I sighed. The crazy hippies were at it again.
No one thought much of it when the rag tag bunch of pot-polluted, guitar playing folks moved in to the abandoned copper mine. They brought their crafts, their fashions, their music and yes, their drugs. I watched them from afar, fascinated by a lifestyle so completely different from my own. They were aliens from normal society and now, at this very moment, I could somehow understand -- at least in part -- how they must feel and what drove them to such a strange existence.
Instinctively, I felt that the stranger's agitation toward me was drug induced. My sudden presence startled him and fuel some type of "fight or flight" response. I raised my arm in front of me, faced my palm toward him, and sang ever so gently, "Picture yourself in a boat on a river..."
He stopped. His muscles relaxed. A slow smile came over his handsome face. He cast a gentle look toward me and said "Lucy. You are Lucy. The sky. The diamonds. It's you, isn't it?"
I felt my face redden. He was gorgeous. At that moment, I would have done anything for him, including changing my name to Lucy. So of course I said, "Yes, I'm Lucy. And the diamonds are in your eyes, the sky is in your heart."
I had no idea what that meant, but he seemed to like it. He reached for my outstretched arm and took my hand in his.
"Lucy, come with me. I have something to show you." He was laughing now and so was I. Momentarily, I thought of my best friend and how she would simply curl up and die with jealously if she could see me at this moment. But before I could dwell on that thought, my new friend had me scurrying back through the marble covered passageways.
"What's your name?" I asked my new friend.
"Morrison," he said. "But my friends call me ..."
He didn't finish the sentence because at that moment, we emerged into the light of day. But this was not in the same place where I had entered the building. It was an outside garden, of sorts. I had never seen plants like these. And throughout the garden, there were strange colored objects, metal contraptions that had been painted and twisted into unusual forms. Swirly objects that reached for the heavens, pointed objects that hinted at every direction imaginable, some with water endlessly flowing across their surfaces.
We stood in silence as we looked across the magical landscape.
Finally, Morrison said, "This is why you came here, isn't it?" His smile broadened and his eyes twinkled.
I didn't know what to say, so I dodged the question. "Well, Morrison, what do you think?"
He laughed out loud and did a little dance in a circle. "I knew it! I knew it! Lucy, I had the vision that you would come."
He reached in his pocket and pulled out a small, red, velvet pouch. "I've been saving this for you," he said as he handed it to me.
I held the pouch in my hands for a moment, not knowing what to do.
"Open it. Go ahead," he urged, ever more excited.
I looked at him and then back at the pouch. I shook it, and objects rattled in its belly.
"Lucy! Open it!" He was clapping his hands together in anticipation.
I slowly undid the ribbon that held the contents inside, and then I spilled the contents out upon my hand. I gasped.
"Are these... are these...."
"Yes!" Morrison laughed. "Yes, Lucy! They are diamonds!"