Rocking Twilight

Neighbor Marvin was kind enough to dump off  a pick-up load of rocks for Fiorella yesterday, and a couple of hours later, in the early twilight, she started laying them out along the driveway.. The whole time, she was imagining somebody--or something--coming out of the dark woods behind her and catching her by surprise. She'd throw rocks at him/it, of course, and, being the heroine, she'd make it back to the house safely. Or would she? Older women usually get knocked off in the first reel.

Two-car Family

It's nerve-wracking when you're down to one hoss. Husband rode the Miata to the local drivers' license bureau, and Fio is sitting at home trying not to think of all the dastardly things that might happen along the way.  Like that he'd get picked up for driving without a license and Fio's baby car would be impounded, leaving them completely without transportation. Like that he'd lose the ONE AND ONLY KEY. Like that he'd get into an accident. Like that he'll run late, forgetting that Fiorella needs the car by 1:00.

But if all goes well, Husband will come home with a replacement driver's license in hand, and we will pick up his repaired boat of a car tomorrow, which will put two hosses in our corral again.  Then Fio can let her well-developed worrying powers dwell on whatever other possible crisis rears its ugly head.

Dreamers

Fiorella is thnking that what separates us from the beasts is our imaginations.  We make up stories about plants and about animals and ourselves and each other, about heaven and earth, and what is beyond heaven and earth.  And some of these stories turn out to be true.

Conspiracy Theorist at Work

Fiorella can out-theorize conspiracy theorists any day of the week.  She dwells in the land of perpetual what-if.

What if that sound in the middle of the night is a burglar, or a serial killer, or a vampire, or a zombie, or the house falling apart, or an alien invasion, or the end of the world or a sound she's made up in her head because she's totally insane and always has been?  What if she's not really human, but a simulacrum someone concocted?  What if she actually died years ago, and she's on perpetual rerun?  What if no one is real but her?  What if she's actually a creature in an experimental zoo?

Had enough?  Well, along the experimental line, what if Fio was rigged up and given her life's difficulties just to see how much one person could take?  What if she was exchanged for another baby at birth?  What if she is living several lives at the same time, and each time she dies in one of those other lives, there are less lives left till her final demise?

Let's get a little less paranoid.  What if one of those sparkly rocks in her driveway is really a precious gem?  What if her dog actually does understands English?  What if Fio can relieve people's pain with warmth radiating from her hands?

And then there are the what-if's that refer to the past, Fio's and others.  And, of course, the glory and the ignominy of the future.  And the ones that pop up whenever she walks out of the house or gets in a car or talks to someone or reads a book or watches television or gets on the computer or writes or eats or sings or DOES ANYTHING OR DOESN'T DO ANYTHING.

And that's just the beginning.

What If?

Does everyone have an active internal life, or is it just a few of us? Fiorella has lived in her imagination since forever, and Husband's the same way. Maybe that's what brought them together.

But does everyone daydream? Or do some people plod through life without plotting out alternative universes? Without envisioning thrilling romances and exciting adventures? Without fantasizing turns of fate that would lead them to fame, fortune, and happily ever after? Without being careful not to step on a crack and break Mother's back?

Is this the sort of thing that separates us from the beasts? Or does it?