May 19th - Wednesday, chilly but clear and breezy
I arrived after work to find Harry and Anne already out back.
Anne: Good, you’re here. Harry is going to tell us about his lost years.
Paul: Wonderful! I was starting to think he never would.
Harry: I had to wait until you were ready.
Anne: Yes, Harry. We weren’t ready for such powerful information.
Paul: You had to cultivate our receptivity first.
Harry: Hey, I have better things to do than sit here and be insulted.
Anne: Oh, but we don’t! Please tell us your story!
Paul: Yeah, come on uncle Harry, please?!!!
Harry: Alright kids. Make yourselves comfy.(Anne and I ran inside and brought out a cold bottle of wine she had brought and three glasses. While we were opening and pouring, Harry began his long-awaited tale)
Harry: Okay, it all started three years ago. The lawsuit had gone nowhere and we had given up trying. Anne, you were dating what’s-his-name.
Anne: Bill.
Harry: Right, Bill. So we weren’t talking much anymore.
Anne: But not because of Bill. You just weren’t much fun to talk to.
Harry: I was a bit distracted. I built this mound. That was in the late summer. Then my neighbor Bob died. And he left me a bunch of money.
Paul: Really? Your neighbor left you money? In his will?
Harry: Yup. Lots of money, actually.
Paul: Wow! That’s incredible!
Harry: Indeed. So now I had more money than I needed, and I certainly didn’t need to find a job, which I had been worried about.
Paul: Wait, why did your neighbor leave you all his money? Didn’t he have any relatives?
Harry: He had kids. He didn’t give me all his money. He gave me about half.
Paul: And why was that?
Anne: Because Harry was the only person who paid any attention to him before he died.
Harry: Bob and I became very good friends for a few years before he died. We would hang out three or four times a week while the weather was warm. So anyway, he died, and he left me several thousand dollars, so I paid off the mortgage and the car and everything else, and I ended up with a big lump of change in the bank and no need to really do anything. So I hit the road.
Anne: One day he called me and said something like, “Anne, I’m leaving for a while. Talk to you when I get back.” He didn’t say where he was going, though he may have mentioned something about California.
Harry: Perhaps. So I packed a few bags, paid ahead on all my bills, and left.
Paul: And how long were you gone?
Anne: He was gone at least two years. I didn’t see him again until last Christmas.
Harry: I actually came home a bunch of times to collect mail, pay bills, flush the toilets. Did you know that toilets get really nasty when you don’t flush or clean them for a few months?
Paul: I never really thought about it. I’ll try to remember that.
Harry: Yeah, you better. It took me three hours to replace the inside parts and get it working again. After that, I drained the toilet every time I left.
Paul: What about the pipes? Did they freeze in the winter?
Harry: I kept the heat on, barely, in the winter. I never had a problem. So anyway, I hit the road. In October, I think.
Anne: It was just before Halloween.
Harry: Yes, Halloween. I brought my camping gear, and I spent some time camping and hiking and just taking my time. It was a beautiful autumn. I was far more affected by the changing leaves than I had been before. Gradually I worked my way west, spending a few days here or there, camping, sightseeing. I enjoyed stopping in small towns for lunch when I was on the road. Small town diners are the best. You meet the simplest, most perfect people in diners.
So eventually I made my way through Ohio, down into northern Kentucky, and along the bottom of Indiana and Illinois. I decided that I would get a hotel room when I got to St. Louis. I’ve always wanted to visit the blues clubs in St. Louis.
Paul: You’re into blues? I didn’t know that.
Harry: Well, I’m into pretty much everything. So as I got closer to St. Louis, the idea of sleeping in a hotel room sounded great. And eating in a nice restaurant. Total contrast to the campgrounds and diners I had been experiencing.
Anne: Now how long after you left home did you get to St. Louis?
Harry: It was about a month, but I never made it to St. Louis.
Paul: You didn’t? Why not?
Harry: I remember thinking afterward that I was turned aside by the Gateway to The West. Like it wasn’t time yet.
Paul: So you never went beyond St. Louis? Never further west?
Harry: Nope. I stopped at a historical spot just east of St. Louis called Cahokia. Ever hear of it?
Anne: Nope.
Paul: Never.
Harry: Well, Cahokia was a Native American city eight or nine hundred years ago.
Paul: A city? I didn’t know Native Americans lived in cities.
Harry: Oh, they did. This was one of the biggest in North America. Long before the Europeans arrived. I had read about it before, so when I saw a sign for it I decided I would stop and check it out. I parked at the visitor’s center and walked around for a while. The place is very cool. Kind of spooky in a way. There are mounds everywhere. Some are small, some are bigger. The biggest is called Monk’s Mound.
