It was dark out, I ventured outside looking for the stars. The Hermit was sitting facing East at one of the picnic benches, the girl was sitting cross legged on the table, facing North, reading her bible out loud. I stopped, she was asking about something that happened in that book, wondering what order it was suppose to have happened. The Hermit was laughing and asked me if I knew what she was talking about.
I smiled, looking in his eyes: it was such a deep, hearty laugh and those eyes were glowing. I asked him if he ever read that book. In between his laughs, he told me that no, he hadn't. I grinned and sat facing him, looking West, at my mountain. I told them that I grew up in a church, I knew that book and I was trying to help her understand it.
I don't remember what the girl was looking for but I grabbed her arms and told her that book was just a book. It wasn't even written when he was alive. Look at me, I told her, showing her my cuts, still with stitches in. I spent most of the afternoon with them uncovered and open, I felt like they needed to breathe.
I told the girl that we were waking people up. This is real: right here, right now, as I hit the table a couple times. She looked really confused, ended up grabbing up her book, with broken, torn pages and notes and ran inside.
I was excited to have a moment alone with that Hermit but it didn't last long. We didn't even talk, we just looked in each other's eyes for what seemed like a few seconds, when the nurse Suzie came along and wanted us to join group. Neither of us wanted to go so we asked her what we were doing. I forget the name of the game but the Hermit looked at me and said "let's indulge her this time."
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We sat in a circle in the 'tv room' with a few old ladies and many others. I would say around 20 people. Sam went first. It was beautiful. I will have to ask if he remembers what he said. (He says it was too long ago). Me, "I love my daughter, I love Mother Earth and I hate fake people."
And guess what, almost the whole group had similar answers.
