Tree Fever. Karen Hood-Caddy
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Название: Tree Fever
Автор: Karen Hood-Caddy
Издательство: Ingram
Жанр: Контркультура
isbn: 9781459717145
isbn:
Was he going to kiss me? He pulled his head back. With the angle of the moon, one part of his face was bathed in light, the other dark in shadow. As I looked at him, I sensed the pain and beauty of his whole life.
Our mouths found each other. His lips tasted as fresh as the lake, but warmer, sweeter.
What are you doing? Stop this at once. But my mouth was lost in his lips. The scolding voice inside my head was very far away and I could hardly hear it over the lovely feelings rising in my body.
After the kiss, Harley eased himself away and walked back to the fire.
Shivering in his jacket, I stood still. My God, what was happening to me? Who was this person standing naked in the forest kissing a man she had just met? Self-conscious and confused, I made myself get dressed and moved towards my sleeping bag. Harley, back in his clothes, came and sat beside me near the fire.
Harley rearranged some of the burning logs with his boot. “We better get this out,” he said. The logs, removed from the intensity of the flames, smoked thickly. Before putting the fire out completely, Harley reached into his pocket and tossed something on the last of the flames. The strong smell of cedar filled the air. Drawing a feather from his hat, he swept the billows of white smoke around my body in a ritual he seemed to know well.
Sensing the sacredness of the act, I shut my eyes. The smoke felt strong and smelled lovely.
“A little Indian protection,” Harley explained. He dispersed the embers and the blackness of the night swooped down around us. We sat in the dark without speaking for a long time. Slowly, the dim light of day crept around us.
“Scared?” Harley finally asked. I nodded. “You know what my grandfather used to say about fear?” He lifted his open hand to face me and parodied, “Fear, big horse. Learn ride, go anywhere.”
I smiled. Words were beyond me now and in the gathering quiet, the situation I was about to face loomed over me. Shortly, I was going to be arrested. Arrested. Put in jail like a common criminal. I, who had never even had a speeding violation. How had all this happened? Suddenly I felt completely hopeless.
“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” I whispered.
Harley looked at me with calm understanding. His face was broad and open, as though it had room for many things. It made me feel peaceful just looking into it.
“Life is more sudden than we think sometimes,” he said softly. “Changes grow underground and we don’t know they’re there until they burst out.”
“I just wish there was some other way. Something not so public. Like a petition.” I was trying to convince myself of other options.
Harley scowled. “You’d keep your hands clean that way, sure. But there’s nothing wrong with digging into the dirt. These trees of yours have as much of themselves in the dirt as in the sky.”
“But being arrested is so humiliating.”
He shrugged. “Some of the world’s greatest people have spent time in the clinker. Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and who was that woman who fought for the vote, Pank—”
“Pankhurst. Emmeline Pankhurst.”
“I’ve spent a few days in there myself. Probably will spend more too, before I’m done. Sometimes you’ve got to put your body where your heart is and say no’.” Seeing the worry on my face, he added, “Trust yourself. Don’t let that mind of yours analyse everything upside-down and sideways. A person’s thinking can make anything right. Or anything wrong. You can’t think your way through this one. The point is, you did something. Even if nothing happens, you took action. That’s better than what the rest of this town is doing right now.”
“Will you stay with me when the police come?”
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