A Community Story
by Alex Guillotte

I'm going to tell you a story that begins as so many do, with a journey. A man was driving down a long stretch of road on an early spring afternoon. Average in appearance and lifestyle, 30ish, slightly flabby, but not fat. He suffers from the occasional lower back pain associated with sitting in a car and at a desk for too many hours a day. His doctor has told him that he needs to get his cholesterol levels down and that he needs to stop smoking. There's constant stress in his life: bills, mortgage, alimony and child support from his second marriage. Being in sales, he's spent far too much time on the road, although it did keep him out of office politics. On top of everything else, that morning's mail had an audit notice from the IRS.

Consistency in his life was important to him and he found that comfort on the road. He pulled into a McDonald's drive-thru and ordered a Big Mac with fries and a Coke. He ate while driving. He thought about how the Big Mac's here are the same as the Big Mac's on the West Coast where he used to live. He passed a WalMart. They had those back home too. A little while later he began to feel tired. He decided to pass the time by turning on the radio. He found a station playing the songs he was fond of, but after hearing the same song three times, he sighed and turned to the news.

He was immediately bombarded by a world in chaos. There's another murder/suicide. Terrorists have bombed an American embassy in a country he's never heard of. The government's budget is still being fought over in the House. Another scandal hits Washington. The state's attorney general is pleased because violent crime has dropped to only 20%. This is seen a some kind of victory for the current administration and the government has just declared a war on cigarettes. He looked down at the pack of cigarettes beside him on the seat and turned off the radio.

Well, now he was tired AND depressed.

He suddenly realized that he wasn't sure where he was. He's been on mental auto pilot, but he suspected that he'd made a wrong turn somewhere. There was nothing but forest as far as the eye could see. Then, his worst fears were realized when he heard a horrible noise from his car's engine. Black smoke poured from under the hood as he coasted into a little gravel lot. He cursed, pounding the steering wheel. He shook off the anger and frustration and picked up his cellular phone. Nothing. It must have been the mountains or he was out of a service area. After waiting an hour for a car to pass by, he decided to walk. Maybe there was something up ahead.

He was winded after thirty minutes and his feet hurt. He wondered if this was such a good idea. Then a faint sound caught his attention. Up ahead a horse and approached. The woman wore some kind of loose clothing and a cloak. Strange clothes, but they seemed practical for riding. She rode up quickly and smiled sympathetically.

"My name's Willow," she said, "Are you all right?"

He stretched his back out and said "Hi, I'm David, my car broke down a few miles back and I could sure use a phone."

"Well, you won't be able to call until tomorrow morning. That's when the satellite will be in range." She smiled. "You're welcome to spend the night though. We've got extra space and you can join us for dinner."

David thought about this. It sounded a little weird. He had images of some strange couple living in a cabin waiting for the occasional hapless driver to pass by, taking them in and doing unspeakable things to them. Then again, maybe things were different out here. They're probably just friendly. He decided 'What the hell.'

"Sure, that'd be nice. Thank you." A thought struck him. "Um, how far is it?"

"Oh just a couple of miles." Willow reached her hand down, "Climb aboard."

"Ugh, well," he hesitantly took her hand, "I'm a little on the heavy..."

Before he could finish, he was yanked up into the saddle.

"That's some grip!"

She smiled, not responding to the comment.

"Actually, we're having a celebration tonight you might enjoy. Unless you'd like to get some sleep?"

"Well, it's Friday night and since I'm not going anywhere 'til tomorrow, why not. Thanks."

She looked puzzled. "What does Friday have to do with...oh, that's right." She smiled again. "I forgot."

They rode back the way she had come, then turned off onto a trail that David didn't even see until they were on it.

"Don't you have a driveway?" David asked nervously.

"This is the back way in. We have a couple of trucks for emergencies, but we haven't used them in years." She paused thoughtfully, then added to herself, "That reminds me, I should remind Tom about taking a look at those soon to make sure they still work."

