AZOTUSLAND chapter eleven

Sex got her mocha and a cookie and headed out onto the deck. She got stare here and there. Jacob noticed her right away, but was still thinking about Keds.

"Oppph" he said aloud and quickly grabbed up his stuff and ran out the big door and down the stairs just in time to get inside the Big Room before it closed. Jonathan was munching on his sandwich and others were congregating.

Sex took a swig from her mocha and opened her book. She relaxed and started to read the following poem:

In isolation,
If we allow it,
We story down tale by tale
Image by image
Until we are
What we have only always been
Undone, empty, naked and lost.

It is a terrifying moment
Unending and sustaining
Lost and all our images burned
Our tale not so interesting
Our isolation seemingly complete.

But Dear One
When you are Lost
And the fire smolders out
Leaving only your quiet empty lot
The only movement the Wind blowing
Some rag tag papers in a scatter
Then may come the quiet Word of One
Who Loves and Seeks the Lost.

Now you can be found.

Wait now
Wait in the silence
Of your vacant lot to be found
He is not afar.
When He comes
You will know your life
Was always isolation
Always lostness and a howl.

But now in Him
Finding and being found,
And someday soon the Oneness
You have been seeking
In all the wrong places
Will find and embrace you

And you alone.

She ate some cookie and breathed in deeply. She thought she heard laughter downstairs, then more of it. The crows landed in the big Pine and danced around for a bit.

"Can I join you?" came a deep and slightly British but pleasant voice.

I tall tanned man in an off-white suit was standing nearby. His grin was infectious and warm.

She looked him over. He seemed, well, charming.

"Well, you can stay for a minute and we'll see how that goes," she said directly.

"And then another minute passed, followed by another minute, followed by another different minute. Then a minute passed," he said as he sat down. "It's an old comedy routine some friends of mine did years ago back in Chelsea.

"You're English," she said. "Well yes dear, most of us here are to some extent or the other. But yes."

"Well what do you want?" she asked.

"Well I had not quite yet decided on that," he said smiling, "But I expect some Earl Grey. I'll be right back."

And with that he got up as if to leave but turned and asked "Can I get you anything?"

"No, just fine. Except what is your name?"

"Simon," he answered. "Simon Templar. And yours?"

"Perhaps upon your return" she said.

Then he was gone.