The flight went quickly as Dahlia thought about everything that had happened. It was so much more than she had imagined and wished for and while no one could know what was going on inside of her, it had been difficult to emotionally adjust to her vision board manifesting itself. She got off the plane, found her way to baggage claim and as she watched her suitcase making its way down the ramp, she saw Brian’s car outside the door.

“Perfect timing,” she thought. She grabbed her bag and headed outside.

Brian loaded her things in the car and opened the door to let her in.

“Where would you like me to take you?”

“I have a new project we need to get started on.”

“What is it?” Brian asked.

“We need to demonstrate to the world that we are a piece of technology by showing how twins will operate heaven without any devices. I’ve begun the teaching on how they put their houses in order and the next stage of our evolution is we get a pre-enchanted body and the house also becomes pre-enchanted.

“It’s practice for the real thing. We have to adjust to the new life.”

“That sounds like a fun project. What do you need me to do?”

“We need a movie crew, camera and people who have done computer graphics, and then we need a really beautiful location that looks like it’s on the Palace grounds that they can make enchanted. And I would like you to play the role of my other half.”

“I would be honored. I will get Marci started on finding the new staff and I already have the location, my home at the beach. I’ve been putting it in order for years. I think you’ll like it.”

“Great, when can I see it?” Dahlia inquired, delighted at how easy that was.

“I can take you there now if you’d like.”

“Yes, please,” she responded.

“Okay we’ll go there. It’s not far.”
Brian drove to a place along the ocean she had never seen before.

“This is beautiful, Brian.”

“It is. When I first saw it, it reminded me of the coastline in Italy and I knew instantly this was where I belonged.”

“Italy is wonderful. I was able to go there twice on Ariel.”

“I know. Michael and Ariel have been reporting everything back to Jonathan and he’s got a twitter thing going on the website so we know what you’ve been up to. I was jealous. I wanted to be Michael. I know Mama Liza personally. Her pizza is amazing isn’t it?”

“Every bite was wonderful,” Dahlia responded.

“I know. I’ve been to the best and it’s not like anything I’ve ever experienced. I have worked on her
for years to tell me her secret,” Brian said.

“It’s magic. You can’t copy it. You have to be it!” Dahlia said with a smile.

“I like that. It must be part of our new life. I want to know what the magic is like in the enchanted life,” Brian announced.

“No more keeping up with the Joneses by making more money. You find your twin and get an enchanted
house by evolving.”

“Yes, and what’s so great is that everyone gets to do it. There’s no more talk about being lucky or gifted or educated or good at quantum physics so that you have a good life. There’s no more homeless people, no more hunger. Everyone is going to finish their path and leave all that behind.” Brian pulled into a driveway. “Here we are. I think you’ll like it.”

Dahlia was anxious to see the view. “Can we go in the backyard first? I want to see the ocean.”

“There is something I want to show you in the backyard that was just completed. but you will be able to see the ocean from every room in the house. Come inside first.”

As they stepped up to the door, Dahlia noticed her pots on his front porch.

“You have my pots?”

“What?”

“These pots are my design.”

“You’re kidding. You’re Metamorphosis Creations?”

“Yes.”

“You’re stuff is great. Marci keeps track of each new line. Every time something new comes out, she gets it ordered for me. I’ve got every world you’ve created all over my house. I just got your Italian line for the master bedroom.”

“Wow. I haven’t been able to get a big enough place yet to have the room for it all.”

“It sounds like I’m living in your house.”

“Yes, it does.”

Dahlia walked from room to room not saying a word. It was too much. Too overwhelming. It had to be a dream. Brian just followed her and watched as she looked at everything intently.

“Come see my outside party place and my new fish tank.”

He opened the door to the back porch and led her down through the garden towards the water. When she
saw it, she stopped and put her hand over her mouth in disbelief.

There is was. The fish tank floor with the coral surrounding it.

“How did you know?”

“How did I know what?

“How did you know that this is what the Palace party area looks like? Did Jonathan tell you?”

“No. I have visions and it just came to me one morning. ”

“You have visions? I think your visions are somehow connected to my brain. The Universe was getting this ready taking off months of preparation for this project.”

“Cool.”

“Would you like to go for a walk?”

“Yes, you’re definitely in my head. I’d love to.”

“Good. I’ll take you to my favorite haunts. I should text Marci to see when we can get the movie crew together.”

“Good.”

Brian finished the text and opened the back gate to let them out of the garden. He watched as Dahlia took her shoes off and went towards the ocean began to walk along the water’s edge. He could see that she was deep in thought and he left her alone and continued just watching her wondering how many hours she had spent doing what she was doing, figuring out how to save the world. The hatred and the wars were going to end. But more than this, the world was going to get past all pain and suffering and death itself. No more floods and earthquakes and hurricanes destroying the land and no more storms on the ocean or in our lives. Dahlia stopped an looked up at the grey clouds in the sky. The radiation was strong. The world was at its worst. He could feel her burden. She was going to use his house to show them what they needed to focus on so they could ignore what they saw and felt and walk through the storms and get out the other side.

The sun peaked through the clouds one more time, the steps formed on the water, then it quickly slipped down behind the greyness and was gone.

“Dahlia, are you hungry?”

“Can we have pizza?”

“Yes, I’ll take you to Mama Liza’s.”

“What!” she said, laughing.

