Back at my sailplane, Dan who quickly examinedmy flight recorder data to see that I had done as intended metme.
"Looks great, congratulations!"
Tina appeared with two six packs of beer and a,surprisingly tearful, giant kiss and hug.
We all drank beer while I savored the retellingof one of the great tales of flying.
Tina clung to my arm.
As we walked to the mobile home after thecelebration at the field, I stopped several times and held Tina ina loving embrace. I was having difficulty in staying in my body,feeling that I could simply soar away, without that big thing Ileft tied down at the airfield.
"I need to get grounded!" I laughed grinning atTina.
Tina replied, "I have just the thing." Shesteered me up the stairs to the deck of the mobile home, and pushedme into the love–seat on the porch.
In what seemed only a second, she reappearedwith an ice bucket with a very fine bottle of champagne, and twoflutes. "You do the honors," she said as she thrust the bottle intomy hands, and then held out the two flutes.
"Pop!" it went and I quickly poured the foamthat happens opening champagne at high altitude.
Tina giggled in delight as I filled bothglasses.
I was only being held down from flying away bythe weight of the bottle. We one arm hugged for a long time as ourglasses and spirits bubbled.
"A toast!" I said. "To you, love of my life! Myguiding spirit through a most important period of change in mylife! To your love and companionship I will cherish the rest of mydays."
We hugged and cried in joy. Then, cried somemore.
Tina pushed me away, and held up her glass."And to you, love of my life who perfectly compliments me and hasexpanded my horizon and taught me the delight of adventure that Ilook forward to sharing with you for the rest of mylife."
We hugged and cried some more.
"I've got to sit down," I said.
"Me too."
We both sipped our champagne and dried oureyes.
After a long pause, when I could again speak, Isaid. "We should get married?"
Tina put down her glass, took mine, and thentook both my hands in hers and said, "I think we justdid."
We celebrated everything that night.
****
A month later, after a round of celebratoryreceptions and parties thrown by our associates and friends, Tina,Elise, and I flew to Sacramento, rented a car and drove to Steveand Georgia's. Tina and I stayed in the guest cottage. The nextmorning we all drove a few miles away to a site on the top of ahill. A Native American medicine wheel, a large circle of largestones containing a smaller circle of smaller stones was sculptedon the ground. A flat–topped darkly–speckled granite boulder was inthe center. Four radial lines of stones aligned with the fourcompass directions joined the center and the circles.
Steve took his place in the center while wewaited outside the wheel. Tina and Elise on the South side, Georgiaand I on the North. Steve stood on a round, and did a short magicritual opening the circle with the spirits of the four directions.Then, Elise and Georgia escorted us to the center.
Tina and I both noticed an intense spark oflight coming from one of the crystals of mica in the boulder underSteve. Tina pointed at it and glanced at me questioningly and thensmiled. I replied with a nod.
After a brief ceremony in which we exchangedrings, Steve pronounced us Husband and Wife.
We walked to the shade of a nearby tree, andGeorgia produced a bottle of champagne for teary-eyed toasts andhugs. After a while, Tina said, "Was that spark of light on theboulder Uriel?"
With delight I said, "You heard and saw him!That's fantastic. Did anyone else see or hear Uriel?'
Only Tina replied, "I didn't exactly hear him.I felt an amazing feeling of love, happiness, and congratulations,all mixed up together. I also had the feeling he, or they, werelaughing about something. A leg? There was something abouttouch."
I hugged her with delight. "The leg thing isreference to a bad joke I'll tell you later. Uriel was saying, 'Wewill be in touch.'"
We went back to celebrating with our dearfriends. After a few minutes, Tina led me away from the others andmade me stand on the granite boulder at the center of thecircle.
"One more thing," she said, "Read what I hadengraved inside your ring."
I took my wedding ring off and read theinscription:
Pour le Me'rite.
****
Appendix:
CANDICE'S EIGHT-DIMENSIONAL MOVIE
(Including Equations)
Film: Cast: Narrator and historical andcontemporary characters.
The show opens with a real person, acommentator who is a well known physics professor (having appearedin PBS scientific programs) who sets up the idea that we will learnhow to calculate distances in spacetime and explore other conceptsof space and time.
In the first scene we have an animatedcharacter, Pythagoras who is a Greek, in a toga, being asked by aNero-looking character to calculate the distance (d) from theentrance in a Greek temple to the farthest corner. He measures thedistance from the door of the temple to the back wall (x) and thenmeasures the distance from there to the corner (y) and then theanimation shows him calculating the hypotenuse of the triangle,mumbling his famous formula, 'the square of the hypotenuse is thesum of the squares of the two sides.' He scratches out a formula inthe dirt on the ground:
(d)2=(x)2 +(y)2 and continues mumbling tohimself."
Then, he decides to calculate the distance fromthe door to the top of the wall in the far corner. He scratches hishead, and then he measures the distance up the wall (z) and thenadds it to his formula,
(d)2=(x)2 +(y)2+(z)2
and then dances around in delight.
Another character who has modern dress, a baggysweater, tennis shoes and wild hair comes in. It is Einstein. Hetells Pythagoras that if
