Turning of the Years
The year was 1914, he was 13 years old in New Orleans, Louisiana.
The year was 2008, she was 13 years old in Coconut Creek, Florida.
1 state, 830 miles and 94 years separated him from her and her from him.
He spent his last night singing with his boys and celebrating the turning of the years.
She sipped sparkling cider for the first time from a plastic champagne flute, and laughed all night with play cousins screaming in the background, “5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Happy New Year!”
Shots fired. An array of voices echoed, “Get him Dipper!” He wanted to make fire crackle at his own will.
The sky shimmered and fell at her feet. Her eyes glistened as remnants of smoke dissolved in the air above her.
For a brief moment he was on top of the world.
For a brief moment she was on top of the world.
Two uniformed hands grasped at his collar bone, and all of a sudden the world was on top of him.
One deep inhale and upon release she realized the world was closing in on her.
The next morning, he arose to bugles sounding off the turn of a new day. For that moment time stopped and he saw the way his world transformed.
The vast sphere she had always thought to be in the palm of her hands, now placed her in the palm of it. Her three dimensional world morphed into two, she no longer recognized reality.
He in turn constructed a new reality, it would later be gifted to her.
She adjusted to a transforming world, he would later be credited as an integral part.
……….
The year was 1971. He left for ether, she was already there.
He told her stories of his time on earth.
For if she would ever again grace its surfaces, there were some things she’d surely hope to know.
Hidden gems left in the collective consciousness.
……
The year was 1992. She left for earth, he sent her off with memoirs.
She arrived to a Bahamian Opera singer.
Hearing a familiar spirit resounding through a raspy male voice her mother would listen to mostly around the turning of the years.
She didn’t remember him though.
21 years gapped his departure and her entrance.
……
The year was 2021, she was 28 years old in Corona, Queens, New York.
He was a legend there.
She found the treasures he left behind.
He lived on through her.
And at the turning of the years, they found each other on a rooftop, with jazz playing, balls dropping and little embers of affirmations flicker in the night. Merging worlds to create a new dimension.
….