Читать книгу River of Love - Aimée Medina Carr - Страница 16

Chavela and I cruise on bikes to El Martinez Mexican restaurant, a small adobe building, the perfect rendezvous place and only a mile from Sacred Heart School. We stash them in a storeroom; Mom’s a childhood friend of the owner.

Jack and Caleb wait in the parking lot; they’re excited to share a new discovery. It’s the first time we’re invited to The River. The crisp, elm and poplar leaves flutter red and yellow to the ground, swirling at our feet, on the blustery autumn day.

“How far is this place? Are we the first girls to see it?” Cha Cha asks. It’s her first time meeting Caleb. She looks sharp in jeans that fit after losing all the baby weight. Her family took care of little Julian while she’s at school or with friends.

“It’s a half mile down this road which dead-ends at The River. Yes, you are the first non-Sacred Heart students to grace our new find,” Jack confirms.

“It’s a beautiful, peaceful spot. We can light up a joint and hang loose,” Caleb adds, oozing charisma. He’s tall and lanky, with a slight swagger, shoulders slouched with hips thrust forward: A Keep on Truckin’ lean. His slit perpetual stoner eyes are framed by a mop of curly, shimmery blond hair and a blissful smile. He’s from Santa Fe, New Mexico; Jack picked him as his best friend, a couple of hours after arriving at Sacred Heart School.

We skip and pretend hopscotch on the road, and moo at the Holstein cow audience kept in by an electric fence. “How did you find it?” I ask.

“Our squirrelly friend, Oliver Fellini got pissed at a jock for calling him a fag, stomped off campus wandered down this road and stumbled into paradise,” Jack explains as he kicks a rock down the middle of the road.

He lit up a doobie, mellowed out and returned to campus. He pulled us aside and said, “Let’s gather dope, booze, and snacks and spend the whole weekend at The River.” Caleb said.

“Did you?” Cha Cha’s curious if they had a far out time.

“We got so wasted, Ollie whipped up a batch of wicked magic mushroom shakes and some nimrod fell into The River! We rushed him back to school before hypothermia set in. He’s the druggie last year that dropped acid for 30 days straight after a devastating heartbreak.” Caleb shakes his head in disbelief.

“This is our refuge, where we can be ourselves, howl like wolves, and skinny dip. We leave our worries at school. Moonlight is so intense and campfires are the best. Such an ideal location on a dead end road, no one comes back here. No pigs, no parents, no priests, no hassles.” Caleb chants the explorer’s anthem of their new world.

We reach a thin, worn, deer trail at the end of the road.

“Watch that wire; it’s an electric fence, it’ll zap you. It’s for cows but works the same on humans. Our friend, Don, whizzed on it and got the shock of his life.” Caleb points to a thin, black wire that ran the length of the field, next to The River. The air changes and the temperature drops with a damp, mineral scent, which is brisk and cooler by the flowing water.

We meander down the lush path about fifty yards, then… We feel it—it’s like a force field. A crossing over into sacredness. The lacy, cathedral canopy of cottonwood trees filtered with dabbled “God light” streamed through thick branches. The effulgence of magic wildness.

“At the still point of the turning world. Neither from nor towards; there the dance is, neither arrest nor movement,” Jack recites T.S. Eliot. “I discovered him over the summer,” he grins.

We all stand at The River’s edge and watch the swift, powerful waves whisk by vibrating us with a roaring wall of sound. Transfixed by the shushing of the waves flowing ~ flowing ~ flowing. “Let The River take you.” The mountain wind whistles through the sacred cottonwoods.

“Bombs away!” Cha Cha yells interrupting the reverie. She wings a huge rock into the rumbling Arkansas River. It makes a solid tunk sound and splashes up violently.

“To the Goddess Sulis who believed water can wash away sadness, pain, and suffering. She was a Celtic Sun Goddess, I just wrote a paper on Goddesses for an English class. I’m loco—crazy for them, research still fresh in the ol’ cabeza.” She pokes her temple with an index finger.

Caleb is startled by her wildness.

“Baptism by boulder,” he jokes.

“Imagine a religion called Far Out-ism: enter this moment without resistance or attempts at control in this mind-blowing inspiring cathedral. Experience the beauty and know everything is a Miracle. Nature eclipses words. The first Bible is the Bible of Nature. The Great One’s power is all around us; our minds refuse to see it. I feel it here.” Caleb’s smooth, dreamy voice communicates in a slight, astonishing way.

“Whoa, cowboy, that’s some heavy shit!” Cha Cha cries.

Jack gathers us together, “Let’s keep this sacred ground secret and christen it ours.” We bow our heads, Caleb said a quick prayer: “Please allow the earth and cosmic energy to flow through our body. May it be with the blessings of the Supreme Being, that we benefit in our spiritual growth, awareness, and understanding.” He opens his eyes, surprised he remembered the bedtime childhood prayer. I chime in with, “A’Ho! Amen.”

“Let’s build with riverbed rock a Labyrinth,” Jack said while watching the crystal prisms dart off the bouncing water. We nod in agreement.

“We can start designing it immediately—Ollie will go bonkers.” He glances at me; we share a splash of happiness.

“Let’s keep this place to ourselves, for now, we don’t want loads of stoners crashing our spot,” Jack said.

We gather stones to build a large fire ring close to The River. Next outing, we’ll bring tools and finish it. We hear the cows mooing next door, it’s milking time, the temperature drops and we’re losing light. It’s rapidly growing dusk.

“Let’s gather ten, large boulders, that’ll make a large fire ring,” Jack said.

Cha Cha wanders over to the riverbed and hits the jackpot.

The two boys heave them up to the flattest open area. The sunset’s final orange slab fades into deep purple shadow, and the smoky air flows from nearby fired up wood stoves.

“Get going, you’re going to be riding in the dark, we’ll finish up here.” Jack kisses me goodbye.