Chapter seven

Zeke could never forget the overwhelming experience of traveling to space with Zig and Zag that night on his eleventh birthday, but he started to question his experiences with them. It often left him thinking and wanting more cosmic trips and curiously questioning everything around him.

One warm summer night, Zeke sat on his porch watching the stars by himself. Everybody at home and in his neighborhood was asleep. Even Coconut was peacefully tucked inside his doghouse. Zeke was awake, wide awake. Zig flew towards him, and she found a comfortable place on his lap.

He lovingly stroked the back of his little friend. “Ziggy, you’re always here when I need you, right?” he asked the bird. “Well, I need you now. Please tell me who I am. I know I’m not like other kids, but why? I know you can help me, Zig. Please tell me where I come from and what I’m supposed to do.”

He always carried these questions inside of him, and now, they were finally out. Ziggy Bird’s response left him perplexed. “The truth shall come to Tartal Zeke when it’s time for him to seek. The truth is often stranger than fiction. That’s why he needs a ton of conviction!”

It was a full moon night, and the sky looked much bluer than usual. There was something unique and beautiful about that night. Zeke realized he often felt melancholy on full moon and new moon nights, as if the moon had some sort of hold over him. He also felt a pull towards the indigo sky as if it were calling him, inviting him to an unknown, mystical place.

“Why do I feel like I don’t belong here? It’s like I’m a visitor or something,” he said to himself.

Picking up on this from the cellar, Zag came running. “Master Tartal, you are on this earth, but not of this earth. Think about it,” the little leprechaun firmly declared.

Zeke turned to him. “Look Zag, I didn’t go chasing after you with a butterfly net. You came to me. There are so many other kids around here, why did you choose me? Don’t tell me it’s because I’m special, or you’re my loyal servant, or you love me, blah blah blah. Can you be honest with me this one time, please?”

“I always do, sir. I’m always honest. It’s my poor luck that you don’t trust me or my answers.”

Zeke thought he had made the conversation too emotional, so he decided to change the subject. “Now, do all leprechauns really have a pot of gold? If that’s true, where’s yours? Why do you hide it?” he jokingly asked.

“I don’t hide it, sir. I keep it where it’s meant to be,” Zag answered evasively.

“Oh, so you mean you do have one! Where is it, then? Will I ever get to see it?” he inquired.

“You are an intelligent young man, Master Tartal. You won’t have what we call Irish luck. You will have very real Mackinaw luck! The day you reach my leprechaun garden and see a rainbow smiling at you from a mountainside, my little hat lying on the grass beside a glitzy flower by an indigo lake near a glimmering wood, you’ll know: the pot of gold is right there! Oh, and I almost forgot to mention, there should also be a star shining up in the sky – luminous and bright, just like you!” Zag said with a impish grin.

“Zag, Zag, Zag! How many more lies can you weave around a little myth? Can’t you ever be just a little honest with me? How can you have a shining star in the sky during the day, along with a smiling rainbow?”

“You will know for yourself. You are special and intelligent, sir. You are meant to find your pot of gold, and I will gladly help you!”

It was infuriating. Zeke wasn’t getting any answers, but that’s how life works. Sometimes you just have to play along. So he did just that. “If you’re a magical leprechaun like you say you are, will you grant three wishes for me?”

“That’s a myth, sir! And three is just a number. All your wishes will come true the day you know who you are. The universe has your back, after all!” Zag sounded quite pragmatic this time.

Zeke had no idea what that meant. “And that’s because you think I’m special?” he coyly asked.

“You are special, and so is every soul. We are all little parts of the puzzle whole. Our heart needs to open with a crack, for the universe always has our back!” Zig intruded with her little pearls of wisdom.

This conversation was going nowhere, and he was tired. So, he just got up and left. Zig and Zag didn’t stop him. He needed rest. The next morning, strangely enough, Zeke saw an upturned, smiling rainbow by the hillside. Of course, there were no glimmering woods, no sparkly flowers, no indigo lake, and no shining star in the morning sky. Yet a faint voice inside him said, “Zig and Zag weren’t lying this time.” The rainbow was the little sign showing him that “the universe really does have our back!”