Mist and Fog

Savannah was beautiful. Her wavy auburn hair framed her face perfectly, though she did nothing to encourage it, and her piercing green eyes were like brilliant jewels. The way her eyebrows tilted upward slightly at the ends, and her naturally dark completion, gave her an exotic look, like she was perhaps an Ottoman princess, or maybe had a touch of Native American blood from a distant ancestor.

If Savannah hadn’t been so beautiful she’d probably have had a happier life. Some saw her beauty as a blessing, but she knew it was a curse, and constantly being the center of an odd energy was to be her fate. Eyes watched her everywhere she went, and men and women alike acted weird when she was around. Walking through a crowd was like being in a sea of piranhas, each set of eyes biting at her for a piece of her attention. More often than not, men had strange mischievous grins below their gaze, and women looked down on her with scowls, or envy, or were just annoyed. But everyone looked.

It wasn’t her fault she was so beautiful; neither of her parents were particularly good-looking. But their features combined in just the right way and Savannah ended up stunning, and she had a figure to match. She grew up as an outcast. She was poor and no one ever came to her house as a child. But her fate as an outsider was sealed after she hit puberty and became an exotic beauty. From then on, her life became really difficult and hard to navigate. It didn’t help that her mom, an alcoholic and single parent, was a wreck, and didn’t understand at all what Savannah was going through. It was a rare occasion when her mom wasn’t drunk or passed out, or high on who knows what.

Her mom was pretty well checked out. Savannah still lived with her in a trashy little house, not much better than a mobile home in the outer reaches of Chicago. The area was just strip malls and giant parking lots and cheap suburban slab houses and there was no beauty anywhere. When Savannah was young, they survived on child support and food stamps. But now it was up to Savannah to pay for everything, and there was never enough. Her mom had been drunk for nearly all of Savannah’s life and by now there was no coming back. She had wasted her life, and Savannah had stopped caring about her years ago.

Savannah was now twenty-two years old, and though she had tried a few times to have a boyfriend, the guys always turned into possessive assholes, and most of the other guys around were just rednecks. She found it really hard to make any friends and had gotten used to being a loner.

Her work was no better. She got her first job waiting tables a restaurant after dropping out of high school to help make money for rent and groceries. But at that job and the many that followed, the story was always the same; she’d get hired at a restaurant and do pretty well, but then her boss or a co-worker would start wanting more from her. The worst was when they thought they were falling in love with her. Then things would get really weird and she knew her job was almost over. She had already had a dozen waitress jobs in her young life, and she had just lost another one, the third job this year alone.

Winter was settling in. Everything had turned brown and lifeless, with snow and bitter cold were coming soon. The prospect of getting another dead-end job seemed dismal. People saw a beautiful young woman and everyone assumed she would have an easy time with life. But in reality, she was just sad and lonely, and smoked a ton of pot trying to find fleeting moments of comfort.

Deep inside she knew there had to be more to life. She decided that somehow she needed to make a break, to get away. She had had enough.

Savannah could think of only one place she could go. She had a grandmother whom she had never met, who had run off with a bunch of hippies in the seventies, abandoning her family, and eventually settling in a commune on the Puget Sound in Washington State. As far as Savannah knew, her grandmother was her only relative besides her mom. Savannah had always heard that her grandmother was a crazy hippie, and her mom wanted nothing at all to do with her. But in a rare moment of lucidity, and after relentless prodding, her mom found an old phone number in an old address book. Savannah called the number, and to her surprise, the number still worked.

Savannah’s grandmother, Emily, had never heard of her, but was open and friendly, and said she would really like a visit from her granddaughter. She gave Savannah instructions on how to get to her house, and assured her that even though the house was small, there was room for Savannah. The instructions were long and detailed and included ferry, a train, and a bus, and even some walking, because she lived a long way from the city in a wooded area on a tiny island in the Puget Sound.

