A-mazing Shift

“This maze is quite the complicated set-up,” she informed a cardinal that sat on top of the green wall. When the bird chirped—in agreement, she thought, she retraced her steps then sought another way into the center. Her goal? To find that art work then return.

“Return…” she muttered as she walked. “To what? A husband who is more a roommate than lover? Grown kids who no longer need me? Our grandson?” At that, she paused. The child was only five and quite the heart breaker already. Being the only grandchild so far meant he had his grandparents wrapped around his finger most of the time. However neither Al nor Jolie allowed Chad to have his way in everything. That way would lead to having a monster on their hands. “Humm, I’d miss Chad.” She refused to think about missing anyone else though.

Inside the maze, little breeze stirred. Sweat broke out across her forehead, upper lip and beneath her arms. Her dark blonde shoulder length hair grew damp on the back of her neck. She pulled a small band out of her pocket and pulled her hair into a pony tail. On she walked, fanning herself, hoping to stir the air to more comfort.

The light came over the maze wall at an angle, indicating the late afternoon sun. Now and then a red bird flew over the top near her, but other than the one that landed at the dead end, no other bird stopped to watch her progress. The growth muffled sounds so she heard nothing but the occasional bird call. Now and then she’d wipe her palms off against the sides of her jeans. The further in the maze she went, the odder she felt. The springy grass beneath her feet told her few ever came this way.

“Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea,” she said aloud just to hear the sound of a human voice.

On and on, with no sense of time, she walked, seeking a way into the heart of the giant puzzle. She sensed the center near; her heart beat harder, the sound booming in her ears. Her mouth went dry as if she approached the answer to one of life’s great mysteries.

“This is silly. I’m a grown woman, and this is just a maze.” But Celine’s legend along with the disappearance of several others haunted Jolie’s thoughts. What if she vanished? What would Marie and Jeff do? How would they explain her disappearance to Al and her family? Oh, they’d mourn her loss, but would anyone truly care?

Jolie refused to stoop to pity, but she doubted anyone would really miss her. After years of marriage, she still wondered now and then why she’d picked Alphonse Babin as a husband when so many more handsome men were available. “I need a fresh point of view,” she said as she put out a hand to rest against the cool green and leaned around the next corner.

“Oh my…” Words failed her.

The center of the maze lay before her, a smooth carpet of perfectly manicured grass with a small marble pedestal in the center, measuring six feet across and only a foot high. Atop that rested the art work Marie told her about.

From that first glance the twisted bronze intrigued her. So much so that she sank back against the green wall and lowered her body to the ground. In the more open space now, a breeze managed to cool her. Seated Indian style, with her wrists propped on her knees, Jolie leaned left then right, trying to get some sense of the basic shape. In an effort to identify what she saw she put thumb and forefinger together on one hand then did the same on the other. She slipped one circle into the other at a ninety degree angle. Lacking a third hand to complete the design she saw she relaxed her hands back on her knees.

Yes, a circle inside a circle within a circle. Like a gyroscope, an instrument used to maintain proper orientation and stabilization. In a science lesson not long ago, she used a child’s top as an example, and the toy had been shaped much like this art.

But there was a less than subtle difference between the toy and this gleaming structure. She imagined the artist creating the three circles then holding the bottom as he stretched out the top. Not only were the circles elongated, but they were twisted slightly, just enough to give the bands that created it texture. For the circles were not made of round bronze but flattened strips of the shining metal. Stretched and twisted, the sculpture fascinated Jolie like nothing she’d ever witnessed before.

The sun was sliding lower beyond the maze’s walls so the light hit only the top third of the art piece. However, the way the bands were twisted, each side reflected to another side so that even as the maze grew dimmer, the sculpture retained its shine.

“A-mazing.” Jolie drawled and brushed off her bottom. No longer did sweat dampen her hands or brow. No longer did her heart beat as if it would burst through her chest. No longer did she fear the heart of the maze.

“I wonder how he did that,” she murmured as she walked around the piece, using one finger to follow the bends and curves. As she circled the art, she noticed a hum. “Odd, wonder what’s making that sound. Must be music outside the maze turned up really loud.”

Despite the growing darkness around her, the sculpture remained lighted from the last rays of sunlight at its crown.

Without quite knowing why, Jolie reached out, but stopped. Like entering the maze itself, she moved forward then pulled back, but this time she did so not out of fear but out of excitement.

Something waited. Something mysterious. Something awesome. She could tell. Like being hot and having a tall glass of tea, you sip slowly, holding the thick sweetness on your tongue as long as possible in order to savor the thrill before swallowing, tracing the coolness as it passes the throat and into the chest.

Should she touch it? Yes! No! Yes, but what if… What a conflict battled inside Jolie.

Torn between touching or not, she went with her first impulse and grasped the cool bronze firmly with her hand. A sizzle lit sparks around her; a pleasure pain rushed down her arm and hit her brain like a wrecking ball hitting a weak wooden wall. POW! Her body flew through the air and landed on the green carpet of smooth grass in a loose-limbed unconscious heap.

That curious heart that once beat so hard that it frightened her with its powerful pulse skipped then thudded once, skipped then thudded again. Thud. Skip. Thud. Skip…

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