lake

This was once Mazama, I kept reminding myself. This was once a mountain that stood nearly 12,000 feet tall and then had its heart removed. This was once a wasteland of lava and pumice and ash. This was once an empty bowl that took hundreds of years to fill. But hard as I tried, I couldn't see them in my mind's eye. Not the mountain or the wasteland or the empty bowl. They simply were not there anymore. There was only the stillness and the silence of that water: what a mountain and a wasteland and an empty bowl turned into after the healing process.

No one touched the bottom of the lake and lived. If you were lucky, you'd surface wide-eyed and frantic, babbling at the darkness, the thickness of what lay below. If you were unlucky, underwater recovery dragged the lake for your body.

The water. The lake. It flows through our veins, and there's nothing we can do about it_ It's like venom.

She felt a strong pull toward the water and it was more than curiosity_

The man I am writing about is not famous. It may be that he never will be. It may be that when his life at last comes to an end he will leave no more trace of his sojourn on earth than a stone thrown into a river leaves on the surface of the water.

Take the broken pieces of your life, bake a master cake out of it. Don't stand still like a lake; keep flowing like a stream!

He pictured himself at the lake, on a houseboat. Dekka would be there, and Brianna and Jack. He would have friends. He wouldn__ be alone.But he couldn__ stop himself from looking for her.She no longer had Little Pete to worry about. They could be together without all of that. But of course he knew Astrid, and knew that right now, wherever she was, she was eaten up inside with guilt.__he__ not coming, is she?_ Sam said to Dekka.But Dekka didn__ answer. She was somewhere else in her head. Sam saw her glance and look away as Brianna laid a light hand on Jack__ shoulder.Dahra was staying in the hospital, but a few more kids came. Groups of three or four at a time. The Siren and the kids she lived with came. John Terrafino came. Ellen. He waited. He would wait the full two hours. Not for her, he told himself, just to keep his word.Then Orc, with Howard.Sam groaned inwardly.__ou gotta be kidding me,_ Brianna said.__he deal was kids make a choice,_ Sam said. __ think Howard just realized how dangerous life can be for a criminal living in a place where the __ing_ can decide life or death.

If Molly had not been so entirely loyal to her friend, she might havethought this constant brilliancy a little tiresome when brought intoevery-day life; it was not the sunshiny rest of a placid lake, it wasrather the glitter of the pieces of a broken mirror, which confusesand bewilders.

What__ Albert going to do?_ a boy named Jim demanded. __here__ Albert?__lbert stepped from an inconspicuous position off to one side. He mounted the steps, moving carefully still, not entirely well even now.He carefully chose a position equidistant between Caine and Sam.__hat should we do, Albert?_ a voice asked plaintively.Albert didn__ look out at the crowd except for a quick glance up, like he was just making sure he was pointed in the right direction. He spoke in a quiet, reasonable monotone. Kids edged closer to hear.____ a businessman.___rue._ Toto.__y job is organizing kids to work, taking the things they harvest or catch, and redistributing them through a market.___nd getting the best stuff for yourself,_ someone yelled to general laughter.__es,_ Albert acknowledged. __ reward myself for the work I do.__his blunt admission left the crowd nonplussed.__aine has promised that if I stay here he won__ interfere. But I don__ trust Caine.___o, he doesn__,_ Toto agreed.__ do trust Sam. But . . .__nd now you could hear a pin drop.__ut . . . Sam is a weak leader._ He kept his eyes down. __am is the best fighter ever. He__ defended us many times. And he__ the best at figuring out how to survive. But Sam__ Albert now turned to him___ou are too humble. Too willing to step aside. When Astrid and the council sidelined you, you put up with it. I was part of that myself. But you let us push you aside and the council turned out to be useless.__am stood stock-still, stone-faced.__et__ face it, you__e not really the reason things are better here, I am,_ Albert said. __ou__e way, way braver than me, Sam. And if it__ a battle, you rule. But you can__ organize or plan ahead and you won__ just put your foot down and make things happen.__am nodded slightly. It was hard to hear. But far harder was seeing the way the crowd was nodding, agreeing. It was the truth. The fact was he__ let the council run things, stepped aside, and then sat around feeling sorry for himself. He__ jumped at the chance to go off on an adventure and he hadn__ been here to save the town when they needed it.__o,_ Albert concluded, ____ keeping my things here, in Perdido Beach. But there will be free trading of stuff between Perdido Beach and the lake. And Lana has to be allowed to move freely.__aine bristled at that. He didn__ like Albert laying down conditions.Albert wasn__ intimidated. __ feed these kids,_ he said to Caine. __ do it my way.__aine hesitated, then made a tight little bow of the head.__ want you to say it,_ Albert said with a nod toward Toto.Sam saw panic in Caine__ eyes. If he lied now the jig would be up for him. Toto would call him out, Albert would support Sam, and the kids would follow Albert__ lead.Sam wondered if Caine was just starting to realize what Sam had known for some time: if anyone was king, it was neither Sam nor Caine, it was Albert.

