Hope and The Dandelion

Hope walked through the swinging door of consciousness into The Other Place.

The scene was the same. There was an old stone fountain in the center of a completely black space. From the fountain shot up a beautiful array of lights shaped like a dandelion.

Like a shower of rainbow rain from below each color of light joined in to build the flower.

Red was first drawing the contours. It gave way for Yellow, showing Orange where they met.

Blue rippled and shone a shimmer as it met Yellow at the base to merge and make the Green stem.

Hope sat in front of the fountain, knowing today, at last, the color show would finish the dandelion.

Every time before when blue met red... well it didn't.

Some grey static showed, fizzled out the attempt, and the rest of the lights dimmed, never finishing the flower.

Today though, The Genius knew, was the right day to show whatever Enlightenment brings.

"The Blue must overcome that Grey," was Hope's Hypothesis and what she waited and watched to see.

She sat on the floor that wasn't a floor. Red began its climb and the whole Other Place glowed to match its ember.

Yellow zipped next making Orange waves in its wake.

Here was Blue weaving through the contours of the stem, like a neon light color show in the depths of Space.

Blue reached the bulb and touched Red!

Purple, at last!

Now with every color of the spectrum a clear portrait of the dandelion hovered and lit up The Other Place.

Suddenly, the bulb burst like all the seasons happened in seconds and the flower turned to parachute seeds of neon glow that whirled and wisped around the fountain.

The mostly Blue bristles floated towards Hope, circled around her and her whole being shone a turquoise shine.

She clapped and Blue sparks leapt from her hands.

Then, The Other Place while filled with thousands of every color dandelion shoots, coughed.

The floor that wasn't a floor quaked. The stone fountain cracked and out of the air that wasn't air static formed.

Grey! everywhere like heavy rain clouds that drop from the sky and land on you and smother engulfed Hope.

She shifted and shouted. No!

Then Hope remembered her hands.

She clapped. Blue light cut through the Grey cloud.

She took a breath, stood, climbed to the top edge of the fountain and clapped and clapped and clapped.

Blue light from Hope's hands cut through the Grey static.

When the Grey turned Blue something new was made, something wonderful.

The dandelion now free of the static was surrounded in a Blue protective shield.

Hope sat back down and watched.

"But what does it mean?" Hope asked her favorite question.

That Grey was a corrosive force, color cured it, color made the picture of the dandelion clear.

As Hope drew her Genius conclusions, The Other Place coughed and spasmed again.

This time a dark Grey cloud nearly the size of The Other Place itself descended.

She stood and clapped.

Her Blue light fizzled and died in the static.

Again Hope clapped.

Again fizzled.

Again clapped.

Again died.

The cloud was above her now. She clapped and clapped and stomped. Every attempt at light to end that dark static didn't.

She took a breath, headed for the swinging door to get free and wake back up. The cloud blurred her image and knocked her down.

A roar from the swinging door sent a fire of pure crystal light like a sunrise to light the whole Other Place clean.

Just before Hope woke up she saw the face of what sent the fire that saved her.

Awake and safe now, she hugged Langston, huffed a deep breath and told him, "Dragon, Langston, a dragon."

Hope's cellphone chimed. Her mother, Faith, sent the message: "Breakfast."

She looked at Langston, turned to face back the small path towards home, put on her backpack, lunged down like a relay racer at a starting line, leaned down lower, met Langston's eyes and said: "Downward Dog, Go!"

And The Hound Dog and The Genius raced home for breakfast.