Going Nowhere at an Idle

Reading Time: 4 minutes

By Michael Avery, featuring Catherine Ganci

From Seven Signs from the Universe
by Michael and Pichaya Avery, pp. 115-118

Catherine lived in a high-rise apartment in downtown Cleveland and owned a ’95 Mercury Grand Marquis. She rarely drove it, since many shops and attractions were within walking distance, some inside her own building. Catherine always placed her keys in a special place, all by themselves, in a bronze dish located in the entry.

One day, she was passing by the dish and happened to glance down. To her dismay, the keys were not in the dish. After searching each room in her apartment thoroughly, her heart sank. 

Catherine wondered if she could have dropped the keys on the floorboard of her car as she was getting out, or perhaps they had fallen between the seats when she’d reached over for her groceries three days before. 

Approaching the car, Catherine breathed a sigh of relief. Her misplaced keys were hanging from the ignition. But there was something very peculiar about the scene. The battery was dead, and the gas tank was completely empty. She had left the car running three days before! It had been idling continuously since then, until it had finally run out of gas.

Her Grand Marquis did run quietly for an older car, Catherine mused, but it was not at all like her to walk away with it idling in the parking garage. She’d never done such a thing. Catherine made a mental note to be more careful in the future. 

A week later, Catherine was reflecting on this strange incident as she stepped into the entry. She was on her way to meet a friend for lunch. Catherine laughed. Could the universe be sending me a message? she wondered. When she reached down to pick up her keys from the dish, Catherine received a shock. Her car keys were missing again.

“How can this be?” she questioned.

This time she skipped combing through the apartment and ran directly to the garage. Everything appeared normal. Her car was sitting where she had parked it. But as she got closer, she could hear the familiar purring of the motor as the car sat idling. Twelve hours had elapsed since she’d driven it last. 

At this point, Catherine recognized the two connected incidents as waking dreams. Her job had ended two years before, and Catherine had no immediate plans that would tie her to the area. Her old job had come with a bonus—a reduction in rent. But now, not only had Catherine lost her income from the job, she was being asked to pay full rent. She needed to set her life in motion post-haste.

Following an inner nudge, Catherine called her sister in California. They spoke of current events and family connections, and then her sister happened to suggest that Catherine call her younger sister, Lorna, who was living in Portland, Oregon, with her family. A light came on in her mind. Her conversation with Lorna the following morning set a chain of events in motion. Catherine would soon embark on a new adventure.

“I’m thinking of moving out to Oregon,” Catherine said. “Could I stay with you until I get situated?” When Lorna agreed, Catherine made the decision to move right away. She’d received the waking dream message and was now ready to act on it: “Stop idling in the parking garage. It’s time to move.” 

Within a month, Catherine was basking in the warm Oregon sunshine. Well, that’s not quite right. More accurately, she was enjoying the cool fall scenery of a dry Oregon fall. But soon she would be carrying an umbrella as she walked her sister’s dog each day. Ironically, Catherine wasn’t a fan of dogs. They jumped up on her, drooled, and often needed a bath. But Catherine found that her sister’s dog, CD, short for “Cool Dog,” didn’t fit that mold. In fact, as her sister had claimed, CD acted more like a cat.

One reason Catherine had been feeling so alone in Cleveland these last few years was because her cat, Bugsy, had passed on. Catherine missed him terribly. Now, half-way across the country in Portland, sadness set in. Her radical move brought too much change uncomfortably fast. Thankfully, Catherine found a new animal friend in CD. As time went by, the two became extremely close. 

She had no way of proving it, but her intuition told her that when Bugsy had transitioned to the spiritual worlds, he had come back in a dog’s body. Furthermore, Bugsy had planted himself in a city where Catherine would find him. Even after Catherine moved into a place of her own, she would stop by and walk CD. His friendship, love, and support proved invaluable during the eleven years Catherine lived in the City of Roses.  

Seven Signs from the Universe by Michael and Pichaya Avery is available on Amazon.