I was called to a transfer office by an old man. He was not frail. I never looked at his face so I don’t know what he looked like. But the voice was deep, very full yet quiet. He pointed to a series of bathroom stalls along the wall and said “go sit down”. I chose the nearest stall and sat down on one of the toilets. I don’t remember having to lower my trousers. Although the stall was not deep he stood facing me.
He knew the answer to anything I wanted to know and I knew he knew. So I took the opportunity to ask him the question I’ve wanted to know for ten years: “So, what was it?” meaning, what was the answer I had been looking for to unlock my situation. “Grace”, he replied. He then left the bathroom stall and walked away.
He walked to a counter and gave brief instructions to a lady and exited out a door. I noticed a few other people leaving out a door too. My traveling bag was on the lady’s counter and there was a small stack of paperwork already filled out for me. I was still sitting in the stall. Procedurally, all that remained was for me to stand up, grab my traveling bag and go through the door as well.
Instead, I started shouting “grace” at the top of my lungs. It rang through the office over and over. Somehow the atmosphere in the room changed. What was seen was now unstable. The air on top of the lady’s counter turned to a waterlike substance. My traveling bag under it melted away until it was completely gone. My paperwork did the same thing. The air stabilized again. I don’t remember stopping my shouting.