28. The two pilgrims stood and were ready to enter behind the curtain and receive their test.
The painter and the girl were ready as well. They went forth and felt the velvet of the curtains against their skin as they passed through.
And there before them was the shrine. The girl had never seen it and she gasped. The painter who had seen it once before in the dream gasped. The pilgrims who had journeyed and lived with it on their trek to the town also gasped.
It was as if all of the elements had been fused together and carved into every imaginable shape and figure and symbol. It was more than that. It was organic having grown from itself, bursting forth from its very essence of being, the pure expression of every ineffable emotion beyond bewilderment and defying imagination. It proposed, denied, asserted itself, became humble, exulted the senses, distracted the nerves, brought contradictions together in harmony, balanced chaos, ruled the universe, surfed the web, magnified the infinite, bared the soul. It was everything, nothing, anything and it only hinted and suggested these things. As if the universe and everything within it were not even the beginning. It was more than concrete but less than ethereal. It was made of solid, liquid, gas and states of matter unfathomable. It was a cube but also a sphere. It was all of the colors, none of the colors, beyond and before color. It was. And before it sat the Almost Venerable One on its throne.
The girl inside the girl pilgrim looked up at the Almost Venerable One and almost thought something. The painter inside the boy pilgrim looked at the Almost Venerable One and almost thought something as well.
"Are you ready for your test?"
They said they were.
"Those who wish to enter must first pull the tyger from the pyre," the voice said and was silent.
The pilgrims were quiet, not knowing what to make of the test. The painter and the girl were also quiet within them. While the pilgrims tried to think of where they could even find a tiger, the painter’s eye wandered over the surface of the shrine. The pilgrims were about to concede their failure when the painter saw something on the surface of the shrine that caught his eye. It was the form of a diamond tiger surrounded by gold and ruby flames about eight feet off the ground.
He moved his pilgrim. He wasn’t sure he would be able to take control of his host but he exerted his will over the host’s mind. He told the girl to follow his lead. He bent down and folded his hands together and told the girl to step in them. The pilgrims were trying to figure out what was going on. They were strangely unafraid. The painter thought that if his body were being controlled by an unseen force from the future, he wouldn’t be taking it so calmly. But calm was exactly what the pilgrims were. They had come to the temple to enter the shrine where anything was possible. The girl was lifted up to where she could reach the tiger and her host saw what she saw and together they reached up for it. They pulled the tiger and it slid out and sand started pouring on their heads. As the sand poured out, parts of the shrine started to move. The segment containing the tiger lifted up as its counterweight overcame the balance the sand had created. A parakeet holding a branch in its beak slid into the opening the raised portion made and a series of spring-loaded weights were dropped tilting over the symbol for the moon. A knife was dropped on two wires which held the doors shut and when the wires were cut they slowly swung outward.
The shrine was open.
The painter and the girl steadied the feet of their pilgrim hosts and the hosts reassured their invisible partners’ minds. They stepped inside accompanied by the flash of a blinding light and the sound of a very loud and tremendous bang.
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The painter and the girl were ready as well. They went forth and felt the velvet of the curtains against their skin as they passed through.
And there before them was the shrine. The girl had never seen it and she gasped. The painter who had seen it once before in the dream gasped. The pilgrims who had journeyed and lived with it on their trek to the town also gasped.
It was as if all of the elements had been fused together and carved into every imaginable shape and figure and symbol. It was more than that. It was organic having grown from itself, bursting forth from its very essence of being, the pure expression of every ineffable emotion beyond bewilderment and defying imagination. It proposed, denied, asserted itself, became humble, exulted the senses, distracted the nerves, brought contradictions together in harmony, balanced chaos, ruled the universe, surfed the web, magnified the infinite, bared the soul. It was everything, nothing, anything and it only hinted and suggested these things. As if the universe and everything within it were not even the beginning. It was more than concrete but less than ethereal. It was made of solid, liquid, gas and states of matter unfathomable. It was a cube but also a sphere. It was all of the colors, none of the colors, beyond and before color. It was. And before it sat the Almost Venerable One on its throne.
The girl inside the girl pilgrim looked up at the Almost Venerable One and almost thought something. The painter inside the boy pilgrim looked at the Almost Venerable One and almost thought something as well.
"Are you ready for your test?"
They said they were.
"Those who wish to enter must first pull the tyger from the pyre," the voice said and was silent.
The pilgrims were quiet, not knowing what to make of the test. The painter and the girl were also quiet within them. While the pilgrims tried to think of where they could even find a tiger, the painter’s eye wandered over the surface of the shrine. The pilgrims were about to concede their failure when the painter saw something on the surface of the shrine that caught his eye. It was the form of a diamond tiger surrounded by gold and ruby flames about eight feet off the ground.
He moved his pilgrim. He wasn’t sure he would be able to take control of his host but he exerted his will over the host’s mind. He told the girl to follow his lead. He bent down and folded his hands together and told the girl to step in them. The pilgrims were trying to figure out what was going on. They were strangely unafraid. The painter thought that if his body were being controlled by an unseen force from the future, he wouldn’t be taking it so calmly. But calm was exactly what the pilgrims were. They had come to the temple to enter the shrine where anything was possible. The girl was lifted up to where she could reach the tiger and her host saw what she saw and together they reached up for it. They pulled the tiger and it slid out and sand started pouring on their heads. As the sand poured out, parts of the shrine started to move. The segment containing the tiger lifted up as its counterweight overcame the balance the sand had created. A parakeet holding a branch in its beak slid into the opening the raised portion made and a series of spring-loaded weights were dropped tilting over the symbol for the moon. A knife was dropped on two wires which held the doors shut and when the wires were cut they slowly swung outward.
The shrine was open.
The painter and the girl steadied the feet of their pilgrim hosts and the hosts reassured their invisible partners’ minds. They stepped inside accompanied by the flash of a blinding light and the sound of a very loud and tremendous bang.
next
