bus station prophet

[asakiyume]

Yesterday I took the ninja girl to the bus station, and noticed the people there. This evening I went to pick her up, accompanied by the tall one and the healing angel.

This evening at the bus station there was a crazy person--older man, tall and lanky, with one milky-white blind eye, standing in the center of all the seats, speaking at random. “Shall I invite you to the wedding?” he said to one person. The tall one and I assiduously ignored him, heads bent over books. The healing angel was ignoring him too, concentrating (he told me later) on some missing tiling on the floor that looked like the Norse letter D.

The crazy man passed by us on the way to the bathroom, looked at the healing angel, and said, “You’re twelve, aren’t you.” And since the healing angel is twelve, he said, “Yes, I am.” And then the man said, “You know the scripture passage--‘Why were you searching for me? Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?’ Do you have the keys to the house yet? ....First the house keys, and then when you get to be a little older, the keys to the car!” And then he went into the bathroom.

It was a kind of stunning experience.

Little Springtime was disappointed she didn't get to come along... if I had known it would be such an adventure, I would surely have taken you, Little Springtime!

Comments

hm...

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

So many bits of things you provide to think about, so little time for thinking. Where are you in a bus station; neither here nor there. You're in transit, under the auspices of Mercury. Funny, his job expanded so much over the years...

Mercury is a psychopomp, and while you go to Apollo for prophecy, you go to Mercury for the straight poop.

[a-soft-world.livejournal.com]

Was he a black guy? If so that is Preacher! He hangs around where I used to live, Union Street. I have never seen him, but he is a legend in Springfield.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Oh wow. How like something out of a story! (Of course in a story, someone would have to agree to be a guest at the wedding; and goodness knows whose wedding it would be, or why they would need to gather strangers as guests.)

I had a... somewhat similar experience in the museum in the crypt of Durham Cathedral, where they keep the bones of St. Cuthbert. The crypt is dimly lit to protect the artifacts, and that day it was (I thought) empty but for me; but when I reached the back, where they keep St. Cuthbert's cross, I met an old woman with long fine ashy hair and a whispery voice

The Romans, she said, saw the Virgin Mary as a young girl, like me. But the Celts knew that the Virgin Mary was an old, suffering woman, like her.

I nodded and smiled, because she frightened me, and inspected the broken crossbar of Cuthbert's cross. She disappeared.

I'm not sure what would happen next in a story. But I bet it would be amazing.

[sovay]

STORY.

[teenybuffalo.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a good one for the family stories forever.

I remember with reverence and a little sadness an old man whom my father and I met when I was a small girl. He was bearded like a prophet.

I'll tell you about the Chanter sometime, too. Not that there's much to tell. It just sounds better in person than when I type it all out.

[muuranker.livejournal.com]

If you want to find some other links (humans love to do this!): that pattern is found on hinges, latches, and other bits of metalwork and woodwork near openings in to houses (such as chimneybreasts), and is interpreted as the Day Rune (Dagaz), and as protective mark against witches (scroll down this to about page 16, which is a paper on the subject by Timothy Easton http://planning.babergh.gov.uk/doldp/27785_2.pdf)

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

Like you, I usually try not to catch the eye of strangers, especially those who are panhandling, or just acting oddly, and especially when I'm alone. However, my husband often talks to the people who approach us and, since Tucson is a very small big city, recognizes a number of the homeless on sight. There's one man, or there used to be, it's been a few years since I've seen him, who had been all over the world and who spoke with us quite genially and literately on a couple of occasions. But, we both avoid the man who wears tin foil wrapped around his head.

[jtglover.livejournal.com]

You went for the bus station and wound up in O Brother, Where Art Thou! Sounds like one heck of an experience.

[suzan-s.livejournal.com]

A very good teaching opportunity! I love the way you explained it as an adventure!

[faerie-writer.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I'm not familiar with that scripture. ;)

[pjthompson]

Wow, definitely slipping in and out of alternate worlds there...Quite amazing.