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The Shining World
Prologue
 As she stood near the entrance to Green Echo Park singing at the top of her lungs,
it occurred to Mi the Nordling that it might not be a good idea to call too much
attention to herself in this unfamiliar world.
But it was so exhilarating to break free of the confines of her own world, to
at last find herself in the world of the Creator! True, Mi had passed through several
worlds in her quest to find the place known as the Shining World. But here in the
world of Pay-Gee the Creator, she sensed with a mounting excitement that she was
drawing nearer and nearer to her destination.
Only a little while earlier, Mi had noticed sounds coming from a building with tall
stone spires and stopped to look inside. There was a group of small beings like herself
- "children" as they were called in this world - sitting in a circle. In
front of them stood a woman, singing and moving her arms rhythmically, urging them
to sing along with her.
All night, all day, Angels watching over me, my Lord
All night, all day, Angels watching over me.
Ever since she'd discovered she could sing many more notes than the one she was
created for, Mi had been eager to learn more of these melodious collections of notes
that people in this world called "songs". The music these children were
making was so sweet and soaring it made her tiny heart feel like it would burst.
She resolved that she would learn this song, right here, right now! She would not
leave this window until she knew every word, every note of it.
Now here she was, a short distance away from the building with the tall spires, at
the entrance of the large green place known as a "park" in this world.
She could see many trees and wondered if one of them could be the Tree of Good and
Evil - not that she had any idea how she would be able to tell. Just inside the gate,
she noticed a statue of an Angel, with great stone wings draping from its shoulders
and running down to its base. What a wonderful thing! Mi thought to herself - to
learn a song about Angels and then to immediately encounter an Angel. Almost involuntarily,
the notes of the song burst out of her and she felt a deep, transporting joy as she
sang.
After a few moments she noticed that a group of children in the park had stopped
what they were doing and were looking at her strangely. Reluctantly, she stopped
singing and began walking toward the children. They had resumed their game. It looked
like fun and she hoped maybe they would invite her to join in.
She stood off to one side, watching shyly for a few moments, till one of them - a
boy - raced over and poked her on the shoulder. Mi shrunk back at first, thinking
he intended to hurt her. But then he called out the word "Tag!" and she
could see from his expression that it was just part of the game and now it was her
turn to go find someone else to poke on the shoulder. She ran after the others, laughing.
This game wasn't so different from the game she used to play with the other Nordlings
back in Notherland, when they pretended they were being chased by swarms of flesh-eating
bugs.
Mi almost caught up with one of the others and was about to poke her on the shoulder
when the girl slowed down momentarily and looked over toward the street. A man was
standing there watching their game. The girl sped up again, but Mi managed to get
close enough to touch her.
"Tag!" she shouted triumphantly.
She was worried the girl might be mad at her, but she just shrugged good-naturedly.
"Now I'm it."
Mi stood facing the girl, whose attention was drawn again toward the street. Now
the man was walking toward the park entrance.
"Is that your dad?" Mi asked the girl, proud that she knew the casual word
for "father" in this world.
The girl shook her head.
"That's not my dad," she said emphatically. "I thought he was yours."
Mi almost started to explain that she didn't have a dad, that where she came from
there were no fathers, but stopped herself.
"If he's nobody here's dad, then he's a Stranger. You should never talk to Strangers."
"What’s a Stranger?" Mi asked.
"A person you don’t know and your mom and dad don’t know either," the girl
replied.
"Why can’t you...?" Mi started to ask, but the girl had resumed running.
Mi looked over toward the entrance. Now the man called the Stranger was walking past
the statue of the Angel, and was heading right toward her.
"Hello, little girl." said the Stranger.
"Would you like to go for a ride with me?"
Copyright Kathleen McDonnell 2003
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