The Parallel Ranch

            I felt ensnared inside the in between of dusk and dawn.  Obscurity pulled me down, but I could hear voices hovering and haunting me.  Clarity was unable to penetrate the dimness.  My senses were muted.  I felt stone beneath me.  It seemed as if I was traveling to foreign land.  Yet I had not moved my body. 

            “Kalkeva, wake up.  Kalkeva, we are leaving.” I heard the voice and felt the gentle nudge. 

            Light began to gather its strength to invade my eyes.  I could not focus at first.  I had fallen asleep- it was just a dream. 

            “Kalkeva hurry, your brother is leaving and you won’t see him for a whole year.” The calm solid voice said to my mind I did not know it. 

As my mind focused on my surroundings the branches, the rock, the trees were familiar but the people moving were foreign objects like imaginary toys placed by a child’s whim.  A soft whipping breeze reminded me that I was no longer dreaming.   As I reached out and moved my body up I focused in on my skin, and it was not mine.  It was a light chestnut shade. I continued to stare unsure that each moment was real.  I stood up and gazed at my legs unaware of the stares at me.  A leather skirt hung down naturally above my knees.  It was a light cream and soft to the touch.  I ran my hands over it in awe, hypnotized by the physical feeling it gave me.  My legs were slim yet muscular.   Balance and steps jolted me forward like crippled robot. 

The ground was solid and comforting.  It was the only thing I recognized.  The gray blue curve of rock guided me.  The hard rock was a giant piece of the hill.  It sat embedded and the top protruded up enough to provide a table-like area.  It was a center piece to the clearing with a variety of holes that had been carved out by the people who lived here.  They used acorns to grind into flour to the clearing where people were gathered. 

This was my grandfather’s land.  I was at his ranch.  For one split second I felt normal, but this all was washed away in a flash flood of consciousness as I gazed at the people moving around the area.  I had never seen them before.  I was not this girl that was stumbling forward.

            “Kalkeva you could get over here and help me pack this bread for your brother’s trip?” 

I looked up to see an older woman with the same skin color as me.  She was tiny and slim. 

            My step was uneasy as I slowly approached this strange woman.  I could feel the tenseness rise from my stomach, as if it knew something more than my mind.  My breath would not come.  My eyes widen and I bent over as if I needed to get sick.  This is not where I was supposed to be.  The mystery and unknown consumed every cell of my body.  Where was I my mind thought?  My body reacted in its own way as if was separate than me.  I closed my eyes and welcomed the darkness and invited the memory of who I was to return. 

            I spent every summer here and this spot was my favorite.  I use to sit all the time right beside these holes in the blue gray stone and imagine a tribe doing their daily activities around this spot. 

            The feeling of nausea overwhelmed my body and I got sick. 

            “Kalkeva!!!  What is wrong with you?” the tiny women yelled and came running over.  I could not maintain the darkness any longer.  The touch of the women did magically comfort me.  Could I be in another time?