids completely covering
the spiral world. Focusing our countless senses of perception upon it,
we identify its nature. Its twirling aspect represents an evolution
through space-time continuum, each instant merging with the next,
blending into an infinitely long and sinuous blue trail.
No sooner do we land on the Cosmic Skin than the look of things
changes. Plucked out of its span through time, a single world appears.
Below our feet, a motionless glade sprawls in the midst of a burning
forest, butterflies and birds are stuck in mid-air, walls and slivers
of lava hang in the bloody sky.
Marveling, Ao kneels and stares at a hummingbird, its outstretched
wings perfectly still. Stroking the Cosmic Skin as if it were the hide
of some mild leviathan, she gasps, spellbound, and then laughs out her
joy and wonder when she discovers her caresses animate the tiny bird.
Stroking the Skin, the hummingbird becomes a multitude of birds, each
one fluttering minuscule wings, partially eclipsing its neighbors.
Fluttering a thousand wings, the bird, now a feathered snake, curls
around a gnarled tree. The landscape seems similarly affected – the
beasts, the plants, the clouds, all things begin to lose their fine
contours, spreading out infinitely. Brought to life, the whole planet
spins and evolves from what was to what will be.
Kneeling next to Ao, her eyes flood me with love. She touches my head
and slips her fingers in my hair. We could merge anew, become One.
Beside her, I lean forward and caress the Skin. To my amazement, all
things within flow backwards, from now to then. In unison, we stroke
the transparent membrane and, when our hands touch, we sing out our
felicity, as the future and the past crash into each other, flatten
and disappear, everything arrested into an instant.
Space flickers in a toneless throb and as we look at it, we notice
that everything in the glade stands still.
The volcanoes are now ice-capped mountains; the meadow seems less
savage, with fewer animals that appear smaller and refined. A shadow
steps forward from behind the old, gnarled tree.
« Look! » I whisper.
Wings slowly beating, an angel observes us, graceful and awesome. His
eyes focused on us, he strides between the still beasts. Still
watching us, he stops right beneath us. Kneeling on the Cosmic Skin,
we contemplate him from above. He exudes an aura of mystery and love.
Rising on his toes, the angel spreads his great wings, flaps them, and
climbs into the air. When he reaches our height, he peers at us
through the Cosmic Skin. His hair frames his face as a sun; his eyes
shine like twin blue stars. Ao is subdued. Eyes fixed upon her, the
angel extends a hand towards her and says:
« Come! »
« Ao! » I cry out when I see her fall, splashing through the Skin as
though it were a pool of water. Without her for the first time, I
watch her regress back to a tiny petal. Spiraling down, Ao lands onto
his left open palm that closes itself around her.
My lively half! My joy! My love!
Driven by crazed rage, I howl and slam my fists against his
transparent protection. I try to dive into that world. In vain. When I
push the Cosmic Skin forward, the scenery within distorts itself as if
it were merely a flimsy image. Meanwhile, beyond the unseen veil, the
angel lands near the old tree. Looking back, he smiles at me. Panic-stricken,
I will myself to slip back and, a petal once more, I let myself fall
through the Skin, helplessly landing onto his right open palm. The
angel brings his hands together and clasps them. Overwhelmed by
delight, relief and love, we lose all awareness of the angel, the
clouds, the beasts and the trees, Ao and I merge into One.
The angel softly sings in tune with the pervading flux.
Shivering like a starved, thickless leaf, we listen.
« I am Gabriel, » he says. « Do not fear me; be patient, for even if
your journey is rough and lonely, in the end, you will return to Him.
»
Having said this, he unclasps his hands and, with a greater force than
that which binds us, he spreads his arms apart and tears us in two.
« Do not resist. Let yourselves flow. »
Arms extended, he casts us into the world of flesh.