One early morning Kelly of the Phoenix wakes up on a twin mattress in a small room with a slowly turning, buzzing ceiling fan. Her room's walls are blue, and she turns on a yellow lamp as she is thirsty, needs to pee and is ready to wake up. In the hall there is a vending machine, so she quenches her thirst before taking a stroll on the beach. As she reaches the border of the dry sand and the wet she ponders nature idly. For no reason in particular she is suddenly aware that this day is a unique confluence of constellations, planets and weather, bringing together a strange mish-mash of gods, angels and demons. She's no numerologist, but it creates a feeling of elevated spirituality and tiny burst of adrenaline. In this glorious morning light, in this air so very far from home she feels tiny, too: like an explorer. "This day is sacred to many races" she thinks and also ponders the white moist sand squishing beneath her feet as well as one sharp hidden object she has just discovered. "Ouch!"
Its a two-finger ring hidden in the sand. Weird but cool! She rinses it with a toe in the surf and deftly swaps it upwards to look. Its gaudy and gold with an unusually cut garnet, pink because of the sunrise. A closer look reveals the stone is multi-colored with perfect balance, impossibly. "Maybe its plastic? No. Its stone." Around its setting it are twelve golden dancing figures which are so tall that they match the stone. The ring is unscratched and not worn down, despite its having been in the surf. "Who dropped this I wonder?" One of the twelve figures is Shiva, knives in hand. Some of the other characters she also recognizes but not from the same pantheon. "This ring makes no sense." she says aloud, sliding it on for a fitting. It fits. That's strange, because she can never find rings that fit, and this one's a two-fer. "God, I hope I can keep it. That would be awesome."
She continues her stroll, marveling at the perfection that this morning has been so far; and she knows when she gets back she'll have a perfect breakfast plus a story to tell and ring to show for it. This alone doubly justifies the expense of a vacation long in the making. Everything is going wonderfully, and it completely takes her mind off of past regrets, old wounds and other nonsense. These hands and these feet brought her and only they can take her back, she thinks; but she is wrong. These aren't her hands and feet.
Her hands have become like fire, and looking back at her path she sees that her footprints have turned into melted-sand prints. Its all so ridiculous. Her awareness unifies and broadens to the point she sees and feels in all directions, and the sunlight feels like a breakfast cereal and is pouring its power into her. She realizes now she has to exert control over her body heat or this beautiful beach will be destroyed, so she does as she begins to hover and the float up into the sky, laughing, suddenly aware of dimensions that humans may only ponder and never see.
