She had been disoriented for months;

Her lips parched and cracked, her hopes and faith torn to shreds;

She was in a trance; her life forlorn and folioed, for too long.

Then one night, as moonlight seeped through the clouds on Sunset Boulevard, she heard the whisper of the wind answering her prayers;

The wind that morphed into a huge storm, shrouded her completely, and overpowered her senses.

When she woke up, there were too many flavors around her, too delicious to resist.

The tympani of drums, the soft crackle of the blue and yellow flames,

A kaleidoscope of colors in the wildflowers on the windowsill,

The cloying sweetness of the breath of fresh-turned earth,

The smooth coolness of eggs inside the bird’s nest,

The delectable taste of summer.

While the wind hummed along, she leaned back in the misty dawn and sat enchanted, listening to the delicate percussion of the raindrops on the leaves of the trees around her;

The sparkle of a million abandoned dreams back in her dark kohl-smudged eyes;

A familiar passionate murmur in her heart once again.

She had transliterated the hieroglyphic formula for salvation.