“I own a restaurant,” Brian announced

“You own a restaurant called Mama Liza’s? This is too much,” Dahlia responded

“We can go somewhere else,” he teased.

“No, it’s perfect,” she responded.

“The restaurant is over there,” Brian said as he pointed to a pier with buildings on it.

“That looks like fun.” They started walking towards the pier and Dahlia asked, “Tell me about the restaurant?”

“Well, I started looking for the location while I was having the house built. I wanted it to look like
Mama Liza’s in Italy so I had to be able to build the bridge and do some other things to give it the authentic look and feel. It turned out pretty good I think. You can let me know.”

As they got closer, Dahlia could see the bridge. “Brian it looks exactly like the one in Italy. It has ocean waves under it instead of a river.”

Brian laughed.

“Look at all the people waiting. It must be good!”

“Yes, I was able to get the original recipes from Mama Liza, but I can’t get the same ingredients. It’s still very gook and so is the music. There are a group of people who come several times a week. They’ve threatened me that if I closed it, they would die and the staff joined in and told me they would quit and steal the recipes if I sold it, so I’m stuck with this wonderful place.”

“It’s their home.”

“It’s become home to me too. Mama Liza’s is my personal chef. She will make anything we want. We’re going to go in the side door so you can get a tour of the kitchen first. It has a nice table we can sit at and watch them cook if you’d like.”

“I’d like that.”

Brian led the way down the side of the building. Dahlia could hear the chefs singing and laughing through the open windows above them as they walked by. Brian took his keys out of his picket and unlocked the door and opened it. As Dahlia stepped in the singing got louder and one of the chefs took her by the arm and began to dance with her. Brian stood by for a few moments and then rescued her and took her over to the table.

“Oh my goodness. They are a happy lot!” she said as she sat down.

“Yes, they have fun. It’s a party in here all night.” He brought over two glasses of water and took a loaf of warm bread sticks out of the oven and ladled some marinara sauce out of a large pot sitting at the back of the stove into a beautiful dipping bowl. Dahlia was looking at the pots and pans and the hundreds of hand painted plates and bowls stacked on a old Italian side a matching table in the middle of the room with a large working area in front and clear pitchers of fresh herbs set neatly in a row along the back. There was fresh pasta in all different sizes hanging from racks and at least a dozen large baskets of the freshly picked tomatoes. As she looked around the room she noticed that everything was so clean and beautiful. The mixing bowls were hand painted. They didn’t need to be that special. They must have cost so much more money than a plain bowl that would have been equally adequate. The floor could have been plain but it was tiled with imported Italian tiles and the walls were painted with scenes from Italy. She loved beautiful things. It made her happy to be surrounded by them. So this is why it’s home to everyone and they are happy. It probably makes the food taste better somehow too.

Brian had left to tell the hostess to arrange a table for them. He came back and sat down and took a sip of his water.

“We can stay in here and be entertained for awhile and then when a table is free, we can go in front where it’s quite.”

“Sounds good to me.”

“Tony!” Brian hollered across the room. The chef in the tallest hat put his knife down and turned around and put his hands on his hips and lifted one eyebrow up and glared.”

“You have to make us something very special tonight” Brian said.

“But of course, boss,” Tony responded, “You think I’m stupid. I see the pretty girl and I start it right away.”

Everyone laughed.

“Thank you, Tony, keep up the good work!”

Tony turned back around complaining and mumbling something to himself, putting on a good show of feeling sorry for himself, rubbing it in that he’s being abused. He’d get quiet and then louder again and carried on for at least fifteen minutes.

“See, they do this all day long,” Brian said with at laugh.

“It’s very fun,” Dahlia commented, “Everyone seems so happy being here.”

“I think they are. Tony’s wife, Nada, is our Mama Liza and she watches over everyone and everything like a mother hen. She’ll come in here and give Tony a bad time about the food being slow or something and he fusses back at her like they are in their own house. She keeps it all going. Oh, there she is. She’s waving to us to come our table is ready.”

Tony brought them one delicious course after the other until they lost count of how many different things he had made for them. And every dish was a work of art.

“Tony is going to want to know which one was your favorite. What should I tell him?”

“The pasta with the flowers was the most beautiful but they all win for taste.That was amazing.”

“That reminds me. I have to show you something on the roof.”

He lead her up a dark narrow staircase that was hidden behind a shelf next to the kitchen. He took his keys out again to unlock the door at the top of the stairs. Dahlia couldn’t believe what she saw.

“A garden… on the rooftop of a restaurant… overlooking the ocean!”

“And all the flowers are edible. We rented everyone merchant’s roof in the whole complex so we could plant all the vegetables we use. There’s a place to sit at the edge of the let roof and watch the sun go down. I like to come here on the fourth of July and watch the fireworks. You can see at least a dozen displays from here.”

“That must be wonderful. I would like an invitation for the next one.”

“Done. That chair will be reserved for you. Would you like some tea?”

“Yes, please.”

Brian pulled out his phone and read a text. “I don’t know what we ever did without these things. Nada
would like to know if you like honey in yours.”

“Tell her ‘yes, please’.”

“Oh, look, Dahlia, there are the golden steps.”

“Yes, Twilight’s golden steps.”

“Follow the yellow brick road,” Brian thought out loud.

“Yes, follow the yellow brick road… home,” Dahlia said, finishing his thought.

Dahlia liked Brian. He was the kind of man she wanted to come home to.