CHAPTER ONE
Present day
Holland Mills stared at
the computer in front of her. Things weren’t adding up. Taking another look at
her dual screens, she compared the information to her spreadsheet. She was off
by three people. Out of six hundred and fifty-nine. She’d already been working
on this report for two hours, and she wanted to beat her head on her desk.
Three
measly people! She almost wished it would have been off by fifty. It would have
been easier to figure out where she went wrong. She clicked on the report
option on the top of her dashboard and waited for the information to reload.
Again.
Her
phone rang, and Holland quickly looked at the caller. Jacob Jones from another
campus was calling. She could barely get her own work done without worrying
about his never-ending issues. She continued to stare at the ringing phone,
deciding to not do the professional thing and answer it. She let it keep
ringing. She would call him first thing tomorrow.
“Holland!”
a voice called out to her, causing her to jump in her chair.
Sara,
her office mate, swiveled her dark gray chair around and stood.
Holland
looked at the woman, who was almost her exact age of thirty-one, and smiled. “Sara!”
Holland called out in the same tone that Sara had used.
“Let’s
take a break. The Wellness Center has a labyrinth set up in one of the rooms. It’s
supposed to be a stress reliever, and from the way you were sighing and abusing
your mouse, I would say you need a break.”
Holland
smiled at her friend. “Okay,” she confessed, as she gave her monitor a dirty
look. “I could use a step back from this.”
Nodding,
Sara walked out of their small office, and Holland followed. The room used for
the labyrinth was in Room 118, an all-purpose space that boasted employee baby
showers to quarterly financial planning meetings. Today, the lights were turned
out, and small tea light candles lit the room. The flickers of the candles cast
eerie shadows across the room. A white plastic floor mat was laid out in the
middle of the room and dark lines were printed on the material in a circular
pattern.
The
Wellness Center employee, aptly named Joy, greeted each. “Sara and Holland,
welcome! I haven’t seen you at our Labyrinth before. I am so glad you could
make it,” the counselor gushed.
Holland
and Sara smiled at Joy. “It’s usually so busy, but we thought we’d take the
time today to see what this was all about.”
Joy
started in on a general description of the labyrinth and how it was utilized. “Oh,
you are going to love walking this! You will feel so relaxed! Clear your mind,
and let your feet lead the way” were the simple instructions.
Feeling
foolish, Holland took off her shoes and set them on the outside of the
thirty-by-thirty-foot circle. She wasn’t a fan of yoga, or tai chi, or any of
those other “new age” movements, but she would try to give this some serious
consideration for improving her mood. On a plus side, maybe when she returned
to her desk, her report would mysteriously be correct! With a deep clearing
breath, she slowly took a step forward. Seconds ticked by, and she felt a
strange lassitude settle over her. It was almost as if something was welcoming
her home. A feeling of rightness flowed
through her, and no matter how she tried to push it away, it seemed to fill
her.
Holland
stopped thinking about how crazy she looked walking in a tiny circle, barefoot,
while at work. A small shock vibrated up through her feet with each step, and
her mind became sharpened down to one thought: the labyrinth. She carefully
stepped around the predetermined pattern until her feet led her toward the exit
of the circle.
I must find another labyrinth. The
thought took root out of nowhere, and with every slow swing of her arm with
each stride it grew and grew until it was all consuming. By the time she was
finished, a great excitement had come over her.
“Well,
how do you feel?” Sara asked her, as she was waiting for Holland to complete
her turn so she could start her own calming session. “Do you feel like a
million bucks?”
Well,
she felt like something, but it was too hard to voice to her friend. “It’s
different,” Holland admitted vaguely.
“Okay!
I’m ready for different,” Sara said, and she began walking swiftly through the
maze-like steps of the labyrinth.
Stacks
of papers on a table at the far wall captured Holland’s attention. Information
on the labyrinth had been compiled, and she eagerly took a page for further
reading. The strange peaceful sensation was beginning to wear off, and a
feeling of sadness rushed over her for some unexplained reason. Without waiting
for Sara to finish, Holland walked back to her desk and immediately started a
Google search on labyrinths.
Something
had happened to her while walking through the makeshift labyrinth, but it left Holland
wanting to know more. An urging had settled inside her, and it grew stronger by
the minute, as if telling her time was running out. The thought came out to
nowhere, but the voice of it lingered within her mind.
