Time: Part 1

Prologue

What is time? Is there really a measure that's accurate? I somehow don't see it, perhaps it's because there are times, when time doesn’t exist! At least it doesn’t seem to.

When you are waiting for what is real to materialize, but then wonder...if it's real, should you not already be able to touch it? At least be able to experience it? But what if you already have?

What if what you hold to be real in your heart, is not really there? But somehow, you just know that it is, or was, or will be? At least there is a promise.


Beth found herself caught in a game that she must play successfully! Failure would be devastating to her and her future.

She hadn't asked to play this game, had she? She was really given no choice!

She found she was to be the key player. The man that kept appearing in her dreams was a mystery. Did she already know him? Was she going to meet him at another time?

"This is crazy," she thought, this must surely all be a dream!

But was it?

The game is on, and EVERYTHING is part of the game!


Part 1:

When Beth awoke, she was confronted with a major headache and her neck was terribly stiff. What did I do? she thought, then remembered she was attempting a new writing technique and must have fallen asleep at the keyboard again.

Thank goodness tomorrow is Saturday; I only have to go into work for a few hours to do paperwork, she thought.

Stumbling to her bedroom to turn on the light, Beth set the alarm. A flash of light came across her left hand, it caught her attention, an engagement ring was in her sights. I must still be asleep, she thought. Ignoring it, but somehow not, she dreamily smiled as she set the alarm and turned off the light to continue her slumber.

She couldn’t go back to sleep, or had she already done so? Nothing seemed real anymore! He stood before her again, begging her to be his wife.

But he never had to beg me before--I love him completely--so why is he begging me to not give up? She thought.

"I don’t understand sweetheart, you know that I love you and want to spend the rest of my life with you, so why are you so upset now?"

"I am just afraid you'll tire of the time and distance."

"What is time? We'll make it through this, you know that! We've covered all this before. So your job will have you away longer than we planned, it's no big deal, really."

"I know Beth, but I am afraid you'll grow impatient with me and the length of time I'll have to be away."

"Babe, again I ask you, what is time?"

"BETH, time is the distance between right now, and when we're together again!"

NO! But she can’t get the word to come out of her mouth. She could only see him falling away from her. She reaches, her heart screams as he reaches with all his might to get a grip on her hand. But the effort is futile and they're unable to get the grasp of their hands. Their souls feel as though they are being ripped apart forever.

"This can’t possibly be happening! We're one, I know it!" Beth see's herself screaming this statement, but she heard nothing. She said nothing, aloud.

Who's doing this? What's happening? Beth thought to herself.

She found herself fighting the sheets. Trying to get lose to get a hold of his hand, but it was too late. He was already gone.

She awoke to a feeling of loss that the depth of her entire being has never known. She struggled to her feet looking for the clock to find out the time--but the clock was no more; time no longer existed! She's merely in an existence. Caught in a period that she doesn't understand, nor does she know. It appears to be a time without existence, but she can't wrap her educated mind around that concept.


She makes herself get ready for work and proceeds to make her way to the car. Closing the door behind her; she says the prayer she says each time she starts to get on the freeway. “Father please keep your hedge of protection around me as I travel this day, Amen”.

She makes her way to work and starts to clock in, but her name is no longer in the computer. "This darn thing, I am so tired of the glitches that come along with this stupid machine! I will reset it later, of course I will have to call the help desk, AGAIN, and ask them what is going on with the server. It’s always the server!" She muttered under her breath.

She makes her way back to the front of the store to pull the money from the safe.

She recalls that no one responded to her “good morning” when she first arrived, but everything was so crazy, perhaps they just didn’t notice that I was here. She goes to the safe, but again, nothing, are they ignoring me?

Hang on, I am the boss, and they refuse to acknowledge me? Oh, we are so going to have a meeting! But if they want to give me the silent treatment for now, so be it, my neck and head still hurt, and I don’t feel like getting into anything that may cause me more aggravation right now!

