Used to be, Brian and Trevor ran the mountain trail at six am Monday through Friday. But after Awake started performing two Saturday night sets, Trevor asked Brian if he’d run with him on Saturdays too. “It helps me flex all the while.” Brian was glad Trevor asked. They didn’t get enough time together.
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Almost nobody from the arts college came to the shows anymore. Why would they? They didn’t worship Trevor. They knew him as an accident prone, women and ganja loving, trickster/prophet.
But the feverish crowd spiraling around and around shaped Trevor’s nightmares. About the same time sheets of light first burst from the sky, astonishing him, he had dreamed that death wasn’t the end. The fiery waving motion that was you alive becomes a radiance of destruction and creation, infinite darkness and infinite life. There is no rest. No escape from the eternal waves.
This Trevor-mania was a test. Any fool could see that. Eventually, the crowd would move on. It would disperse.
Till then, running increased his patience. With Brian nearby, running the same pace, Trevor found moments of freedom. Running top speed, he got bits of stillness.
Driving to the trail, Brian said, “Angelina called a meeting. Me, Hailey, Kaya, and Ya-Ya.”
“Ya-Ya’s car isn’t ready.”
“Angelina’s picking her up in Asheville.”
They both stepped from the car and stretched their arms once before charging uphill. “They’re so afraid of Polly that their fear’s contagious. Angelina’s determined they stop it. Just cease.”
“Why you, though? You’re not afraid of Polly.”
Trevor ducked a branch coming at his face.
“Why would I be?” Brian said. “But Hailey sure is. We had our first fight.”
“Who won?”
“No one. We made up. But Hailey thinks you knew this Trevor-mania would happen. She thinks you’re looking in on people, seeing what they’re up to.”
“Kinda like Carla,” Trevor said. “She’s going with Marvin now. So she asked me to take a peek and see if it was gonna work out.”
At the trestle bridge, Brian watched as Trevor hung over the splintering railing. Getting that massive gravity he loved. He hadn’t done this since he’d found Polly. Ordinarily it annoyed Brian—Trevor acting so reckless he’d kill himself. Today he was hanging out past his waist and waving his arms. “Hey, Trev. Stop it.” Must mean he was unburdened. “Come on, enough!”
He swung back onto the ground. The sun hit his left eye—Brian saw the flash in his brother’s pupil like that in photographs. And then his grin.
“Why are you going to Angelina’s meeting if you don’t think Polly’s a witch?”
“Moral support. And, part of my job, making sure nobody panics.”
“I see.”
“When you see stuff, Trev, it’s not like spying on your friends, is it?”
“Not like watching TV neither. The light burns some truth into me that kinda feels like seeing. Sometimes I get details and sometimes not.”
“Was Polly eating leaves when you found her?”
“No. But she was truly out of her mind.”
“Hailey makes up examples when she’s scared. She said that about the leaves, I guess, because to her Polly’s a wild animal.”
“That might be true,” Trevor said. “I can’t see Polly. She and me are outta sync. I ran off trail and into the woods with a vague idea a kitten was trapped.”
They slowed to a walk when they could see the car. Trevor never got out-of-breath. Brian wasn’t used to so much talking while running. He bent at the waist to get his wind. “A kitten, huh. You looked like you were mauled by a mountain lion.”
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