Ish Smith sat serenely in the sand, letting the desert sun warm his cool body. Here, he could attain peace of mind and equilibrium of body, with nothing but the sky to keep him company.
The peyote was taking effect. Behind his eyes, colorful visions intertwined, slowly coalescing into recognizable shapes and forms.
Ish could see an orange, humanlike figure, undoubtedly a representation of himself. It darted to and fro, moving with the quickness and agility of a puma. Jagged streaks of color flashed in front of the scene, and their meanings were clear to him: blue for power, brown for strength, green for speed, orange for the power of Mother Gaia who had given them the earth, yellow for the All-Father who gave them the moon.
Now, the hallucinated imagery became extremely lifelike. As Ish watched from a distant plateau, the sun descended into a volcano far off in the distance, plunging everything into darkness. Then, the world exploded in a burst of fire and chaos. In the middle of it all, untouched, Ish felt a power enter his body. He felt stronger, faster than ever before in his life.
“Yo, Ish, what’s up?”
Opening his eyes, Ish looked for the source of the interruption. In his serenity, he found himself unable to be annoyed, and instead felt only curiosity. Gerald Green was walking towards him.
“How did you find me?” Ish asked. “Nobody knows my secret meditation spot.”
Gerald shrugged. “The game starts in ten minutes, and you weren’t at the arena, so I thought I’d come find you. Hey, you look a little stoned there, you sure you’re okay?”
Feeling more than okay, Ish smiled dopily and nodded. “Yeah. I actually feel pretty great. I hope coach gives me some minutes tonight.”
“I don’t know about that,” Gerald responded skeptically. “He was pretty PO’ed when you didn’t show at warmups.”
Ish couldn’t stop smiling. He felt enlightenment brighten previously darkened corners of his mind, strengthen previously unused muscles. He would dominate. It was inevitable.