Magic Flakes

 What if the there really is such a thing as past lives and we've all lived them; the memories, the people, the hearts we knew ages and ages ago buried in our subconscious and warded against intrusions or reveals until our beings are revitalised and excited by a spirit that recognizes ours and encountering their  soul again & being re-united is like a shot of Fireball Whisky warm and spicy. Or, along path of soul rebirth, We are placed again in the life of someone we once knew who left us happy and laughing.

     He was still of an age when 4 Koi Goldfish in a crude restaurant fountain were magical. He leaned over the wooden bench such that only the very tips of his small shoes touched the cement floor. His mother was kneeling next to him. Later, he would be holding onto two toy dump trucks one in each hand while watching a cartoon about toy trucks on his mom's cellphone but now the fish were speaking to him. Their mouths opened in continuous circles saying something garbled and unintelligible to most people but, if he leaned in a little, he could hear them say, "Magic flakes". "Magic flakes". He didn't know about magic flakes but - wait - that lady must be able to hear the fish too.  She was holding an orange, round can with pictures of fish on it & she opened the lid & handed him a small amount of magic flakes that, even at his age, he knew to pinch delicately between his thumb & forefinger. He tossed the magic flakes onto the surface of the Koi pond. The fish sucked them in & as they did so it created ripples on the surface of the pond. The ripples created small aqueous vortices that began to violently disturb the surface of the pond. He couldn't be sure but it seemed like the one he secretly named Soy Sauce.  He was a silver translucent color with a splotchy of what looked like soy sauce on his dorsal fin. H was speaking directly to him. He couldn't quite hear what the fish might be saying & so he tipped over a little closer to the water. He wasn't scared to do so. His mother was right there. She would catch him if he fell in the water.  Water is only dangerous if you drown.

     Spooky held out his flipper hand-like & he grabbed on  and, suddenly, he was swimming with the fish but . . . He wasn't a fish &  He didn't have gills but he & Spooky swam in the pool like they were seals barreling & swirling through the water. But, where was his mother. Her face came to him in his mind from far away it seemed. and, as it did so, it continually enlarged. As it got close to him, her face nodded & instantly receded until it vanished through the surface of the water. Were hey were passing each other & she was saying "Hi" & "Bye" at the same time?

     He was a baby in walker and he wasn't a he. He was a she. The magic flakes. Fish talking to him. Spinning water vortex pulling him in. Was that him drinking tea with a fish? It all turned him into a baby girl in walker. That boy over there ripping paper into pieces lives here I think. He jumps a lot & doesn't speak much. I saw him climb on the counter the other day to get some food in a box. Oh, he looks like such fun. I want to rip up paper with him. He does that a lot. Oh, I can't speak either to say "hi". 

     The little pieces of paper are like magic flakes. Magic flakes. My heart has exploded into magic flakes & tiny pieces of paper. He  wrote letters for numbers and I KNEW the secret code word. It's "shell". He saw 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and knew to type our secret magic code word "Shell".  We had secret code words back then. Back then?