THE CLEARING

THE CLEARING

She was seventeen and up till now she took the voices for granted; whispers, really. Perhaps they were a figment of her imagination. 

Perhaps she was overhearing a conversation carried upon the breeze. And, those movements in the shadows, just beyond her peripheral vision, disappearing from view when she would turn to catch them. She was certain they were there. Still, she dismissed them. 

She and her best friend Kelly had often entertained the notion of another realm just beyond their senses. It was common knowledge that dogs could hear the high-pitched sounds that human ears could not. Elephants could hear sound much lower than the human ear could detect. A hawk can see a mouse from a mile above the surface. And some people believe cats can see spirits.

She remembered once listening to her aunts and uncles talking with her mother about a time when her grandmother was gravely ill. Grandpa had passed away some two or three years before and yet, grandma spoke with him as if he were sitting right there, on the edge of her bed. 

They said it was the medication. They said it was old age. And, some entertained the thought that maybe, just maybe, grandpa was indeed there. 

Sara often took walks with her best friend Kelly. They would walk the woods at dusk and listen for the movement of the animals as they began to come out of their hiding places for food and water. The deer always seem to know when the girls were getting too close. They would dart away; white tails held high like flags signaling a retreat. 

“I hear voices, sometimes,” Sara said to Kelly on their walk back to the house. “Have you ever heard voices, like your name whispered, or someone saying STOP before you are about to do something that would hurt you?” 

“I did when I was younger,” Kelly answered, “but since I’ve gotten older, I don’t think so. My mom says it’s just our mind playing tricks on us.” They walked on up to the house and Sara said goodbye and waved as Kelly drove off for home. 

The following morning Sara saw the movement in the shadows again – just out of view, from the corner of her eye. “Is someone there?” she asked. She closed her eyes and tried to think of something else. There was a whisper coming from over her left shoulder. What is that? She asked to herself. She opened her eyes and without looking behind her, she walked toward her window looking for a reflection of something she could not see. 

Again, she saw something move in the shadows of the room. Was it the tree outside her bedroom window, dancing with the sunlight, which gave the illusion of something or someone there in the shadows? 

“This is ridiculous,” she murmured. “The next time I see or hear something, I’m just going to ask it what it wants with me!” Just then she heard the voice again. It was suddenly clearer.  “Sara.”

“I’m not afraid of you.” She called out in a brave voice. There was no reply. She softened her tone and began again, “I just want to know who you are and what you want. I don’t think you are a bad spirit or you would have hurt me already. Please show yourself.” 

“Sara.” The whisper came from just behind her. She swung around; no-one was there. 

“Sara,” it whispered again. This time Sara closed her eyes and whispered back, “I’m Sara. I can hear you.  Please talk to me.  I’m not afraid.” 

“Walk with us , Sara.” 

The voice seemed to blend into a chorus of voices yet it was barely more than a whisper. 

“We can show you things that will change your life. You can tell everyone that we are here with them and want them to know us,” the voice was coming from nowhere and everywhere at once. “They have to believe, listen, and see beyond the limitations of their senses – beyond the limits of their reasoning. 

Slowly she headed for the door. She didn’t even stop to take her jacket. Her excitement was all she knew.

“Go to the clearing, Sara,” instructed the faceless voice. “In the clearing we will show ourselves to you and tell you all the secrets of our world to help you in yours.” 

Sara slowed her pace just before getting to the clearing. What am I doing? she thought to herself. 

“Don’t give up on us now, Sara.” The voice replied. It could hear her thoughts! She entered the edge of the clearing and saw movement toward the center that resembled a small dust devil glittering as it swirled in the sunlight. 

“Close your eyes and I will lead you,” whispered the voice. “Follow your senses; the ones that resonate deep inside of you.” 

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and began to walk slowly at first. Then she was jogging. It wasn’t long before she was running in full stride, eyes closed and feeling free. 

She could see the clearing in her mind’s eye, hear their voices, see their form and she was filled with an incredible joy. One voice spoke, “That’s it, Sara, believe.” While another whispered, “Can you see us now?” Sure enough, as she stopped in the center of the clearing and without ever opening her eyes, she saw them. Perfect creatures, almost human, dazzling bright and giggling with happiness at her arrival there. Each one came up to her and offered a gift. 

“These are the gifts of light that man has rejected over the millennia since the world began,” one said to her. 

“You are one of the few believers who have been unafraid and have come to meet us.” Another told her, “Man has limited himself by his senses and we can no longer communicate our gifts to him. Mankind is given these gifts of light at creation then slowly fade and are lost to mankind’s doubt and logic.” 

While yet another added, “Please take these gifts and share them so that all of mankind will know them and gain understanding of all that is seen and unseen. She could no longer feel herself standing. She was not sitting or laying down either. She was floating. It seemed her eyes were wide open and she was being carried inside a bright sparkling light. Sara was shown compassion, mercy, love, peace, enlightenment, truth, and many more of the things man had long forgotten. 

