Sparkling Water in the Duck Pond

As if standing naked in a tanning salon booth, the warmth of the beam that flowed through her body from the water below calmed her, soothed her aching bones, and removed her pains of arthritis. As if her skin was covered with tinker bells that sprinkled magical pixie dust all over her being, she felt a shimmering afterglow, the same feeling she felt, after just having sex and experiencing an orgasm. Feeling rejuvenated and more alive, as if she had just been shot with adrenaline, given a powerful vitamin, or just having had an orgasm, her body tingled and her inner being glowed, as if she was in the presence of God. With her age no longer a concern, if she had to guess her age now, in this mind altering, youthful state, she'd say she was twenty-something-years-old instead of sixty-something-years-old. So stimulating, she felt alive in a way she hasn't felt in decades. Is this how she'll feel, when she's dead? Is she dead? Now, suddenly a believer, maybe there is a God or some super being out there in this vast universe, after all.

After what seemed like a few minutes, yet was probably only a few seconds, Mary wondered, without really caring which, if she'd drop in the water or just continue to hover above the pond. She estimated that her body was three to four feet off the ground and she wasn't concerned about the water because it was only four or five feet deep where she floated and not more than eight or ten feet deep, at its deepest point. What caused some trepidation was that she hovered vertically, not horizontally, and that made her think, if she fell into the water she might injure her legs, break her hip, hurt her knee, sprain her ankle, and maybe put out her back, as well. Her only concern was that if she so hurt herself, not only wouldn't she be able to walk home but also she wouldn't be able to return here tomorrow.

A rather plain looking, quietly soft spoken, and reserved woman that many may have correctly guessed was a librarian and an old maid, Mary never really got much attention from men. Comfortably in her mid sixties, a bridesmaid and never a bride, but forever hopeful, sadly, her chance of having babies had long since passed. She was so lonely and even though it didn't seem probable, Mary still held fading hope that the right man would cross her path one day to sweep her off her feet, in the way that this alien levitated her over the water. Tired of being alone and lonely, she'd love to have a close companion, if only to go places and do things.

Never the casual sex type of woman, during her college days she had a couple of trysts with guys she dated for a while, but that ended, when they didn't want to be in a committed relationship with her. Once good looking enough and young enough to be so wanted and desired, both men had mentioned that they were shocked by her deep passion and in the way she made love. One said that she was the best lay he ever had and the another said she was a veritable sex machine. Their comments made her realize that she was just a piece of ass to them and they were incapable of understanding that she had given her most treasured self to them. Abruptly ending both relationships, forever searching for that one special man, who'd appreciate and commit to her, she's still secretly looking and hoping for him and for love.

After her college days, Mary, had only one serious love connection. She thought he wanted to marry her, have babies together, and live happily ever after. Only, what happens so often to so many women who fall in love, she made a critical error of trusting this man and not checking into his background. He was married, of course. Her brain told her that something was up when they never spent any weekends or holidays together. He'd make convincing excuses that he had to work or travel out of town. Because he was a salesman, on the surface, his excuses seemed plausible and, but for her suspicion, she didn't question that what he told her wasn't true.

Besides, giving more credibility to his lies, he always contacted her when he was out of town or working all night. He even gave her hotel telephone numbers, so that she could contact him. He did preface that with he was always in and out of the room and would sometimes be hard to reach. Because he always called her, taking him at his word, she never bothered to use the numbers he gave her.

One day, probably driven by her inner voice that things weren't as they seemed, Mary decided to surprise the man and give him a call. The phone number was to a local dry cleaning business and she knew right then that her guts had been right. She hired an investigator and found that her man was married and had three children. The pictures of him kissing his wife made her heart split in two excruciating pieces and it left a deep scar as it mended. Hurt beyond tears, Mary knew she'd never be the same trusting woman again.

When her married man came to her apartment the next time, not wanting a confrontation, not wanting to listen to anymore of his lies and excuses for fear that she'd believe him and take him back, she wasn't there, when he arrived. Leaving her front door unlocked, figuring he'd open the door and just walk in, as if he owned the place and her, as he always did, she laid the surveillance pictures of him with his wife and children on the coffee table in the living room. Next to the photos was a note written on the heart-shaped stationery that he had given her on Valentine's Day. After she wrote her note, she cut the heart into two pieces with uneven cuts. Symbolic of her heart in agonizing pieces, her pain, her suffering, and her sorrow were nearly unbearable.

"Never contact me again. How could you use a loving person like me and rip my heart to shreds? I am now broken," read the note.

She knew the note wouldn't mean anything to him. For all she knew, he wouldn't even read it. For all she knew, she was just another foolish woman, who had fallen in love with a married man. For all she knew, he may have several gullible girlfriends just like her. With his belongings packed in a box on the coffee table for him to take, she didn't want any trace of him left in her apartment. Just as she watched him enter and waited from the coffee shop across the street for him to leave, she watched him leave her apartment with his box of possessions.

As if her life was flashing before her, all of these memories ran through Mary's mind, as she continued to levitate over the pond. The pain of those memories was so strong that it actually interrupted the feelings of warmth and tingling that had been coursing through her body, while she hovered there, suspended in mid air. Yet, as if the light felt her pain and suddenly glowed with more warmth to ease away her heartache, she forgot about her past and just concentrated on her present.

