Read The World More Full of Weeping for Free Online Page B

trees , Brian thought, suddenly too warm
in his heavy coat.
    â€œWhat is this place?” he asked, mostly to himself.
    Carly smiled, looking pleased with herself. “I thought
you’d like it.”
    Brian stepped into the clearing, brushed his hands
along the trunk of one of the flowering trees. “I don’t think
I’ve ever seen this plant.”
    â€œIt’s a magnolia.”
    â€œDo they usually grow around here?” He wanted to open
his knapsack, pull out his guidebook, but he couldn’t look
away from the grove. The clearing had the sharp brilliance,
the bright detail, of a dream, and Brian was sure it would
vanish if he looked away.
    â€œAnd those are cypresses,” Carly said, leading him farther
in. “Touch them. They feel warm. And their bark — ”
    â€œ — feels like skin,” he finished, lightly caressing the
smooth, red-brown trunk.
    He didn’t want to look away, but he turned to Carly.
“How . . . where are we? I’ve never — ”
    She smiled, as if she had a secret. “We’re in the forest,”
she explained. “Your house is just over there.” She gestured
vaguely.
    â€œBut . . . how can that be? There’s nothing like this in the
woods. How far have we gone?”
    â€œIt’s not how far you go,” she said. “It’s how you look. All
of this, these trees, these flowers, this place, it’s all here. It’s all right here. All forests are one forest, if you know how to
look at them.”
    He knew she wanted him to ask. And he wanted to ask.
He wanted to know.
    â€œCould you — Could you show me?”
    She seemed to think about it, then slowly shook her
head. “No. Not now. We don’t have enough time.”
    â€œSure we do,” he countered. The sun was still high in the
sky, bright and warm. “It’s only — ” He was stunned when
he looked at his watch and saw that it was already after five.
“But . . . how . . .”
    â€œYou have to go home, Brian,” she said, taking his arm
and turning him away from the clearing. “It’s time.”
    They stepped through a scrim of low brambles and
twisted weeds and the air chilled around them.
    â€œWe just don’t have enough time,” she said. “Not for me
to show you everything I want to show you. Not for you to
see everything you want to see. I probably shouldn’t even
have taken you there.”
    â€œNo,” he said, his words coming in puffs of steam. “No,
I’m glad you did. Maybe tomorrow you can show me more.”
    â€œMaybe,” she said, as they stepped into the overhung
clearing at the edge of the forest. “Maybe tomorrow.”
    Her voice didn’t sound very convincing.
    â€œYou will be here tomorrow, right?” Brian asked.
    â€œI’ll be here,” she said. “You should go.”
    He didn’t want to leave her. A feeling that had been
building in him for several days bubbled to the surface. He
began to feel that his time with Carly was short, coming to
an end. Every time he said goodbye to her, it felt like he was
saying goodbye for the last time.
    He didn’t want to leave. He didn’t want to risk not seeing
her again.
    â€œYour father will be wondering where you’ve got to,” she
said.
    â€œYou’ll be here tomorrow?” he asked again, needing,
with a part of himself he didn’t understand, to hear it
confirmed.
    She nodded, and the warmth of her confirmation ebbed
through him. “I’ll be here.”
    He smiled, and turned slowly away.
    She watched him as he crossed the field, pulling his
jacket tight and hunching his back against the rain. She felt
his yearning in his defeated stride, his wanting to stay as
an invisible line, binding them.
    She smiled, and faded back into the gathering shadows.

    Jeff wasn’t surprised to find John Joseph in his kitchen,
though he was somewhat surprised to