My Last defense part 4

I took San Pablo to the intersection of MLK and San Pablo. I veered right down on MLK passing the greyhound bus station and the social services building. I ran two lights and when I reached 14th street I took a left. I was in downtown oakland. The downtown area had a mixture of restaraunts, mainly cheap burrito, or chinese, and office buildings. In contrast to the other areas of oakland the buildings were large and well maintained. I rode past the Bart station, which is at the intersection of 14th and broadway and continued on towards Lake Merrit. If I continued east on 14th street I would end up in east oakland but I ended up getting on the sidewalk and riding around the lake. I rode my bike clockwise around the lake. The weather was nice and a large number of joggers, walkers, and sightseers were making their way around the lake. I stopped at a small bench about a third of the way around the lake. I gazed at the lake. It moved slowly, the water slightly bobbing. Nearby me ducks, geese, and the occassional sea gull walked about on the grass shore. I sat staring at the lake for twenty minutes thinking about the slow movement of the waves. My eyes shifted towards the ducks that were pecking at the ground. One duck looked at me and said:

"Everything goes, everything comes back; eternally rolls the wheel of being. Everything dies, everything blossoms again; eternally the year of being. All things recur eternally, and we ourselves too; and we have already existed an eternal nuimber of times and all things with us. Bent is the path of eternity."

I stared at the duck for quite a while after its speech. It was a black duck, with now webbing between its toes. I wasn't sure if it was actually a duck, my knowledge of birds being limited. It waddled around for a bit then dove into the water. I wasn't sure if the duck had actually said anything to me, or if I had assumed it had. I was becoming more confused with both my surroundings and the recent events. I thought I was overtired and picked up my bike and began to ride home. Perhaps sleep would cure me of these hallucinations.