Poets & Thinkers & Singers

 

 
            “Tell me, Ralph,” said Millicent one day while seated on a piece of river driftwood by the Silver River watching it flow, “What is the essential nature of the Forest People?”
            “Oh, I see,” said Ralph. “You’ve been pondering verities again.”
            “Don’t tease me, Ralph. Isn’t that question at the very nub?” said Milly turning her blue eyes upon his brown eyes, gauging his expression.
            “I’m not really teasing you, Milly. It’s hard to explain, though you might be one of the few to get it,” he was watching the river murmur and roll too. He was thinking that somehow its continual motion must be a metaphor for something. There it was, and there it went!
            “OK, since time on this particular planet began, there have been several, at least, types of human. We are human and you, are the latest version of human.
            “You could almost see it as a huge Venn diagram reaching back into the unknown history of life on Earth. There is a considerable overlap between you and we. You know that. You’ve met my family,” said Ralph.
            “No question about that,” agreed Milly. “Then why all the mystery and the hiding, and how are we not alike?”
            “You could see it in terms of a myth. In the story, perhaps, there was a time of deciding and dividing the races of man. Your people chose material progress, and were very good at it I must say! But, in the story, my people chose to be skilled in the intangible. You could also say that this choice pleased the Creator and that He blessed us. He gave us physical strength, but more than that He allowed us to develop the unseen arts. He enlarged our memories, our ability with language too. Think of the Sagas or the songs of any non-literate society. We are like that to some extent. Our words, though many, are not written down.
            “As for remaining hidden, it’s pure self-defense. You know what has happened over and over among men toward other men. You saw what happened to the people who lived here, and were shoved to the side.
            “The fear and disdain of mankind is born into us,” said Ralph, though he was smiling.
            “How is your ability with language different from ours?” said Milly.
            “Well, I have noticed that a lot of human talk is void. Nothing comes of it,” said Ralph.
            “I have to admit that’s true. Sometimes it seems like a sort of human barking!” said Milly.
            “The Power that Spoke the worlds into being, gave us a tiny sip of that ability. That’s the gift of being able to speak a thing into existence. Or out of existence for that matter.
            “I will say that I think that ability with words and concepts is latent in your people too, if they just knew it. There is a kind of blindness among men,” said Ralph. “Some lady I heard of said ‘Words make worlds’, and that is true.”
            “So tell me about hiding from us. And what’s the deal with all those tree and stump stories online?” said Milly.
            “A guy comes out into the forest. He is or isn’t looking for one of us. If he is, and succeeds, what he sees will look like what he expects to see. A monster perhaps, more or less, depending on his heart. So we try to avoid him. There’s no use trying deceive us, we can hear your heart and intentions loudly!
            “One of the best ways of remaining hidden if he suddenly meets one of us, is to shield him from the shock by causing him to see a tree or a stump. Now, some people can see through this, hence the stories!” said Ralph.
            “How can you do that?” asked Milly, perplexed.
            “It’s kind of an override. I sort of tell him that he sees a tree and he sees a tree.”
            “Telepathy?” said Milly, nodding.
            “Yeah, but the trick is to not have him notice it happening,” said Ralph.
            “Does any of that help?” he asked.
            “Yes..” she said slowly. “How it looks to us is that in some ways you perform magic. To a materialist world, it seems impossible. To most people it’s just imagination or lies.”
            “And it seems to us that mankind wants to capture and categorize everything, render it into data, then discount it as nothing at all,” said Ralph, gazing around at the sky and the river and the forest.
            “You know, there’s only one thing that can break this divide. You and I, and my Ramona and children, have done it!” said Ralph. “Ranger Rick and Dexter and Hannah too!”
            “Love and Only Love,” said Milly. “It’s a song.”
            “Can you sing it to me?” said Ralph with a grin.
            “No! I have to play it for you on a small machine!” said Milly, laughing.
            “I’m getting a little chilly sitting by this river, can we go hang around with Ramona?”
            “Sure, she’d like to see you, and it’s warm by the fire,” said Ralph.

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