A moment later, she screamed, when she saw something in the pond that looked like an alien creature. Looking much like the dark silhouette of a black sunken swan, she had never seen anything like that submerged beneath the water in her life. It was at the bottom of the pond staring up at her, yet it didn't move a muscle. The eyes were like two pools of black ink with a diamond sparkling in the center and it didn't have what we would consider a mouth. There were three or four diamond-shaped holes that gleamed with an exceptionally bright light. Then she realized that was where the light on the pond was coming from. Dark and demonic, the creature was about the size of a wolf. Knowing full well that it was neither wolf or black swan to be submerged in the water for so long, she knew this creature, whatever it was, wasn't of this Earth. Yet, even though she was startled by the sight of it, as if seeing the phantom of the opera without his mask, the warmth from the light returned her to her sexually excited mind altering state.

She was terrified and so very frozen in place that she couldn't even move her eyelids to blink her eyes. As if it was God whispering to her, the creature, or whatever the heck it was, began to communicate with her telepathically.

"One day, your life will change and when it does, you won't remember seeing all that you've seen here at this pond."

She tried to respond. She wanted to ask questions of it. Who are you? Why are you here? Why me? Unable to talk, all she could do was listen. Yet, no matter, as if reading her mind, the alien being answered all of her questions.

"I am Barahtz from a planet millions light years away. We possess the knowledge to quickly and effortlessly traverse the universe by using black holes as wormholes for shortcuts, going from one side of the universe to the other, without having to travel all that way. Having watched you from afar, you were so chosen because you represent everything that is good, kind, and loving in human beings. A tragedy that you never had children, it was our intent to correct that misfortune. Someone like you, as have millions of others, have been so chosen to help populate the Earth with better Earthlings. Someone like you, deserves to have children."

Too old to have babies, what did he mean by that? Treating the children who came to the library as her own, it's always been her dream to have children, a son and a daughter. Sadly, too old, thinking that all of this is just a dream, perhaps, she was still in her bed and dreaming now. Perhaps this whole thing is just a depressing dream, as if God is playing a trick on her by holding up the mirror to her sad, little life.

"One who doesn't fall in love so easily, your days of waiting for your dream man are over. Everything you've known about pain and suffering will vanish, once your new life begins."

New life? How in the world will I cope with a new life, when I'm so tired with the old life that I have now? Why give me such a gift of a new life or is it a second chance at life? Without having to verbalize it, she only had to think it for her questions to be answered.

"Yes, if only for your purity of heart, I am giving you a second chance of life. Someone like you should have a life filled with happiness, instead of sadness, and a life of accomplishments, instead of disappointments."

After he spoke to her, after he said all that he needed to say to her, the light dim, before it went out in the pond completely. The creature didn't surface or ever return. Maybe it was a subterranean species that lived below the surface or maybe she couldn't see with her human eyes, when the creature left the area. Maybe she had imagined all of it in a hallucination caused by hazardous chemicals someone dumped in the pond. Maybe all of this is a dream, a sick nightmare created from the new arthritis medication she's been recently taking. At that moment, all she knew is that she stopped levitating and gently came back to terra firma. Magically, as if she was never naked, her clothes reappeared on her body. Mysteriously, as if it was never there, the pond vanished.

Picking flowers and humming to herself, doing everything that a young woman would do on such a beautiful day, but skip, Mary continued her walk with no memory of the pond or the alien. Truth be told, but for a small pool of water that the ducks used, there was no pond in their little community. As she rounded the last arc of her walking circle, she saw Sam approaching her with his small dog, Snowball. She liked him. Filled with unrequited love, she really liked him.

They had spoken to one another on occasion and he seemed to be a pleasant enough man with a really good sense of humor. He was a man she'd have interest in, if only she was younger and prettier. Uncomfortably embarrassed, whenever she saw him, she wondered if he suspected and if he could tell, that she sometimes thought about him late at night with her hand down her panty. More than once, she had thought of him now and again, when alone and feeling horny. She wondered what it would be like to kiss him and to make love to him. Crazy with sexual desire for him, she wondered what it would feel like to have his hard cock in her hand, in her mouth, and in her pussy.

"He's a young widower," she overheard a couple of the residents gossiping about him, when he first bought his townhouse. "His wife was killed in a boating accident on their honeymoon and he hasn't dated, since he lost her five years ago," she said. "Taking his time to find the right woman, he's in no hurry to get married," she said.

"Good morning," he said, as soon as he stepped close enough for her to hear. He surprised her, when he stopped, obvious ready to chat. "I haven't seen your grandmother around," he said.

"She died," said Mary, not really lying. With the new Mary standing there before him, somehow she knew that the old Mary was dead.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't know," he said looking uncomfortable and remaining silent before continuing. "You look wonderful," he said. "You're actually glowing. Looking at you makes me smile."

"Thank you," Sam, she said. Unaccustomed to receiving attention from men, wishing she had met him forty years ago, she could feel herself blushing.

"I was wondering," he said, suddenly looking like a boy who wanted to ask her to his prom. "Would you like to go out to dinner with me this weekend?"

"Yes," she said, as if her response came from someone else.

Mary was elated and somehow felt lighter of heart than she ever had before. She didn't know why her body was so invigorated and her spirit was soaring, that is, until she looked in the mirror and saw that she was a beautiful twenty-something-year-old woman. The beginning of something wonderful, the being in the pond had given her a gift, a second chance at living life.

Mary and Sam were married six months later and everyone says that she has the most beautiful glow about her and attributed it to finding true love. Within the year, she was pregnant with twins, a girl and a boy.

THE END

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