Oliver Benjamin
“Come on, Oscar, you don’t really believe in that stuff anyway,”
I protested.
“Yeah, but what if one of my followers saw me like this? It would
be humiliating! Can you imagine them making the Dalai Lama wear
chartreuse, or the Pope wear plaid? Certain things are the way they
are because that’s the way they are!”
“Exactly. You are an idiot.”
We were asked to wait in a lovely little garden just inside the
compound, while they assembled that day’s group of new visitors.
The warm Indian sun felt good on my shoulders, and I had to admit
that the light robe felt remarkably comfortable in the heat. Oscar
twiddled his thumbs impatiently while the entourage gradually took
up chairs on the grass. An artificial stream next to us added to the
charm of the garden and reminded me that I was actually quite
thirsty.
Almost as if they had read my mind, a few sprightly nymphets
bounded through the small crowd with pitchers of iced jasmine tea
and poured us each a glass. Once the last new visitor was seated they
began with the formal greetings. A tall, striking woman with bright,
strawberry-blonde hair approached the podium and began to speak
in words made not of syllables, but warm sheets of crystallized honey
oscillating through space.
“Hello,” she said soothingly, then paused. Instantly captivated,
we all waited for the next drop of amber bliss to land on our ears. She
embraced the crowd with her eyes in a manner that suggested she
already knew us all well and in fact had been waiting specifically for
each of us to show up.
“I can’t tell you how wonderful it is that you have all come here
today,” she continued. I felt like her hands were caressing my head as
she spoke, calming me and convincing me that everything would be
all right. Just to see if I was alone in this fantasy, I turned to Oscar,
who now had his mouth open and looked like a homesick puppy.
“I’m in love,” he said without looking at me. I was apparently
not alone in my fantasy. She continued.
“There are so many beautiful faces here today. I feel absolutely
aglow up here, bathing in the luminescence of all your wonder. I hope
that you can see how overjoyed I am that you are here before me.”
Suddenly, she looked in my direction and smiled. I was sure that
she smiled at me. At me! I melted into my seat.
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