Pony

Even when they didn’t remember their own names, they always remembered who they loved. That, I’ve learned, is what we cling to forever. Love. It transcends, leads, it follows . . . a journey without end.

This must be the mark of my destiny, I remember thinking. My face, half red, for I live half in this world and half in the next.

Even if we can’t see it, the sun never stops shining.

The fathers and the mothers and the ghosts, the living and the dead, spinning butterflies out of thin air. Holding them gently in their hands, for as long as they can. Not forever, but infinitely. Beckoning the wondrous. But never for themselves. Just for us. If only for a little while. It’s not the fantasy of it, but the trying of it that matters.

The connections that bind us are astounding, as I’ve noted. The invisible threads weave in and around us in places and at times that we may not ever see, or that only make sense over time.

Pa once told me “The world only spins in one direction, which is forward, and it goes so fast we cannot feel it.” But I could feel it right now. The world was spinning forward, at dazzling speed, and it was only forward that I could go.

It had only been four days that we’d been travelling together, but it felt like a lifetime, in a way. Like we’d known each other forever. I suppose we were bonded now, like mean in war, soldiers at arms…

If life is a journey to the great unknown, then death must be a journey too. And while some people might know exactly where they’re going, other people might not. Maybe they meander a little, not sure where they’re headed, or feel a bit lost. Maybe they need a map, like foreigners in a new country. They’re looking for landmarks. A compass. Instructions on where to go.

She has no idea of the grandeur that lies inside your mind, Silas. I’ve known people like that my whole life. They have no imagination. No fire in their minds. So they try to limit the world to the paltry things they can understand, but the world cannot be limited. The world is infinite! And you, young as you are, already know that. He held up my pinkie.