#Ongoing Adventure: Party Time!

Option Chosen: Go to the meeting alone

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You have been waiting impatiently for today ever since you opened the invitation. And now, at 3:30, you are ready for whatever unfolds.

You are wearing new sandals, pressed grey pants, a white linen pullover and a tooled leather belt studded with sterling silver and inlaid turquoise pieces. For an added bit of confidence, you’re wearing your great-grandfather’s turquoise ring given to him when he was a traveling teacher in the Southwest reservation over a century ago. It’s a great conversation piece when meeting strangers. You can casually take a sip of your drink and someone is bound to comment how beautiful the ring is.

It’s no coincidence to be wearing Native American jewelry to the party. You’ve grown up with old photos and memorabilia of Northwestern Native American culture and you remember how hummingbirds carry spiritual significance. Your great-grandfather taught you that the hummingbird was valued and appreciated as healers, light-bringers, and offering luck and love to those who saw it.

Glancing again at the invitation clutched in your hand, you wonder if there’s a connection with the party today.

As the elevator travels quietly to the rooftop, you take one more deep breath to calm your beating heart.

You tried to discover what type of party it would be by going up there this morning, supposedly to work on lesson plans, but when you got there, nothing looked out of place or unusual until you spotted several tiny bird feeders hanging from artistic metal poles placed near the shrubbery. Hmmm. Were they new? You can’t be sure.

An elderly man carrying some sort of basket was stepping out of the other elevator as you went back down. Probably one of the cleaning crew.

The elevator doors open and you step out. Immediately you are greeted by a waiter offering you a choice of chilled mead or a cup of honey mulled wine. You choose the mead and begin to walk through the penthouse toward the rooftop.

You glance around to notice the other party-goers, all strangers. There’s an almost tangible sense of excitement in the air, or it simply nervousness, as you overhear a lady saying “I’ve waited so long. Look what I chose! And now I’m….” but then she turns away.

You walk to a nearby table overflowing with the elegant party foods. You are dipping your spoon into a bowl of honey dipped almonds when another guest approaches.

“So, which one did you choose?” he asks.

Bewildered, you simply hold up your plate and he laughs.

“No…I meant of the options. I chose this one. See? But I’m needing some fortitude before I start the next part. Good luck” and he pointed to the entranceway to the rooftop.

Seated at the door was a wizened old man holding a basket on his lap. On his left side was a white wicker bird cage, and on his right side was a large clay bowl with a wide opening.

Curious, you wander over and he greets you with a beaming smile.

“Oh, so very glad you have arrived” he says and he calls you by name. “Now, think carefully of what you will choose. For this impacts what follows. Whatever you choose is merely the ticket to carry you into the next part of your adventure. New York rooftop right now and who knows where in an hour?”

You smile as you think, “Ooh, I’ve wanted to go back to…” but he interrupts your thoughts sharply.

“It is a ticket to where you need to go, not merely a vacation trip, so choose wisely.”

He reaches into the wicker bird cage and pulls out a miniature glass replica of a hummingbird with delicate streaks of blue and green woven into the glass. Looking more closely, you see a drop dangling from its beak. Tear drop or raindrop?

“Symbol of,” he begins to say, but stops. “You already know the importance of our hummingbird. Will this be your guide?” and he looks up at you.

“Or this” and offers a tiny honey bee, made of red clay, sitting atop a drooping white clover plant.You marvel at the details of it and reach out as he continues. “If you take this, this will be your spirit even as it guides you to the next one? Is this what you need?”

And he offers the third choice, a small glass ink pot filled with hunks of blue tinted stone. And instead of a pen, there is a miniature chisel. “Yes,” he nods, ‘those are genuine turquoise nuggets. Would you expect anything less?”

He slyly looks at your ring and nods. “Good connection.”

You take a sip of the honey mead to buy yourself some time. This was not what you had expected of a rooftop party on a weekend afternoon. These don’t feel like mere trinkets or party favors. Where was the poetry reading? Or someone writing haiku?

Something magical happening? Something sinister? As you look around, you notice that people have been walking out to the rooftop, but the rooftop remains empty. No, they are not jumping, so where are they?

And what happens next?

The old man coughs quietly to regain your attention. He smiles as he repeats his question.

“Where is it that you need to go? What is calling you?”

And you reach for…

Options:

1. The hummingbird which magically carries you to… 2. The ceramic honeybee which directs you to... 3. The ink pot filled with turquoise nuggets which leads you to…