Savannah hadn’t been anywhere, not to the next state, not even into Chicago proper, let alone to a place with wilderness and salt water. But in her imagination it sounded like a dream. She scraped her money together and bought a plane ticket, and had enough left over to cover the bus and ferry, and a little extra for some food along the way. She didn’t want ever come back, so she didn’t plan for it.

The next morning she took a four hour plane ride, her first time on a plane, to a world she didn’t even know existed, a world with volcanos and vast green forests and salt water far from the ocean. After catching a train at the airport, and then a bus in Seattle, she found herself two hours north of the city. She walked onto a ferry that took her to a small isolated island.

It was a heavy gray rainy day and the air was cool and wet. She was surprised that everything was so green. She’d never seen anything like it. The ferry was little more than a platform with a control shed on one side. It could hold about a dozen cars total, though on this day there were only five. On the thirty minute ferry ride, the mist came and went, and the sky was heavy with clouds. She stood along the railing looking around at all the tree-covered hills rising out of the water, and the cool salty air seemed extraordinarily clean, and she breathed it deeply into her lungs. The water was deep and black and rippled away as the ferry cut through it.

At the other side, as her grandmother had promised, there was a red pickup truck waiting. She approached and an older man got out. “Savannah?” he asked.

“Yea,” she said. “You must be Bob?”

He shook his head and they put her bags behind the seat and she got in. Bob was a man of few words, and didn’t have a lot to say. He asked about her flight and bus ride, but that’s about all. He drove along a small wooded road to the other side of the island and stopped where the road ended.

“Emily is just down at the end of that path,” he said, and offered to help carry her bags for her. But she told him she’d be alright. She thanked him and walked on down the path, which went into deep, thick woods.

Everything was wet and green, and the trees were taller than any she’d ever seen. The forest was dripping wet and fog meandered among the tree trunks and over the ferns. There was moss growing on downed logs and hanging in clumps from branches in the tress, and the air was sweet and rich. Savannah thought it was magical, and she suddenly felt blessed to be able to see such beauty. The only sounds were her breathing and the constant dripping of water in the forest. Off in the distance she could hear some kind of strange creature, like a crow, but much deeper. A raspy “Groak, groak,” echoed through the forest.

The path wasn’t long, perhaps only a hundred feet or so, and at the end it opened onto a beach that was covered with driftwood and logs. Just to the right of the path, nestled into the trees, a small house faced the water. Daylight was starting to fade and she could see lights on inside the house. As she got closer, see started noticing that some of the rocks on the ground had been arranged in spirals and patterns. Closer still, she saw that there was a path paved with all kinds of broken bits of glass, colorful rocks, and pieces of tile, all embedded in hand-poured concrete. The house was painted with brightly colored patterns, and the whole scene was like a fantastical fairytale. All was silent except for the gentle lapping of small waves on the shore as she walked up the steps to the front porch.

She knocked on the door, and a few seconds later an older woman in her seventies, with long gray hair pulled into a ponytail, opened the door.

“Grandma?”

“You must be Savannah. Come in,” Inside the place was amazing. There were a billion little decorations lovingly arranged on every surface and in every nook and cranny. It was the result of a lifetime of collecting every pretty little thing she found. The place was very warm and inviting, with lamps and candles and a gentle fire in the fireplace. Savannah set her bags down and gave her grandmother a hug.

Savannah was captivated by the amount of stuff arranged and on display. “It’s beautiful in here,” she said. “So many beautiful things.”

“These are the artifacts of a life well-lived,” Emily said.

“It would take a lifetime to see everything!” Savannah joked.

“You must be exhausted. Come over here and have some soup,” Emily said.

The two sat at the table and had some veggie soup and homemade bread. “Mom always told me you were an old hippie.” Looking around the room she said, “I guess I can see where she got that idea.”

Emily smiled. “I guess so.” Then her smile became a little somber, “I feel bad about leaving your mom and everybody behind, but I was really a mess back then. I met this guy and we ran away together, came up here to Washington to be part of a commune. That worked ok for a year or so, but I didn’t really fit in with them after a while. It was then that I inherited some money from my grandparents. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to buy this piece of land and this house, and enough to live on. So I just dropped out from everyone. I didn’t feel like I fit in anywhere, so I decided I’d be happier alone. And I’ve been here ever since. But I’m much happier now.”

