Page 8 (1/2)

Summerland

Continuation at another level

I OPENED MY eyes and looked up Overhead, I saw green foliage and, through it, blue sky There was no sign of mist; the air was clear I took a breath of it It had a cool, invigorating s up, I looked around I’d been lying on a patch of grass The trunk of the tree I sat beneath was close by I reached out and felt its bark And so frorass It looked immaculately cared for I pushed aside a clump of it and examined the soil Its color was corass There were no weeds of any kind

Pulling out a blade of grass, I held it against y frorance, then put it in my mouth and chewed as I used to do when I was a boy I never tasted grass like that when I was a boy

I noticed, then, there were no shadows on the ground I sat beneath a tree yet not in shade I didn’t understand that and looked for the sun

There wasn’t any, Robert There was light without a sun I looked around in confusion As ht, I saw further into the countryside I had never seen such scenery: a stunning vista of green-clad ht

I remembered then Ann was still alive And I? I stood and pressed both palround with my shoe I was dead; there could be no question about it any longer Yet here I was, possessed of a body that felt the sa on this very real ground in this ible of landscapes

This is death? I thought I looked at es, all the varied folds of skin I examined the palms I studied a book on palmistry once; for fun, to be able to do it at parties I’d studied my palms and knew the as ever; I re her not to worry, I was going to be around a long tiether

I turned my hands over and noticed that their skin and nails were pink There was blood inside me I had to shake ht hand over s I pressed two fingers to ht spot

Heartbeat, Robert Just as always

I looked around abruptly at a flash of ed bird had landed on the tree It see close by This place is ht I felt dazed If this is a dream, I told myself, I hope I never wake fro, I realized For several ister Then, suddenly, it all rushed over me "Katie!" I cried

She ran towardthose frantic little whimpers of joy I hadn’t heard in years "Katie, ’’ I whispered I fell toinwith excite my hands I put my arms around her "Kate, old Kate" I could barely speak She wriggled againstwith happiness "Katie, is it really you?" I murmured

I took a closer look The last tie at the vet’s; sedated, lying on her left side, eyes staring sightlessly, li with convulsions they could not control Ann and I had gone to see her when the doctor had called We’d stood beside the cage a while, stroking her, feeling stunned and helpless Katie had been our good companion almost sixteen years

Now she was the Katie I re up-- vibrant, full of energy, eyes bright, with that funnyI hugged her with delight, thinking how happy Ann would be to see her, how happy the children would be, especially Ian The afternoon she’d died, he’d been at school That evening, I had found hirown up together and he hadn’t even had a chance to say goodbye to her

"If only he could see you now," I said, hugging her, overjoyed by our reunion "Katie, Katie" I stroked her head and body, scratched her wonderful floppy ears And felt a rush of gratitude tohatever power had brought her to me

Now I knew this was a lovely place

It’s hard to say how long we stayed there, visiting Katie lay besidewith contentet over the pleasure of seeing her Wishing again and again that Ann were there It was only after a long time that I noticed the house

I wondered how I could have missed it; it was only a hundred yards away The sort of house Ann and I had always planned to build soe deck overlooking the countryside

I felt ian toup to walk beside ed by beautiful trees-- pines, maples and birches There were no outside walls or fences To my surprise, I noticed that there was no door at the entrance either and that what I’d taken for ere only openings I noticed, too, the lack of pipes and wires, fuse boxes, gutters and television aerials, the fors Frank Lloyd Wright would have approved, the thought occurred I sned it, Katie," I said She looked at ot the iarden near the house In its center stood a fountain made of what appeared to be white stone I approached it and dipped my hands into crystal water It was cool and, like the tree trunk and grass blade, ey I took a sip of it I’d never tasted water so refreshing "Want so at her She made no er needed by her Turning back to the fountain, I raised some water in the cupped palms of my hands and washed it over my face Incredibly, the drops ran off h I’d been waterproofed

Amazed by each new facet of this place, I walked, with Katie, to a bank of flowers and leaned over to s Too, their colors were as varied as the colors in a rainbow though ed with yellow and felt a tingling of that energy running up my arave off a streaan to realize that they were, also, generating soft, harht was entering the garden I glanced at Katie as she started wagging her tail, then looked back at the light My eyes adjusted and it began to fade Approaching me was the man I’d seen--how many times? I couldn’t recall I’d never noticed his clothes before; a white, short-sleeved shirt, white slacks and sandals He walked up to , arms outstretched "I felt your nearness to my home and came immediately," he said "You made it, Chris"

He e I looked at hiht" He nodded

It was our cousin, Robert; ays called hi when I was fourteen A," I said "No e," he replied I didn’t understand that

As he leaned over to stroke Katie’s head and say hello to her--I wondered how he knew her--I stared at so his entire forh hite, sparkling lights

"Hello, Katie, glad to see hihtened up with a s about"Yes" "Everybody has them," he told me "Even Katie" He pointed at her "Haven’t you noticed?"

I looked at Katie in surprise I hadn’t noticed--though, now that Albert had mentioned it, it was obvious Not as vivid as his but perfectly clear

"They identify us," Albert said

I looked down at myself "Where’s mine?" I asked