They'd been passing through the woods for what seemed like hours when David smelled something burning. He quickly recognized it as wood smoke. He wondered if that was their destination.

As if answering his question, she said, "We're almost home."

David could not believe his eyes. The trees opened into a clearing near the edge of a small river. Next to it sat what could best be described as abstract sculpture. It was a village consisting of dozens of oddly shaped homes made out of some kind of stucco or adobe. They were rounded and flowing, almost organic, with shingled, cedar roofs. Each profiled a chimney of one kind or another that seemed not to mar the artistic beauty of the structures, but to accentuate it. The streets, if they could be called that, meandered around the buildings and seemed to be paved with stones set into the earth lined with moss and low foliage. There were flowers everywhere. Every place there was dirt, there was some kind of flower, moss, shrub or vine sprouting. Growing along walkways, in planters, holes, cracks and indentations; there were flowers in a multitude of sizes, shapes and colors.

The village was laid out in what seemed to be concentric rings, with decorative archways joining some of the houses. David could see brightly colored cloth awnings and banners billowing in the light summer breeze. From where they were, he could just make out the top of a large dome in the center of the village. This one stood out in that it seemed to be made out of wood and was much larger than the surrounding structures.

The whole scene was a living work of art. David was speechless.

They rode down into the village. Off to the right, David noticed a pond, or small lake. There was an odd little dome beside the water with a small fire near it. All at once, a flap burst open on the side releasing a cloud of smoke or steam. A half dozen or so men came out and stretched to the sunlight. They were completely naked.

Willow noticed his wondering look. She had seen that look before. "It's a sweat."

David was shocked to hear her speak. "Um, I'm sorry a, a what?"

She chuckled. "A sweat lodge, it's kind of like a spiritual sauna, only a bit more intense. They're preparing for tonight."

"What's tonight?"

"One of the boys has come of age. He's having a rite of passage tonight. Although he doesn't know it."

David decided, that for the moment, he wouldn't ask what all that meant. Instead, he turned his attention to a reflection he noticed on the ground ahead. As they got closer, he saw what appeared to be a large sword stuck in the ground.

"Is that there to frighten unwanted visitors?" He asked catiously.

"No." She giggled. "Someone was probably training out here. They'll come back for it."

"You're not worried it'll get stolen?"

"Goddess, no!" She seemed genuinely suprised that he'd asked the question. "No one steals here. Why would we?"

David didn't really have an answer.

"You see here, because everyone knows everyone else, you can't think of people as strangers. We're all dependent on one another for everything, so it's not in our nature to abuse that trust. It would be self-defeating. We're all family."

Feeling David tense-up on that one, she quickly added, "No, not in a literal sense of course. We don't practice or condone incest. I'm speaking of the family of community.

"Out there," she pointed back the way they came, "there are very few places for people to find community. Here and there you encounter clubs or support groups that are pale shadows of it, but there's almost always a lack of commitment. At any time, you can step out of those settings and not look back. It's not that simple here."

At that moment a group of children ran across the road. David suddenly realized how peaceful it was. He began to listen to the sounds: children playing, wind chimes singing, people talking and laughing, the faint clank of what David assumed was a blacksmith at work, the breeze and the birds. Then he realized what was missing. He heard no machinery. There was not the background hum of modern civilization that he was so used to, that he was deaf to it. He only noticed it now in its abscence. David wondered suddenly if they had technology at all. Then he remembered Willow mentioning something about a satellite, so they must use some kind of technology, but it wasn't apparent.

Then a thought struck him. "You said that it's not simple to leave here. You don't mean to say people can't leave, do you?"

"Oh no! Everyone is free to do as they please. When I say it's not simple to leave, I mean that peoples' lives are entwined in the community. It would be like you saying 'I think I'm going to become Asian. We identify ourselves by our community. It's not just where we live, it's who we are."

