Animals in the sky

The wind is softly blowing my hair, slightly tingling my face, while I dream of my childhood. I remember my grandmother pointing to the clouds and asking me what I saw.

“I said, soft white fluffy clouds grandma, what do you see?” I remember asking her like it was yesterday.

She said,” well Wilma if you look very closely at each cloud you should be able to see an animal.”

“But grandma what if you can’t see an animal, then what?”

Her eyes glazed looking up towards the sky and said, “if you see an animal every time you look up it means your heart is pure. My great grandmother told me once that if your heart is pure you will have a good life full of adventure and happiness. If your heart is not pure you will live a life of misery, you will be miserable and have no friends. While being miserable you won’t be able to find love or give love.” She looked at me as if looking into my soul.

I will never forget that day for the rest of my life. I looked up and saw nothing. I started to cry. My grandmother opened her arms and held me close. She said, “Wilma close your eyes, and listen to your heart. Listen to it beating while taking in a long breath, then releasing the long breath. If something pops up in your mind erase it. Like your teacher erases the blackboard. I want you to breath in deeply and breath out. Now open your eyes slowly and look up into the sky. If you see a shape, you will recognize an animal. Perhaps eyes, or a snout, or a tail.

I looked up and saw nothing. Only white fluffy clouds. I really tried to imagine animals or shapes but couldn’t. I sobbed sitting beside my grandmother that day. She looked at me this time with smiling eyes and said, Wilma one day you will see, and you will know your heart is pure. Besides my great grandmother said it was a myth. I couldn’t see anything either the same age as you. Then one day I saw a mermaid and was thrilled. I cried that day, she the mermaid only appeared for 10 seconds and then she was gone. After that day all I see in every cloud is a different animal. Sometimes it’s a dog, alligator, bird. But my favourite was the mermaid. I will never forget her, and how beautiful she was. She was sitting on a cloud rock with a rainbow above.”

I remembered looking at her with awe, and hoped one day I would see her the mermaid or any animal. I hoped that I wouldn’t be miserable and I made sure I never was. It seemed like I worked very hard on that, being polite, respectful, and tried to stay cheery even if I didn’t feel like it.

Several years later after my 20 th birthday I laid on a dock looking up into the sky. My friends just left to go to a beach and would come back to pick me up with the chairs and cooler. I heard my gradndmothers voice tell me to close my eyes and concentrate on breathing. I slowly opened my eyes and looked at her. She was beautiful. The mermaid was sitting in a rock. I could see her long beautiful tail, the mermaids long hair cascading over her shoulders. She was magnificent and above her was a bright beautiful rainbow. The tears flowed from my eyes as I looked at her. I felt so connected to my grandmother and connected to myself knowing I would never have to work on my pure heart again because I just got clarification that it did exist. I smiled as she disintegrated in thin air.

I was reaching for my phone to call my grandmother to tell her, but my phone rang instead. It startled me to see my moms number came up as she knew I was at the beach with my friends.

I answered the phone after I searched for it in my pack. On the other end I heard my mom sobbing. She told me that my grandmother passed.

The wind very lightly touched my hair and tickled my face. After I hung up the phone I looked into the clouds and thanked my grandmother for showing me the beautiful mermaid. I smiled while looking at the clouds and every cloud was a different animal disappearing within seconds. My eyes filled with water and told my grandmother that day that I would teach my grandchildren about the myth of the clouds and pure heart.