The Mysterious Stranger (Part 3) - Maya and the tale of two cities

Maya had stumbled through a series of unexplainable happenings . First a strange dream, then encountering the stranger from her dream as an actor in real life, and now finding herself staring at the actor’s week old blog post about something she had just done today. She devoured the blog post, unable to contain her curiosity any longer. Then the first mystery unveiled, Maya shared her name with the actor's grandmother. The blog was a story Matt Garelson's grandmother told him when he was a child.

Long ago, during the golden ages on this earth, there lived an old and wise woman named Puraya Polayeti , in the aboriginal village of Mimili in South Australia. No one knew how old she really was. As a village elder, she gave advise to those who sought her guidance, on matters of the heart, on matters of health, of life and the spirits. Many called her the spirit of sun and considered her sacred. For her advise had healed the sick, made the heart broken happy and brought prosperity to the poor.

One year the drought wiped out all the fertile farms of Mimili and villagers barely survived by selling their crafts and trading their animals. Finally when the rains came, hopes of fertility grew, but the farmers had no seeds from the past season to plant or enough means to acquire lucrative crops. Puraya gave them the dried petals of flowers she saved from her garden and asked the farmers to scatter them on the foothills of the neighboring Amata mountains. Soon covered the mountains blossoming purple flowers that produced the most exquisite aroma. They contained seeds when crushed produced an oil that had invigorating properties. The sturdy pants did not need much water to survive and thrive. And the decorative flowers lasted for days when plucked. The village merchants sold the oil to traders and apothecarists from far and wide. Be it weddings or funerals - the neighboring villages and cities only wanted the beautiful purple flowers for decoration and plant stalks to make scented water.

Mimili soon became a prosperous and envied village in the south. But then came the inferno and the golden ages crumbled. Somehow the purple fields caught fire and nothing could be saved, the last of the violet hills changed to ashes. Mimili was colorless - devastation spread and all looked to Puraya once again. Puraya was wise and suspected the wrong doings of evil forces, those that fueled envy and surely forced the wealthy but weak neighboring land owners to spark the fire - an act to crush Mimili. This black envy could only be fought with a true selfless act of sacrifice, one which could prolong the golden ages and protect Mimili forever.

No one could be sure of what really happened to Puraya, only that she was gone one day and a short lived volcano erupted from the Amata mountain the next day, leaving Mimili unharmed and fertile again, but causing destruction in the neighboring areas. Some said that Puraya has sacrificed her life jumping from the highest peak. This notion grew only stronger when the volcano stopped and some strange condensation phenomenon produced suspended amethyst like crystals in midair around the mouth of the volcano. Decades later this dormant volcano got its name from the legend of Puraya Polayeti. They called it the "Ring of Purpolyeti" which later transformed into the "Ring of Purpality".

Maya had heard this story before. She was confused, she had never visited Australia, never ever stepped outside of the US, except Japan, where she was born when her father was stationed there for work. But they had moved to America when she was six. And where would she have come across a faraway tribal legend like this. Then why did this story seem familiar? Funny thoughts of being a reincarnation of the wise Puraya danced in her head but her voice of reason dismissed it.

Having had a long day, she texted Em again letting her know she was calling it a night. To her surprise, she got a response back "Wear something nice, my special guest Matt and I are picking you up in ten minutes, going out for drinks nearby". Oh no, the last thing she needed, another face to face with her mysterious stranger.

Getting up reluctantly and changing into a black blouse over her skinny jeans, she waited until the doorbell rang. In a dizzy state, she found herself surrounded in the company of Em, some of her coworkers and Matt Garelson. Secretly wishing this was a dream, she tried her best to fade into the background. Thankfully Em's chirpy persona kept the focus off Maya. Em was barraging the actor with questions about his life. Maya had some of her own questions to ask him, if only she could come out of her tongue tied awkward state of coma. "So what's your favorite city in the world, now that you get to travel like a movie star", asked Em. Matt's answer knocked out Maya's senses yet again, challenging and pushing the possibility of coincidences yet again. His answer was "Kyoto, Japan" - the city where Maya was born.

(c) Simply Untangled

{Notes from the Author: Everything is this story is fictional, including names, places, etc except for those that can be identified on the map. This is all imaginary....thankfully!}