It was trying to be a blustery January night. They had lost their way and turned onto a strange, slick road. Maybe not so much slick as cunning. A rapturous breeze blew a streaky rain onto their windshield. The neon sign on the side of the road blew their minds.

     They turned off the freeway and into the the drive next to the office with the flashing neon sign atop it. Peering through the office window they could see a bearded old man with twinkling eyes and merry dimples, cheeks like roses and a nose like a cherry.

     "Yes," he said, when they questioned him about the sign, "I store my elves here during the first of the year, so I thought other people might like a place to store their elves as well."

     That seemed reasonable, they told the jolly old gentleman. They drove on, smiling at each other and at several stars in the sky which smiled back twinklingly.

When they next lost their way, accidentally (?) passing by that stretch of road, they were pleasantly surprised to see a new neon sign. This time there was an even stranger man in the office when they walked through the door.

     He was standing in the middle of the room gazing rapturously at a circular object suspended above his right hand. They almost hated to interrupt the sage's meditations.

     "We were wondering about your sign," they declaimed.

     "I am a midwife of souls, assisting people to give birth to a new, higher self. So of course, they need some place to store their old earth selves, don't they?"

     It seemed perfectly straightforward to them. So they entreated the ancient to help them give birth to new, higher selves. And stored their old selves with the kindly gentleman with the Self Storage business by the side of the road. They leave our story here.


NDL