Now Is the Time to Open Your Heart_ A Novel - Alice Walker [58]
They dare not, said Rick, shrugging. Any dark-skinned or poor person is likely to be from a place we have harmed.
The more powerful the powerful appear the more invisible they become, said Armando. This used to work differently than now. In the old days it was said that the powerful merged with the divine and the divine was all that one saw. But now the powerful have merged with the shadow, really with death, and when you encounter them they are really hard to see. Even for a shaman. Sometimes one thinks: There is a woman who sleeps with this invisible person, every night. Of what does she dream?
What is the medicine for this invisibility that white men have? asked Rick. An invisibility they are spreading to others.
Armando looked for a long time in the direction of the river, and yet his gaze seemed to hover just above it, at the edge of the trees.
In my opinion, he said, after a while, the only medicine that cures invisibility among the powerful is tears.
There was a long silence. Eventually Armando continued. Think of your presidents, he said. And how you only learned to see them, truly see them, after they died. Because then much of their true nourishment could at least be hinted at. Think of how they looked on television as they calmly ended the lives of nations and people, small children, rivers, donkeys, and goats.
He paused.
It would have been better for everyone if, instead of calmness, they gave their orders weeping.
Crocodile tears, said Rick, with a snort.
Perhaps, said Armando. Besides, they were not hired by the people who control them to feel. Only to do.
I don’t feel, said Rick. Or, I feel only enough to get by. I married the woman of color I dated in college, and she did the feeling for both of us.
And sleeping beside you, said Armando, of what did she dream?
That I could not possibly be so unfeeling. It was so odd to her she never believed it. She thought something, some horror story, some experience of sadness, would shake me to my core and that in that core would be just what you are speaking of, a bucket of tears. It’s never happened.
Are you so attached to your toys? asked Armando. You are a rich man, no?
Very rich. I have the money that should have built hospitals, should have built schools. Should have fed and educated generations of children who ended up in prison. My wife used to remind me of this, before she bailed out.
And? said Armando.
Nothing, said Rick. I have lots of stuff but basically I live in one room.
Does it face the water? asked Armando.
It does, said Rick, surprised.
All your tears are calling you, said Armando, touching his knee.
You Must Live: A Future Consequence
You must live for at least two years in space, said Grandmother. It will take at least that long to make you positive that space is where you have always lived. There are people who think they must travel through the air to reach space, but that is because they do not understand. You are born into space, out of space, space is your home forever. Earth is like a dust mote in the cosmos. An interesting, even fascinating, dust mote. But a dust mote. It is like a raft on a river and the river is space.
She told me I must live in space for two years, Kate said to Yolo. I don’t understand that at all. How am I going to do that?
Yolo smiled at her. Grandmother has a sense of humor, he said.
The next time she returned from a trip she thought she’d been brought to the wrong address. Opening her gate, blinking in surprise, she saw that Yolo had painted her house sky blue.
It’s the color you felt at home in, in my canvases, he said.
Yes, she said, enchanted.
Kate Awoke the Last Day
Kate awoke the last day of the retreat eager