The Visitor Chapter 3

Sera spent a lot of time meditating, it helped her contact her home. Everyone thought she was peculiar because she was not from here. Not the neighborhood, or state, or country but the planet. She only discovered this about herself when her Buddhist friend introduced her to meditation. Then she was able to recover lost bits of her memory. And her recurring dreams finally made sense.

Sera didn't grow up here, she sprouted from a seed. A seed that floated through outer space until getting caught in Earth's pull, careened into the Pacific and washed up on the shore of Santa Barbara. She sprouted into a full grown woman. Avoiding all the pains of adolescence. And Janie and Bob found her one evening wandering near the pier at practically dawn. Janie and Bob tool her back to their home and clothed the naked Sera and gave her a bed. Sera never told Janie where she was from and she never asked. Janie and Bob consumed a lot of alcohol and were in party mode most days.

Sera demonstrated phenomenal musicianship with Bob's guitar and he got Sera a job teaching string instruments at the local junior college. But then a man offered her a job to teaching his five year-old piano and she has been freelance ever since. Getting jobs mostly through word-of-mouth.

When Nancy came home from work at lunch, Sera had already taken a shower and was wearing some of Nancy's clothes. She had on a Serape and a Kimono she found at the back of the closet. Nancy was amused at her choice of clothing.

“You like being comfortable, don't you. You know that Kimono is from Japan and the scenes are hand painted?” Nancy explained.

“Oh, I'm sorry, do you want me to take it off?”Sera asked.

“No, no, I hardly wear it-I actually forgot it was in there, someone should get some use out of it.”Nancy said.

“Well, thank you.” Sera said.

“Did you have a good morning?” Nancy asked to see how she occupied herself. “You're so pale, you don't get much sun,do you?” she finished.

“Your garden is lovely, do you care for it?” Sera asked.

“No, I hire a man, who is great, he's Hispanic and his name is Raul, he comes twice a week.” Nancy informs.

The house looked just as Nancy left it. A bit nicer, actually. And Sera did no work.

“The house looks great!” Nancy remarked.

“Let me put on some sweats and will you show me how you play Shostakovich?” Nancy asks.

“It would be my pleasure.” Sera said.

Nancy went upstairs to change and Sera went into meditation mode. Something she does before she teaches. She practices transcendental meditation,she lets all her thoughts fly through her head until there there is nothing left but a quiet mind. With practice she has been able to achieve peace quickly then she thinks of what she is about to do. She may be not of this world but she inhabits a human body with a human mind and has to cope with the same challenges everyone does. Distraction, focus and rogue thoughts, there to take your entire mind away.

“OK, I'm ready for my lesson, instead of you paying rent or contributing to the household in some way, you can just give me lessons. Deal? Nancy said.

“Deal.” Sera agreed.

Music was a talent programmed into Sera upon her release into space. Her job was to find life elsewhere in the universe. She had been traveling for light years. Being a seed, she had it inside her to assimilate into whatever situation she found. When she was released into space, she wasn't even a she yet. She was an embryo,a spark,a particle. A mutate-able gene ready for any environment. Coming to Earth and being a woman was a chance encounter. She had been here for six months and just recently realized that she was not from here.

Sera was in teaching mode and it just came natural but her eyes were focused on the Art Nancy had collected. She was most fond of Basquiat. She liked the coloring of the skull. But she also had Some Pencil drawings from Dali that Sera recognized from books. When they took a break, Sera inquired about the Art.

“Oh, my husband wanted to invest in some Art but knew nothing about it. So, I helped chose pieces to buy. Which one is your favorite?” Nancy asked.

“I really like Basquiat because of how he came up but the St. Michael,by...is that Guido Reni?” Sera is surprised to see such a famous painting outside of a religious institution.”

“No, that's a forgery, a very good forgery but a forgery nonetheless. Their collectable ya' know, good forgeries, there are some people that only collect them.” Nancy explained.

“Is that Boticelli''s St. Michael?”Sera is excited.

“Are you kidding, sitting out in the in the open?” Nancy exclaimed

“It's a high quality print.” Nancy throws water on an excited Sera.

“And Raphael, I know Raphael when I see him, what's with all the St, Michael paintings?”Sera asked.

“Ya' wanna guess my ex-husbands name was?” Nancy asked rhetorically.

“Oh,I see.” Sera admitted.

“You seem to like Art, would you like to go to a gallery?” Nancy offered.“There's one down on State st. where I know the curator because we were always looking for new Art to buy, we could get in and be left alone to browse.” Nancy said. “Then we could get some lunch,or lunch before. Ya' know I've never asked you this before,” Nancy puts her elbow on the piano and props up her head with hand. Where are you from?”