The Love Chronicles

So I woke up, or maybe I didn’t wake up, at this point I am not really sure of anything. I remember I was relaxing in my easy chair when I suddenly got the urge to go for a walk. Now usually, when I walk out of my front door there is the turn-around for the cul-de-sac I live on. Not this bright morning! A meadow spread out before me. Trees, but not too many, just enough to provide intermittent shade to hikers or visitors to this seeming paradise. Grass, but more like a very luxurious lawn sprinkled with colorful wild flowers, a few low bushes, a few fruit trees of various types, all with ripe fruit on them. There was a brook, you know, the kind that babbles. You could see a fish jump a small waterfall every minute or so. There was also small a lake off to one side, evidently fed by the brook. It was lined with willows, a few ducks and geese were seen paddling and feeding, and a fish would surface for a meal of some unseen delicacy. Off about a half mile under a huge oak was a little cabin, or so it seemed from a distance. Every once in a while an animal would walk out of a forest that seemed to serve as the border for this immense expanse of meadow before me!

Now you would think, seeing all that I described to you instead of the houses, culd-de-sac, cars, and kids playing in the street, that I would be freaking out. But for some reason I was calm, even peaceful. It was like the meadow itself was somehow emanating a peaceful, calming glow of goodwill! So I started to hike out across the expanse of meadow and taking in the wonderful smell of grass, flowers, trees, even the musky smells emanating from the forest were pleasant. I started to notice the animals that were wandering around, most not seeming to care that I was interrupting their day. I also decided, since I was seeing predator and what would normally be considered a food source for that predator seemingly not aware of each other, that I must be in some kind of preserve where the animals were fed and had not ever actually been in the wild.

The cabin by now was getting much closer. I could make out an older gentleman and a young man sitting in a couple of old rockers on the front porch, seemingly engaged in idle conversation. As I came closer I could see a couple of old willow poles with some line and a bobber wrapped around them leaning up against the railing. There were also a couple of fly poles and reels hanging on wooden pegs seemingly made for just such a purpose. As I walked up they both acknowledged my presence with a nod, pointed to a spare glass and what appeared to be a large pitcher of lemonade, indicating I should help myself. I had worked up a bit of a thirst so gladly did just that! They just went back to talking amongst themselves again, so I plopped down on the front step a few feet away and proceeded to enjoy my cool and delicious, as it turned out, lemonade!

We had not introduced ourselves to each other, but at the moment it did not seem necessary. It was a nice warm day, cool here under the branches of the big oak, so I was content to enjoy my drink and listen in on what the two behind me were saying. At present they were discussing who had caught the biggest fish early that morning, and who the better fisherman was. There seemed to be some debate over whether or not the stream or the pond was the better fishing experience. The willow poles and bobbers, from what I could make out, being the preferred method at the pond, while fly fishing seemed to be the choice along the banks of the brook.

I was just about finished with my lemonade, had actually just taken a large sip to finish it off,  when I overheard the older gentleman ask the young man if he had been to Earth lately. As I sprayed lemonade all over the front step while trying to catch my breath I overheard the younger of the two state that, no he had not, the last time he had visited they had treated him very shabbily! They actually nailed him to a cross and stabbed him in the side with a spear, so he was not sure exactly how he felt about that yet. He further commented that until he had worked that out he was not going back. I was at this point trying to be very quiet. I was thinking at least, apparently, I wasn’t in hell!