I walked away to get wisdom, but in the end I just came home
And it drops me, drops me down
And I'm not feeling so good again.
Lisa Loeb

-1965-

It seemed much bigger than it had those six years before. Maybe it was because only I was standing in that cave, instead of all seven of us. Still I knew this place; the smell of it entered into my spirit and dropped me down to my knees.

I dug my palms into the soil, trying to find something I had left here. My innocence, my heart perhaps, I didn't quite know what it was, but it was buried here, along with so many other memories. Six years. Had it really been that long? I almost couldn't believe it.

My fingertips traced letters in the sand. Words that were uttered; murmured so long before in a place of dust and whispers, between book pages. Things that kept me hoping and clinging.

I sat and recollected.