A Day of SynchronicityPalo Alto, California, USA, Planet EarthA young speed-freak has heard voices; seen a vision, or had a dream. Somehow, he has been told that he must drive south and pick up a strange woman whom he has never seen before in his life, and bring her back up north. Prevailing upon another member of the household, he borrows her van and sets out toward the Big Sur. The Northern tip of Big Sur, California, USA, Planet EarthThen somehow things get onto the topic of UFO encounters, and everyone begins sharing his or her experience of having seen one. Everyone except me, that is. Having nothing to share, I listen to tales of UFO's having been seen back on the East Coast, or in the SouthWest, or here, or there. For a while, I share in the strangeness of it all, but increasingly I just begin to feel left out of it. A wistful feeling grows within me; why do exciting things always happen to others, and not me? The late afternoon has shifted into twilight while we all were talking. Glancing up at the sky, I notice the first evening star twinkling over the ocean. Impulsively, I silently repeat a rhyme from childhood: "First star that shines so bright I wish I may, I wish I might See a UFO tonight!" Then I turn my attention back to the others once again. The night wears on. Eventually policemen come down to the beach and tell everyone that the beach is closed for the night. My friends and I pick up our things, and head back towards the highway to go our various ways. We have been standing on Highway 1 for a while with our thumbs out, when a VW van approaches us from the north. It pulls up alongside us, and stops. The driver sits there for a moment, his gaze sweeping over all of us until it comes to me, and rests. "I have been sent down here to pick up a woman I've never seen before and bring her back up north with me," he announces."and you're that woman!" he tells me. What the heck, I tell myself, and decide to go along with the flow. I hand my knapsack over to him, and climb into the front passenger seat. He turns the VW around, and we begin to head back up north. By now it is quite dark. The ocean to our left reflects the starlight, and a night breeze is blowing off the sea. Little animals run across the winding Big Sur road just ahead of the van's lights, and every one of them is an indication to Wayne that California is going to fall into the ocean tomorrow morning. "Do you have any time-pieces on you?" he asks me, and I unearth my brother's little travelling alarm clock from my knapsack. "Here!"I announce triumphantly, and put it into Wayne's outstretched hand. Wayne promptly rolls down the window on his side, and flings the clock out into the darkness. "Time is not necessary right now," he tells me. "Great", I mutter under my breath, wondering what I've gotten myself into this time. |