The Write Place

Under The Fruiting Tree:Chapter 27 – The Write Place
Under the Fruiting Tree: Novella Table of Contents – The Write Place

It was late in the moonless night.  Under the starry sky Robert and Sharon stood side by side.  Wearied in their bodies, they moved slowly pacing back and forth before the bench.  Stopping to stand beside the tree, Robert looked up into its branches at the darkened fruit hanging from it.  The multi-colored leaves glittered in the blue moonlight above them, entrancing Robert in the ever changing array of beauty.

“How many times are we going to go through this?” Robert asked as he stroked his beard with his right hand.  His left hand rested wearily over his chest.  Sharon stood in her dress, flowers adorning her braided hair. Robert knew she was as beautiful as ever, even in what was another dark night for them both.

“As many times as it takes,” Sharon replied, brushing her own long hair with her fingers while watching Robert’s form in the night. “As many as it takes,” she repeated, turning with a sharp pivot of her body to face him.  She stood in her floral-patterned dress watching Robert’s face intently, hoping for the response she longed for from the man she loved.

Robert let out a quiet laugh, rocking his chest gently.  He walked back towards Sharon to stand at her side.  Robert scratched his beard, deep in thought about all the times that had come and gone before.  His light military jacket shielded him from the breeze of the cool autumn day.

“I suppose you’re right,” Robert said, unfolding his arms and resting them in his jean pockets.  “Heavy conversation after heavy conversation.  We didn’t work, then we’re back together.  This job, this place, this cause didn’t work and on and on all the same.  Graduated college, now what?  Tried this religion?  Then what?”  Robert shook his head as he asked the rhetorical question. The long cycle bound them both. Neither understood the way out..

“Well I know what I’m doing.  I’m just fiddling around looking for something; I don’t know what you’re doing,” Sharon said, adding a playful moment on a tense night.

“Thought I was the only one who noticed,” Robert said in exhaustion.  “Drew joined another cult.”  Robert sighed with exasperation, tilting his head towards the sky and raising an eyebrow at the sight they had seen many times before.

“Fifth one?” Sharon asked with a touch of humorous contempt.  She joined Robert’s visibly exasperated amusement with her own.
“Yeah, not at once this time, to his credit.  He doesn’t have any better ideas than the rest of us.  He’s back with Judy too, after Lauren, who he dated after Judy, the same Judy of course,” Robert said, shaking his head. So much absurdity surrounded them, and it seemed, nothing else. “Not the other Judy.  Oh, that guy.”

“He’s a bit of a drag anyway.  At least I know what I like to do and where to be.  He seems to like to move on then back again not knowing anything,” Sharon said. “Of course nobody plans on joining a cult.  I’d know.”
“That was rough,” Robert said.  “I almost joined that one, too, when we were apart.  After I left, I admit I was scared I wouldn’t get you back,” Robert said. He cast a worried glance to Sharon.  “The mind games they play.”

“I like to think I have some sense.  And they got weird,” said Sharon, adding a gentle touch to Robert’s shoulder.  “To be honest though, I feel like I’m kinda done asking.”  Robert shook his head, before cocking it to meet Sharon’s eyes.

“Done asking? I know you. You’re never done asking,” Robert replied with an earnest look upon his face.

“None of it’s going anywhere.  The political causes.  The religious experiences.  All that nature worship.  Camping ruined that for me,” Sharon said matter of factly.  An air of humor covered her words.

“Nature is just nasty.  I understand why humanity invented the house.  I feel like civilization is a prison, but nature is just unsafe.  I know, if nature’s our mother and she loves death…. well I don’t have kind words for her.  Nature loves death and war, so why be antiwar? Animals go to war too man. The antiwar stuff was filled with hate.  So much was self-righteous not just against what we were doing. The clubs.  The violence on campus.  It seems empty because it is,” Robert said as he breathed deeply.  “Then there’s us.”

“We’ve been back together almost as much as Drew and Lauren,” Sharon quipped with a tired voice.

