What's In The Box?

What’s in the Box? by Tracy Sadler Machalek

Margie was on her daily neighborhood walk, or as I like to call it, her daily "snooping and note taking for the HOA newsletter" walk. I shouted hello and she scrambled to hide her tiny notebook and pen, responding with a meek hello as she timidly waved back. I then turned to water my newly planted azaleas, rolling my eyes and muttering to my flowers, "Wonder what new boring slights Margie will discover this week, I wish something unusual and interesting would happen here". My flowers seem to shimmer with iridescence, muttering back in the breeze, "Be careful what you wish for…". Thinking I must be foggy from my restless night’s sleep, I brushed off the whispered botanical clairaudience activation as nonsense. This would periodically happen to me as a kid. But I always brushed it off as my active imagination.

Just as Margie passed the corner out of sight, a UPS driver dropped off a package at the vacated house across the street. I knew it was vacant because the owners had practically fled, throwing boxes in their U-Haul and peeling out of the driveway two weeks ago in a frenzy. The house dark every night since, leaving me wondering what had happened. Feeling a bit hypocritical, but not really caring, I wondered what clue the box could hold. My curiosity and excitement building as the idea of getting an actual interesting scoop before Margie winning over any of my trepidations. I looked around, seeing no one about, plus the thrill of actually beating Margie to the scoop punch galvanizing me, I decided to take a daily walk too. I grabbed my cat Jaco's leash and resolved to take my cat on my own snooping scoop gathering walk.

Jaco wasn’t fond of his leash, but he acquiesced and seemed to also want to know, “What’s in the box”? Instead of nonchalantly walking around the block first, easing into my snoop scoop like I wanted to, my cat took the direct approach and dragged me straight across the street right into the vacant house’s front lawn. I stared at him, wondering if he could read my thoughts. He seemed to smirk and nod. Again I shook my head, thinking I was groggy from the lack of sleep - mentally making a note, “ I really need to try and get a full nights sleep tonight before they throw me in the looney bin. Need to up my magnesium citrate nighttime supplements & try to get a full 8 hours.”

As we approached the front stoop towards the mystery box, a loud thrumming and humming swirled around us. Space warbled, marbled and shimmered with an iridescent glow reminiscent of the glow around my azaleas just a few minutes before. The front portico of the vacant house began to dance and morph around the box as if the molecules themselves became unglued, creating a magical dessert-like oasis mirage. Everything became liquid and hyper pigmented. I wondered, “What’s in the box”? As if answering my thoughts, the box magically opened and a magnetic whirlwind unfurled, sweeping up both my cat & I into a sparkling tornado of energy. The sound was almost deafening, a booming Symphony of 432 Hertz. Jaco and I twirled and danced to it in a bizarre tango, levitating, then swooping and swirling down into the box like an energy bath circling down into a portal drain.

The strangest sensations of floating in and out of physical coherence enveloped us. Beautiful constellations, moons and planets whizzed by as we plummeted through space. A clean, crisp metallic scent of ozone and fragrant blue lotus oil filled our nostrils. Jaco stretched and morphed into a regal 7 foot tall feline Goddess. The thought, ‘Lyran Healer’, popped into my head as I looked at her. The leash between us turned into a golden current of lightning linking us wrist to collar energetically as we wound through the portal coil. My hands and fingers lengthened and turned golden with gorgeous gemstone rings of lapis lazuli, carnelian and turquoise adorning every finger. Copper spirals swirled and danced in the center of my palms, opening energetic ancient eyes. Sacred geometry and symbols of lost forgotten languages poured out of the coils encircling my arms like sleeves of painted henna. Jaco turned and spoke, “Perseshet where are we?”!!! We both gasped then passed out.

A glistening iridescent hummingbird tickled my cheek, chattering and waking me up. I tried to stand, immediately falling down, feeling woozy and unable to get my bearings. I felt as though I was floating, then realized, we were floating in a beautiful ornate ancient Egyptian papyrus reed boat. I seemed to intrinsically know called a “tjufy”. A wash of remembrance flooding through me. Not only had Jaco & I time-travelled back to an ancient magical time, but we had also jumped into a past life where thought and matter were just as liquid as the Nile below us, each thought manifesting immediately. I thought, “I’m thirsty” and an ornately painted glazed ceramic mug of spiced wine appeared in my hand. Jaco looked at me bewildered, then understanding flooding through began to speak in a low humming ancient forgotten Egyptian tongue asking for a faience mug of wine as well. Immediately almost before she finished speaking, a mug spontaneously replaced the ankh in her right paw. We locked eyes, a full understanding of acknowledgment between us as we dropped easily back into this past life as Healers, Sekhmet and Perseshet; like it was a modern everyday Tuesday and not the wildest, most magical thing ever encountered.

As we sipped the glorious wine made from dates, honey and rich spices, our tjufy glided through the sun-kissed golden waters of the Nile. Floating past beautiful white and blue lotus flowers, their perfume filling the air. Hundreds of iridescent zinging singing hummingbirds flitting by with tiny bell-like birdsongs chattering of daily news and latest gossip. Our raft propelling us forward as if on its own accord. I thought, “Where are we headed?” Responding, the bow turned into a jetty, mooring us up over sand, then sliding up onto an ancient woven painted mat made of lemongrass reeds and jute. This mat, or as I recalled this “mamluk” was woven in sacred geometric patterns similar to the symbols magically painted on my arms during our portal ride. The mat’s woven fiber patterns shifted, lifted, and rearranged themselves like computer code. In this new pattern realignment, a whirring sound enveloped us. The sand beneath us began to shift as our mamluk took flight, taking our tjufy and us on a magic carpet ride.

I couldn’t help but be distracted flying over the bustling Ancient Egyptian City of Sais / Zau, trying to take in all the magnificent scenery of temples, obelisks, golden tipped pyramids, and more. With this loss of focus on my question of “Where are we headed?”, our mamluk wavered, narrowly missing a collision with another carpet flying tjufy. Our mamluk spinning out and down towards a caravan of camels below. Not amused, the camels hissed and spit at us. Sekhmet and I spit out our wine with laughter and I realized our mamluk required telepathic focus to navigate our magic carpet ride. With a clear mind, I focused back on my initial question and we gently lifted up correcting course. A few minutes later landing gently at Per Ankh, an advanced healing learning center for scribes, priests and physicians. A crowded room of aspiring healing artists eagerly awaited our lecture.

Amazed at everything we had experienced. I had the silliest of thoughts thinking, “Wow! did I beat Margie for the wildest best neighborhood scoop of all time. A UPS delivered time-traveling portal right on our street! Wish I could tell the HOA.” As if on telepathic cue, Sekhmet and I immediately zapped back into Jaco and Phoebe watering the azaleas. But with one key difference, a magic UPS box time machine now sitting on my front porch.