Karmic Retribution

It had all come to this. I stood there in the middle of the alleyway. My heart racing and my head pounding as I helplessly fell to my knees upon the ground. The darkness of the night concealed my vision from everything except her… The otherworldly figure fixed in place just above me. She just kept there, her long and thin body dangling in the air as she looked upon me with her glaring eyes. I spun my head to look around the empty alleyway as a strange whipping wind came strongly upon me. I quickly looked back to the figure as my eyes caught a glimmer of light to her side. She held her white, glowing staff in her left hand – just like in my dream. My name is Addison Geoffrey. I was an ordinary college girl until my life was forever changed by karmic retribution.

The wind grew stronger, but my focus remained on her. Her white glowing hair gently flowed out in every direction. She was unaffected by the wind. She slowly reached her opened right hand out toward me… Just like before. It was nearly a month ago when I had the dream, but I remembered every detail as I watched it all again before me. The figure’s long arm was now fully extended out to me – she wanted me to take her hand, I could tell. But I was afraid to. The same crippling fear from my dream overcame me again. My hair began to whip in my face as the wind became strong enough to pick up and throw debris across the alley. I covered my head with both of my hands as a broken piece of concrete flew in the wind just beside me. I looked quickly up to the figure’s face. She was smiling at me. “Please!” I cried out, “Help me!” Her smile brightened as she shook her head and gestured to her opened hand in front of me. “It’s the only way,” she said softly to me. The voice was as sweet as the sound of a gentle rain. I focused on her voice. I pulled my wrapping arms down from head and stretched my hands out toward her. ‘It’s the only way.’

In my dream, I never reached out to the figure. I was too afraid of her. What had changed, I wondered to myself for weeks after, from the time of my dream to there in the alleyway? The truth, I would find, was that I had changed. To me, karma was just a line in a song or something people reminded you of before you did something bad. It wasn’t real. But it had become all too real to me. At the end of my dream, after I refused to reach out to the figure, she raised her staff over me and a stream of light was ripped from inside of me and pulled into her staff. I awoke in my dorm room in the middle of the night to my panicked roommate. I woke her with my night terror, saying in my sleep the word, karma, over and over. Ever since then, I had been experiencing karma in every aspect of my life. And I knew that dream was what put all of it into motion. But the experience did teach me something. I didn’t know why or how karma had suddenly become so real to me, but just in that small time… I had learned to reach out.

I was still afraid, but I was determined to make amends. As the wind blew its fiercest through the alleyway, my fingertips just touched the figure’s – as suddenly, the wind stopped.

I looked again up to the figure. She was different now. Her face and body looked more human than it did before. The biggest difference of all was that she no longer frightened me. “Child,” she said to me, “why wouldn’t you take my hand before?” I stood there dumbly. She now seemed so warm and inviting, it embarrassed me to think I was afraid of her.  Finally, I answered, “I—I, was afraid.” A knowing look came over her face, “Why were you afraid?” Why was I afraid of her? I couldn’t remember. “Everything seems scary,” she offered, “until you take an act of faith – and believe.”

I was amazed by her. She radiated with confidence and serenity. “What are you?” I asked. “I am a karmic advocate for humanity.” She replied. Karma, there was that word again. “What is karma?” I asked her. “Karma is not what you humans believe it to be. Karma is an endless cycle of cause and effect. There is no level of merit that can be achieved to take away karma, only to neutralize it. I give humanity the choice to choose between a never ending cycle – and grace.” Her eyes filled with life as she spoke to me. “Grace,” she continued, “is the only way to end karma. All of humanity comes to this place at some point along their journey in life. To make a choice. To remain in the infinite karmic pattern of the universe or in an act of grace, to reach out.” Her words convicted me. I didn’t reach out to her. Not before. “Some reach back out,” She continued, “most remain in the pattern.” I hung my head and began to cry. I too refused grace. I buried my hands into my face and sobbed. “Is that what happened to me?” I asked. She gently put her right hand onto my shoulder and comforted me. “You were given an opportunity,” she explained, “to experience the burden of the pattern of karma… Or grace. You learned the true purpose of karma – to learn from your mistake.”

She reached out her left hand and raised her staff over me as the light that was before taken from me now streamed out from her staff and swirled all around me. Joy overcame me. Something new was inside of me. Something greater than I had ever before experienced – now lived inside of me. All because I reached out. It wasn’t too late. Tears ran down both of my cheeks and as I looked up to her for the final time. She smiled warmly as she again offered her hand to me. I reached out to her and she took my hand and raised me up from off of the ground. As I gazed upon her, I realized that she was beginning to drift up and away from me. And though I would never see her again, I would never forget her or the lesson she taught me.

And as her hand gently slipped away from mine, I watched as she slowly disappeared from me. My opened hand still reaching out... Still reaching.

The End