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Of course, Ingrid had been far too exhausted by the events of the day to really expend much more brainpower on her new present; she was off to Dreamland as soon as she got to her room and went horizontal.
The next morning, as usual, she was sitting in the pews of Heavenly Road with her parents, nodding along to another mind-numbing sermon by Reverend Parker. No matter how loud or excited he got, Ingrid could never seem to keep her eyes from glazing over or keep herself from tuning out entirely. She couldn’t tell anyone what this man preached about on any given week.
Today, though, felt...off. As in, she couldn’t remember coming to church, or riding there with her parents, or even getting out of bed this morning. It was weird.
Chill out. It’s Sunday. You've coasted through Sundays your entire life.
As the good reverend started to whip himself up into a frenzy, Ingrid decided to focus on a corner above to the right of the pulpit and let her mind drift.
But as her eyes settled on that corner, she saw something green and tapered poke out from under the ceiling. It stood stark against the white walls of the sanctuary and the purple banner that was hung up there. The green thing extended down the banner, and after a while Ingrid realized it was a vine, thin and curly and covered with pink buds.
It was also not alone.
A second vine, then a third, then a fourth, and more and more slithered down the wall, until they looked like a living wallpaper.
The young woman rose from her seat, bewildered, as they would their way into the aisles and around the pews in a gentle embrace, bearing them away through the front double doors of the church. They’d even dislodged the pulpit and carried it away with Revered Park still on it. All the while, the exiting shepherd continued to preach and his flock continued to voice their approval, as if all of this was perfectly normal.
Soon, the room was entirely empty except for her, but before long, the vines returned, this time carrying several figures atop their coiled surfaces as if they were chariots, the buds having bloomed into flowers with red pistils in the center. They stopped right in front of Ingrid and arranged themselves in a line before her. Most of the figures were fuzzy, nebulous humanoid shapes, except for the one in the middle.
The dark-skinned woman with flowers in her hair. She smiled in that way that made Ingrid melt the first time they met and, once again, extended her hand towards the younger woman.
But as Ingrid made to accept the hand...
“...!!”
Ingrid jolted awake in her bedroom, slowly brightening from the rising sun. Her phone told her it was 7:30 am, Sunday, meaning it was time for--
“Ingrid!” There was a knock at her door. Mom.
“Ingrid, come on down and get breakfast! You know I don’t like being late for church!”
The girl sighed deeply and bore herself upright, sitting at the edge of her bed, and immediately the questions started coming:
What was that dream? Why did those vines carry everyone away? Did I ...did I dream all of yesterday??
Before this train of thought could travel too far, her eyes fell upon her backpack, resting against her bedside table.
So the hike was real, but...
Maybe she’d imagined that exchange with the woman, and maybe she passed out entirely from seeing the bear and the fear endorphins or whatever were making her imagination run wild.
Yeah...yeah, that had to be it, she surmised, shaking her head at herself as she unzipped her backpack and rooted around for her water bottle.
Her breath caught in her throat as her fingers brushed against something with a texture not unlike that of a walnut. She hurriedly pulled it out and realized it was that same trinket from yesterday, with the same message wrapped around the same little green ball.
She could hear her heart pounding in her ears as she grazed her thumb over the bumps and grooves in the walnut.
It wasn’t a dream. She had lived through all of that, and now, for some reason, the woman wanted her to come back. What could she possibly offer??
“Ingrid! Your pancakes are getting cold! Hurry!”
“Um...ok!” Ingrid called back, dropping the walnut back into her backpack and covering it up with a few of her other effects before heading downstairs.
Her parents went on ahead after breakfast so she could shower, and she realized she didn’t take as long as she usually did. She told herself that it was because she was eager to get back to her routines...but part of her wanted to see what would happen at church. She wanted to the vines to carry everyone away and see what the woman had to offer.
All through service, even during communion, she kept stealing glances up at the spot where the wall met the ceiling...
But the vines never came. This day was like any other; there was no salvation from this “salvation”.
She realized, rather than waiting for it to come to her, she had to go to it.
And so, after the requisite post-sermon schmoozing, after the drive home and after a dinner of sliced ham, green beans and punch, Ingrid bided her time until her parents wandered off to their respective tasks, retrieved her backpack and set out to the place where it all began.
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