“Don’t worry.” Archie gave me a hug. “People will come.” I saw his kind eyes, desperate to ease my disappointment, or distract me from it. “This summer is going so fast. In two weeks, I’ll be getting my classroom ready.”
I laughed. I’d take the change of subject. “Crazy, right? Everything is coming together. I…” My gaze traveled to the refrigerated case. Something didn’t look right.
“What’s wrong?” Archie asked.
I opened the case and picked up a familiar bag of organic dates. Familiar, but not something I’d seen in many years. I held up the bag. “Did you put this in here?”
Archie looked at the bag. “Dates? No, not me.”
“Oh, okay,” I took the bag to the back room and stared at it, a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.
The morning, hazy, hot and humid, a typical July day in Pennsylvania, had yet to reach its heat index as Archie, Robin and I hiked on the Appalachian Trail in the Blue Mountains, not far from our new home.
Archie stopped and took a long drink from his water bottle. “How far is this lookout?”
“Not far,” said Robin. She held the leash to her dog, Daisy, a sweet, gray Labrador. Daisy barked, causing us to move farther down the rocky trail under a veil of green maple, oak, and other assorted trees in the forest.
Sweat dripped off my forehead, but I was happy to be on the trail, out in the wilderness, feeling the heartbeat of nature. Robin liked to hike too. She went most weekends and when she invited us to go along, I jumped at the chance, excitement racing through me. I hadn’t been hiking for quite a while, but it used to be part of my regular routine. Archie, however, wasn’t too thrilled. He enjoyed the outdoors on a limited basis.
He swiped at a fly on his arm. “Seriously, is it much farther?”
Robin laughed and we turned a corner in the woods, an opening in the trees visible up ahead. In minutes we’d reached it, and were rewarded by a breathtaking panoramic view of the valley. The large, smooth white rocks provided a perfect spot to sit and enjoy the view. Farmland stretched out below us, dotted with houses and barns. Forests spread out among a few large ponds, and the sky above was bright blue punctuated by white, endless fluffy clouds.
The setting, although different, took me back to other hiking experiences, other vistas that spread out before me in such a magnificent way. I closed my eyes for a moment and inhaled. Archie’s and Robin’s voices drifted away, and I could almost smell the scent of sacred herb in the air. I imagined my body, clothed in a simple white flowing gown, swaying in a hypnotic movement, my hands raised to the heavens. An energy vibrating through me, igniting sensations of a highly conscious state.
“What are you doing?” Archie’s voice broke into my self-induced trance.
“What?” I asked. My eyes flew open. My arms were raised high into the air. I was moving my body from side to side as Archie and Robin stared at me. “Um, nothing.” I put my arms down and stared at the view.
We sat on the rocks, eating turkey sandwiches and apples, watching hang gliders take off from a grassy runway nearby. The one about to jump off the side of the mountain had a triangle wing of a bright green sailcloth with a neon yellow stripe down the middle. He stood a distance away from the edge of the cliff, then began to run, jumped off the edge, and sailed into the sky, like a bird taking flight.
“Oh, that’s cool,” Archie remarked. He took a bite of his sandwich, staring at the hang glider.
“Yeah, it is.” I turned to Robin. “You ever try it?”
“No.” Robin shrugged her shoulders. “That’s not for me.”
I nodded and bit into my apple, watching the hang glider drift off into the open sky, and sail smoothly through the air, seemingly effortlessly. Like a dream taking flight.
NINE2016
The Commune
Dream
The warm summer sun filtered through the trees towering over us. Sunny and I lay on a blanket, watching its movement and feeding each other her favorite organic medjool dates. She gave up sugar when she joined the commune, as we all had, preferring to keep our bodies free of its addictive poison; but the sweet dates were her one indulgence and I made sure to always have them for her. Dates were a luxury at Listening Lark, only available to all family members during special times.
The commune was a contradiction sometimes. Freedom to do as you want, yet still rules. Is there anything such as complete freedom? Maybe that depends on how you define freedom and the price you must pay to get it. You can have freedom but not necessarily be free. I think we often think of it as an outward journey, yet the inward journey is the most important, and the most difficult. At least in the commune, our freedom wasn’t challenged as it might be in the outside world with regular jobs, rent, taxes and everything else people had to struggle with on a day-to-day basis. Not to mention legal issues that may arise. Oh, I knew all about them.
Sunny, meanwhile, knew about internal forces. I saw her struggles, her inward journey. It was part of what drew us together. A brokenness existed inside her, the same as me, and I felt that pull not only of our bodies, but our hearts as well, maybe to heal that wound and salvage what was left. She didn’t tell me much about her past, but I felt there were many details in it that she didn’t want to discuss, and that was fine with me. I, too, had many details from my past I chose to ignore. At Listening Lark though, we could forget them, and live in the here and now.
We liked to sit in silence together on occasion; Sunshine Lotus and Dream, together on another plane, I often thought. We smoked the sacred herb, large puffs rising to the tree branches and swirling all around us. We were the only life forms that existed in this state, and I wished this was true always, but even at a commune, you had to face reality at some point.
TEN2023
Aimee
The day passed in a blur. Despite the slow start, customers eventually arrived, and bought numerous items, making opening day a success. But I could barely feel my happiness; my mind was completely focused on only one thing.
That damn bag of dates.
They still sat on the counter in the back room of the store. I wouldn’t take them into my house. Our house. Who would have placed them in the refrigerated case? How could someone get into the store? None of it made any sense to me. But I knew one thing. Those dates were meant for me, not as a snack, but as a warning.
Was it Brother Jim? Had he found me after all these years?
I fiddled around in the barn, scooping chicken feed into a metal bucket. Sweat ran down my forehead. Today was a classic hazy, hot and humid summer day and I longed to jump into the pool to cool off, which I would soon do. I leaned over to get a bigger scoop, the strap of my denim overalls falling off my shoulder. Finally, the bucket was full. I pulled my strap up and headed out to the coop.
The chickens circled for their food, squawking, and pecking as soon as it was dispersed. I laughed at their excitement and gathered all the eggs, which I then took to the slop sink in the barn, washing and drying each egg before placing them into cartons. I would keep them in the small refrigerator until I transported them to the store, minus a couple. Those I needed for breakfast.
Archie had a dentist appointment this morning, so it was just me for breakfast today. I entered the back door into the kitchen and sat the egg carton on the counter. The ceiling fan at the center of the room hummed lending sound to an otherwise silent house. I surveyed the kitchen, everything appeared normal, but my senses heightened and I felt on edge, unsure of my surroundings. I paused, I was used to the quiet by now, but something disturbed me in the familiar space.
Something felt…
Ominous.
I stood still for a few minutes, just listening. Other than the fan, I didn’t hear anything, but something nipped at me, an uneasy feeling I was unable to shake off. I scanned the room again, plucking a large knife out of the block on the kitchen counter.
Was someone here?
