Chapter One

Homecoming

Annie only thought she saw him first as she reached the top of the long gravel driveway.  His back was to her yet she knew it was him since she had heard the metallic bang, bang, bang of his forge ever since she’d stepped out of the car at the bottom of the hill.

Just as Annie was about to speak he turned around, carefully laid aside his tools and took off his safety glasses.  His peaceful expression spoke of mild amusement mixed with kindness.  He looked, for-all-the-world, just as she remembered him so many years ago.

“James,” she said after a long moment.

“Hello, Annie,” he said softly and paused. “Its still Goober.”

Annie smiled and felt a flood of relief as her old friend allowed her to feel at ease.  

“Hello, Goober.  It’s good to see you,” Annie said.

Her words were not rushed.  She paused for another second just to take in the scene.  The simple house, the blacksmith forge with tools and projects scattered between the house and barn.  The timeless summer sound of birds, and the silence.  Annie noticed how peaceful the setting was, yet how everything seemed useful.  So simple and everyday-genuine, she thought.  Then Annie smiled a private smile and looked down at her shoes and shook her head ever so slightly as she realized how perfectly this described Goober.

“How ‘bout some lemonade?”

“I’d like that,” Annie looked at him and nodded.

“Be right back,” Goober said and walked toward the house.  

“We can sit outside if you like.”  

He knew it was Annie’s preference to be outdoors whenever possible.  They had spent many happy days together, walking through the fields and talking, poking around streams, rolling down grassy hills, picking apples, flying kites and countless other thingssimply to share the excitement and pleasure of being alive and in love.  Or so Goober had thought at the time.

Goob brought two large kitchen glasses of lemonade out to the porch and motioned Annie to join him as he sat in one of the wooden rockers.  Annie sat down, rocked back and closed her eyes.  It had been a long time since she had sat next to someone without something needing to be said.  Annie was grateful for this simple gift of silence.  He always seemed to know just what she needed.  In that moment it was as if she had never been away - had never spent years travelling the world on her ‘quest’ as she described it.

“I went through Chicago on my way here,” Annie started slowly.  

“In the train station there was a guy singing for tips.  Seemed like a homeless guy and when I got close I heard him singing Motown and gospel numbers.  What a great voice! He just used this little shaker thing for rhythm – no guitar or anything - just his voice.  He sounded just like Sam Cooke when he sang ‘Working on the Chain Gang’ and just like the Temptations when he sang ‘My Girl’.  It just knocked me out and completely changed my crummy mood.  I love that music.”

Annie looked over to Goober and saw his smile widen.

“Yeah, I love that music, too.  Love to dance to it.  Makes you want to move around,” said Goober.  He was looking at Annie now full face yet said no more.  He was simply getting lost in her every detail.  Something he had done countless times before.  He never grew tired of it.  

“I gave him some money and he said ‘God Bless You’ when I did,” Annie went on.  “In fact, he said that to just about everyone whether they gave him spare change or not.”

“Those folks live close to the edge,” said Goober.  “They know how it is to go hungry or to watch their friends suffer.  When they get something over and above what they need, they are willing to share.  They don’t chase after affluence, so they can more often enjoy abundance, strange as it may seem.”

Annie turned to look at Goober with surprise.  “Wow, where did you get that from?  That’s beautiful, Goober, and so true.”  She thought of all the teachers and gurus she had sought out for so many years for wisdom such as this.  And here was something profound coming from someone sitting right next to her, sipping lemonade.

“Out in the orchard,” said Goob in a matter-of-fact tone.  “I learned a lot in that orchard, working, sweating, thinking over the years.  A lot of things have come to me, Annie, right there in the orchard or working right there at the forge.  So many things.”  He seemed amazed at his own experiences.

“Come on, let’s take a walk,” Goober said as he stood up and headed for the orchard.  Annie followed and they walked along among the apple trees as the afternoon sun moved westward and their shadows grew longer.  As they walked along something knit together between them that had a very familiar feel.  Each heart filled with peace and the deep joy that comes with being close to one whose love is unconditional.  It is a gift.  

Each of them felt it in their own way.  

In the many years since they had been together in this way, Annie had followed her inner voice to embark upon a spiritual quest.  It took her far and wide, the world over.  It took years.  And she learned many things and never once doubted that it was the right thing for her.  The only hard part was leaving Goober.  Their love was special from its earliest beginning as teenagers.  Everyone noticed and everyone wondered why Annie left and how Goober could let her go.  Yet this is what unfolded for each of them.  ‘Ashram Annie’ they called her because of her questions and her musings and her sometimes outrageous behavior and her wild poetry.  Not something that a small town could easily contain.  But Annie never felt any resentment and Goober never held her back.  It seemed that at every level, every turn and every stage of life they trusted each other.  And they trusted Love Divine.

As they walked their timeless walk through the apple orchard, they reached out to take hold the other’s hand at the same instant.  They hardly noticed the synchronicity as they walked together, side by side in sweet solitude.

“I saw a pair of wild turkey out here the other day,” said Goob.  “There were eight young ones and two parents.  They were moving along, scratching the ground looking for food and keeping the young ones between them.  Maybe we’ll see them.”  

Goober and Annie had picked up just about where they had left off.  Annie’s heart was alive with the beauty and the wonder she sensed all around them.  Goober’s heart was alive with the beauty and the wonder of the one standing next to him at that very moment.  

Each noticed how good it was to be holding hands.

~

Coming Soon...

Chapter Two – In the Kitchen