The Impossible In Between

Matthew 16:24-26

The pattering of bare feet echoed gently through the hall, a soft harold for the young girl recently escaped from under the eye of her watchful nurse. With the starched white nightgown billowing and rebellious curls twisting out of their tightly braided confines, she could have passed as a fairy specter or snowy owl preparing for flight.

She reached the end of the hallway and burst unhesitatingly onto the gilded balcony, throwing her body up against the rail with the momentum of a cresting wave. As the nightgown lost its wind, it settled calmly at her ankles like a lacey kite. The sense of expectancy made the air around her sizzle with energy - an energy that neither the upper class slumbering on silken pillows nor the exhausted working class scratched by yesterday's grime could ever understand.

But she clung to this impossible in between, the stollen time just before dawn where she was both nobody and everybody all at once. In this time of moldable dreams, she could simply be.

Her gray eyes strained against the darkness as if she could peel back the cosmic veil of black, but except for her tireless eyes, she stood as still as stone, a marble statue awaiting the breath of the morning to fill her with life.

But then it began, an ember kindled on the horizon became a dull glow that slowly gained strength, hungrily consuming the horizon with a vibrant display of fiery energy. The awakening sun sent its tendril fingers across the water to drag itself up from the edge of the world, cresting the horizon to share its blazing flame.

As if released from her spell, a small gasp escaped from her parted lips, and her slight body shook with the desire to run to the edge of the world and fling her arms around the sun and rise with it through time and space to the center of everywhere.

Out in the distance, ships from a distant land resembled doves on the darkened sky.  But they cannot be birds, she thought, for they are gorged with gold and silver. Until they release their earthly burdens, they will be too heavy to soar. What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

She stayed and watched their approach as the sun slinked upwards, with the gentle zephyr kissing away the tears still frozen upon her hot cheeks. Perfect freedom at last.

Take up your cross, and follow Me.