“I know the feeling,” Savannah said. “I don’t fit in anywhere, and mom’s just a drunk.”

“Let me look at you,” Emily said, leaning over into the light. Savannah lifted her face. “Oh my, you are a pretty girl.”

“I guess so,” Savannah shrugged. “Kind of wish I wasn’t. Sometimes I just feel like a freak.”

“I can understand that,” Emily said. “Well dear, you can  stay here as long as you like. I’ve made up a little room for you. It’s not much, but you can have it as long as you want.”

“Thank you grandma. I just needed a break, and I won’t stay too long. Maybe a couple of weeks if that’s alright.” Savannah was afraid to tell her the whole truth, that she was hoping she could just come and stay. She was afraid her grandmother would say no.

“As long as you want, child,” Emily said.

They finished eating and Savannah was wiped out. Emily showed Savannah her room. It was not much bigger than a closet. There was a futon on the floor, a little chair, and a small wardrobe in the corner. There was also a small window adjacent to a tiny desk with a lamp.

“I was just storing some things in here, but cleared it out for you.”

“It’s perfect, Grandma,” she said with a big smile.

Savannah passed out as soon as her head hit the pillow.

In the morning Savannah was awakened by the morning light and the smell of coffee. She came out of her little room and found Emily making pancakes. They sat together eating, drinking coffee, and talking. They were finding that they liked each other and had a nice, easy rapport.

After breakfast, Savannah went out for a walk along the beach. It was a very heavy gray morning and the clouds clung to the water. The air was moist and salty and still, and the clouds moved slowly, occasionally reveling openings where she could see out across the expansive water where trees and hills from other islands appeared like ghosts, briefly, then faded back into the misty grayness. She walked along the water’s edge where small waves ebbed and flowed among the sand and rocks. Once in a while she saw flocks of small birds flying together just above the surface, darting and banking and skimming the water in unison, like schools of fish swimming through the air. In the water she saw big orange starfish, bigger than she had ever seen, and pale white and pink anemones clustered among the rocks. She realized she hadn’t seen any sign of other people – no boats, no houses, no one else walking on the beach. It was almost as if she had slipped into another time, perhaps one without people, where other creatures lived. “Groak, groak,” echoed through from the distance. She felt like it was possible that a giant sea creature, serpentine and covered with scales, might rise from the depths. Or great flying dinosaurs might swoop in from behind the  misty clouds. Trees and water and land were also flowing in and through each other and it was hard to tell where the forest and clouds ended and the water began. It seemed like she had crossed into a time of myths, where even imagination couldn’t conjure the magic surrounding her. She was moved by it all, and probably more at peace than she could ever remember.

As she rounded a point, the clouds thinned a little bit and the forest was set back further from the water’s edge. There was a house way back beyond an open area of bushes tucked into the forest. She noticed a disturbance in the water about a hundred yards offshore. She stopped walking and just watched the water churn. Suddenly an orca thrust it’s massive black and white 25 foot long body out of the water. It rose almost completely out of the water, then turned slightly onto it’s back, and crashed back into the water with an enormous splash. “Wow!” she gasped. Then she saw that there were fifteen or twenty whales, their long black dorsal fins slicing through the water’s surface. Savannah had never seen anything like it and she was mesmerized. The group of orcas seemed to be getting closer to the shore too, and she could hear the deep sounds of their blow-holes reverberating through the whole area.

Suddenly she heard something coming up behind her. She turned and saw an old man with wispy white hair coming from a path in the bushes. He was gasping for air and having trouble walking. At first she was startled, but when she saw that he was having a hard time, she went to him. “Are you ok?” she asked. But he couldn’t answer. He gasped for breath and could barely remain standing. He motioned toward the water and Savannah took his arm and helped him walk. He fought for each breath and step by step they neared the water’s edge. Then, with one last gasp, which encompassed his whole body, he collapsed and fell forward on the beach, landing on his front with his face falling into the shallow water.

