“Home doesn’t come easy to the beaver, though. He’s gotta put hard work into it and interrupt the flow of nature around ’im to do it. But in the end, because he’s determined to do it, he builds himself a home and then he gets his lady friends to move on in and has himself a family.”
Robert chuckled, turning the rather serious weight of his sentiment into humor.
Aria was frozen to the spot. Her eyes began to well up with tears. She had to intentionally think about something entirely different than where she was in order to prevent it from showing. She knew that this was Robert’s way of conveying what he wished for her future. It was his version of encouragement.
In that second, this little beaver became the most special thing that she had in her possession. It carried with it the meaning that he had ascribed to it. It carried with it her own deepest desire, which Robert had perceived without her ever saying it. And it also carried with it the quiet, internal caring that Robert felt for her. That care might never be overtly demonstrated, but because of this little interaction, they both knew it was there.
Aria got up off her knees, holding the sudden treasure in her hand, and kissed him on his cheek. “Thank you so much for this,” she said.
Robert was surprised to be kissed, but smiled back as she got up to go and said, “Well, you’re very welcome,” before returning his focus back to whittling.
Aria walked over to the Land Cruiser. She sat in the car with the door closed, holding the little carving of the beaver in her hands. She imagined soaking in its energy. She had never loved an object so much in her entire life. She found the hidden pocket in her backpack and placed it inside for safekeeping.
Later that night, after Luke had returned from town, he and Aria were sitting face to face in his tent, engaged in a theosophical conversation, when Taylor came bounding toward them. “Oh my God … Oh my God, you guys will never believe what happened,” he said, crashing into the tent to sit with them. His own excitement had taken his breath away. “You know how the studio said they were all full, right? Well, I went back today, it’s like the hundredth time I went back there. And they said they have an opening for me!”
He clapped as he said it, not leaving a window open for their response. “So I’m gonna go to the studio twice a week now. One time for a work shift and one time for my acting class … Oh my God, you guys, I’m so excited.”
Aria was happy for him, but she was not happy for herself. She was sick of seeing him disappointed. She was sick of watching him struggle through an experience that so far had been the exact opposite of the success he had imagined it would be. But she was also afraid. She felt him getting closer to his dreams and she felt those dreams pulling him further away from her. Unexpectedly, she found herself afraid to be left behind by him. She and Luke offered congratulations, but neither man noticed the sudden drop in Aria’s mood.
Taylor reached into his backpack and produced three packages of ramen noodles. Luke had to cook them sequentially because his cooking stove was only large enough for one serving. Aria watched him pull out the propane base of his little stove, assemble the other parts around it and start cooking. To her surprise, when he was done with his first batch, he handed it to her.
Unable to wait long enough for them to cool down, Aria scalded the roof of her mouth. She ate them with a fork that Luke unfolded from his pocketknife. The all-too-familiar flavor and scent of the noodles soothed away the anxiety she felt in response to Taylor’s news. She loved the wrinkled texture of them against her tongue. Taylor had picked up the theosophical conversation with Luke where she had left off. And so she resumed her usual observer role and listened to them while she ate. When he had finished, she let Palin lick the remaining broth off the edges of the bowl.
Taylor, who usually had an easy time sleeping despite any kind of disruption, could barely sleep that night from excitement. He tossed and turned, unable to stop his mind from running down the corridors of what good things might happen because of his sudden positive twist of fate. Aria, on the other hand, was not kept awake by the same ambition. She fell asleep with her hands cramped tight around the reassuring shape of the beaver statue that Robert had given her. The sudden threat of being left behind by Taylor had caused her to want a home now more than ever.
PART THREE
SONATA
APPASSIONATA
CHAPTER 19
The way the light filtered into the giant hallway made the marble flooring look like it was covered in glass. The gloss of it hurt Omkar’s eyes as he walked down the hall. Students sat around the round tables that were scattered to either side, their heavy textbooks stacked beside them. No one looked particularly excited. Each student seemed to be absorbed in the drudgery of what they had to get done in order to attain their chosen degree.
Omkar joined them. He sat down at a table with two other students. Only one of them looked up to acknowledge his presence. He thumbed through the polished pages of a calculus textbook until he found the pages that corresponded to the professor’s daily assignment and began resolving equations with his mechanical pencil.
Omkar was in his second year at college. He had chosen to major in civil engineering. Even