Yes, there were the words, but the essence of those words expressed was lost. Here she felt all of them, all the graces, all the gifts, all the secrets that would enable man to live peacefully enlightened upon the earth once again.

There wouldn’t be a need for fighting,  jealousy,  envy, greed, wars… ever, ever again. She was so overcome with happiness that she cried tears of joy. 

After the spirits had presented all their gifts to Sara, they asked her to please go out and share this knowledge with everyone in any way she could. She ran home. 

Once inside she sat her mother and father down at the kitchen table and began telling them of her morning in the clearing, meeting all the spirits there and receiving the gifts and knowledge they entrusted to her. Her father looked at her mother with an expression of worry. The two of them had expressions of deep concern on their faces. 

“What’s wrong, Daddy?” she cried, “Don’t you… believe me?” 

“Mom?” Both of her parents reassured her that it would be okay. Yet, it was understood that they did not believe her.

The next morning Sara’s mother came to her and told her they had an appointment with the doctor. It seemed that her mother feared the worse; that Sara was losing her mind. 

Doctor Flannigan came in and sat down across from her. “Explain it to  me  again,  Sara,”  he said  in  a  low condescending  voice. “I want to make sure I hear you correctly.” 

Sara told her story again and again… to this doctor and that doctor, until she was overcome with so much sadness and despair that she quit telling it altogether. Sara was beginning to doubt herself. Did she hear them and see them? Did they really give her, a small-town no-body, all the gifts and knowledge to save mankind? Quite possibly, she was crazy. 

Sara was admitted to the hospital that day and found herself locked away in a small room with a bed and nightstand. Nothing but silence filled the air. And sometimes, the voices would come to soothe her and offer her hope. I’m going to be in here for a long time, she thought to herself. They think I’m crazy and maybe I am. 

“We won’t be able to talk with you much longer,” whispered the voice. “I’m so sorry they are doing this to you. Again, the limitations of man have compelled him to silence our voices.” 

The door clicked with the sound of a key in the lock and the door opened. The nurse came in and gave her two more pills. Slowly she was beginning to forget her voices and soon she would not be able to hear them at all. She was so depressed by this loss but soon that would be erased too. 

  

Weeks went by while the doctors regulated her medications so she  could  be  released  to  her parents and  go home. When Sara finally came home she numbly went up to her room and sat on the bed. 

“All in my imagination,” she whispered to herself. 

“No! They were not a figment of your imagination!” the voice came from the hall. It was Grandmother! “Listen to me, Sara,” she said as she came into the room and sat next to her on the bed. “I hear them too. And I can see them from time to time.” 

“You do?” replied Sara. “You know?” 

“Oh, I’ve heard them and seen them many times. The older I get, and the more I lose my sense of sight and sound, the more I see and hear them. They are everywhere.” 

“But Grandma, I can’t hear them or see them anymore. The medicine has taken them from me. I failed. I didn’t even have a chance to spread the good news and tell everyone what I learned.” She sobbed into her hands. “I failed at offering their gift to save mankind. I don’t even remember much of it anymore, it’s gone.” 

“Oh, sweet girl” Grandma reassured her as she stroked her hair. “Someday you will hear them again and see them everywhere. If you were unable to share the gifts you mustn’t blame yourself. Mankind, including Mom and Dad, choose to believe that there is nothing but what they have right under the noses. 

There are no possibilities for them and the many, many others like them. They will all perish without any wonderment in their lives. You and I cannot make them see or make them believe.” 

As the years passed, Sara was finally taken off the medications and went on to have a family of her own. She would take her children often to the clearing in the forest. In the clearing they would close their eyes and let their imaginations soar.  

They would talk to the spirits there and fly in the air on glistening pillows of light. They would talk for hours to the faceless voices of light and Sara would let them fill her children with all kinds of wonderment. 

Then on the way back to the house, Sara would tell them that imagination is a wonderful thing... you can go anywhere and do anything. All you have to do is close your eyes and open your mind.

“Do I believe? Sara pretended to carefully consider the question posed to her. “Hmm. Why, YES! I do believe! I believe in all the things and in all the possibilities of what life can be when we aren’t confined by mere science, man-made beliefs and so called facts of life. We always "know" but we choose not to "believe."

So for generations, her children’s children and their children’s children passed on the gifts given them in the clearing. However, time and conventional wisdom would silence the voices as they grew up and slowly erased their memory. 

But for Sara and her grandmother; they would enter the world of the “other side” when their times came. They would dance and sing and be eternally happy among the spirits of the clearing. 

They would become part of that shimmering “light”; their voices becoming one as they whisper each of our names, calling us to close our eyes and believe. 

M Teresa Clayton from the book STORYTELLER