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The Maze - Nineteen ”You must go to New Mexico.” “Why New Mexico?” Ted asked. He had never thought of going so far away, not since Sun Valley, and certainly not to a place he thought of as empty and arid. “You must go to Albuquerque,” Raphael replied, ignoring the question. All of this made Ted quite curious, but he did not take the messages seriously and had no intention of actually following Raphael’s orders. The dreams weren’t upsetting, as so many of his dreams and visions had been in years past. Still, Raphael was a persistent visitor, showing up in dream after dream and urging Ted to move. It even reached a point where the spirit guide named the very date on which Ted should depart for New Mexico. “T wish Raphael would just give it up,” Ted laughed as he told a friend about the recurrent dreams. ““There’s no way I could take off for New Mexico, even if I wanted to. I’ve got commitments to my job and the restaurant, and you’d think the spirit world would know about such things.” A few days after this conversation, however, Ted had an accident at work and injured his lower back. He went to a chiropractor for relief from the chronic pain, and the doctor advised several weeks of rest, away from work. With nothing to do but kill time and relax for those weeks, Ted decided to go ahead and make the trip to New Mexico, now that his curiosity had been piqued. Yet he insisted the whole trip was nothing more than a vacation. He refused to let himself believe that the dream messages were anything serious. All he wanted was to stay off his feet so his back would heal, as the doctor ordered. And if he could also casually check out this place that Raphael harped on, so much the better. Besides, his long-range plans at work were going nowhere. He had been promised part-ownership in future business expansions, but nothing was moving in that direc- tion. When it looked as though the promise would not be kept, Ted took that as a sign to head out into the world again and look for something better. So he gave the restaurant notice that he was taking a leave of absence, packed up some Masquerade of Angels 180 The Maze - Nineteen belongings, and rode away from Alabama, accompanied by a good friend. Curiously enough, it worked out that Ted left home on the very date that Raphael had given him. He called it a coincidence. Ted had several distant relatives in New Mexico to visit. While staying with one of them, he had another dream encounter with the persistent Raphael, who brought him yet another command. “You must submit a business resume,” he told Ted, as if it were a normal thing for someone in a sombrero and serape to discuss. And he told Ted the name of a particular company to contact, as well as the exact date for mailing the resume. By now, Ted was inclined to pay more attention to the lit- tle man’s advice, and he dutifully sent out the resume on the appointed date. He didn’t know whether to feel surprised or not when the company responded, requesting that he come for an interview. The speed of these events did surprise him, and he agreed to meet with an interviewer. That night, Raphael appeared again, and this time he advised Ted to wait until the follow- ing Tuesday to go for his meeting, rather than on the date the company had requested. Determined to follow the scenario to its conclusion, Ted assented and called to reschedule the appointment to fit Raphael’s instructions. When he met with the company’s personnel manager, the interview went well, and Ted was told that he would be informed of their decision right away. But several days passed without the anticipated phone call, and he began to feel foolish for acting on the advice of a Spanish figment of his imagination, as he tried to insist. In fact, he had just about given up hope and decided that the dreams were inconse- quential after, when Raphael intervened again. “Don’t be discouraged,” he told Ted. “You must not leave. You must not return home. You will be contacted and receive the job offer. And you must accept it.” The message was so insistent that Ted reluctantly post- poned his departure, giving Raphael one last chance to prove correct. Two more days passed, and still he heard nothing. At last, impatient either to be offered the job or to return to Masquerade of Angels 181