Green’s scalp tingled.
“What? Are you saying that all of this is somehow meant to be?”
Valentina frowned.
“Childish. Broad. Subjective.”
Green squeezed his eyes shut and bit back the urge to scream at the odd little woman.
“But,” Valentina continued, “I will say that human ways ofknowing are not the only ways of knowing. As a species, we are relatively young, but the biological mechanisms that authored us are not young. We do so adore recognizing patterns and measuring out the world, but we typically disdain qualifying the enormity of our ignorance. We were shaped by natural cycles and forces that we do not fully understand. We did not escape those cycles and forces simply by inventing spoken language or algebra or internal combustion. No, we are clever, but we neither grasp nor control the enormity of nature.”
Green studied Valentina’s face. She was suddenly very talkative and the shift was somehow threatening. A new door had opened in the conversation.
“Modern people. They so love to cast themselves as some sort of alien intelligence on this world, visiting and observing. Arrogant. Absurd. Myopic. As if our very lungs are not a call-and-response with phytoplankton, with the nations of trees and plant life. As if our bones are not an essay written in mineral by the force of Earth’s gravity. Visitors. Masters. Fools. What gave you that iron in your blood, visitor? Where was that water which fuels your life a week ago, master? Some humans are as children of devoted parents who enjoy a care so deep and ubiquitous that it has become invisible to them.”
There was a threat in Valentina’s words, but it wasn’t the threat of physical harm or a prophecy of danger. Green had never felt the pull of any religion in his life, but there, in that moment, he thought he knew what that pull must feel like. This person didn’t need to be told about the voice of the acorn. She spoke with the same voice.
Valentina’s attention seemed far away, then refocused on her listener. Her mind returned to the little cabin, shifting back to the present moment.
“No, things are not meant to be in the way I believe that phrase is commonly used. That is, meant for us because of some special merit or grace we possess. And yet, the idea that human purposes are the only purposes with weight and worth and meaning is manifestly absurd.”
“So,” Green said tentatively. “What does all of that mean for me? What are you saying?”
Valentina thought a moment.
“I am saying it would be…professionally irresponsible of me to allow you to be eaten tonight.”
“Okay. Good start. I guess. Honestly, I was planning to be a hundred miles from here before it gets dark. I also don’t plan to be eaten.”
“Leave? You would abandon your current path entirely due to the mishaps of a single night?”
“Lady, you weren’t there. Nearly getting my head bitten off by a thing I could hear inside my head is not just a mishap.”
The wolf’s voice still echoed in his thoughts.
Not-man.
“Ms. Blackwood will do, thank you. You said you intended to be here. Did you have a goal in mind beyond simply being here?”
“Well, no, not really. I kinda assumed just being here would be enough of a challenge and it turns out I was underestimating.”
Valentina retrieved her cup and studied her coffee.
“And how long are, or were, you planning to face the challenge of being here in the mountains?”
“For the foreseeable future.”
He answered quickly and instantly distrusted the words. That was the acorn’s answer. The acorn he still hadn’t mentioned to Valentina. The acorn that had been by his side since his near death. The acorn that he couldn’t even define for himself.
“Mr. Green, I find myself in the uncomfortable and presumptuous position of feeling I know what you, a near stranger, should be doing with your time. ‘Should’ is by its very nature a treacherous and untrustworthy word, but if you are interested, I’ll risk overstepping and speak my thoughts plainly.”
The offer felt like a trap.
But her bait, the chance to shrink the towering unknown crushing his bones, was too tempting to resist.
“Yes, God, please. At this point, I’ll take anything.”
“You may want to reserve your judgment on that, but so be it. Come over here.”
