Blood Vivicanti (9780989878586) Read Free

patience can be as painful as it is rewarding.
     
     
     
     
    Theo faced me. “I’m going
to drink from him tonight.”
    I couldn’t understand why.
The old man didn’t appear to be anyone special. People all over the
world lose childhood sweethearts. Besides, the old man’s movement
said that he’d also had a desk job for decades before retirement,
that he was living in a gated community in suburban sprawl, that he
had no interest in the arts or sciences, and that he went to
church.
    He reminded me of my
dad.
    Theo smiled at me
kindly.
    “ I’ve played violin
sonatas,” he said. “I’ve scaled mountains. I’ve done so much more
than that. But all of those Blood Memories were from people who had
much skill with work and not enough experience with
life.”
    Theo pointed to the old
man.
    “ Experience is in his blood.
Wisdom is in his Blood Memories.”
    “ Does wisdom come from
experience only?” I inquired.
    Theo thought it did. All he
wanted was a sense of interior balance. The old man would give it
to him.
    I wasn’t interested in
wisdom, only in acceptance. I wanted to drink the blood that Theo
drank. I feared being unlike him. I worried that he might dislike
me if I was too different from who and how he was.
    I was becoming my
mom.
     
     
     
     
    Theo wouldn’t let me drink
the old man’s blood with him. Only a pint could be taken from the
old man, and that pint belonged to Theo. Not me.
    He sped off toward the old
man. I watched from the pier. Theo actually introduced himself. The
old man greeted him warmly. The yellow lab licked Theo’s hand, all
sticky from the cotton candy. The dog loved Theo instantly. So did
the old man.
    The three of them walked
along the beach together. They talked for a little
while.
    Theo pointed to the
storm.
    The old man
looked.
    Not even the dog heard Theo
move. Theo was behind the old man in a blink. Probiscus in neck.
Drinking his pint of blood. Nothing more.
    Wisdom – experience – the
blood of a self-actualized soul – that was all he
wanted.
    Perhaps that’s why he never
asked to drink my blood.
    I couldn’t fault him. Theo
was right: The old man had a kind of wisdom. He had courage and
humility, knowledge and understanding and prudence, and he had an
awareness of a power greater than himself. For Theo, each of those
facets was an important component of wisdom.
    He liked the old man very
much.
     
     
     
     
    I looked for another old
man to drink from. But I didn’t know how to see the embodiment of
wisdom. Old men just looked old.
    I was only seventeen after
all.
     
     
     
     
    I went on the Ferris wheel.
I had a seat all to myself. I was used to being by myself. It felt
normal. Normal felt safe.
    The Ferris wheel looped
around and around. From the top I could see the nighttime lights of
San Diego over one hundred miles away. Beneath me I could see every
sight, smell every scent, and hear every sound throughout the
amusement park.
    I could smell grease on the
roller coasters, and I could smell arcade tokens touched by
countless fingers, and I could smell the milky sweet scent of
children sweating out sugar. And I could smell a million other
scents.
    I could see fathers digging
deep into pockets to give begging kids coins for games, and I could
see boyfriends winning girlfriends massive stuffed animals, and I
could see vendors sneakily skimming pocket change off the top of
the amusement park’s profits. And I could see a million other
sights.
    My photographic memory saw
and heard and remembered everything. Every scent, every expression,
every stitch the crowd wore, every laughter bubbling up from their
throats – my mind cataloged all of it efficiently.
     
     
     
     
    I also noticed someone
watching me.
    He looked like a man on the
outside. He was tall and lean, middle aged, dark brown hair down to
his chin, mustache, goatee, and redness around his eyes. I’d never
seen someone so hungry, angry, alone, and tired.
    His name was
Lowen.
    I called him The