M23-What Do The Stars Say

Ding! The bell sounded, announcing that the elevator had arrived at the ground floor. Penelope was at the door, obviously anxious to get out, a big grin spread across her face.

Penelope was on her way to work at Walmart, the job that she had gotten three years ago after graduating high school. Her mother called it a dead-end job with no prospects and was always after her to move on, but it met her meager needs and was comfortable. She was not thinking about any of this today. Today she was excited about how positive her horoscope was.

When the elevator door slid open, she bolted out, right into a middle-aged lady that she did not recognize who was carrying a load of grocery bags.

“Oh!” The stranger said.

Covering her mouth with both hands, Penelope exclaimed, “I am SOO sorry! I was in too big a hurry to get to work.”

“That’s all right. No harm done,” the lady said. “What has gotten you in such a rush?”

“Nothing really,” Penelope said. “My horoscope today was just so perfect. My head was in the clouds!”

“A lot of people read those ,” the woman agreed. “I had better get these groceries put away.” Having said that, she stepped into the elevator before the doors closed and it left without her.

Penelope continued to work and her entire day did seem to go quite well as predicted.

*. *. *

The following day, Penelope was moping along the hall almost to her apartment when she noticed the lady from yesterday standing in a doorway.

“Hello there,” the woman said. “Are we neighbors? You don’t seem as happy today.”

“I hope it wasn’t because I was not available to crash into this morning,” she continued with a smile.

“Oh hi,” Penelope replied, hardly looking up. “No its not you,” she continued, missing the jest.

“Why so down today? You seemed to be having the best day yesterday.”

“I know. My horoscope was such a good one yesterday and it all came true, but today was a different story. Bad horoscope, bad day.”

“Oh dear,” the lady said. “Here, come in and have a cup of tea. Maybe you will feel better.”

Penelope shrugged her shoulders and said, “Ok. Can’t hurt,” as she slid past the woman into her apartment.

As were all of the apartments in this building, this was just a little studio apartment with the kitchen and a small dining table to one side of a living space.

“My name is Alexandriana,” the lady introduced herself. “Here, have a seat while I get some water ready.”

Penelope took a seat in the chair that Alexandriana indicated, while a kettle was filled with water and placed on the stove to boil. Alexandriana then opened cabinets and pulled out a tea pot, two cups and a box of tea, along with a sugar bowl, which she placed on the little table.

“Tell me about these horoscopes of yours,” she prodded as she added a pint of cream and a jar of blood orange marmalade from the fridge, adding a saucer of melba toast, then took the seat opposite Penelope.

Alexandriana busied her hands with putting scoops of tea into the pot as she looked expectantly at Penelope, obvious concern on her face.

Before Penelope could answer, the kettle on the stove began to whistle, and she waited as water was poured into the teapot.

“My horoscopes have not been very good lately,” she finally began. “Yesterday was wonderful, but today, back to doom and gloom.”

“That sounds bleak,” Alexandriana agreed as she spread some marmalade on the little squares of toast and arranged them on the saucer. “Do your horoscopes always seem to come true?” She asked.

“Well, maybe some toast and marmalade for tea will change your luck,” Alexandriana said with a smile, as she poured the tea.

“I certainly hope so,” Penelope said, returning the smile.

The two talked on for some time, enjoying the company and the tea. Penelope admitted to herself that she did feel better as she said goodbye and made her way to her own apartment.

*. *. *

The following morning, Penelope once more ran across her new neighbor, this time in the elevator on the way to work.

“You look like it is not going to be such a good day again,” Alexandriana said.

“Probably not,” Penelope replied. “The stars are against me again.”

“Oh, dear!” Alexandriana said. “You seem to put a lot of credence to what they say.”

“Of course. They are ancient and wise”

“You must know that your life is not planned out for you like that,” Alexandriana told her. “Your life is about choices. Choices that you make.”

Penelope looked at the other woman for a moment and then said, “True, but you make your choices based on what the horoscope says. That way you are guided.”

“No, my dear,” Alexandriana replied. “You were put here on this Earth to experience life and to make choices that improve yourself, not to merely avoid problems.”

“But, but,” Penelope started. “My horoscopes are always so right.”

“Are they?” Alexandriana asked, looking steadily at Penelope.

Penelope looked around suddenly realizing that the elevator seemed to be taking a lot longer than normal to travel one floor down.

“What is going on?” she said.

Alexandriana started to glow a bit at first, and then brighter and brighter.

“I am a Messenger, sent to remind you of your path,” Alexandriana said. “You are not bound by the Planets or the Stars, only by the choices that you make every day, big and small. They all add up to your life and your legacy.”

“Are you an angel?” Penelope breathed in a whisper.

“Some have said so, but I think of myself as a Messenger.”

“Stop reading those horoscopes every day. They are vague and can be bent to whatever your expect them to mean,” Messenger Alexandriana continued.

“Try an experiment. For the rest of the week, do not read them but take notes of how your day went and guess what they would have said. Then, at the end of the week, read them and see how they compare. I think that you will find that they do not match what happens nearly so often when you are not unconsciously helping.”

“Make your own choices and Be Happy!”

With that final advice, the Messenger flashed even brighter for just a moment and was gone.

Penelope was stunned. She looked about but was alone. Then the bell sounded and the elevator door opened. She walked out in a daze. She could not remember getting on the bus, but she did make it to work.

In the break room later that morning, when her friend Mary asked about her horoscope, she said that she was going to change up and try not to worry so much about that.

Mary’s boyfriend, Frank, walked in as she was talking. “If you’re wanting to change up, you should come with us to the parade. They are asking for volunteers to help with the balloons.”

“That sounds like fun,” Penelope said.

Because they lived in the same apartment block, Mary said, meet us downstairs in the parking lot in the morning than. 7AM.”

*. *. *

“Oh! BALLOONS!” Penelope said as she stood with her friends under the giant balloon in the shape of Snoopy the cartoon dog. “I thought that you meant passing them out on little strings to people!”

They all got a laugh out of that.

The next hour was spent getting instructions on what was expected of a balloon handler, then they each were assigned to one of the ropes dangling from the giant canine.

When those in charge were satisfied that everyone was properly trained and in place, the main ties holding the balloon were released one by one and they could all feel the tug of the balloon as it strained to take flight. Snoopy gave only a gentle pull because of the number of ropes holding it down.

On the signal, they moved slowly into their assigned position in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, their many legs looking like a centipede below the giant dog.

Penelope did have a blast. The parade was longer than she had expected but the noise of the cheering crowd and the happy faces of children and parents alike kept her mind off of her tiring feet.

The unexpected happened as they were entering Herald's Square at 34th Street. There was a rather large patch of ice on the road. It had rained briefly the day before and froze overnight. The ground crews had been over the parade route checking for such hazards but must have missed it somehow.

As the balloon passed over the slick patch, more and more of the rope handlers started to slip and slide, all arms and legs. First one, then two, then more let slip their grasp on the ropes as they struggled to regain their balance.

Suddenly, the number of empty ropes became so many that Snoopy started to rise upwards. Penelope had wrapped her rope around her wrist so as not to drop it, and now she was lifted off her feet as the balloon continued to ascend.

A man in the crowd saw what was happening and ducked under the barricade. Stepping quickly up, and slipping a little, he leapt up and wrapped his arms about Penelope’s legs. The balloon began to settle once more.

When Penelope was back on the ground and the other handlers had regained their ropes, she turned to the stranger who had helped her and said, “I think that you saved my life!”

Author’s Note: As you might expect, there was more to be said, but I will leave that to your imagination for now.