“Hey Mister.” Savannah said and knelt to help him. “Hey Mister.” She reached down and tried to roll him away from the water. He had stopped gasping. He had stopped breathing. “Hey Mister!” she said and managed to roll him over. There was white foam coming out of his mouth and she started to freak out. Just then, not thirty feet off shore, a great, pure white orca rose out of the water right in front of her. Her mouth dropped opened and her eyes went wide, and she nearly fell over backward. Then the white whale turned its enormous weight and splashed back into the deep salty water. Then it breached again, right in front of her, and crashed back, sending huge sprays of water and mist in every direction.

Right that second, she heard someone else coming up behind her from the path. She turned and it was Bob, the man who had picked her up from the ferry. She panicked, she didn’t know why. She jumped up and ran away as fast as she could. She ran and ran along the water’s edge, unwittingly, in the opposite direction of Emily’s house.

After a hundred yards or so, she had to stop running because a thick cloud enveloped her in fog. “Groak, groak,” she heard close by. Then in the fog she heard huge wings flapping and she felt the air being pushed around. Swish, swish. She tried to keep running, but the fog was so thick she could barely see where she was going. It buzzed her again, flying so close she could feel it, but then vanishing into the fog. Each time, she turned to see what it was, but there was nothing there – just thick grayness. She had the strangest feeling just then, like she was being teased and taunted. “Groak, groak, waaaa.” it called into the mist.

Freaked out, she kept trying to run in the thick blanket of fog, but stumbled over logs and rocks and around tide-pools at the edge of the water, unable to see more than a few feet in front of her.

Then she noticed the sky was growing darker and it began to rain. A breeze blew in from the water, gently at first, then building in intensity. Savannah walked up to the edge of the woods to try to be at least a little more sheltered. But the sky got darker and darker and soon the breeze and rain turned into a raging gusty torment. The gusts came in waves. One minute things were relatively calm, the next minute it was like being  in a hurricane. Lightening shot across the sky inside the clouds, and thunder crashed and boomed and echoed.

The Native Americans in the area have a legend about the Thunderbird, a giant magical bird. It was so big that when it was mad, or hunting whales to eat, the flapping of its enormous wings caused huge storms of wind and rain, and lightening shot out of its eyes. But Savannah didn’t know anything about that. She only knew that she needed to get further away from the water’s edge, and she turned and walked deeper into the forest.

The storm raged through the forest and she heard the sound of a tree trunk cracking, and then the sound of it crashing to the ground nearby. Up ahead she thought she saw a small shelter. But when she got there, it was only bushes and small trees that had looked like a structure. She walked a little further and found a huge tree laying on its side. It had fallen years ago, and now had ferns and moss and smaller trees growing on it. She went around to the other side and squatted against the massive trunk to give her at least some protection.

Strangely, she wasn’t afraid. It was so different from anything else in her life that she was actually kind of excited. She was on an island, how much trouble could she get into anyway? When the storm was over, she would find some people and everything would be ok. In the meantime, she sat bundled up in her coat and hood against the tree and took in the amazing beauty of the forest. But she didn’t know that storms in the Pacific northwest can last for hours and hours. She was used to midwestern storms, which came in with hell and furry, but were gone in a hour. This storm raged on and on, and she sat there waiting.

Finally the storm began letting up and Savannah started walking back the way she had come. She walked and walked through the woods, but somehow the beach wasn’t where she thought it was. She turned and walked in a different direction, but again, the beach wasn’t there. She started to feel some real anxiety now. She sat on a log and looked around, trying to think of what to do. She definitely didn’t want to still be out here after dark.

Just then she heard something walking in the woods nearby. It sounded too small to be a person, but too big to be a squirrel.  She heard footsteps but couldn’t see anything in the dense underbrush. Then she heard multiple footsteps coming closer. She suddenly thought of wolves and got really nervous. Maybe she was actually in danger. She stayed completely still, but her breathing quickened.

