The next morning jerking out of bed, feeling as if her soul had been struck by a freight train, Joline stumbled out of bed, still groggy from sleep. She rubbed her eyes and yawned, then spoke to her empty bedroom.

"What in the hell just happened to me?"

 She didn't remember any nightmares or peculiar dreams. Could it have been  astral travel? She shook her head. Then as he waking mind began to slowly function, remembering it was her favorite day of the week. It was saturday, a free day. There would be no boring speeches in biology, no smart-assed football players. It was a day she could do what she wanted, within reason. She went down to the kitchen and grabbed two cokes and a muffin, her favorite of breakfast choices. She kissed her mother good morning and ran back to her room. Needing to wake up a little before she started looking up a few things. Astral travel had become a new fascination, she was hoping for a quiet morning to test some of the exersices out she had stumbled upon. 

She had noticed that she kept seeing things that weren't there more often lately. She didn't care for feeling like someone was watching her, but she supposed everyone felt that way at one time or another. When she put her mind to it, she would study and learn things until she figured them out no matter what, like a detective in a cop show. She wanted answers and didn't stop until she had them. 

Joline had dedicated a notebook to dreams, meditation and astral travel notes. She needed to go through it and see if there was anything connecting these strange feelings to the meditating or dreams. Could it be a side effect of astral projection? Was she gifted or just a little nuts? It still got to her, the dream of the old man fishing asking if she'd figured it out yet? The trouble was he didn't tell her what he meant by "it". 

She wanted to know what was she supposed to figure out? Why? It had become more than curiosity. It began to feel like a maddening obsession. She took a bite of the muffin and gathered everything she would need, spreading all of it across her bed.  She set a candle on her dresser and went over the meditations, writing a few notes until she was ready to begin and the muffin was finished. Taking a deep breath she lit the candle and began her trance work, hoping if nothing else she would figure out what the hell was going on. 

She closed her eyes and began to empty the mind and open the soul. It had taken more than one attempt but as soon as she was fixated in the meditative state, she focused on the old man but when she got to the dock she was the only one there. She couldn't understand she had done everything right and nothing was happening. Then she heard a voice but no one was there.

"Don't obsess and force it. Let it happen." The mysterious voice told her.

"Who are you?" She asked. knowing she should have been in a panic, but she wasn't worried. She didn't want it to leave her. 

"That doesn't matter right now, just do what I tell you. It will help you." 

She said nothing but just nodded yes and tried again. She let go, and waited with the stillness of a monk. Suddenly the old man appeared before her.

"You're back." He said to her.

"Who are you?" She asked him.

"That's not why you're here." 

"Why am I here?" She asked him.

"I assume you have questions about your gift." He replied.

"What gift?" She asked him as his image faded into nothingness again. 

The frustration jerked her out of the meditative state, she was back in her room, the candle had burned completely down to the wick, no longer lit. She just shook her head and wrote down what had happened, even though there wasn't much to tell.