David's head was swimming. It was all like some weird dream. Thoughts of this being some kind of fanatical new age cult ran through his mind. They seemed harmless enough, but maybe that's how all cults seem when you first meet them. Maybe there was a dark side he wasn't seeing yet. "Here," he thought ironically to himself, "have some Kool-Aid."

"Oh, we don't drink Kool-Aid." Willow said.

David nearly fell off the horse. "What?!" "How the..."

"I'm sorry, that was very rude of me," she said embarrassed. "You'd be surprised what a little fresh air can do for the mind." She didn't explain any farther, and David wasn't sure he wanted to know.

They were at what seemed like a central area or town square. There was a fire burning in a stone basin surrounded by a circular amphitheater-like indentation. Two rows of benches were hewn from the surrounding earth. People were gathered, sitting on colorful pillows, talking in small groups. Most of the discussions were obviously light and casual, but one or two seemed a bit intense. At one point one of the men at a heated discussion stood up as if he was going to attack another of the participants. But before he could move toward him, the others in the group stood up and stepped in front of him. Although David couldn't hear what was being said, the angry man got a good talking to. The closest analogy that David could think of was an intervention, like when a bunch of people confront one of their friends with a drug problem and force him to get help. This seemed more practiced than that, however. More natural somehow. Then the angry man stepped through the group and up to the man with whom he had had the disagreement. David was waiting for a fight, when the one man sat down next to the other and hugged him warmly. The others followed suit and after the round of affection was over, they continued their discussion, seemingly where they'd left off.

David had never seen anything like it. He was sure that there was going to be a knock down, drag out brawl by the way the men were yelling.

"It must be tough to get police out here when you need them." He chose his words carefully, fearing he might offend his host, but she responded cheerfully.

"Oh, we've never needed police. In fact they seem to just get in the way."

David began to get nervous again. "Then, then how do you keep people from breaking the law?"

At this point Willow had stopped the horse near a small, shell-shaped fountain. David had never seen so many flowers. Moss and ferns grew in and around the base of a low stone wall that seemed designed not to keep people in or out, but to define one place from another. He now heard what sounded like bagpipe music in the distance. It was so soft and melodic, that it could almost be mistaken for the wind. As the tune mingled with that of the wind chimes, the sound was otherworldly and almost unimaginably beautiful.

"We don't have laws as you understand them, David." She turned to face him. "The laws we follow are as natural as the laws of gravity and thermodynamics," she added with a smile, "And equally difficult to violate."

"You don't mean like the law of the jungle, kill or be killed?"

"Do you really believe that's the law of nature?"

He felt a little defensive. "Well, yeah. Isn't that the way the natural laws work? I mean every moment is a struggle for survival."

Willow paused a moment. "You're thinking like someone brainwashed by hours spent watching documentaries on television that show scene after scene of predator killing prey with a melodramatic soundtrack. The natural way is far more complex. Everything kills for food, but you've been separated from it for so long that you've lost sight of that. Everything out there in your world is sanitized. The burger you get at McDonald's for example, do you think it magically appeared as a round slab of ground meat?"

David responded with a non-committal grunt.

"Believe it or not, David, there is a right way for people to live, and it won't be found on a weekly television show or movie."

She looked around thoughtfully. "Living as part of the world instead of separating ourselves from it is the key." Willow glanced back at David's puzzled face. "Maybe that's enough for now. We can talk more later if you like."

"Do you get many movies out here?"

"Hardly," she said as she dismounted. "Every now and then a bunch of us like to go into Nashua for dinner and a movie. It's fun once in a while." She looked around. "But you get homesick for this place really fast."

David didn't know what to say, so he said nothing. Willow helped David down off the horse. He never realized how much his butt could hurt. His lower back was screaming in protest as he tried to stretch.

"Ugh, give me a bucket seat any day."

A group of children playing nearby stopped to peer at the stranger over one of the low, ivy covered walls. Then, as suddenly as they had appeared, they ran off, chasing a large ball.

"You're just not used to it. Would you like to have that taken care of?"