Then she saw something peeking at her through the bushes. It wasn’t a wolf. It had pure white long hair and pale blue eyes. It was smaller than a wolf, closer to the size of a fox or a coyote. When the creature saw that she had seen it, it popped back behind the bushes again. But then it peeked out at her again. Then she saw a half a dozen white faces peek out from the bushes, all looking at her. She stared back at them, not moving a muscle.

Suddenly the whole pack leaped from the bushes toward her. She turned and ducked and got ready for an attack. But instead of attacking her, they just crowded around and started jumping and playing. She realized that these were dogs, long-haired, pure white dogs, and they yelped and jumped around. Surprised, she held out her hand to one and it came over and licked it.

“Oh my god, you guys are friendly!” she said.

Then suddenly, as if by some mysterious signal, the whole pack started running away from her. They ran a few yards away, then stopped and looked back. One of them ran back to her, then turned and ran back to the other dogs. Then it turned and looked at her again.

“You guys want me to follow you?” She stood and walked in their direction, and they all moved again. The dogs playfully jumped and bounded through the woods and Savannah followed them. After a short time, the woods thinned, and Savannah saw the beach. As she stepped onto the rocky shore, the dogs turned and vanished back into the woods.

By now the rain had stopped but it was still very foggy. The dogs had led her to a small group of buildings, which looked ghostly and dark in the fog. She recognized the place. She was at the ferry dock, and most of the buildings were work buildings. No one seemed to be around. Finally, she realized one of them was the general store and had a restaurant at one end, which was open. Winded and wet, Savannah went in and sat at a counter seat facing out the front window. She saw a raven fly to a nearby post and land, seeming to be watching her. After a few minutes it flew away.

The waiter, who was also the cashier at the store, eventually came over. By this time it was late afternoon  and she was hungry. She ordered a burger and fries. She ate, starring out the window at the gray mist. She was so far from Chicago that everything felt like a crazy dream. Maybe it was just a dream? Maybe she had somehow slipped out of reality, and was going to wake up back home with her mom. She sat at the window and stared out, wishing she could smoke a bunch of pot.

She ordered some coffee and slowly sipped it. At one point a ferry appeared out of the fog and pulled up to the dock. It unloaded a handful of cars, loaded a handful of others, and then set back off for the mainland. It hadn’t yet occurred to her, that the only way she knew how to get back to her grandmother’s place was by walking along the beach. When it did occur to her, daylight was fading. She had a rush of anxiety, and started fidgeting and looking distressed.

The waiter, a young man around twenty or so, had kept her coffee topped off and was polite. But as the daylight slipped away, and as he saw her becoming visibly upset, he came over to her. “Hello. I just wanted to let you know that I’ll be closing up soon. I’ve been watching you sitting here in the window. Are you ok?”

She looked at him, at his smiling face. “I don’t know,” she said, looking at him blankly.

He wasn’t sure what to say. “I’m Chris,” he said. “If there’s anything I can do, just let me know.”

“Ok, thank you,” she replied.

Chris went back to work, which at this time of day, meant getting ready to close up. Savannah wasn’t sure what to do. Should she see if she could get a ride from the waiter, who was the only other person around at this point? How would he know where her grandmother lived? Maybe she should call her grandmother and have her send Bob to get her? But she had seen that weird thing with Bob and the old man earlier, which was still troubling to her. She pondered her options, feeling a little frantic.

A few minutes later Chris came back. “I don’t know if you’d be interested, but I’m going to a gathering this evening with friends, and you’re welcome to come along. There’ll be about twenty people or so, and there’ll be some music.”

She thought about it for a few seconds, and then answered, “Sure. That sounds nice. My name is Savannah.”

“Great, Savannah. I just need to do some more things to close up, and then we can go.” He smiled and went back to work.

A little while later, as the darkness settled in, he came back over to Savannah. “All set?”

