A straight up question deserved a straight up answer.
“No, but they communicate. The way they communicate with me has taken me a very long time to learn. Their communication is so subtle that it’s a wonder that I ever got it at all. As a collective we use ‘Ricky’ to assist in our communication. Ricky and her inviting particles enhance my ability to focus on scents, flavors, oils, and drifts and whiffs of yet unknown entities moving in the wind on air waves. Once I stopped trying to separate it from universal travel the process turned from a frantic chore to something as basic as Morse code. It’s become so easy for me that sometimes, it seems as though they’re talking to me.”
Michael smiled at me a teasing smile.
“Do you still sing to them?”
It would be my guess that Michael felt it as did I, the garden’s visible rise to attention when he asked the question.
“They don’t think I sing often enough but yes I do still sing to them. We’re a team and my singing encourages them to reach their fullest potential. They are as magnificent as they are not just because of the right water and nutrients and sunlight and warmth but because of our bond and commitment to each other. I often sing in honor of that familial bond; they like it. Maybe I do make ‘em wait for it but that’s something I learned from you. ‘Leave them wanting more’. And when I return I don’t even have to try to read them. They drench me in their adoration. I can close my eyes and feel their love for me. I wish you could feel it, too and you know; I wish only the best for you.”
As I thought it, I granted me my wish by taking Michael’s hand. The reconnect was lovely and as we both took our giant united sighs, Michael was granted my own perception and the ability to see and feel what I saw and felt.
The entire yard greeted him with delightful fluttering movements and scents that deciphered into welcomes. I giggled at my friends and how sweet their alliance with Michael would soon be. No, correction was already, instantly.
His eyes remained closed almost as though he had to concentrate to understand but maybe he kept them closed from the bliss of their communication. For a few minutes I closed my eyes and tried to become part of their conversation but soon was demoted to a quiet watcher. Feeling them fawn all over him with their collective gratitude for making me happy at first kind of freaked me out but then I accepted it for the endearing and caring show of love that it was.
“No wonder you love this place, thank you baby for sharing. They are, as you say, magnificent.” I could only agree.
Our conversation was wrapped in the comfort and love of that special garden. We covered other topics and I’m sure my pleasure showed when we talked about the ‘web business’ and the ‘catch objects’ I designed and the official catch object that I planned to endorse. I’d created the original for Michael and named it ‘Partner’. All the others that followed were named ‘Garner’ for all of the love that the little object could ‘garner’ for its owner. In my opinion it was the perfect texture and weight for a good ‘catch’. Since I was the inventor of two adult catch games, ‘Two-Person Catch’ and ‘Group Catch’, both of them copy written under ‘Helen’s Catch’, my endorsement carried some weight.
Before we left the garden for a catch, Michael turned to me and started singing.
“All you have to do is touch my hand.”
I joined him immediately for the benefit of the inhabitants of the garden. We sang all of ‘Some Kind of Wonderful’ with our combined voice and were delighted that we still carried a unique and beautiful sound together. The garden was not shy in their praise and it was lovely to decipher their united ‘ahs’.
As we walked, hand in hand, to the porch for our ‘catch’, I asked Michael.
“Do you and Lu have a regular ‘catch’?
“Not for a while, now; somehow we’ve allowed much of the joy to evaporate from our relationship because we’re both so busy and don’t spend any time focusing on us.”
“It’s a good thing you’re here now. My goal will be to see those same two loving people together like the last time we were all together.”
Michael turned me to him and wrapped his arms around me. Squeezing me tight, he whispered.
“How could I forget how great it is to be with you? What a good person you are.”
Michael took his chair for the catch to the other side of the porch. We sat facing each other and before Michael said his honors he requested that I take it easy on him because he hadn’t played for awhile and that it might take some time before his muscle memory kicked in.
I took ‘Hebly’ from my pocket. ‘Hebly’ was one of many ‘catch objects’ that I’d designed. Hebly was special because it carried two faces, Michael’s cartoon face and my cartoon face. The little character sported Michael’s big feet in the form of little dangling things from the bottom of the air-fill miniature body and manicured hands represented me. I believe it was the cutest object in existence. There was no shame in the fact that I carried it with me every moment since Michael called. That object still gave me a tiny touch of the reconnect while kissing its little faces. I was reluctant to use it in a ‘catch’ because I didn’t want it to be away from me, ever. But Michael having ‘Hebly’ was ok.
After tossing the precious ‘Hebly’ into the air a few times to remind my muscles what to do with it, I lobbed it over to Michael.
Michael slowly examined ‘Hebly’ like he was seeing the object for the first time – odd, because there was only one other ‘Hebly’ created – the one I made for and gave to Michael. The original ‘two-headed’ object that carried our cartoon faces was named ‘Arec’, pronounced Eric which stood for ‘a reconnect’. I created it for Lu so that she could reconnect when we were not around to give her the real thing. Michael wanted it so I made him one of his own but I named it ‘Hebly’ – a combination of the names of our customized catch objects. His is named ‘Bubbly’ and mine is named ‘Hellie’.
Michael gave honor to me as the ‘Greater Player’ and praised my ability at the catch before he made the initial pitch. Little ‘Hebly’ came to me in sort of a lob that wobbled as it slowly reached me. Impatient, I grabbed it out of the air and sent it back to him in a fast side-arm wanting to pick up the pace. He trapped ‘Hebly’ in a ‘bread-basket’ catch and sent the object back to me without much speed. Again, I impatiently grabbed ‘Hebly’ from the air and returned it to Michael with some real pepper and spin using the side-arm again. Michael caught it but not without drama and barely held on by one of Hebly’s Michael feet, in other words, by barely a hair. Michael’s return was embarrassing with how ‘girlie’ it was. I was no longer impatient; I was beginning to get irritated.
Sending the object back to him with ‘attitude’ and more speed, I tried to engage his competitive nature and entice him into playing the way I knew he could, or at the very least make him angry. When he sent it to me again in a child-like throw, I nearly lost it and decided to try a little teasing.
“You must be Michael’s little sister because, you are for sure an imposter. The Michael I know and love knows how to play my kind of catch. Who the fuck are you?”
Michael caught the fast over-hand that I’d sent but held on to the object while he spoke.
“You scare me woman, slow down and give me a chance to get up to speed.”
Then he sent ‘Hebly’ to me in another girlie throw that worried me.
Slowing down was not in the plan and to prove it I sent little ‘Hebly’ end over end, feet and hands flying to him at a speed greater than any so far. Actually my plan was to gradually increase the velocity of my pitches until Michael got ‘up to speed’, as he put it. Again he caught the object with drama, the actions were so far from what I knew Michael to be capable of that I suddenly thought that Michael could be using that child-like behavior as a distraction building to eventually unseating me as ‘The Greater Player’.