I was walking down the street when I saw her. She came towards me with a smile in her eyes and said,
"Do you know?"
Not wanting to be out of the loop and as not to interrupt her joyous exuberance. I nodded yes and said,
"Do you?"
With that, she smiled and said,
"Good, you know. Isn't it good?"
Again so as not to break this ceremonious conversation and not to be exiled from the know. I said,
"Yes."
and proceeded to ask,
"How do you know?"
To which her face became very serious. She pulled me close as she started to speak, not quite in a whisper but definitely in a discretionary tone. She said she heard it from a friend of a friend twice removed. I nodded. I assume not to convincingly and she must have sensed my concern. So she assured me that it "he" was a good source. She had received news from him before, this friend of a friend twice removed. In fact, she would swear on the grave of her mother's neighbors sister who recently died. Again I must have unknowingly shown some disdain or concern because immediately she grabbed me and assured me that this distant friend was only removed because of bad timing, poor location, and an arranged marriage. Her mother's neighbor's sister had been forced to marry a boy she kissed before she was married. This was back when kissing was left for those who had first visited the altar. So, as to calm and clear any suspicions, she was married. Had this not happen she may have well been the actual neighbor of her mother. She assured that her confidence was cemented in the burial cloths of her mother's neighbors sister who recently died and not to worry myself with the degree of separation between her and the solemn oath who if it was not for her being in the wrong place at the wrong time may have very well made them sisters or neighbors. Anyway she said in a very concern and comforting way,
"Don't worry lad it's going to be alright."
I looked at her with calmness in my heart and a certain strength that only comes when you are sure of something. In a world that lately seems to have so many things on its' horizon, I feel good to know that some thing is going to be alright. I'm just not sure what.
These days when everything that is decided and happens in the world is an after thought that I find out about in the evening news. I feel comfort being back in the know. You know, with "they." They the ones who know. The friends of a friend twice removed.