They got into Chris’s car, an old, cheap sedan, and drove through the trees and the darkness. Ten minutes later they pulled into the driveway of a small house in the woods. A handful of other cars were scattered around. Instead of walking up to the house, they went around back where there was a large outdoor wooden shelter surrounded by trees. It was about thirty feet wide and fifty or sixty feet long and the roof was held up by huge wood supports made from finished tree trunks. In between each support, large colorful blankets were tied up creating walls all the way around. A lot of activity and light was coming from the shelter and the blankets glowed from the light within. They walked along a path to one end where there was an entrance in the blankets.

The air inside was warm and moist as they entered. At the far end was huge rock fireplace with a raging fire. The floor was normally dirt, but tonight it was completely covered with colorful blankets tied together at the corners. Four large chandeliers hung from enormous wood beams and there were strings of LED lights strung up all around. At least a couple dozen people were there laughing and talking and milling around. Some were dressed in elaborate costumes with feathers and hats and Victorian ruffles. Some had face paint or costume makeup, and some were wearing outfits that included LED lights in the fabric. It was quite a scene.

Separate piles of shoes and coats were near the entrance, and Savannah and Chris added theirs and walked in. Chris knew everyone, and introduced Savannah as they walked around. Everyone was very friendly and nice. Pot smoke hug in the air and joints were being passed around. Savannah took a few deep hits. At a table off to the side, a young woman handed out cups of tea.

“Would you like some mushroom tea?” she asked.

“Sure!” Savannah replied. She took a cup and drank the whole thing at once. It didn’t taste great, but that wasn’t the point. “Could I have a little more?” she asked.

The woman and Chris looked at each other. “Yes, but, be careful.” the woman said, and gave her another cup.

“I’ll be alright, thank you,” she said and drank the whole cup. She took another hit from a joint as she walked around, and then went over to a big pile of pillows along the side and settled into them. She was feeling really high, but also super cozy in the pillows. The mushrooms would take a while to take effect. She curled up alone and watched everyone being happy, laughing and talking with each other.

A few minutes later a woman in a black feathery costume stood in front of everyone and hushed the crowd. The place went quiet. She thanked everyone for coming and pulled out a piece of paper. She read a story about the Raven, and how he was a trickster, of how he had once, long ago, disguised himself as the baby of the evil spirits in the sky who had stolen the sun and hid it in a cradle box. She told of how Raven hid in the cradle as their baby, then transformed back into a raven, captured the sun in his beak, and escaped out a hole in the bottom, and then flew up and put the sun back in the sky where it has been ever since. Then she read other stories about the Raven, and as she did, people outside used long branches to make scratchy sounds on the roof as if a giant Raven was dancing and playing on top of the shelter.

Savannah was fascinated, and she watched and listened intently. Story after story told of how the Raven was cunning and clever, but all of his trickery and schemes were to help people, and to guide them, never to cause harm.

After the woman finished reading Raven stories, a group of young people carefully carried three large wooden marimbas out and set them up at the side of the room. Three people then stood behind the marimbas with padded mallets in their hands. They stood at attention. The leader in the center, was a young woman in her early twenties wearing just a black vest and loose black pants. The other two were young shirtless men wearing loose black pants as well. The three of them had every inch of their bare skin painted with colorful tribal patterns. Someone dimmed the chandeliers and the atmosphere took on a magical quality. The leader held her arms high and crossed the mallets over her head. She closed her eyes and the crowd became silent. Then she opened her eyes, brought her arms down, and began playing a driving, percussive, African rhythm. After a few seconds, the other two, swaying to the rhythm, held their arms up over their heads with their padded mallets crossed, and in unison brought their arms down and began playing complementary percussive patterns. It was an incredible sound. The three of them danced and moved with their whole bodies as they played. The sound of the wooden marimbas was rich and full and warm. One of the marimbas, the largest one, had resonator tubes attached to the bottom of each wooden tone bar and produced a deep, low, rhythmic vibration that Savannah could feel with her whole body.

