Small Things in Life Bring Happiness

My grinding week in the laboratory at Elkins Precious Metals Foundry has finally come to an abrupt end. "Wow, what a long week that it has been," Mike said to Tom grabbing his coffee thermos and lunch bucket from the lockers inside the cafeteria building. They both walked out together towards the parking lot. It was 4:30 p.m. on a Friday afternoon, and all that Mike could dwell on was his upcoming weekend at the fishing lake up north in Mocapeca Mountain resort. Fishing on the boat, relaxing by the poolside and just doing anything that he felt like doing without someone breathing down his neck. Tom said to him, "Are you sure that you don't have any room for a guy like me to have that kick-back weekend too?" I replied back to him, "Not a chance Tommy boy as the wife and I are heading up there tonight for a little candlelight dinner on the deck with the stars above us and the moon shining bright."

Once I arrived home from work, I burst into the back door nearest the kitchen and positioned myself in front of the refrigerator pulling out a cold beer for myself. The crack of the metal tab from the glass bottle sent a shiver down my spine, but as soon as I guzzled about one-quarter of the sixteen-ounce liquid beverage, I heard the wife coming around the corner. Karen rounded the kitchen corner and gave me a great big bear hug as though she were squeezing the inner organs from my toot bottom or my burp side. In any event, I was as happy to see her pretty little face and broad smile because I knew that in about 2-hours or thereabouts, we would be cruising in the SUV up the highway north to the Mocapeca mountain range. Nothing could be finer than to depart for a long weekend getaway to a secluded area where the grass fields were as green as jade, and the wildflowers looked just like large Skittles candies with different colors of the rainbow everywhere. And the sky was always so deep blue like the ocean in the reef coast along the borders of Australia.

Well, we were in the SUV heading up to our destination, and the wife was quite talkative during this time. Most often, there is more solitude than banter between us because Karen has her eyes glued to her iPhone with whatever she looks at multiple times of day, and I am busy doing something. She asked me, "How is that transformation project coming along at work for you and the team?" I replied in a quick response, "It's screwed up as usual because the team group leader, Jeremy Thudwanger is looking to capitalize on the success of this project as he's kissing the butt of the senior partner Greg for a higher position at the company!" I could predict her next statement to mine with the retort, "why do you always have to downgrade someone in your sharing of information?" "Why can't you for one time be civil and caring about someone, and just say that they are working hard to get recognized?" Her statements, even though repetitive in nature, always exasperated me and yet I would just ignore the sarcastic question, and move on to another topic.

We reached our destination, removed the luggage from the rear trunk area, and proceeded to the check-in desk area. The reception area and lounge were just as I had always remembered it. The decor was very rustic like an old hunting lodge but the furniture was very tasteful, and fit well in the large room with a stone fireplace, and a game area for adults. I requested our usual suite overlooking the lake and the Mocapeca mountains in the background with the extra large balcony. We had the luggage brought up to the room while we went around the backside of the main hotel building. We wanted to soak in some glorious last-minute rays for the evening before retiring to the suite room. As I turned around to take my initial step forward, I noticed something shiny on the ground to my right that caught my eye with a bright glistening appearance. I bent down to pick up the object, and as I opened my fingers to snatch it up, I received one hell of a sharp, burning feeling that touched my forefinger and radiated up my entire right arm and into my brain. It was such a jolt that I fell backward onto my back and rolled over onto my side holding my hand and arm in wretched agony. My wife at that point had already made it back to the hotel reception area, and by the time I mustered the energy to get back up, she was yelling for me from the room deck saying, "Are you coming up to the room, or just farting around again?"

What in the heck was that jolt of a feeling that sent me to my keister from something so small in the grass? As I got on my hands and knees in preparation to get up, I had the shiny object directly below my eyes. Should I really make an attempt again to grab this object? I didn't want to do it, but it was as if this thing, whatever it was, wanted me to pick it up. After mulling it over for a good 30 seconds, the curiosity got the best of me and I snatched it up as fast as I possibly could. This time around, I didn't feel any sensation from it in my hand, but it most assuredly glistened like something that I had never seen in my whole life prior. As an alchemist for many years, and searching for gold in many expeditions throughout the globe, I had not seen something with so much brilliance and sheen to it. I began to feel a sensation of power and fullness flow into my body with every increase of clench strength applied to this object. It was an amazing feeling to have within me as it literally caused me to see images in my midst of old gold diggers striking it rich in multiple scenes. Buckets of gold nuggets, wheelbarrows stocked to the edges with gold flakes so shiny that you couldn't even look directly at them, and large excavators from the early 1940s just heaping with gold. Everywhere that I looked around me was nothing but gold in various forms. As I sort of came to my reality again, I looked up where my wife was on the balcony sitting in one of the outdoor chairs and then down at the object in my hand. What was this powerful, energizing gold thing?

I found myself again in a stupor with crowds and crowds of horse and buggy wagons crossing my eye range that had so much gold. I wondered to myself, "why do they need so much gold to themselves when in fact, I could use some of that yellow stuff to get us into the affluent scene of life." If this was real, and this gold, brilliant piece in my hand was indeed gold, then I was holding something of significant value, and that meant that WE WERE RICH!

At that very instance, the dream-like state vanished from my brain, and there I was with myself lying on the hard ground empty handed just as I was not 10-minutes prior. I envisioned in my mind a gold surroundings about me. Gold acorns on the ground, gold blades of grass, with the sun shimmering on the various patches throughout this property, and tree limbs, and leaves just amass with gold elegance. I was definitely rich, and knew that whatever I seemed to look at had turned into gold. Did I cause this to happen? Did this now missing gold object bring about some alien power that allowed me to transform common objects into gold items? Was I now blessed with the "Midas" touch or was this just a foolish dream like all of my other dreams since the stroke that brought me to this state of mind? I wanted to open my eyes wide after closing them tightly, and see the real gold thing; but when I did so, I was there lying in a bed with my arm bound with straps, and padded walls all around me. Where was I? It was where I had been for the last 6-months following the stroke....the Philadelphia VA Mental & Rehabilitation Center. My mind was still playing tricks on me, and it looks as though the medication and counseling has not made much in the way of progress in resolving my issues. Wow though, just the thought of being able to touch anything into gold made me happy for a bit!