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| Fabric of Time by Katie Allen |
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There
is a legend that as man lives his life, a thread
is spun. As each life touches another, the
threads wind and twist, weaving in and out,
forming the cloth only an eternity of lives can
create. The magnificent colors of all races and
the bold colors of earth and sky mix with the
more subtle tones of time and emotion, all woven
into the cloth forming a picture of humanity. A
picture man can only rarely see. But the cloth is
no more perfect than the threads of the lives
that form it. Threads multiplying joyfully in
birth, and strong in love and devotion, are
joined with the loose ends of abruptly ending
lives, the holes of rejection, and the knots of
selfishness. Wars spread as stains, made of the
ugly dullness of hate mingled with the exquisite
brilliance of self-sacrifice. Close up the cloth
is confusing and flawed, but step away and the
beauty of life itself becomes apparent in the
tapestry of existence. Once upon a staircase, three people stood outside this fabric of time and living. A man and a woman hesitated on the top. In their hearts was the same wish, the wish for happiness. So close were they to the spinners of the thread, and so strong was the two mortals' wish, that the spinners pitied them. In an effort to grant the wish, they stopped spinning. The looms of time and life for the entire vast universe stopped. They were given a unique gift, the ability for that one timeless moment to choose the future. They looked at Eliot, frozen with time; his face locked in impatience, then looked at each other. They stepped to each other and like children clung to each other. A voice came from somewhere around them, or inside them, and spoke. "Watch and choose." Barnabas watched as he saw his future before him. a pattern of great happiness and of great sorrow, but always with Julia at his side, until the greatest sorrow of all when he stood alone. Then as a curtain changes shape as the spring winds enters though an open window, the vision changed. Barnabas saw Julia standing alone. He knew without knowing that this was the Julia of the future. Her face was lined, but the lines were happy lines, as though she had spent the years laughing. The cloth changed shape again, and he could see a child and her mother. Was this another future? The woman was too far to recognize. The large hat protecting her from the sunshine, hid her hair. If only she would turn so he could see her face, or move so he could see her walk. But she did not. The child had hair the color of gold with a hint of the setting sun and eyes first green, then brown, their loving expression reminding him of someone he knew, and not wanting to he dropped his own eyes at their look. He could see Naomi in the way the child smiled a hint of Joshua in her stubborn jaw. Her skin was freckled and her laugh was infectious, making Barnabas smile in return. How like Sarah she was. "There you are!" she said. "Are you coming with me?" and she held out her hand. As he went to hold out his hand to her, the shape of the future change yet again, and he looked at Julia standing alone. Her smile was understanding, as though she knew he wanted to go with the child and she was giving her blessing. He thought of the child, one who would never now be born. He knew as he always did, that he couldn't leave Julia behind, and for the first time realized that reason he couldn't was because of love. Not her love for him, but his for her. He couldn't bear to think of Julia lonely without him. As he approached she held out her hand. He took it and spoke, "No more, I have made my choice." As Barnabas watched and chose, Julia also saw the changing visions. She saw the happiness, and the sorrow, and closed her eyes when Barnabas stood alone. She looked at the Barnabas of the future, standing alone. His eyes held confidence, not fear, and they reflected the love in his smile. It was the way she hoped he would one-day look at her. She saw the child like Sarah, with Barnabas' smile, and her eyes. She saw Barnabas behind the child, happy and content. And as the fabric once more moved to change, she shook her head. All she ever wanted stood before her. "I have made my choice." Suddenly the stairs were back, and they realized they were clinging to each other. Without apology they stayed together one more moment, neither speaking of what they saw, knowing only for that moment that they had chosen each other. The visions were already fading as they let go and stood apart, and with the visions went all memory of what had happened on the stairs. Julia once more worried that Barnabas would never love her. And Barnabas wondered if love would always elude him. Both wished they could be happy, and Eliot wished to go home. In the place that existed outside of time the spinners had resumed their thread making, twisting the threads in the formation that the sad ones had chosen in tints of hope and hues of longing, and the weavers were already weaving their choice into the cloth. One of the spinners, the one who had first wanted to grant the wish, turned to her sister who was just slightly older than time, "You were right, sister. There was no need to grant their wish. How did you know they would choose the path they were on?" |