Gerris remigis

The night before the morning I woke damp with dew stripped off my clothes and swam naked with the mist rising off the water was what some might choose to call the greatest night of my life.

I rode my bicycle in the new moon dark out the main road from town unrolled my blanket by the man made lake and put my things in my shoes under the blanket to keep them dry.

There was a fire in the field on the other side of a grove of trees.

I could hear it crackling.

I could hear voices.

My face was cold and I lay on my back and watched the stars appear and disappear as clouds passed between us.

There were many of them and only one of me and I wondered if they knew of me or if even only one of them knew of the one of me.

My eyelids faltered and my nose was numb and pink in the blackness.

Then from the field and the fire the voices rose together now in song.

Old hymns I knew.

Be Thou My Vision Come Thou Fount Of Many Blessings The Old Rugged Cross

Pure honest untrained willing voices like my mother's in church when I was a boy.

Victory In Jesus Great Is Thy Faithfulness Nearer My God To Thee

Good voices with harmony and intention and unity none rising above the others.

I finally fell asleep and awoke later in the dark to the sounds of frogs crickets and other night animals whose harmony was different and not as sweet.

The next day I sold books in town to people I knew and people I didn't then ate my lunch on a rock deep in the woods watching water skippers and hoping to see a bear.