1 - Only You

    "Only you," she said.  Her words were simple and deliberate.  I looked deep
into the sky.
    "If you focus your mind," I started, "you can see beyond the stars and
stare into the face of time.  How can I explain that to you?  Every time I try to
comprehend it myself I get lost and the light of the sun blurs my vision."
    She gazed just above my left shoulder and then looked into my eyes to see what I saw.
    "No," I said gently.  "Don't try to comprehend it, let it come to
naturally."   Her eyes were like deserts thirsting for the first drop of
rain to begin the cycle of life.
    I had no words to soothe her.  There was no explanation to offer.  She always brought
me to this place as though I could unleash the power of nature and bring forth the life
force that existed behind her eyes, trapped just beneath the surface.
    "Only you tell me about the beauty you see in this void," she confessed.
    "I tell you nothing," I snapped.  "It's all there.  It calls to me.
The sound is deafening.  It rumbles like a million machines crashing
together, each struggling to avoid the splintered shrapnel of the other.  I come here
because you bring me and you stand by my side to absorb the screaming.  If I were to
stand here alone I would go mad."
    "I don't think that's true."
    "You won't allow yourself to see truth."  My tone was less harsh this time.
    I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply to let her move closer and look beneath the
surface.  As she drank in the view I could I could feel her almost reaching out to me
then catching herself.  In my mind the rains fell constantly, reinventing the landscape,
nourishing the life force, and reinvigorating my perspective.
    "Why are you so lost?" I thought to myself.
    "Thank you," she said in a voice that registered just above a whisper. Her
eyes were wet with tears.  "Only you."


04/02/01