Walking to the light

It's funny how that light never seems to leave me alone. While my sister lay dying, we spoke to her a lot about the light. I was reading her a quote by Kahil Gibran " For what is it to die, but to stand in the sun and melt into the wind." Not much of a nature girl she kinda raised her eyebrows at me since she, like my mother, thought roughing it was black and white TV and backpacking was having to carry your own luggage into the hotel. I told her she could just picture the lights of Vegas instead of the sun and that seemed to make her happy.

Later that evening, I went to dinner with my niece and nephews. On our way, we came close to death ourselves. A woman on a cell phone didn't see the light and almost plowed us down. She was so close to us that I had dust from her car on my pants. Needless to say, I was ready for that Margarita just as soon as they brought it and promptly slurped it down. Now I hadn't had anything to eat all day but chocolate covered peanuts and gummy worms and so the Margarita went directly to my head, didn't pass go, didn't collect $200! The company was fabulous and so was the meal, enhanced as it was by the alcohol.

As we were finishing, a friend called and I went outside to take the call. I started walking and talking, again enhanced by the alcohol and suddenly found myself totally lost in a very dark part of downtown Denver. I could not see the hospital or the restaurant. Enhancement fading, I thought I should get off the phone and see if I could find my way back, so I hung up with my friend. But before I could do that, my best friend called. I told him what was happening and that I had decided I would just sit down and wait for my family to find me.

My phone started to beep that "you screwed up and didn't charge me again" beep and I told him I needed to go. He said to me "Walk to the light." I thought that odd, but it was what we had been saying to my sister and I kinda said okay. He was now shouting at me, "Walk to the light!!" and I must have seemed confused, given the situation. " I mean the lights of a 7-11 or the street lights or the traffic lights," he shouted over the beep. Ohhhh.

As the battery died, I heard him shouting: "I mean it!! Walk to the light!! Get out of the dark!!"

Good advice.