Beth enters her code to open the safe, nothing happens. She sees that actually NOTHING happened, at all! The keypad must be sensitive this morning, I'll try this again. No matter what Beth hits on the keypad, it shows nothing--like she is not hitting anything at all! What is going on here? She looks at Naudia, one of her cashiers. Beth was going to make her respond whether she wanted to or not!

Beth asks Naudia if the safe is giving her any money? She ignores her. Like Beth truly is not there, Naudia reaches out and swipes her safe card to dispense the money that she needs to give change back to the customer.

Beth stands back patiently waiting for the customer to exit the store. Beth then screams, "Naudia, why are you upset with me?" Nothing... "NAUDIA! Damn it, you will show me respect! I don’t know what is going on here, but you will answer me!" Again, nothing.

Another customer comes in the store. Beth holds her tongue, not wanting to appear out of control in front of any of the customers. The lady looks at Naudia and asks for the time. Naudia just looks at her. Beth was making note of that "response" as well. Naudia and I were going to have it out the first chance I have to say anything at allBeth thought to herself! But then, the customer looks at Naudia knowingly as she starts laughing, rolling laughing! Naudia joins in on the laughter like they were somehow aware of something that Beth was not!

Beth tries to log onto e-mail to at least let her boss know that there are issues with the computer and the safe and that she is unable to do the reports. None of her passwords work. She tries to call him from the work phone, but she couldn't get the number to go through. She tries her cell phone, it's working! When he answers the phone, Beth says, "Hey, its me, I am having-" He cut her sentence off in mid-stream and asks, "Who are you again?" Beth is thinking the whole world has gone mad! She says, "HELLO, it’s me Beth"!

He replies that she must have the wrong number or at least the wrong district as he has no one by that name that works in his territory.

She tries to tell him that he had better not yell at her if she doesn’t have the money to the bank on time.

He responds in a laughter she had never heard come from him before, but he is able to muster the word TIME. In his incessant laughter, he proceeds to hang up on her.

Fine! This is insane, I must be in lala land and am just going to go home and go back to sleep, maybe this will all make sense tomorrow!


Beth says goodbye on her way out, she still gets no response! Infuriated, she leaves the store and goes to her car. But now, her car keys don’t work either. She turns to go back into the store, but the store is no longer there. She turns back to her car, but now it is gone as well. She finds herself standing in an open field. "Has everything been a figment of my imagination? Where is everything? Where is everyone? Where am I? What day is it? What time is it?"

The rolling fields seem to echo the laughter she had heard from Naudia and her boss. As Beth begins to crumble to the ground in tears, she prays, "God this can’t be real," he replies openly and audibly, what is real, my child?

The sun gleams on her left hand and she saw the engagement ring again, but she didn't remember ever receiving the ring.

She couldn't think straight! All she could do was lay in the field and cry. What is happening to me?

"Sshhh baby, I’m here."

Looking up through the tall blades of grass surrounding her, she could feel his voice resounding off the walls in her heart and immediately knew she would be OK! Peering into the sun, she could only make out a silhouette. She couldn't make out his face, but she knew in her heart that it was him!

"You’re here, but how? What is going on, where are we?"

"Beth, we only have a minute, just know that no matter what happens, I love you and I await my return to you, forever."

"But I don’t understand, what is it? Why do we have to go through this?"

"I am told we have to go through a test maybe tests Beth, I'm not sure. But if we pass the test, we can be together forever, but in the process, many things will be thrown at us that we must overcome. If we fail at any one thing, we will be apart forever. It is imperative that we get each part of the test right! Got it?"

"I got it, but I’m confused and afraid. Will we make it?"

"We will babe, we have to if we have a future together! Time will hang in the balance until the test is done, but tomorrow, everything will appear differently then it did today."

"What do you mean?"

"Trust me Beth, trust yourself, MOST IMPORTANTLY, trust and believe in us! I have to go now. They won’t let me stay any longer."

"Wait, you can’t go, I need you, please don’t go! I am so lost without you! Promise me we will make it!" But again, it was too late, he was gone.

Beth cried as she reached out for him, but again she awoke entangled in her blankets...thud.

