“Hello?”
“Steven. How are you doing?”
“Ramona?”
“Hey, big brother.”
“Christ, Mona. I’ve been trying to get in touch with you.”
“Yeah? What’s up?”
Steven was knocked off his stride. He hadn’t talked to Ramona for years. He thought. For a lot of years. This wasn’t how he thought this conversation was going to go.
“I…I had this really freaky dream.”
“That…runs in the family. I’m sure you remember.”
There was an awkward pause.
“Steven. I need to ask you a favour. Can you meet me somewhere?”
“Ahh. Sure.” Yeah – a meeting. That could be better. “Where?”
“Remember that place we used to hang out as kids?”
Steven felt a cold lump in his stomach.
“Aaah… I’m not sure…”
“Sure you do. By the beach. We’d go there all the time.. Can you meet me there?”
Steven had started to sweat.
“Well.. I mean… I’m a bit busy.”
“Steven. Please. I have to show you something. And. I have to do something and I think you need to be part of it. And, even if you don’t. I want you to be.”
“Um.. When would that be?”
“Tomorrow.”
***
***
Which is how Steven found himself at the one place he didn’t want to be.
The light house.
There was a note tied to the door with his name on it.
Or, he thought has he tore it open, some other Steven.
“Steven. Don’t come up before reading this.”
“Ah no. He thought. It’s for me.”
“I don’t know much about you. I don’t know if you’re happy, sad. Married. Well, no. I know that bit. But I don’t know if you have kids. But that could be a memory thing. The things is – you might be what you imagined yourself to be. Your life could be what you thought it would be.
“Well…I was told what I was going to be when I was young. I was told what I was going to look like and what I could do. And you convinced me that wasn’t true.
“No. That’s not fair. I was scared. I let you do that because the truth scared me. I had another dream where I saw things, met a boy who told me I’d be lost, that I’d forget everything, but I’d come back.
“I met him a few months ago and I remembered everything, I remembered the idea that had been given to me. But I’m not there yet. I was told I was a House of Lights. And I’d tried everything to become that – but it was only 2 days ago that I remembered I had a house of lights.
“So, you can come up now.”
***
It was about half way up that he heard her. “Hurry, Steven. You have to look at this.”
He stumbled on the stairs.
“Steven. Don’t make me come and get you.”
He felt a roaring in his ears. His mouth filled with saliva, and he felt his stomach lurch.
Step after step he pushed himself up until he turned the corner and walked next to the light.
“What do you think of the hair?”
Ramona stood in a triangle, in a circle, with pink hair. “What do you think?”
He walked towards her.
“NO!” She shouted. “Don’t break the circle. I’m about to do something. Something I need you to witness. I’ve been practicing meditation, Steven. I didn’t understand before. Mona – looking like this – she was an idea. An idea of how I should be. I’m going to be that idea.”
“Mona! Don’t. Don’t do it. I saw this. I saw that…thing I saw her. She told me something. She told me-”
“What, Steven. What did she tell you to do.”
“She told me to talk to you.”
Ramona sat down and closed her eyes. “Ok, Steven. Talk.”
***
Mona looked at Santa. Everything’s about to change, now. And we’ll make things work. But it’s going to be a wild ride.”
Santa still didn’t like the girl on his lap. And he wasn’t sure he was going to like the ride any more.
***
Steven told her his dream; told her how scared he was coming here; told her that he didn’t want her to do anything.
And she focused on his voice, and kept the image of her as a child talking about the idea of her in the future in her head.
She felt a rush of energy.
***
“Do you feel that? Hold on to what you are, Santa. Hold onto that tight because-
***
Today’s image was supplied by Lisa