"No thanks, I've got some pain killers," he thought a moment, "but they're back in the car," he added with a sigh.

"Don't worry, we've got some very good people to take care of that." Willow gestured with her head, "Follow me."

They walked in the direction of one of the clay-like buildings that, upon closer examination, seemed to be sculpted into the shape of a big sleeping cat. The eyes of the 'cat house,' David chuckled to himself at the thought, seemed half open and in the late evening twilight glowed from within. Obviously some kind of windows, tinted amber, were set into them. The effect was really quite startling. As they approached the door he saw that it was constructed of some kind of banded wood with an iron door knocker set into the middle. Willow went in without knocking.

"Tanya?" Willow called out as they entered.

The inside was one of the most unusual rooms David had ever seen. It had the same sculpted stucco look as the outside except it had been plastered. The overall tones were obviously meant to soothe and make those who entered feel at ease. It worked incredibly well. The main room appeared lit only by candles and a warm fireplace set in the far wall. There were soft, pastel-colored chairs about the room. The wall to the far left was some kind of glass encased shelving system built into the wall. The shelves were lined with what seemed to be glass jars of various sizes, all labeled with the most beautiful lettering he could imagine. To the right was what David assumed to be an examination or massage table molded out of the very floor itself. A soft furry covering covered the top and draped off the edge.

At that moment, a voice called cheerfully down from above, "Be right there!"

David was so enthralled by the main room he hadn't even noticed there was an upper level. Actually, it was more of a loft, taking up half of the ceiling space with a wooden railing overlooking the main room. Then the ceiling caught his eye. A beautiful mural depicting a deep blue night sky with stars, comets, nebulae and other astronomical wonders that at a glance, in this light, looked almost real.

"Wow," was all David could manage.

"Wow is right," Willow added, looking up with him. "I've seen it a hundred times and it still hits me like that."

"I believe it," David responded, not taking his eyes off the ceiling.

The woman who came down the spiral staircase in the corner was barely noticed by David until she spoke.

"Some say that I painted it to get people to visit me. It can be lonely being a healer in a healthy town." Tanya smiled. Her smile was as comforting as the room itself.

"Tanya, this is David. He is staying the night as our guest and he's in desperate need of your services."

"Of course." She invited him to sit. "What seems to be the problem?"

"Well," David began, "my lower back has been an ongoing problem for some time now. My doctor has me on some kind of pain killers, but I don't remember the name. I'm not sure what you'll be able to do for me, I don't have any of my records with me or my x-rays."

Tanya smiled sympathetically. "That's won't be necessary, your body will tell me all I need to know." She gestured towards the table. "Why don't you lie down and get comfortable, and I'll be right over."

David got up hesitantly and walked over to her.

"I'll be back in a half hour or so to pick him up. I'll just go make his sleeping arrangements." Willow headed for the door. "Don't worry David, you're in good hands."

Somehow, David didn't doubt that. He didn't think he could worry in this room if he tried. He lay down, face up on the fur-topped table and settled back. The surface seemed to be well cushioned and mold to his body quite comfortably. A moment later, Tanya came over with a couple of her jars and set them nearby.

"Um, do you need to see my insurance card? I think it's in my wallet..."

She interrupted him with a stifled laugh. "I'm sorry, David, we don't accept insurance here."

"Well, I'm afraid that I don't have that much money on me right now."

"David, you don't understand. We don't accept payment of any kind."

"What?"

"Don't worry about it. Now, let's see, how about we start with you on your stomach?"

As soon as he rolled over, he fell asleep.

David woke up to Willow's voice. "David, you're all set. I've got a real bed for you and a place to shower if you like?"

He felt as if he'd been asleep for a week. He sat up and yawned. He felt better than he had in years. Then he realized that the pain in his back was completely gone!

"Hey!" he exclaimed, "not bad." He twisted and felt no tightness at all. He decided to try it on his feet and stood up straight. It took him a moment to realize that he hadn't stood upright like this in years. "Wow! That's amazing."

