Stories for Challenge Page 5
“In Hawaii, they stayed on four different islands. They visited the volcanoes on the big island and the old seaport of Lahaina on Maui. They walked Waikiki Beach on Oahu and Sally made Dorothy hike along the Kalalao Trail on Kauai. Dorothy thought she was in heaven.
“From Hawaii, they flew to Tahiti. Tahiti was hard because neither of them spoke any French, but they had a good time anyway. Then Samoa. Then Fiji, where Sally decided she wanted to take a cruise to the islands – they got the last stateroom on the Fiji Queen and set off on the great adventure of the cruise.
“But the cruise didn’t work out the way it was supposed to. There was an epidemic of botulism food poisoning and the ship sank and a few of the passengers ended up being stranded on a deserted island. It could have been horrible, but it wasn’t. Two of the passengers were so cool and collected during the crisis that the survivors managed to rescue a lot of food and water and supplies before the ship sank.
“Dorothy found herself helping to care for sick people. Sally helped her to understand what to do, and she found she liked it and was good at it, though sometimes there really was not much to do. Of course everyone was worried about when they would be rescued, but they did what they could to make the time pass pleasantly.
“They started basket weaving classes, and some of them turned out to be pretty good at it, using the leaves of the palm trees. They started telling stories and singing songs at night, and they even had a sand castle building contest.
“But those things weren’t what Dorothy thought was most important about her time on the island. While walking with Sally one day, she and Sally discovered that they were in love with one another. Like really in love. Like if you wanted to get married and be with someone for the rest of your life. And it was a feeling that bubbled up in both of them in such a wonderful way that it changed both of them. We don’t know yet how long they will be together, but they both expect to stay together for ever and ever.
“So Dorothy found love, but she still didn’t think of her three wishes, because when she had wished for love, she was thinking of love with a man. Dorothy had never loved any man. Her father had beaten her mother and had beaten Dorothy too – he had been arrested for domestic violence one time and had gone to jail. When he came out of jail, he had tried to beat up Dorothy’s mom again, but Dorothy had called the police, who came and arrested him again. He is still in jail. Dorothy had gone through high school and had worked for several years without ever meeting a man she wanted to be close friends with. It was sort of silly to expect to fall in love with a man; though that was what she had wished for, it was not what she got.
“But the other thing that happened to Dorothy on that island was that she landed with the most extraordinary group of people – people who treated her like a real person, who listened to her and respected her opinion, thanked her for the things she did to help out. For the first time in her life, she felt cherished and began to feel like a good person. And it was this feeling that reminded her of her three wishes.
“Dorothy remembers arriving on the island, feeling embarrassed and wanting to hide from everyone, but not being able to do that. She’d always dressed in a particular way because she thought she needed to do that to look attractive, but when Sally made her change her clothes, everyone treated her just the same. When they went swimming, everyone took all their clothes off, and none of the women laughed at Dorothy.
“One evening, Dorothy met two of the others as she was walking out of the water; she was naked and so were they. But they weren’t embarrassed. They had a very pleasant conversation, then the other two went to swim and Dorothy went back to the infirmary to help Sally – but she went with an entirely new feeling about herself. She was OK. Maybe she wasn’t the most beautiful person in the world, but she was OK. Sally liked her the way she was, and so, apparently did all the others.
“One of the others was an older man – middle aged really – who was, like Dorothy, not the most beautiful physical specimen around. But he took off his clothes and insisted on keeping them off, even though no one else was daring enough to do that. Dorothy was embarrassed a bit at first, then jealous. If he could be naked, why couldn’t she?
“But the opportunity came and she was truly happy to take off her clothes and find that she felt free for the first time in her life. She was part of a community; she could help and contribute; she could be herself; and she didn’t have to hide anything about herself, even what she looked like.
“Well, Dorothy thinks her wishes all came true. You see, Mark is not the only one to have wishes come true. But now, she will have to go back to civilization, to the ‘real world’ and she is not at all sure how she and Sally will deal with that, or how she will do without her other eleven special friends. It really is scary, but, for the first time in her life, Dorothy thinks she’s up to the challenge.
“Thanks. I love you all.”
Shelly got a round of applause and twelve hugs in response.
Jim started them off asking Maria and James to sing the song that they had sung after lunch. He played his recorder along with them. He had everyone recite the words of the first verse together several times. They seemed to be getting it. He asked the sopranos to sing the first verse, and played recorder with them. He asked them to sing it again and he played something different – the alto line, which he then led the altos through, then sopranos and altos together. Then, as they sang a second time through the first verse, he played the tenor line on his recorder. He stopped the women and led the tenors through their line, twice through the first verse. He and Ron consulted about the bass line – Ron led the basses through it. All four parts sang the first verse together. The parts fit nicely. Maria and James led them through the second verse and then the third verse. They sang the whole song twice.
By now it was late. Jim asked James and Maria - of the other two songs, which was the shorter. They agreed that “Spirit of Life” would be the shorter. They sang it once. Jim decided that he liked the soprano line Maria was singing and the bass line James was singing. He had the sopranos and basses sing together. It took three times for it to be good enough to work from. He added alto and tenor lines and brought the whole group together. It worked.
“Spirit of Life, come unto me.
“Sing in my heart, all the stirrings of compassion.
“Blow in the wind; Rise in the sea,
“Move in the hand, giving life the shape of justice.
“Roots hold me close; Wings set me free.
“Spirit of Life, come to me, come to me.”
There was a hubbub of commentary, almost but not quite simultaneous:
Roger: “That’s as close to a Buddhist prayer as any song I’ve ever heard.”
Paul: “It brings the best of religious awe into a song that contains no mention of god.”
Shelly: “I love the way these two songs sing of living as a holy experience.”
Jeanne: “Living life well is a holy experience. Why do so few songs reflect that?”
Paul: “Why do so few religions as they are practiced, reflect that?”
Ron: “If this’s what James and Maria brought with them as luggage to this island, it has served all of us well. Thanks.”
Jim: “And good night all.”
And they all wandered off to their various sleeping areas, as the waning moon rose higher and higher above them.
Acknowledgments
I want to acknowledge all people involved in this book series, without their permission and their support of whom this work could not be accomplished: Mr. Samuels, Mr. Del Mar, Captain Ashley, and the free spirit of Mr. Gallagher.
Distributed by Nick Niels Sanders with all rights and permissions required.
Table of Contents
Stories for Challenge
4
5
Acknowledgments
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