Paul: Any of them called Harry’s Mound?
Anne: Yeah, this one!(we all stomped our feet and laughed)
Harry: No, there was no Harry’s Mound. But Monk’s Mound is huge. It’s the biggest in North America.
Paul: And why is it there? What was it for?
Harry: I think the chief lived on top of it. There was apparently a large building on the top that overlooked the city. So anyway, I walked along a path that wound around the outside of the park. There was one rather odd and amazing thing that happened. I was walking alone along the path, on the south side of the park, and as I was walking I felt a presence. Now remember, this place just felt odd. Like there were ghosts all around. So I stopped walking, and turned to my left, and there was a huge deer just standing there and starring at me. A buck.
Anne: How far away was he?
Harry: He was about 30 feet from me, I’d say. I was actually startled when I saw him. He was standing perfectly still, staring at me. And the weird thing was, he was missing half of his antlers. On the one side he had this huge rack, and on the other side there was nothing. The whole scene was surreal. There I was, standing in the midst of all these ancient mounds, feeling like I was surrounded by ghosts, not another person within sight, and staring at this huge buck missing half his antlers.
Anne: Wow.
Harry: Yeah, wow. My adrenaline was racing because he startled me. I never saw him move. He was just staring at me when I looked at him. After a moment, I got a little nervous. I thought he might charge me.
Anne: Do deer do that?
Harry: I don’t know. He looked like he might, though. So after a few seconds I just started walking. And then he turned around and ran back into the trees behind him. But the whole scene left me shaken for a few minutes. It just made the place seem that much stranger. So I kept walking, and the path eventually led around the park and up to where a road passes through it, right in front of the big mound. I crossed the street and began walking up the steps. The mound is tall, and it took several minutes to walk all the way to the top.
Paul: What’s it made of?
Harry: Dirt, I guess. Maybe rocks inside it, but it’s covered with dirt and grass. So I climbed and climbed, and then at the top I turned around and I could see all the grass-covered mounds spread out below. It was incredible. I tried to imagine what it would be like to look out eight hundred years ago and see thousands of people spread out in front of me. I could see St. Louis in the distance.
Paul: How many people lived there when it was a city?
Harry: I think they estimate it was as much as 40,000 people.
Paul: Really? That’s huge. I had no idea there were cities back then.
Anne: Well, they were probably more like towns than cities.
Harry: You have to be pretty organized to have that many people living so close together. So it was a complex society, for sure.
Anne: So you climbed to the top of Monk’s Mound. Then what?
Harry: Well, I sat down on the top step and took in the view. Down at the bottom of the steps, I saw a woman walking along the road. She was carrying something, and when she got to the bottom of the steps she stopped and looked up at me. She looked right at me, and then she started climbing up the steps. Immediately, something didn’t feel right.
Paul: In what way?
Harry: She just seemed out of place. She didn’t look like a tourist. She was wearing bell-bottom jeans and a zippered sweatshirt. As she climbed higher, I saw that the object in her hand was a bottle in a paper bag.
Anne: Oh my God!
Harry: Yeah. And she kept stopping every ten or fifteen steps to catch her breath. I tried not to stare at her. She kept on climbing, and she looked up at me from time to time. I was actually getting kind of nervous.
Paul: Why?
Harry: I don’t know. I guess I just felt out of place. I was out of my element. I was having this surreal experience, in a place I had never been to before. And here was this very odd looking woman with a bottle in her hand struggling to climb this huge set of steps and staring up at me every few steps.
Anne: I think I would have been freaked out, too.
Harry: She finally got to the top, after maybe ten minutes, and she sat down next to me and said hello.
Anne: How old was she?
Harry: She looked like she was in her mid-twenties.
Anne: Was she drunk?
Harry: She didn’t seem too drunk. She was slurring her words a bit, but she was also out of breath so I couldn’t tell.
Anne: So then what?
Harry: So she asked me where I was from, and I said Ohio. And she said she didn’t believe me and asked to see my driver’s license.
Paul: Really? Did you show it to her?
Harry: I did.
Anne: God, what was going through your head at that point?
Harry: I think I was actually shaking. I felt totally disoriented. I took out my wallet and showed her my license. I didn’t know what else to do.
Paul: Then what?
Harry: Well, she seemed surprised that I really was from Ohio. Why, I don’t know. But she kept looking at my eyes. She was smiling a lot. I realized that she was being flirty. She asked me what I was doing there, and I told her I was checking out the park. She seemed oblivious to the fact that we were sitting on an archeological wonder. To her it was just a big pile of dirt, I suppose.