Tanya was over putting her jars away. "You were quite a mess, David." She walked back over to him. "You might need a few more treatments to undo the years of mistreatment, but it's not irreparable."

David felt as if he could run a marathon. "Please, Tanya, you must let me pay you something to show my gratitude."

"That look on your face is gratitude enough, David." She thought a moment and added, "Actually, if you really want to show your gratitude, you could make sure to come back in a month or so for another treatment," she added with a smile "and try not to undo what I've done in the meantime."

"Well, I'd love to, but I'm not sure that I could find this place again."

"Don't worry, you'll find it." Willow said from behind. "I'll get you directions. Do you have e-mail?"

"Yes."

"I'd just ask that you don't give them out to anyone else. We value our privacy. I'm sure you understand." David nodded. "The directions will be to our public entrance. I'll show you where it is before you leave."

They left Tanya's and headed across the central square to an amorphous group of dwellings. "I'm putting you in with the Celts. They keep pretty quiet at night in case you need some rest."

"Thank you, but actually I feel awake right now. I'm a little hungry though," he added sheepishly.

"Oh, pardon my manners. I forgot. We have guests so infrequently in the village. Normally, when people are hungry, they just go eat. Why don't you clean up first, and I'll go change. I'll meet you out here in fifteen minutes?"

"That sounds fine."

"Oh," Willow added, "the showers are through the archway on the right." She cast him a playful grin that he wasn't sure he liked.

David went into the room that Willow indicated was his and found a bathrobe and two large towels draped across the bed. The room was painted, walls and ceiling, with a decorative knotwork pattern in an azure blue that was complimented by the room's appointments. An oil lamp and stick matches were on a beautifully carved night stand. On the wall opposite the bed were shelves molded into the wall itself upon which stood a few books, some kind of glass sculpture and a wooden box. There was a small doorway on the far side of the room that led to a half bath with a sink sculpted from the wall, and a simple toilet. The walls also had a few small shelved cut into them with some clay jars labeled with a language he couldn't decipher.

"This place just keeps getting stranger," he thought to himself. Not strange in a bad way exactly, but definitely not like anything he'd ever seen before.

He undressed, put on the bathrobe, grabbed the towels and headed off to the showers. He went through the archway Willow indicated. For a moment, David thought he'd made a wrong turn. He entered a circular room of the same curved organic design as most of the other architecture in the village. About ten feet above, the walls became rough, rock-like formations that resembled granite. Water was cascading down them and draining through natural looking openings set strategically in the floor. He tested the waters and found them warm and inviting. The floor was stained the same azure blue as the room, but seemed more unintentional.

David draped his robe and towels over the smoothly carved wooden pegs set in a row on the wall. He noticed there were small three inch alcoves set randomly into the wall, each containing a bar of soap. The same blue stain as the floor streaked down from the openings.

As he began to shower, he could hear voices coming down the corridor. He tensed for a moment, but told himself that he'd taken group showers when he was younger in high school, and later at his local gym. That was years ago though and he was still a little self conscious. "Oh well, I'll get through it.," he thought.

Just then though, what could only be described a stark raving terror shot up his spine as he realized that the voices he was hearing were female! In a blind panic, he nearly jumped straight into the wall. His most paranoid nightmares hadn't prepared him for what he saw next.

Through the doorway came a dozen or so women wearing thigh-length leather skirts, studded with brass rivets. Each wore a leather bra of a similar style that connected to a wide, heavy ribbed girdle that protected the midsection and abdomen. Various straps and brass hoops holding the whole ingenious structure together. A dark green woolen shirt, worn under the leather garments, could only be seen from just underneath the upper arm guards. The leather greaves extended to, and half-way up the neck, offering protection, while allowing full range of motion. Sturdy dark boots came up to just below the knee and were wrapped with hide and fur.

