Maria got up a bit late, typically about 6:00 AM. This morning though, she had a striking vision and stayed cuddled up long enough to stamp all the details into her head. Quarters, the coins spinning like tops in rows and columns, occasionally dancing in front of her view. She hastily donned another set of long johns over the set she’s slept in, then a thermal shirt and a thick turtleneck sweater. Same for the legs, over the thermal pants she put on a pair that didn’t had the reach-in men’s opening in the front.
Eager to look up that vision, her insulated house boots made thumping sounds as she raced upstairs. She’d designed and built that log cabin here in the Kentucky woods, with interior carpenter and electrician’s help of course. She settled into her upstairs office and turned on the computer. As it went through the details of starting, she decided to race back down a make a cup of hot tea. As the microwave hummed, she filled her little tea strainer with the dark Assam she loved so much. “Drat! I keep dropping those bits of tea on the floor!” She left it with the other dropped bits and went back up more slowly, stirring her tea with her little strainer.
Search: Quarters
The myriad of results made her sigh, the usual. She consulted her angel with her artistic pendulum and ran her other hand’s forefinger down the listings until she got the ‘yes’ signal. Opening that site, she read down to the paragraphs to the ones that closest matched her vision:
“The amount may seem small; however, this is a very positive sign for joy and prosperity. The more coins seen, the sooner and more robust the joy and prosperity will be. If the coins are falling like rain, you must take the needed steps to make it happen. If the coins were organized, you have someone helping you, so work with that person.”
She immediately peered at her pendulum and said, “Jerry, Team, let me tell you about this magnificent vision I had this morning!”
The pendulum swung twice in a clockwise circle and then swiftly made three swings across sideways. “Hey, good morning! A vision that makes you giddy, I want to hear it!” The Team Leader’s voice came right into her head but she repeated each word aloud and watched the pendulum to ensure she got it right. If the swings continued showing the clockwise rotation meaning “yes” she could be confident in her internal hearing. And it did, gentle circles.
“Hi, Jerry! The vision indicated success with the Happy Pendulums site! Some sales might finally be coming!”
“How many did you say you had on display in the store? About a hundred, right?”
“Yeah, just over a hundred. And I did make a few hundred more over the last couple weeks, all unique and across all categories from Simple through Fancy.” She hesitated. “I know the main priority is to get my instruction book to sell and the pendies to sell to enlighten the folks who buy them and to teach them to talk to star folks like you and the team.
“Jerry, the thing is, I’m afraid to turn the heat up more than 45 degrees because I am on my last few hundred bucks in savings and these sales will pay for the internet, the utilities and maybe even the car payment before they come to haul it away. This can’t be true!”
“Ahhh, Sweetness, I know you are having hard times and I feel for you. We all do and have been working diligently. Your faith in our Team is allowing this to happen now! Don’t get depressed, dear, I feel it coming on! Enjoy delight for this great portent! We’re ready for it, aren’t we?”
Her tea cup was empty? She’d guzzled it without a care. She could not buy more. Her delight ebbed. “Jerry, I gotta refresh my tea, I’ll be right back.” Any delay seemed good, she feared pulling up the site to see the same thing she’d seen for two months. The microwave hummed; the inside light didn’t work yet it still heated her well water. Her website didn’t work either, never one sale and no blog sign-ups. She’d made training videos and everything for her mailing list! No list. She trembled, fearing her reaction to seeing that abject failure once more.
She took out a couple slices of her homemade bread and slathered expired apricot jelly on it. What a breakfast. Beep! She put the same strainer into the cup to get every smidgen of flavor from it and carried that and her sandwich back upstairs. “Okay, Jerry, I’m back.”
“I couldn’t help not picking up some of your thoughts. None of your other projects have earned you anything?” His concern tried to touch her stubborn heart
“The online bookstore brings in a couple hundred most months, however that precious library I’ve been building for the last few decades will not last forever. Many of those books I bought and didn’t even open, lots are first editions that I got in my 30’s or 40’s as regular books. I mean, I do still have about 4,000 up here in the library, so it’ll take me months to upload all of them.” The tea had cooled enough to have a drink. “The eBay stuff isn’t doing anything, nor the clothes up for sale. Look, I don’t want to get into it again, the yada, yada about all my published books not selling either, waah, waah! ” Tears had begun. She wiped her face and nose with a sleeve cuff to save the tissues and drank some more watery tea.
“Maria, dearest one, is there not anything I can do to make you feel better?”
“No. I need a hug and some discernable smear of love to get me through this. It’s coming up to a whole year!” She chewed on some of the sandwich she’d forgotten. Bad memories invaded. Fired two days before last Christmas by a hateful, jealous new boss, too old for anybody to want to hire and too young to dip into retirement funds from that company she’d worked hard at for over a decade. She’d made good money before that asshole. Got bonuses, had the respect of all the other managers. Now it’s late November, yes, almost a year later. Almost time for another rotten Christmas, ho, ho, ho. Blackness.
She took a deep breath and resolved to end this happy-doody fantasy with her cutesy pendulum, it had gone on far too long. Sternly, she announced, “Jerry, I’m done with all this, finito, ashes. I’m sorry I wasted you time. Goodbye.” Tears and snot ran down, dripping on her clothes and the floor as she headed back down to the kitchen. She grabbed a paring knife and went out to the front porch. She’d already perused likely ‘accident’ locations on her 100 wooded acres. The coyotes and bobcats would be hungry and doubtlessly delighted with her gift. She’d just need to remember to toss the knife far away while she could. That way her sister could get the cabin and insurance without legal hassles. She stopped in the middle of the gravel driveway.
A thought nagged her. Alone. It would be a long time before anyone noticed she was gone. The cats. She trudged back in to gather up the cats so she could pitch them outside, better than them starving inside. As she searched for them, she heard a roaring sound outside that prompted her two dogs to begin barking and howling like crazy. Had they come for the car already?
Stepping outside the front door, she saw a vehicle behind hers. With no wheels. No wings. Reflective. “I have finally gone completely insane. I imagine I see a spacecraft in my driveway. She raised her fist with the knife blade aimed at her heart as the dogs jumped and barked around the thing.
A hatch on the craft opened and a man leapt out to look straight at her. “STOP! Don’t you dare do that!”
She recognized the voice and the knife fell from her hand. In a faraway voice, she asked, “Jerry? Are you real?”
He smiled with tears and extended his arms as he moved toward her. “Yes, yes I am.”
The Various Entity Shoppe 