Everyone started dancing, and Savannah jumped up too. They moved their bodies to the sound and took up whatever space they needed to spin and bounce and twirl and fling their arms and legs in whatever way the music moved them. The music was unlike anything Savannah had ever heard before. It was like a driving rhythmic freight train churning through her body and soul. She danced and danced, and at one point was so moved that she just started laughing and laughing and spinning around. She danced and laughed and spun and closed her eyes and the music moved and swirled inside her. She danced and danced and danced, sweaty and happy, and got completely lost in the music. At some point she realized that she was no longer standing, but was writhing on the blanketed floor, rolling around to the music, but she didn’t care. It was wonderful. She wasn’t sure she had ever felt this good. At another point, she noticed the music had become beautiful colorful swirls of liquid flowing all around the room. She held up her arms and felt the blues and reds and yellows flowing through her fingers. Effervescent warmth flowed into her blood, and her mind drifted away into the rhythms. At another point the music had stopped but Savannah didn’t notice. She was off flying through the forest at night, soaring above a pack of pure white dogs who ran yelping among the trees. She flew high above the trees and saw water all around the island, lit by four moons, and then she was lying in a small rowboat gently rocking to ocean waves as she drifted aimlessly through the night, warm and happy.

The next thing she knew it was morning and she was waking up to the sound of movement inside the shelter. Someone had carefully given her a bed of pillows and covered her with blankets. She turned her head and saw that Chris had been sleeping nearby. He was just waking up too. He smiled at her. “Good morning,” he said.

“Good morning,” she replied. She sat up and saw that there were about a dozen other people who had slept there too. It was still early and some of them were still asleep. “I need to get to my grandmother’s house,” she said to Chris.

“I’d be happy to drive you there,” he said.

Quietly they got up, straightened the blankets and pillows they had slept on, and walked out into the misty morning. Chris thanked the host before they left.

As they got in Chris’s car, Savannah said, “I’m sorry, I have no idea how to get to her house.”

“I know everyone on the island. Who’s your grandmother?” Chris said.

“Her name is Emily.”

“Oh, Emily is your grandmother?” Chris said with a smile. “She’s really nice. I know right where she lives.”

A few minutes later they were at the other end of the island and Chris pulled the car to a stop at the end of the road.

“I’ll walk with you,” he said as they got out. They walked down the path through the woods together, through the sweet scent of the damp woods, and came to the edge of the forest where Emily’s house was nestled into the trees. Just as they approached the front porch, the door opened and Emily came out. She was dressed in a nice dress under her coat, though she still had her walking boots on.

“Grandma, I’m sorry I didn’t make it home last night. I need to explain,” Savannah started.

“It’s ok, Savannah, I’m glad you are here now.” She turned to Chris. “Hi Chris.”

Chris smiled at her.

“We need to go now, come on,” Emily said. “They’ll be starting soon and we don’t want to miss any of it.” She started walking along the beach and Savannah and Chris followed along.

“What is it?” Savannah asked.

“Leonard’s funeral. He passed away yesterday.”

Savannah gasped.

It was another heavy gray day and the clouds drifted along the water’s surface. They walked along the water’s edge and eventually around the point where the forest was set back from the beach. At the place where Savannah had seen the old man collapse the day before, a crowd of people, thirty of forty in number, stood on the beach. As they got closer they could see a small rowboat perched on some logs and everyone gathered around. When they reached the crowd they saw that the boat was filled with small twigs and sticks like a nest, and in the nest a body was wrapped in a plain white sheet. Arrangements of dried flowers and ornaments were around the sheet.

The crowd was silent, and Emily, Savannah, and Chris walked quietly up to join them. Savannah looked around at all of the solemn faces. She thought how kind they all looked. Then she saw that Bob was there too. He stood in the middle, was draped in decorative blankets, and wore a grass-weave hat on his head. A moment later he began to speak.

“Friends, we are gathered here today to honor and remember the life of Leonard Baker, who chose to leave the realm of the living yesterday with the arrival of the orcas. He viewed them always as his spirit family. Now he is among them. As we all know Leonard was old and his body was failing him. Yesterday, with his wife Mary and me at his side, he drank the sacred hemlock tea, and then walked down to the water to join his spirit family.