Their bodies were painted head to toe in a deep, opaque and very vibrant azure blue. Well, that explained the stains in the shower. As if all this wasn't enough for his stunned brain to handle, each woman wore a sword sheathed across her back.

David though he might pass out. He almost wished he would.

As the women began to undress, apparently undisturbed by his presence, David tried not to stare. From what he could gather from his occasional sideways glance, these women were incredibly fit. Not too bulky like many of the body-builders he'd seen, but very toned, healthy and all too feminine. They were talking loudly and joking. It reminded him of a locker room after a sporting event. They spread out to various locations and began to shower. Rivers of blue ran across the floor. David tried to remain casual and relaxed.

"Hi, David is it?" David nearly jumped. One of them had walked up beside him without him noticing.

"Um, ugh, yes." He thought about how lame he sounded and wished he was dead.

"I'm Amethyst, Willow told us you'd be rooming here for the night."

The soap flew out of David's hand. "Oh, sorry." He bent down to get it and nearly ran into Amethyst on the way. "Let me," she offered and fished up the soap and handed it to him.

"So, where are you from?" She spoke casually as she washed places that David did not want to think about right now.

"Oh, ugh, Nashua. I'm a salesman. On the road a lot. You know." He smiled weakly.

"Well, actually I don't, but if it suits you that's great."

"I don't know if it suits me, but it's a job. Gotta have a job, right?"

Some of the other women, apparently eavesdropping, stifled a laugh. Amethyst shot them a look. "Don't mind them. They still need to get back into polite mode!" The last couple of words were accentuated and obviously meant for the others. She laughed and threw her soap at one of them who ducked. "Well, at least your reflexes are improving Lise."

As Amethyst turned to rinse off, David noticed blood running from a nasty cut in her shoulder.

"Are you all right?"

"What this?" She looked at the wound. "I'll get it sewn up after shower. It's not as bad as it looks. Now Gina over there," she gestured to a woman nearby, "show David the one from last month." With that, Gina, who was toweling off, turned her leg to show her inner thigh. There was a well-healed scar that stretched from the inside of the knee across the front to the hip bone.

"That looks like more than a month ago. Lucky you didn't get anything vital." David was no expert, but he'd seen enough on television to know a bad wound when he saw it.

"Actually, it did nick the femoral artery, but Tanya does wonders with a needle and thread. I swear she should have been a seamstress."

"She almost has to be to keep you together," one of the other women joked.

"Oh, ha." Gina responded dryly.

"You mean you actually fight each other?"

"Fight?" Amethyst seemed genuinely surprised. "Goddess no. These are from training. Some of the battles we've been in are much more intense."

David began to feel as if maybe he was missing something. "Who do you fight?"

"There's a neighboring village that we skirmish with once in a while. Seems they've been attacking in the Spring more often than not." She looked to the others for confirmation. They nodded in agreement. "I think next year we'll hit them first. That'll shake 'em up." A couple of the women high-fived each other.

"I guess I still don't understand. Don't people get, um..." He couldn't figure out how to ask the next question.

"You mean killed? No. That's not the objective." She could see he was still dismayed. "We fight to stay on our toes. Healthy competition between the villages. After a battle, we often get together at a feast."

"It's a great time," Gina added.

"Don't your people do the same with football?" she asked.

"Well sort of, but they don't use swords."

"No, but they still get hurt. There's even been a death or two I believe."

"I don't know." David thought, "Maybe you're right. The uniforms certainly aren't as nice." He added, then wished he hadn't.

To his relief, they all laughed appreciatively.

"Well, I'm going to get this taken care of," she nodded to the still bleeding wound. "I'll see you at the feast?"

"Oh, yes. Wouldn't miss it."

"Great!" She gave him a sturdy slap on the back that nearly sent him into the wall. Fortunately, he held his footing. David wasn't sure he could have lived with that humiliation.

After a while, the women finished drying, gathered their equipment and filed out of the room. David let out a long rattling sigh. He didn't even realize that he had been holding his breath.

 

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