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The Maze - Sixteen would have found inviting on such a hot August day. Karly could not resist. He walked into this mysterious shade that he had never noticed before. Karly stood there in the welcome shade daydreaming of cool water, Grandy’s hot biscuits, and tea cakes for dessert. But these thoughts were beginning to float away, becoming meaningless to Karly as his eyelids suddenly grew so heavy that he could no longer blink. Mentally he felt as if he were in slow motion, and he could no longer move his body. Expanded awareness was enveloping him once again, and it became impossible to distinguish himself from anything else. He was everything and everything was he. He felt as if he were in a vacuum where the space that surrounded him was so dense he could suffocate in its thickness. Then the thickness seemed to carry him upwards. No longer could he feel the earth beneath his feet. A soft, pale light with no origin slowly began to fill his surroundings. It was cloudy and somewhat misty, and it made everything indistinguish- able. He wondered where he was and what was happening. He could no longer see the inviting shade, and he thought for a moment that he was lost. He felt his heart begin to race. From afar, a voice called to him, but he could see no one nor find its direction. He found himself moving forward as the hidden voice directed him. He asked where he was and where he was going, but he received no answer. At last he was allowed to rest on something he could not see but could only feel, and the voice directed him to sleep before he returned home. Somehow, this was all familiar to him, in some strange and for- gotten way, but at the same time he desperately wanted to reach out for his mother, his Grandy, or anyone who loved him and not to remember any of it from the past nor in the future. His breathing rhythm began to ease, and his mind slipped away. He sighed heavily, his body relaxed, and his arms went limp. He awoke to the sound of music. It was strange music but com- forting. A voice spoke to him again, but a different one than before. It sounded somewhat familiar, but he could not remember where he had heard it. It told him to follow, and he did. The strange mist fad- ed, and before him in the distance were many animals playing. They were calm and tame, not wild like the critters he knew back at home. Masquerade of Angels 158 The Maze - Sixteen There were squirrels, birds, deer, raccoons, and some that Karly had never seen before. Near them was a group of small children singing. He listened to their heavenly voices giving off musical tones of a quality Karly had never heard before. There were twenty or more of them, and Karly was amazed at their odd voices and their dazzling blue coveralls. He reached to draw closer to them, to touch one of them, but an invis- ible force restricted his mobility. “No,” me voice said, “you cannot be with them at this time.” Karly felt himself becoming extremely angry. He struggled and kicked to get down from whatever was holding him. At that moment he felt himself traveling at a tremendous rate of speed. Streaks of light seemed to be flying by in all directions. Then with a jolt, Karly found himself standing in the sand bed. The shade tree was no longer there, and neither was his little rabbit. Once again, he felt his anger raging inside, and he started run- ning home as fast as he could. He was confused and feeling strange. He wanted his mother and Grandy. He would tell them what had just happened and that someone had taken his rabbit. And he knew that somehow they would make it all okay. They always did, and they would help him get his rabbit back. He could see the farmhouse just ahead. Grandy was standing on the porch waving at him, and as he looked ahead at his home and his adorable grandma standing there, he knew that he would not be going to the fields to play again, ever. He had changed somehow, and now things were different. The field and the rabbits no longer interested him. He just wanted to be at home with his family. Masquerade of Angels 159