THE FOUR HEAVENLY FOUNTAINSLaugh, I tell youAnd you will turn backThe hands of time.Smile, I tell youAnd you will reflectThe face of the divine.Sing, I tell youAnd all the angels will sing with you!Cry, I tell youAnd the reflections found in your pool of tears -Will remind you of the lessons of today and yesterdayTo guide you through the fears of tomorrow.

We read the pagan sacred books with profit and delight. With myth and fable we are ever charmed, and find a pleasure in the endless repetition of the beautiful, poetic, and absurd. We find, in all these records of the past, philosophies and dreams, and efforts stained with tears, of great and tender souls who tried to pierce the mystery of life and death, to answer the eternal questions of the Whence and Whither, and vainly sought to make, with bits of shattered glass, a mirror that would, in very truth, reflect the face and form of Nature's perfect self.These myths were born of hopes, and fears, and tears, and smiles, and they were touched and colored by all there is of joy and grief between the rosy dawn of birth, and death's sad night. They clothed even the stars with passion, and gave to gods the faults and frailties of the sons of men. In them, the winds and waves were music, and all the lakes, and streams, and springs,__he mountains, woods and perfumed dells were haunted by a thousand fairy forms. They thrilled the veins of Spring with tremulous desire; made tawny Summer's billowed breast the throne and home of love; filled Autumns arms with sun-kissed grapes, and gathered sheaves; and pictured Winter as a weak old king who felt, like Lear upon his withered face, Cordelia's tears. These myths, though false, are beautiful, and have for many ages and in countless ways, enriched the heart and kindled thought. But if the world were taught that all these things are true and all inspired of God, and that eternal punishment will be the lot of him who dares deny or doubt, the sweetest myth of all the Fable World would lose its beauty, and become a scorned and hateful thing to every brave and thoughtful man.

My mother always wanted to live near the water," she said. "She said it's the one thing that brings us all together. That I can have my toe in the ocean off the coast of Maine, and a girl my age can have her toe in the ocean off the coast of Africa, and we would be touching. On opposite sides of the world.

If you are a boat and your lake is frozen, what can you do? You will wait for the spring! We are lucky that we are humans, we don__ have to wait for the spring; we can break the ice if necessary, we can use fire to open our way! Nothing can stop the mind if the mind decides to move to his target!

The lake of my mind, unbroken by oars, heaves placidly and soon sinks into an oily somnolence._ That will be useful.

Do you want to achieve something or do you just want to make money?_ asked a nearby man in a white shirt to another man in a striped shirt. I waited for the answer as I slowly walked past them. __hy is it an either or question?_ the man in the striped shirt finally murmured philosophically under a sip of beer. They both stood there looking at each other in thought.

Every lake belongs to the quietness desired by the swans.

The afternoon had passed to a ghostly gray. She was struck by the immensity of things, so much water and sky and forest, and after a time it occurred to her that she__ lived a life almost entirely indoors. Her memories were indoor memories, fixed by ceilings and plastered white walls. Her whole life had been locked to geometries: suburban rectangles, city squares. First the house she__ grown up in, then dorms and apartments. The open air had been nothing but a medium of transit, a place for rooms to exist.

As the sun sinksIt casts that silver bridgeAcross the lake