-Sisterly Voices

[Words to Image. What I do ... I choose a random image and listen to what my minds says this is. I write that story. Simple enough. Enjoy.]

Every year, on the first Monday of September, German teachers would excuse their students from class who were of the age of eight years old. They would board the children on buses and make the two-hour journey, south from Munich to the Bavarian Alps. Once there, the children would form a single file line and trek up the hillside to the point of the Four Sisters. This is a sacred place where four sisters have been embedded into the side wall of the mountain, trapped for centuries. No one knows where they came from or why they are there, but history's experience has proven that they possess sight of the future.

Just before the line reaches the sisters, the teachers will hush the children and slow their approach by half. The very last stone before rounding the bend has been marked with an etching of an 'X' in the far-left corner. The front child will be escorted to it while another teacher holds the line back, ten steps prior. The lonely student will receive brief counciling and a short prayer before they are released to run up the stairs as fast as they can. Once they clear the bend, all four sleeping sisters awake, see the child, and begin screaming at them, simultaneously. Each sister screams many different paths for the child to take in life. Their screams are very loud and pierce the ears. As each child runs, one at a time, they are terrified by the sights and sounds of the moment. They are told to run past and up the hill. When they reach the top they must continue on, following the path back down to the low lands, without stopping. Once there, they are to catch their breath and try to remember the one voice they can. Only one will stay with them. Only one will have be heard. The many others would sound as simply noise.

The path heard would be their path taken, based on the individual child. What their inner conscious hears is what they were meant to hear and be. This is their lot in life. The children inform the Keeper at the bus steps and loads for the long drive back.

For thousands of years the sisters have been visited and trusted for the outcomes of the Munich youth. And for thousands of years, it has served them well. Word spread and many others have traveled to the steep stairway and boosted their children, hoping their futures would be guided, as the rest. But the sisters always remain silently asleep for all outsiders. Only the children of Munich possess whatever it took to awaken them. No one knows why. Passers-by often tell stories of hearing 'something crying in the air,' on the first Monday of every September, voices that echo across the valley like wind ushering in a heavy rainstorm.

The four sisters are said to still be embedded into the great Alps, to this very day. Parents of nearby areas are often encouraged to listen to their children speak as they near the age of eight. Listen to them speak about their hopes and dreams. Listen to their words as they show signs of the skills they already possess, skills that make them unique in their own way. Because, if the sisters will not speak for those who are not from Munich, their parents must speak for them. But they must listen first. Listen to their voices. Their path may depend on it.

[Listen, it's a simple thing to do. But many have difficulties in doing this. Their own voice drowns out the rest. Shhhhh.]