<br><br><center>*The mind, mystified by the commonplace, 
moves effortlessly into the strange.
―Patti Smith*
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![Lonely Waves.png](https://images.hive.blog/DQmfVdQhdHCAzoHpgpzExNMTpVMo9Nq9fhZtuYo7phkvUX3/Lonely%20Waves.png)
*Eternal Note of Sadness*</center>


<br><br>I was relieved Charlotte agreed to see Kath and examine her. Just the fact that help was on the way calmed my anxiety.

I'm not an uncaring person―sometimes I even cry over news reports, but it's unusual for me to be so invested in the well-being of a stranger.

The girl seems to draw out some protective instinct in me I never even knew I had. 

I've never felt intense compassion before, except perhaps toward  my parents and they've been gone ten years now, dying together in an accident.

<br><br>Within the hour, Charlotte showed up as promised, complete with doctor's bag and looking very professional. 

After making the requisite introductions, she got right down to work.

"Blake, I'd like you to give Kath and me some privacy so I can examine her. Why don't you take a walk and I'll text you on your cell when we're done?"

"Sure, of course, I'll probably go to the lake and watch the waves. It's a perfect day."

"The medical exam will take about 40 minutes and then I'd like you to be here as we discuss this rather unique experience Kath is undergoing and how we can assist her."

I nodded my assent. "Feel free to avail yourself of anything in the kitchen―Kath knows where the coffee is and I won't venture too far away."

<br><br>I smiled encouragingly at Kath as I left, but once in the car, my resolve evaporated and I had misgivings about contacting Charlotte.

I knew she was compassionate and loved exploring unusual incidents especially ones pertaining to the psyche, but she was a medical doctor after all, and her code of ethics might prompt her to have Kath hospitalized where she could be under the care of experts skilled in dealing with her situation.

I promised Kath that wouldn't happen but it might be beyond my power to prevent it.

<br><br>When I got to the lake I noticed the wind had picked up in intensity and low dark clouds were racing overhead. The roaring noise I heard when I opened the car door was from the sound of the waves crashing into the rocky shore.

I had never experienced that before and I took it as a bad omen―and that in itself was unusual, because I was not the kind to give into superstition.

But then I remembered a weird thing that happened the night before when I was brushing my teeth to get ready for bed.

<br><br>For some reason, I put down the toothbrush and stared at my face as if I were looking at another person.

There was a slight feeling of vertigo and then my eyes seemed to change into my father's eyes and I almost expected him to speak. 

At that moment, there was a slight frisson, like a sunlit ripple blurring an image and another, younger face was staring back at me. I wasn't frightened but comforted. It was a familiar face that filled me with a pang of longing for something forgotten but now remembered and missed.

But as suddenly as it appeared, it was gone and I was staring at myself, at least on the surface, because I now knew inside me there were others that were me and not-me, but were rooted so deep I couldn't separate my life from theirs.

<br><br>As I was musing on this,  my cell pulsed and Charlotte texted me to return, but I knew behind her words it was really Kath calling me back to her.

I began to shake because I wasn’t sure at all what was happening to me, but sensed it was somehow linked to the mystical experience I had the other night...

As well as the appearance of Kath herself that induced these changes in me.





<br><br> <center>To be continued…</center>

<br><center>© 2023, John J Geddes. All rights reserved</center>

<br><center>[Photo](https://images.app.goo.gl/eJRkC4z5jrKAFFAJ6)</center>
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