Anne: Probably.
Harry: So then she suggested that we go into St. Louis together.
Anne: Really? Oh God, she was a hooker!
Harry: I think so, yeah.
Paul: Holy crap. You got propositioned!
Harry: Yup.
Anne: On Monk’s Mound!
Harry: Oh, I never thought of that. On a mound named Monk, I got propositioned.
Paul: Cool! So did you take her up on her offer?
Anne: Paul!!! Besides, Harry said he never made it to St. Louis.
Harry: No, Paul, I didn’t take her up on her offer. First of all, I wasn’t the least bit attracted to her. Second of all, spending an evening with a prostitute is not on my list of things to do in this life. And third of all, I was totally freaked out. I was actually scared at that point.
Paul: Why?
Harry: I had never been in a position like that before. It was probably the most disoriented I’ve ever felt. It occurred to me that the place where I was sitting could be a meeting place for that sort of thing, and that perhaps I looked like a potential customer.
Anne: That’s probably what it looked like to her.
Harry: Exactly. And I realized that. So I said no, I wasn’t looking for any companionship. She looked surprised at first, but then I think she realized I was actually there to see the site. So we sat there for a few seconds saying nothing, looking out over the mounds below and over toward the city skyline. The city looked incredible. The mounds were casting long shadows to our left. And then we started talking.
Anne: About what?
Harry: At first, we talked about where we were from. I told her that I used to teach. She wanted to know about that. I told her about the lawsuit. And then she told me that her father used to be a preacher.
Anne: A preacher? And she was a hooker?
Harry: Apparently. She never actually confirmed that she was a hooker. Maybe she was just being friendly.
Paul: Right!
Anne: She was a hooker.
Harry: Probably. But once we started talking, my impression of her changed. She became warmer, and I became more relaxed. And before I knew it, we were having a great conversation. She said her dad was a pastor of some sort, and that he had given up a few years ago and moved away.
Paul: Did she say why?
Harry: She did. Apparently, he started to feel frustrated with his own church, and his congregation. And he was increasingly disillusioned with his own religion.
Paul: You got all of that from a drunk hooker?
Harry: Her name was Rachel.
Anne: Rachel? Rachel the drunk hooker.
Harry: You guys are brutal! She didn’t actually seem drunk as we talked, and she didn’t seem like a hooker. So let’s call her Rachel, and show her a little more respect, okay?
Anne: You’re right. Sorry Rachel!
Harry: She said her dad was sort of a hippie, and that she used to walk to church with him when she was a little girl. She said he had long hair, which was very odd for a preacher. But apparently he was very popular for a while. But then he started bringing some ideas into his sermons that were outside of typical Christian topics, and the congregation started to challenge him on some things.
Paul: What kinds of things?
Harry: The one thing Rachel kept mentioning was energy. He apparently talked about everyone and everything as if it were energy. He talked about people being energy, emotions being energy. Energy and vibration. Everything was made up of energy, and that energy vibrated. And everything that we experience happens because of our energy, our vibration. Well, his congregation was baffled by all of this, and eventually they became split between those who supported him and those who wanted him gone.
Anne: That’s really weird.
Harry: Yeah. So eventually he just decided to leave, and he moved away from the city and quit preaching.
Anne: And Rachel stayed?
Harry: Rachel stayed. She was in her late teens at that time, and she didn’t want to leave her friends. So she stayed behind and moved in with her uncle.
Paul: And where did her dad end up?
(Harry paused and smiled at Anne and I)
Harry: Any guesses?
(Anne and I looked at each other and shrugged. Then Anne suddenly sat up straight and looked at Harry)
Anne: Jasper!
Harry: Jasper, Indiana. That’s correct.
Paul: Holy crap! That’s how you end up in Jasper?
Harry: Indeed.
Anne: Wow! That’s so cool!
Paul: You went to visit Rachel’s dad? Why?
Harry: I can’t really tell you why. I just knew I had to. I realized as I sat there at the top of Monk’s Mound that I had come there to meet Rachel and to find out about her dad. And the next day I drove back to Indiana and found him. As if I had somehow planned the whole thing.
Paul: What’s his name?
Harry: His name is Albert. But people call him John.
Anne: Why John?
Harry: Because he doesn’t look like an Albert. At least, that’s what Rachel told me.
Anne: So you ended up in Jasper, Indiana. And what did you do there?