Beth heard the sound but hadn’t realized it came from herself hitting the floor. She couldn’t move, she didn’t want to! She wanted to just lie there and soak in the dream...had it been a dream? Was anything real? She looked at the clock, it was in the same spot it had always been in. It read 4:17 am and the alarm had been going off for two minutes!

"Wow, I must have been in a deep sleep!"

Beth couldn’t shake the dream. It was so intense, and she truly felt a loss for this man that she didn’t even know, or did she? He had said, "So we could be together again."

She got ready for work, actually thankful that it had all been a dream! Still, she was unable to shake the feeling of loss for this man that somehow seemed, a very important part of her life--but at the moment, she was unable to put it all together.

She went out the front door to find her car in the driveway as she had suspected...It reinforced her thoughts that this was all a just horrible dream!

Fine, she thought. Thrilled that this dream was behind her and she could move on through the day!

Upon arriving at work, she found something still didn’t seem right to her. Jeremy was more outspoken than his norm. She asked him what was up, he said "nothin, the same as usual, why?" She felt as though she was still edgy from the dream, so she said “nothing, I just thought perhaps something was on your mind."

Beth went to the computer to clock in, all was fine...there was her name. She felt a major relief!

"OK Jeremy, I am ready to do shift change so we can get you off the clock." He burst into laughter! When Beth didn’t follow his laughter, he just looked at her and stopped laughing.

"You're kidding right?"

"No Jeremy, I’m not kidding! What is so funny?"

"Beth, you were given the rules right?"

"What rules? What are you talking about?"

"The test Beth, the game that you must succeed in if you ever want to grasp your dream!"

"Would you stop playing around?"

"I’m not playing! It’s YOUR game, not mine! Think about your dream."

"My dream? What do you know about my dream?"

"I know you’d better get the rules right if you are goin' to pass the test and win the game. You don’t get many errors forgiven! You already made one, another one could cost you everything you dream of."

"I'm not quite sure exactly what you are talking about, but you do have my attention, so why don’t you enlighten me of these so called rules?"

"OK Beth, but you’d better pay close attention to what I have to say! There is no going back once you have started this, and if you lose, you will lose everything!"

"What do you mean I lose everything?"

"You already know what I mean! EVERYTHING!"

Rule number one: You are forbidden to ever make reference to time in anyway.

Rule number two: You must figure out who the man in the dream is. He is your future, but if you don’t figure out who he is, you will lose him forever.

"Great, so the man of my dreams is-"

Rule number three: You must never speak of the man of your dreams, not even kidding around! If you find someone that you believe is the man in your dream, and voice it, if you are wrong, then you have failed the test and lost the game!

Rule number four: You can never tell anyone about this, you are the only one that will know.

"But wait, you know about this, you’re the one giving me the rules, remember?"

"As soon as you know all the rules, and completely understand the game and the tests, this conversation and all that I know will be cleansed from my memory."

"Most importantly YOU must remember that there will be many deceptions that will cross your path. You will have to make a lot of decisions. I suggest you listen to your heart and your inner voice. The wrong decision will cost you the game!"

"But how long will this...this “Game” last?"

"It will end when you fail a test or when you figure out who the man in your dream is."

"But you said I can’t make any reference to time, what about my job? What about making a schedule for my employees, what about clocking in and out?"

"You will continue to go through your daily activities, you just must never, EVER SPEAK of days, dates, times, seasons, anything!"

"I never said this would be easy Beth, but if you want it bad enough, you can do it!"

"One other thing. The engagement ring that you catch glimpses of is real, but no one can see it but you, and you will only be able to see it at the beginning of the dreams."

"Good luck Beth, let the game begin."

"But wait Jeremy!"

"What Beth? Wait for what?"

The look in his eyes was different, the gleam, the shining...all gone...It was just Jeremy again, same old Jeremy, and Beth's information window had been sealed!

"The game is on!" She muttered under her breath.

This concludes part 1. If you would like to see what part 2 holds, please read on.

Time: Part 2  (13+) It's his turn to find out the rules and how to play the game! #786648 by Zaring

Thanks,
Gina