Alchemy

The girl in the purple dress sits by herself on a bench in Castle’s famous ‘Amor Park.’
She’s been here for a while now, but just now notices the abundance of quartz in the soft, dusty texture of the small circle of sand around the oak bench. Teresa wiggles her bare toes pushing the sand around, watching the minuscule pieces of crystal light up around her feet. The nearby chrysanthemums massage away stagnancy with their bright pedals: each one a little etheric fan powered by gusts of wind. Teresa is not cold, but goosebumps want to join in on the action anyways. They want to peak out to glimpse the wonder.

The explorer spots a large bumblebee, slowly traversing some electric path on it’s way to land on the head of a nearby flower -- as a child Teresa and her mother would often watch the bumblebees; Susan would always say things like “Much replicated, never duplicated,” or, “Honey is actually created in another dimension, you know?”

I know, Mom.

The humming pulsates against Teresa’s forehead, starting to get louder. She can no longer tell if it is coming from the bee, or if she is simply hearing it within. Is the whole flower buzzing? She looks up from the flower’s vibrations but they do not stop. Nothing stops. As the panorama of the park scenery comes into view she wonders just how long she had been watching the little creature, the little world that she can see herself in now.

A couple minutes? A lifetime?

Still sitting on the same park bench, but things are definitely much different now. Teresa spots a thin layer of film over everything. Why had she not noticed that before? She decides to take a peek, just to see what is behind there. What she finds is most welcoming: love -- such a massive idea, it juts into our reality like the corner of a tesseract. THe young girl stands to enable all of this, the current flowing in fractals past her towards their opposites.

At this exact realization her eyes fall upon a priest slowly walking along the garden path with a small grey dog which hobbles along at an equal speed. The sight seems strange to the young girl for some reason. She cannot remember ever seeing a member of the clergy with a pet before, but there is also something else, too. The old man notices her and begins to make his way towards the park bench. The closer he gets the more she seems to see it, whatever it is.

“Mom, what is it...?”

Susan clutches her head, rocking back and forth in her favorite armchair. Her eyes wide at something unseen yet inhabited.

“Hello, my child.”

“Hello, Father.” Part of her wants to be afraid, and another part of her is afraid, but the old man seems to prevent this somehow. She feels safe with him.

“Father.” Teresa starts, “Forgive me for asking, but are you...really a priest?”

He looks around, lowering his voice slightly. “Well, I am actually a janitor, but I certainly play a priest.” The holy man looks her over, the judgement of a self-appointed grace. “Ultimately, everyone plays something. That’s the good thing about working at a school: everyone is in the process of getting there.”