Harry: Well, John has a farm outside of Jasper, on the edge of Hoosier National Forest. And that’s where I ended up. It was the day before Thanksgiving when I drove down his long, winding driveway. His house sits way back from the road. The driveway winds through trees and up over a hill. The property is huge, with fields and woods and ponds and a stream. And it borders on the park, so you can walk for hours and even days without seeing anyone or anything besides nature.
Paul: Sounds incredible.
Harry: It is.
Paul: And how long did you stay?
Harry: That first visit? Seven weeks.
Anne: That’s incredible. You just met this guy, out of nowhere, and you stayed for seven weeks?
Harry: It didn’t feel like I had just met him. It felt like I had always known him. In fact, if I didn’t know any better I’d swear he recognized me somehow when I arrived. I pulled up to his house and got out of the car and there he was, sitting in a rocking chair on his front porch. He didn’t look at all surprised to see me. Happy, yes, but not surprised.
Anne: Were you nervous?
Harry: A little. But I felt like I already knew him after talking to Rachel the day before. He invited me up onto the porch and told me to have a seat in the chair next to him, and he offered me a sandwich and a glass of iced tea. I told him I had met Rachel, and he just nodded and smiled. Really, it felt like I was telling him something he already knew. He had a gleam in his eye that reminded me of Santa Claus. In fact, he even looked a little like Santa Claus. He had a bushy grey beard and was even wearing suspenders. He was quite comical to look at. And he smiled constantly. He was always smiling. He made me feel so comfortable, I didn’t want to leave. And so I stayed. For seven weeks.
Anne: It sounds like you were suppose to go there.
Harry: I think I was. I’ve thought about it many times since, and I’m absolutely convinced that I left home that fall to go find John. And I found him. In a most amazing way.
Paul: Well, finally, we know about Jasper, Indiana.
Anne: Yes! I’m glad you finally told us.
Paul: But you haven’t really explained why you stayed for so long.
Anne: Or why you kept going back.
Paul: For two years.
Anne: For two years.
Harry: Well, for that you’ll have to tune in next time!
Anne: Oh, Harry! Why do you have to be like that?
Paul: Got to keep us waiting.
Harry: No! Well, maybe… But hey, I can’t tell the whole story at once! I have to let my audience think and ponder and wonder what happens next. Right?
Anne: No. You have to respect your audience and tell them your story rather than playing with them and keeping them waiting.
Paul: I agree.
Harry: Well, I don’t! Besides, I’m tired of talking.
Paul: Okay, if we’re going to change the subject, then I have a question for you guys: I was offered tickets for the Cleveland Indians game Friday night. Do you guys want to go?
Anne: Sure!
Harry: Absolutely!
Anne: I haven’t been to a baseball game in ages.
Harry: Me neither.
Paul: Alright then, it’s a done deal. Who’s driving?
Anne: I’ll drive. What time should I pick you guys up?
Harry: Pick me up at five. We’ll swing by and pick up Paul and we should get to the park in plenty of time.
Anne: Okay. Five o’clock. Be ready.
Harry: I will.
Paul: Me too!
Anne: And don’t forget the tickets!
Paul: I won’t!
We spent the rest of the evening reminiscing about childhood trips to various sporting events. I was getting to know both of them better, and we were quickly becoming like old friends. Unfortunately, we lost track of time and wound up talking until after midnight.I finally bid the two of them farewell and headed home. As I drove home, I wondered whether Anne would end up spending the night at Harry’s. I never did find out whether their friendship was anything more than it appeared to be. Part of me said it didn’t really matter. It was their business, not mine. But another part of me, a much more insistent part of me, wanted to know for sure.
Throughout our conversation that evening, I noticed that Anne had a tendency to put her hand on my arm every time she got excited about something. And every time she did, I felt energy run through me. Despite Harry’s interesting story, I found myself paying as much attention to her and her expressions as I did to Harry and his tale.
Over the previous weeks, I had gotten to know Anne quite well. My first impression of her had given way to a deep appreciation. She was funny, sweet, and beautiful. She didn’t take herself too seriously, was quick to joke about most things, and didn’t seem to have anything particularly bad to say about anyone, that I could tell. From all appearances, she was a balanced, fun-loving person. Who wasn’t currently seeing anyone, as far as I knew.
So by the time I arrived back at my apartment and parked the car, Anne was firmly in my mind. Her face, her voice. Everything about her was vivid in my mind. And as I pulled the keys out of the ignition and opened my door to get out, I froze with a realization that was both startling and exciting:I had most definitely, without question, fallen in love with her.
I couldn’t wait to see her again.
I was looking forward to Friday night.
