HEAVENMagazineFall 2012

But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount upwith wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and notfaint.Isaiah 40:31

In the beginning, she asked me what I was afraid of. We were walkingalong the Playa de Piñones and the sun was setting behind us. Wavesexpired on the beach, and our long shadows pointed toward the sea.

She came into my life quite abruptly,and when she told me her story abouther boyfriend and her tumultuousrelationship with him, my heart wentout to her and her daughter, and Isincerely wanted to help. We went toR. J. Bentley’s across the street fromthe campus chapel and I ordered thesampler (a combination of friedcalamari, grilled jerk fingers, cheesesticks, cheddar skins, and onion rings),and she ordered a beer.

She told me that her brother was alawyer and her sister was married toone and that her parents were bothrefugees escaping from Vietnamduring the Vietnam War (called theAmerican War in Vietnam) and thather name, if I was wondering, wasFrench, because the French hadestablished a colony there a long timeago. I pointed out to her that Maia isactually Greek and Gabrielle isprobably Hebrew, but she insistedthat both were French. She said thather great-grandfather had married aFrench woman of the old aristocracy(I asked, “Which aristocracy wasthat?” and she responded, “The oldone!”) and that was why her eyes wereblue.

She had a wisp of blonde hair that fell over her face, whichshe constantly adjusted with her fingers. Otherwise, her hairwas homogenously brown. I asked her if there was a storybehind the blonde streak and she looked at me a bitembarrassed and said, “No, no story. Why do you ask?” towhich I said, “You always seem to have a story,” and then shesmiled awkwardly for a bit and started talking to me aboutwhat it was like growing up in San Jose (the “408”).

How meaningless! Are the ‘precious’ moments in our lives justpatterned events set on a loop? Do we all run this gamutbecause we are afraid of dying? We must experience all of life’sintricacies because someday we know it will end…

I remember thinking to myself, staring at that stream, “Whydon’t grown‐ups build a raft and sail this thing down to theriver?” ‐ I figured when I grew up and made some money, I’ddo just that.