Branching Roads
G. Matthew King


	The road I had been walking branched before a tree of sorts. It
was obviously growing, that much was certain.  One could see the roots
buried solid into the ground, almost feel the pulse of the the tree's
life.  Yet the limbs were twisted oddly, giving it the shape of two 
crossed bars, and flames danced along the boughs instead of leaves. The
branches wrapped around themselves strangely, holes between them forming a
second cross to emphasize the first.  The flames were seemingly alive,
like fairies or cherubs, and without heat or smoke.  
	The path twisted oddly before the tree as well.  I stared down the
two choices, feeling drawn to neither at the moment.  My mind wandered as
I stood before the tree, thinking back on the things that had brought me
before along this path to it.  A fear seized me of how long I had been
walking and how much traveling was left to do.  I stood there in mute pain
as images of my past rushed into me, and I turned to run back to the 
places and people I called home.  I couldn't travel back the way I came.
The path crumbled and fell down into a bottomless abyss of chaotic water
even as had I walked upon it.  Forward lay my only hope and the path lay
branched at the tree.  Oh, looking at the paths before me little was
obvious and yet in the differences lay happiness or sorrow.  
	A moment in time seemed trapped here before the cross of wood.
Like a second was caught in this place forever, a instant of gravest
importance.  A fate decided in the shadow of a thought.  One path twisted
away calmly into woods and forest, while the other slowly meanered its way
towards field and meadow.  Cities of man would lie on each path and 
experiences unknown as well.  I stared long and hard at each, seeing 
nothing better in either and so refusing to choose yet.
	My vision swam in front of me and I closed my eyes to let it pass.
The sounds of the world softened and muted to me and I bolted up in shock.
A scene of soundless chaos greeted me.  I stared down one path again, jaw
dropped in wonder.  The land lay scorched and burned.  Smoke hung in the
air; it stung my eyes and the water ran down my face.  A child stood in
the filthy soot of the narrow, unused road, his eyes pleading.  Suddenly
he was set upon by nightmares made living, things dark and unholy.  They
bore him up on their shoulders and carried him away, ignoring his 
noiseless tears as he reached for my hand.  A hand I could not give.  Evil
stalked the road I pondered to take.
	I had fallen to the ground in sickness.  Choking and gasping for
breath, I stayed on my hands and knees for long moments.  I slowly raised
my head to the tinkling sound of bells and chimes.  Down the other path
lay a city of man teeming with life.  The path was well worn and smooth,
paved with fine bricks and easily walked.  Lights blinked on as the sun
set in the image I saw.  Men and women walked together, joy lighting their
faces.  Happiness as they shared moments of peaceful thought and 
passionate revelry.  I stared long at this scene.  Food and drink was to
be had by all; the roads of the city were wide and straight.  Work and
play seemed to mingle seemlessly into an existence of peace and
contentment.  Children played, and a small boy, not unlike the other,
shook himself at the games and kept walking with his father.  The two
looked at me as they passed, sharing a bond deeper than the one I ever
felt with my own father.  I felt a pang of homesickness and my vision
collapsed into a tunnel.  
	I awoke still before the tree.   The paths lay before me as
before, forest and field, woodlands and meadow.  Wind blew over me and I
thought for the slightest instant I could smell brimstone mixed with the
sweetest of perfumes.  The tree stood silently before me, the flame of its
leaves still dancing noiselessly.  Asking me to choose a path, knowing
what I knew now.  And still I hestitated slightly, fearing the choice that
I was forced to make.  My final fate in this life and in all others
decided in this instant born out of time and memory.  But I knew life
cannot go on without choices being made, and so I looked at first one and
then the other.  Saw a dark blight as it crept over the land and the
brightness of joy in another time and place where children still laughed.
And in that instant I saw the Truth for who the Tree was.  Turning, I
began to walk.  

12-17-97