Up and up I clambered, falling and clawing my way at times as I stumbled on. How far down this path had I gone? It didn’t seem like I had been walking for long before I had tried to turn back and run into the lady in red but now the white light peeking through the rocks seemed much more distant than I thought it should have. It didn’t matter though, my desire to reach that voice as great as my desire to escape the lady in red, the former pulling me forward, the latter pushing me on. My legs grew tired, lungs screaming, breathing came in heavy ragged gasps. Each step was a battle against my physical body which just wanted to turn back and follow the path downwards and my heart which drove me on towards that voice. It struck me that I was the only one fighting the flow, going back up hill, towards the voice. Had no one else heard it? Was I imagining it? No, certainly not, not this many times. How could anyone who heard that voice not turn immediately and go towards it? Was I the only one who could hear it? I realized it didn’t matter, if no one else wanted to fight to reach her, the woman whose voice I heard, if no one could be bothered to turn and put the effort in, they were unworthy of her.
Elation filled me as I finally could see the end in sight. The rock wall loomed large, the path that I had started on just a few steps ahead on the left, only a handful of people in front of me. Physical weariness drained out of me, new energy rushed in. I broke free of the crowd in a burst, only to be stopped short again.
In front of me was probably one of the oddest sights I have ever witnessed, but oddly, it didn’t strike me as odd. Directly at the junction of the 3 paths stood a man juggling. This by itself wasn’t too out of the ordinary, except for how he was dressed. On his head was a goalie mask, he wore a football jersey pulled tight over shoulder pads, baseball pants and soccer shin guards and cleats, completing the hodge-podge outfit. I was so shocked by this strange fashion statement that I didn’t notice the odd man had quit juggling and was now looking at me, holding a cell phone in one hand and basketball under the other arm. Wait…hadn’t he just been juggling? Where did the basketball and phone come from?
“Hey there buddy, where you going in such a hurry? Did you see the stats from last night’s game? Man Mr. X played huge! Hahahahahaha! You have to see this video on Facespace! Sooo hilarious! Hey, that reminds me, we need another guy for the match tonight, you want to play?” My mind raced trying to keep up with everything, the odd guy seemed to be able to speak faster than my brain could process. If that wasn’t distracting enough every time I blinked his outfit appeared to change, the hockey helmet became a lacrosse helmet, the cleats became skates, the football jersey became camouflage. “Hey, where are you gonna hunt this year? We should go scouting! Or better yet, let’s learn how to ice climb!” The outfit now was a full down thermal suit, climbing harness and a helmet, ice picks dangling from his wrists.
Even with all this distraction I couldn’t help but glance over his shoulder to where the voice was coming from. In the midst of his ADD ranting the odd man must have noticed this glance and quickly jumped back in.
“Oh, you’ve heard the voice have you?” Finally! Someone else who knew about the voice! I wanted to ask him a million questions, but before I could even open my mouth his began speaking as fast as his outfit changed (it was now a full 3 piece business suit, except with a pair of basketball sneakers on his feet, eye black smeared on his face). “Yeah, sure it’s tempting but why rush? You can go find her later, the big game is on tonight! You don’t want to miss it, Mr. Z is gonna torch those guys! Plus the commercials! Those are always hilarious! And the new season of BlahBlahs starts tomorrow at 8/7 central, followed by the premier of the highly acclaimed ‘Game Show That Makes You Do Ridiculous Things’! And then the night after that we have a big match up against our long time rivals! We need you to be there! We can’t win without you! After that, maybe some time next week…oh wait, next week is no good either, busy busy! Maybe next month, or better yet, let’s just put that on hold for a year! She’ll still be there in a year, but now is the time to have some fun!”
“Travis” The voice called again, softly, yet insistent, snapping my attention back to the present. I realized I had been just standing there, staring blankly at the odd man. How long had I wasted being distracted? I could have been moving towards her this whole time instead of listening to this bogus ranting! I quickly tried to utter an apology to excuse myself and skirted around him and continued towards the rock wall.
“Wait! How about a quick game of ‘Shoot’em Up For Hours At A Time’?” He now held a video game controller in one hand, a bag of potato chips in the other, and was dressed in wrinkled pajamas and sported a scruffy unshaven face. I purposefully jammed my fingers in my ears and lengthened my stride. “Wait! Did you listen to this new song? It’s probably the best album ever! Just come back and have a quick listen!” But by now I well past him, beyond his reach, and closing fast on the wall, the white light capturing my attention. Just for good measure I kept my ears plugged for now though. He didn’t chase after me though, seemingly too intent on staying in that one spot to follow me. He knew about the voice; had he heard it? Could he be that distracted that he wouldn’t want to follow it? As I finally reached the wall blocking me from the voice I wished he would have followed me. I could certainly use the odd mans help moving this mountain of rock.
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Sorry about the delay on part 3, hope it was worth the wait! Not sure when I will get the other parts done(hopefully just 2 more). Again, thank you so much for reading, I really appreciate the investment of your time!
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