She says, follow me through the magic portal; there’s a party on the other side. I’ve never cared for magic. Not the biggest fan of parties either. Both those things remind me too much of cruise ships, which I dislike because they float on the ocean, and when I think of the ocean, I feel lonely and cold.

But her. The shape of her mouth when she speaks those words–magic portal, it casts a spell on me. What’s wrong with here? It’s not there. And there, where she’s going, is the other side of a magic portal.

So I get in my car; I push go, and the start of the engine has a magical tone I never noticed before. Must be the proximity of the portal, which shimmers on the highway, beckoning. Leave the normal, it seems to say. Come to the not normal.

Everything is not normal, until it is.

I am not yet half way through when it dawns on me how different the world can become, and how quickly. As I search for her taillights ahead, I think, maybe this is a sacred truth, that Life is found in locating what’s not normal.