Parallel Universe

I'm sweating, not from anything but the final moments of a hot day.   The ocean is breathing, pushing the surf up and down the beach.   Large sea turtles litter the black sand as if the head of the Hawaiian tourism division (a large native Hawaiian who has hardly been off the island)  placed them here for the perfect photo shoot.   I hear him saying, "Order up a few dolphins, or a breaching whale .... Or .... Just nothing that the 'haoles' can mistake for a shark.   That damn Jaws movie just never goes away."

I smirk.  Think about the theme song.

I look out across the ocean ... Wishing I could see the parallel universe .... The different places I could be right now.  The adventures, the friends, that perfect cup of coffee that I am missing.  If only I had nine lives that I could run parallel just to see ....

Right now, I would be in Oregon, sliding across snow, wondering how many shades of white could possibly make up the landscape, laughing at the silliness of the adventure with someone equally as bored with having been stuck inside.  Someone who like me just had to escape...  That someone who shakes and shivers in the wetness of the snow, the swirling wind, the cold temperature.  And then laughs.

Or back in the Czech Republic ...  lazy summer days having vacated with all the tourists at the end of September ... Back in my tiny town of Mala Skala with houses buttoned down and waiting for June to arrive.

Or maybe in an airport, off to the next under served population, a place that is trying desperately to lift itself from the bottom of society.  With women treated as livestock and children begging on streets.   With questionable food choices (what is this exactly?) and bottled water that I never drink with ice.  Would that be the gutters of São Paulo, the back roads of Ethiopia, the refugee camp of Azerbaijan, the high dessert of Bolivia?

Or standing nervously in front of middle aged men who are no longer older than me with a full pot of coffee, assorted doughnuts, and a stack of printed PowerPoint slides, all to keep them awake as I guide them from point A to B and then on to C.   I would find comfort, even power, in that red blazer  with a silk blouse and girl shoes that provide only a smidge of extra height but make a wonderful click clack sound as I walk across tiled floors.

I pause here, suck in the air perfectly timed with the breath of the ocean.  I scan the horizon; I am blinded by the sun which all day has been creeping toward a final exit but now suddenly seems to be diving into the ocean.

Of all these lives, these parallel worlds, I can only enjoy this one....  Even if this view lacks a whale or a dolphin ... I enjoy the turtles.