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| Ancient Trail in Inundation Zone of Proposed Dam |
As soon as Peter stepped through the door, he discovered his mother talking on the phone.
"Uh-oh," he thought as he rushed to his room.
"Peter," she called, "I want to talk to you." She opened his door and peered in.
"Yeah?"
"I just got a call from our minister. He said that you were there with that man--that man I told you not to talk to anymore."
"What? I’m not allowed to pray anymore?"
She stepped into his room. "That’s not the point, and you know it. I told you not to talk to that man, and the first thing you do is go talk to him. Is he some kind of religious fanatic, or something? Is that why you like him?"
"I like him because he’s helping me to develop spiritually, mentally and emotionally, if that’s what you mean," Peter retorted.
"Look, I know that you’re more spiritually inclined than most of us. I’m sorry for jumping to conclusions, but you have to be so careful these days. I would be happy to invite him over for dinner. Would you like that?"
Peter suddenly imagined how his father and brother might act at dinner. "No," he whispered.
As though understanding Peter’s thoughts, she asked, "Then what can I do? How do I know that I can trust him?"
"We’re just trying to think of different ways to help people. Can’t you at least trust me?" Peter asked.
"Oh, all right. I just want you to tell me if anything strange happens. I want to know more about him. I’m only watching out for you, you know."
"Yeah, I know. Thanks, Mom."
Peter ran straight to Cashing’s apartment after pulling his pack of Tarot cards out of the garbage can. He decided to keep the pack with him wherever he went. When Peter got to Cashing’s apartment, he blurted out, "That minister actually called my Mom. Can you believe that?"
"Here’s to the few who don’t care what you do!" Cashing laughed, raising a glass. Cashing had just put the finishing touches on the illustrations for a children's story he had written:
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| Swallowtail Fairy |
While Mommy was making dinner
for the fairies--honey dew and nectar
and cotton candy spider webs--
Daddy made a spell to help Claire
sprout her fairy wings. Then Claire
stepped into the garden, calling all
the fairy folk to dinner, and one
in the guise of a swallowtail
flitted near red and yellow roses,
but then it flew away, laughing.
"Come back and play with me!"
Claire demanded, but it kept
flitting here and there, deeper
and deeper into the forest.
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| Gnome with Tiger Lilies |
Mommy had warned her not to follow
the path into the woods, but Claire wanted so
to be with her fairy friends that she galloped
down the path after the swallowtail fairy.
Suddenly a little man with a funny hat
appeared on the trunk of a fallen tree.
"Your mommy told you not to go this far.
Watch out for the bad fairies!" he sighed.
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| The Bad Fairy |
Soon the bad fairies came, and one of them
waved a wand over Claire's head. Suddenly
she lifted off the ground and drifted over
to a flower. The bad fairies giggled
and flitted deeper into the forest. They growled
and screeched and made a terrible ruckus.
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| The Winged Tiger |
The bad fairies turned into strange, fierce animals.
Then Claire turned into a winged tiger that roared
and bared its teeth and waved its terrible claws
this way and that. The gnome was not very happy!
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| Queen of the Fairies |
Suddenly, Claire saw the Queen of the Fairies
standing by a stream. The Queen turned to Claire
and declared, "You are not a terrible animal.
You are a princess, and you shall rule with me."
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| The Banquet |
Claire took her place on the throne.
Then Claire commanded the bad fairies,
"Stop! Now join me in the feast!"
The bad fairies gazed in wonder
at the golden plates and cups
on the pure, white tablecloth.
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| The Fairy Princess |
Soon the bad fairies fell asleep.
The Queen was suddenly
nowhere in sight. Claire felt lonely
and missed her garden. She wanted
to give her Mommy and Daddy a hug.
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| The Good Fairies |
So she took off her crown
and her wings and found a path.
The good fairies helped her
find her way. She plodded along
in the dusk, hearing distant music
and smelling good things to eat
from far away in another land.
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| Peek-a-Boo |
Just as it was getting dark,
she found the garden
and her Mommy and Daddy,
Peter blurted out, "I convinced my Mom that you’re okay. I can actually talk to you now."
"Hallelujah! Come on in then," Cashing smiled.
Peter, who was still upset, ignored Cashing's work and stated, "My mom wants to know more about you, though. What can I tell her?"
Cashing looked a little anxious. "Well, you don’t want to hear my life story, do you?"
"Only the good stuff."
"Your mom probably wants to know how I ended up in this dump. Well, believe it or not, I used to be a teacher. For many years, I taught several classes a semester at a community college. I was what they call an adjunct professor. In other words, I only taught part-time. The college relies heavily on part-time teachers in order to avoid paying benefits or salaries. So I also worked as a substitute teacher. With those two jobs, I managed to scrape by."
"Doesn’t sound too bad," Peter said.
"Well, it wasn’t, actually. My schedule was flexible. I could write stories and music and be an activist. I actually decided that I didn’t want to teach full time."
"What happened?"
"I mentioned that I was an activist. Well, I wrote an opinion piece for the newspaper. It was one of many opinion pieces that I’ve published, but this was the first one that happened to mention that I was a teacher at that particular community college. I didn’t discover until two days before the next semester began that I had not been rehired. After twelve years of excellent evaluations by students and administrators, I suddenly discovered they didn’t want me to teach anymore. They didn’t even bother to tell me--I had to call to find out why my name wasn’t mentioned in the schedule of courses. The irony is that I was at the top of my game as a teacher. In all modesty, I had never even imagined when I began that I could teach so effectively."
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| Inundation Zone of Proposed Dam: Read about the Exploitation |
"That sucks. Are you still a substitute?"
"That’s the thing. I never obtained a teaching credential. I only had a master’s degree, so strangely enough the public school district wouldn’t hire me even though I had over a decade of experience teaching at a community college. Since I was never going to be hired full-time, I finally just decided to throw in the towel. I’m now living on a rapidly diminishing retirement fund, and I'll probably need to start subbing again pretty soon. This thirty percent raise in rent is certainly not helping any."
"God, I know. My family is freakin’ out. Everyone’s been in a really bad mood lately. My mom keeps saying that you can’t trust anyone. My dad keeps pointing out that you can’t be weak in this world, and my brother keeps calling me gay. It’s depressing."
"Maybe we should do that little meditation ritual for our landlord," Cashing laughed.
"Couldn’t hoit," Peter said with an affected accent.
"Oh, but you know what? I just remembered. I’m going to a meeting on the rent increase in a few minutes. We’ll have to do our little ritual later. You’re welcome to join us. It’s just me and a couple of others."
"Naw. I’m not really political," Peter smiled.
"Everything is political, my friend."
"I thought everything was sacred."
"Okay, everything is political and sacred. We just have a landlord who believes that one thing is more sacred than others."
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