Morgan was alone in her glass walled office. It was quite except for the hum of the Toshiba desktop computer.
"I'll finish coding and cataloging these tomorrow." Morgan thought to herself as she pushed the home button on her clear plastic case enclosed iPod touch. White colored lettering reading 4:45 Monday, September 5th appeared on the black three inch screen. Under the time and date the green battery icon indicated that the little 2x4 personal computer was fully charged.
"Thank goodness I don't have to work overtime today." When it was time to go home she always took a minute to calm down and relax after a long day at work listening to the silence where infinite intelligence was waiting patiently for her to make a space for it to be revealed. It only took a couple of minutes for Morgan's mind to become peaceful, sitting directly on the carpet, Morgan crossed her legs, put her palms together in front of her chest and closed her eyes.
"Focus on your breathing and every time your notice your mind straying, just bring your attention back to your breathing". The female voice in Morgan's ear buds was narrating the meditation program in a gentle soothing clear tone.
"Relax your body completely by visualizing each major muscle group relax and let go. Now begin the one-to-four count as follows" the narrator instructed.
"1...2...3...4..." Morgan counted. Her chest rising and falling as she exhaled laying on the beach relaxing watching the waves go back and forth.
"Beep beep beep beep beep" an alarm clock on her glass top desk let her know it was five o'clock. Morgan pulled the ear buds out of her ears.
"Time to get ready to go home in rush hour, I hope the trains are running on time." Morgan walked out of her office and into the vestibule where the floor walls and vaulted ceiling are made of pink Knoxville marble. The floor is inlaid with patterns of brown Knoxville and Levante marble. Three doorways leading to the main entrance hall are copied from the entrance to the temple of Erectheas on the Acropolis of Athens. Each of the doors weighed about eight hundred pounds a piece. Morgan continued to the main entrance hall where the floors are made of white Georgia marble inlaid in the center with bronze decoration Morgan pressed shuffle all on the touch screen and turned up the volume bar as she stepped outside. The warm breeze made her feel like she was melting. The air conditioning inside the Arless Public Library was chilly. The Arless Public Library was in the middle of the financial district downtown. Sidewalks and streets were busy with food and merchandise carts, businessmen, college students, shoppers and tourist.
"Finally found a girl that you couldn't impress / last man on the earth still couldn't lick this / you're delusional you're
delusional / booooy you're losing your mind / it's confusing you / you're confused you know / why you wasting your time." The heavy bass of the pink Skull Kandy ear buds were vibrating Morgan's eardrums.
She reached the top of the Dean street train station entrance and observed what seemed like the entire population of Schwinn County trying to escape from the platforms below. The police were directing the way out Morgan switched to radio mode on her iPod.
"There has been a power outage in the rail system" the reporter said. "Authorities don't know when the rail will be working again it may be a couple of hours."
Morgan was about thirty one miles from home so she couldn't walk.
"No trains I wonder if ill be able to catch cab at this time of day" she thought to herself. After a couple of minutes of waving at a sea of passing cabs with passengers in them, one finally stopped and Morgan got in.
"1122 Staples Road, please." she told the driver.
"OK." the driver answered and started the meter. The cab drove off and everything was fine until an 18-wheeler almost ran into to the taxi Morgan was in. The cab driver swerved and missed. Morgan was pushed to the other side of the seat.
"Sorry about that miss everything is OK now." the cab driver reassured her.
"OK I'm fine." Morgan replied and the taxi driver continued to drive.
"Is he trying to kill me..?" Morgan asked her self, "No, that was just a random incident with millions of cars and trucks on the road that's bound to happen once in a while. OK, no the taxi driver is not trying to kill me just calm down." Morgan said to herself as she noticed that the interior of the cab was really clean.
Morgan looked out the window a frisson of fear went through her and she turned away her heart pounding, but when she looked again there was a gigantic red and black bug with large pincers on the front of its mouth, and three pairs of multi-segmented legs and a pairs of veined wings that came out of its thorax had disappeared.
"Was that my just my imagination?" She asked herself.
There's a big red and black bug trying to kill me in this cab. The white and brown new model ford taxi cab was in a lot of traffic and moving real slow, which started to make her feel claustrophobic and nervous. She looked down and saw the big bug right next to her foot and screamed, opened the car door and jumped out running down the street. The cab driver yelled after her.
"Come back and pay me!" but Morgan just kept running up the block and around the corner.
Morgan ran for about two blocks before she started to get tired and tripped over a mountain bike chained to a stop sign.
"If I stay low the bugs won't get me instead of trying to get up." Morgan crawled on the ground on all fours like a lizard looking for a place to hide. Swarms of passer-bys just looked and kept moving thinking just another crazy person crawling on the ground. Morgan tied to dodge all the bugs that that were trying to get her by moving quickly left to right.
"Just keep moving and the bugs won't get you." she reassured herself. When she reached the corner the huge 18-wheeler thundered by again and scared her to feet.
She looked around terrified, "There are no bugs here!" she said to herself and tried to calm down by taking deep breaths trying to stop herself from shaking.
"Hey!" a voice called from behind. Morgan turned and saw the cab driver running after her. Morgan sprinted across the street and ran into the side of a moving grey jeep. Morgan flew back a couple of feet onto the sidewalk she rubbed her ankle. It was bruised. She tried to get up but fell back down. Morgan heard foot steps behind her.
"The bugs are coming" and she got up and ran into the supermarket a few steps away, limped to the dairy aisle opened the glass door to the ice cream freezer stepped in and closed the door behind her.
"I'm safe now bugs don't like the cold." she thought to herself. While in the freezer Morgan thought about a lot of things.
While she was thinking a monster visited Morgan in the ice cream freezer.
"You're not in the right state of mind" it said. Morgan just stared unable to comprehend what she was seeing. "Make a commitment now to keep a watchful eye on your state of mind" the monster continued. Morgan silently nodded yes
"Bend your beliefs toward what is useful not just the way something seams to be on the surface" it said. Morgan continued to gesture in agreement.
"Well, I'm in an ice cream freezer in a supermarket but the things that are great right now are that I still have my physical health and when I get home I'll be able to watch my favorite television show on TiVo" Morgan answered.
"That's good" the monster said and asked "What are you thankful for right now?"
Morgan thought for a couple of minutes and answered, "I am thankful that I recognize and have a chance to rise above my problem which will make me feel more in control in the future".
"OK now that you are in a better state of mind you can step out of the ice cream freezer." the monster said.
Morgan looked at her iPod, it read 6:27. When she looked back up the monster was gone. Morgan stepped out of the ice cream freezer and onto the dairy aisle floor. She brushed some ice off of her clothes and felt better. Morgan walked out of the supermarket and into the warm night air. She had that feeling of melting again.
A cab stopped and Morgan got in, "1122 Staples Road, please." she said and the cab driver started the meter as he drove off. There wasn't any traffic at this hour.. Morgan got home in a couple of minutes safe and sound.