“Or Drew and Judy,” Replied Robert curtly.

“Ugh, really everyone is going crazy aren’t they?” Sharon asked, blowing out air in humorous exasperation.  Crossing her arms, Sharon looked to Robert to meet his gaze. “It’s all so empty.  But this, you and me.  There’s something here but I don’t believe anything matters at all.  It seems I just have to stop caring, but I can’t,” Sharon said, choking up.

“Apathy isn’t an option.  There’s gotta be meaning somewhere. Truth even,” Robert said.  The brilliant orange and reds of the sunrise lit her figure before his eyes. “I feel hungry for it.”

“What, you can feel it?  You said everyone feels differently,” Sharon said.  “We tried rebelling, and we conformed to rebellion.  There were no answers, no meaning.  Nothing greater,” Sharon concluded as her voice drifted off into the air.

“If nothing means anything, why be upset?  Why even feel apathy?  If all is meaningless, then whatever is – just is.  If this world is all there is, whatever is, is right.  If nothing has meaning, even agony can’t be wrong,” Robert said in a pleading voice.  “No,” Robert added, staring at the fading stars.  “When I consider the heavens, there’s something there.  In its beauty, in its order.  I know something matters.  I don’t know what or why.  But it’s there.  I know it in all my being, body, mind and soul.  I know it with us.  I just can’t explain it yet.  What. . . now that’s the question.  I don’t know.  I don’t know where to go or what we’ll do.  I know what I want to do.”  Robert looked at Sharon, who met his gaze for a moment. Their eyes pleaded, not to each other but something they did not know with a deep abiding longing.

Sharon looked down, away from Robert’s eyes. “Robert, before that.  I didn’t just want to talk about us.  Or those big things.  I want to talk about something bigger.  Before anything else, there’s one thing I really wanted to get to with you.  I have to tell you.  Before anything else. . .  I’m pregnant,” Sharon managed to whisper, hiding her now teary eyes.  “My parents are pushing for an abortion.  I don’t know what to do.  But you’re the father.  You need to know.”

Taking a deep breath, Robert took Sharon’s hand with gentle tears in his eyes.  The life changing truth she shared weighed on his heart and mind.  “You mean something, our child means something.  Don’t take our child Sharon.  I promise I’ll do whatever it takes.  This life means something,” Robert pleaded with her.

Sharon wiped away a tear with her left hand.  Anxiously, pained, she turned her head from Robert.  Then slowly, she returned to meet his eyes.

“And what?” Sharon inquired.  She swallowed hard awaiting his response.  Anticipation, hope, fear equally saturating her words.
“I’ll find work.  I’ll do something.  I’ll support you,” Robert begged.  He held her firmly yet gently by her arms, wearing the desperation evident on his face.

“So you’ll marry me for the child?  I want to be with you, but not for that,” Sharon said with a touch of confusion and hurt.

“No, not that, I’ll marry you for you.  And take care of you.  Both of you regardless of whether you say yes or not.  I’m going to be responsible because I love you.  I know that much.  You don’t have to be scared.  At least not alone” Robert said, taking both her hands in his.

“I don’t know.  I don’t know where to go or what to do.  I don’t know about anything right now,” Sharon said in resignation.

“You know what!  You can come with me.  Come with me to Switzerland.  There’s a guy there who can make sense of the world.  The guru of the West, some Schaeffer guy.  People are talking about him.  We’ve got the same questions.  Maybe then the world will make sense.  I can find work when we’re here but just give it time, give this child a chance.  Give this place a chance.  Give us a chance,” Robert asked Sharon.  

Sharon looked upon his sincere, pleading face. Birds began their chirping to greet the new day, producing what seemed the only noise in their world.  The sound of a new day.  The sunlight hit the tree, casting a patchwork shadow on the fruit hanging from its branches. Sharon wrapped her arms around Robert as the sun rose on the new day, birthing a new future around them.