Leonard’s spirit is among the most beautiful to have graced this island. He believed that beauty lives within each of us, and that it is our responsibility to nurture and share that beauty with our family and our community, so that we may all become more beautiful.

Leonard lived his life with kindness and generosity, and humor. He loved to laugh. To him a face laughing and smiling was the purest form of beauty. He will be missed by us who are still living, but he will be protecting us and watching out for our island and our community from the spirit world.”

Bob stepped back and grew silent. Then one by one some stepped forward with a pieces of paper and read a paragraph or two sharing their memories of Leonard. After each person finished reading, they rolled up the pieces of paper, walked over to the boat, and tucked them into the twigs and sticks.

While people read, Savannah looked around and noticed that there were six ravens perched at the tops of six adjacent trees facing the crowd. Near the ravens, at the edge of the woods, a pack of white long-haired dogs sat quietly as if they were listening. Then she saw a disturbance in the water and that orcas were milling around close to the shore.

After all those who wanted to read had finished, and placed their pieces of paper into the boat, Leonard’s wife Mary walked up with a blanket and a basket of food, and placed them into the boat. She stood quietly for a few seconds and then turned and stepped back. At that point Bob and three others walked up to the boat. Bob had a can of gasoline in his hands and he carefully poured it out over every inch of the boat’s interior. The four then carefully picked up the boat and carried it to the water, lowered it, and gave it a push away from shore.

As the boat drifted slowly out toward open water, Bob spoke again. “Leonard has chosen a song for us to sing together.” He passed out pieces of paper to everyone and then they began to sing.

Some things in life are bad

They can really make you mad

Other things just make you swear and curse

When you’re chewing on life’s gristle

Don’t grumble, give a whistle

And this’ll help things turn out for the best

And

Always look on the bright side of life

Always look on the light side of life

Savannah looked around at everyone singing. People were smiling and generally feeling good as they sang.

After the song was done, the group became silent. A man stepped close to the water with a bow and arrow. He lit the tip of the arrow on fire, then with careful aim, shot the flaming arrow arching high over the water. It landed perfectly in the center of the little boat, now fifty yards out, which instantly burst into a raging inferno. The flames shot ten or fifteen feet in the air and roared and crackled on the water. Everyone was calm, and watched the flames consume the boat and everything inside of it. After a couple of minutes the boat began to break up, and bit by bit, the burning pieces scattered across the surface of the water, then sank into the abyss.

Savannah was caught off guard by how emotional she felt.  She stood there in the in foggy mist all choked up with tears welling up in her eyes. She felt, looking around at all of the kind faces, that she was saying goodbye to her life outside Chicago, to her mom and that crappy little house, which all now seemed like a distant memory.

When the last of the burning pieces had disappeared, people turned and walked up the path to Mary and Leonard’s house where a feast was waiting. Many had brought food to share. As they started to walk, Savannah went beside Emily and put her arm around her while they walked. She suddenly felt very close to her grandmother, like she had never felt with her mother. She turned and saw Chris walking behind them. She smiled at him, her new friend. At the house, tables were set up both inside and outside on the covered porch with a bounty of wonderful food. Savannah watched everyone and saw the kindness with which they treated each other, that they genuinely enjoyed being around each other.

And she saw something else too, something she had never seen before. She saw a community, a warm, welcoming community. Her grandmother, the loner, the social misfit, the exiled hippie, was a beloved member of this little island community, and people came up to her with hugs and smiles and laughter. These people loved Emily, and she loved them. She was part of them. Inside the house, Savannah sat off to the side in a corner of a couch trying to stay out of everyone’s way.

After a few minutes Emily, standing in the middle of the room, quieted everyone down and motioned for Savannah to come to her. “Dear friends,” she said. “I want you all to meet my granddaughter, Savannah. She will be staying with me indefinitely. She’s a city girl, so be nice to her,” she said with a smile.

Everyone turned to Savannah with welcoming expressions. For the first time in her life, Savannah felt like she actually belonged somewhere.