Everyday Emily walked by his land on her way to the bus stop. He was a stranger to these parts. He was a man in his early 40’s. A foreigner. Emily thought that perhaps he was from Malaysia. His skin was a beautiful brown. His hair was slightly wavy, silky, black and long. It flowed all the way down his back where he kept it neatly tied back in a thick braid. He had facial hair. Nothing too thick yet it covered his soft featured face in a completely attractive way. Emily was very intrigued by this man who had bought the large acreage of land next to her little place. He had showed up late one night, set up a tent and started the next morning to build. He must have been a carpenter because he was building his little house from the ground up all by himself. Emily watched as month after month his space took beautiful form and shape.

On occasion, even though he was deep in his work, he would look over at Emily as she walked to the bus stop and he would nod his head in acknowledgment. She would smile back, or nod back or occasionally in the colder months would wave a mittened hand at him. She wanted to approach him and talk with him to find out his story but she didn’t. It wasn’t that Emily was shy. Not at all. She was actually a very warm and accepting woman. But recently she had been through a lot. She had put herself through a very painful experience. She had gone and gotten herself mixed up with the wrong kind of man. That whole experience had pained Emily greatly. Her heart just really hurt in her chest. She couldn’t help but feel the pain of being taken advantage of by a man she had put her trust, friendship and love into. She was broken. Broken times call for solitude and retrospective thoughts. At least it did in Emily’s case. This led her to being a hermit of sorts. So she would wave and keep her distance on the curb of the roadside then she would continue on to the bus stop with her head down and her hair covering her sad face from the beautiful natural world that she loved so much.

Time passed slowly. Emily’s pain seemed to lessen as her wounds scabbed over and began to heal. She still felt the rawness underneath but knew that with time things would again feel normal. At least she hoped for that much. Humans can be so cruel to each other. Lies, deceit, selfishness, thoughtlessness. These things can kill the spirit of a good woman like Emily.

One day Emily passed by her neighbor’s home and saw that the design of the architecture was amazingly intricate. A beautifully carved wood frame held the house upright. The entrance was constructed of a cherry wood with a black walnut inlay. Emily was so moved by such care in his detailed work that unknowingly she began to again see details everywhere. One day she brought her camera with her while she walked to the bus stop, she found herself stopping to take pictures of wet autumn leaves against the green of pin cushion moss. She took pictures of spider webs hanging heavy with dew. She took pictures of berries turning color, of sunrise reflecting off of puddles. Tracks made by raccoon paws in the mud, a sharp shin hawk sitting statuesque in a sugar maple and a flock of geese honking their way through the bluest of sky. As she took these pictures she thought about her neighbor. She wanted to give him a house warming present. She wanted an excuse to see him up-close and ask him questions. She wanted to finally hear his story. Emily loved hearing people’s stories.

For weeks she worked putting the pictures she had taken together in a collage. She cut and pasted and pasted and cut and moved pictures around and moved them again. When she finally finished she looked at her art with new eyes. What she made was no longer individual pictures but was a large picture of the natural world melded into a picture of her very own vision. The world that she loved. This world in which she saw herself. She knew very well of humanity, mistakes, pain, loss, destruction, uncertainty and loneliness but she also knew of love, light, laughter, life, community, and hope. She knew her work was done. She rolled up the collage carefully threw on her old rubber boots and headed over to finally make her neighbors acquaintance.

As she walked towards his little house she could see that it was lit up with a rosy kind of glow as if the house was kept bright and warm on the inside by candle light. She could also smell that hickory was burning in his fireplace and could see the smoke escaping from the sturdy chimney. She was admittedly a little nervous considering they had been neighbors for some time now and had done nothing but nod at each other. She felt that maybe it had been a bit rude for her to have not come over earlier. She stepped up to the door and wrapped quietly with her knuckles on the wood. The next instance the door opened and the man, her stranger and neighbor was standing in the doorway with soft smiling eyes and a warm smile hidden behind his soft beard. “Hello Emily” he said gently as he stepped aside with the door open beckoning her in with the sweep of his arm “I have been expecting you…”

“Oh. I had no idea you knew my name!” Emily said surprised. She could actually feel her face blushing at the intimate way he greeted her at his door. He was acting as if she was an old friend, or someone who he had shared history with. He helped her off with her bulky sweater and sat her down on a hand made bench in his mudroom and slide off the old rubber boots from her feet. In a familiar way he held out his hand for her and helped her up and then led her into his beautiful house. He led her into the living room where he had placed large pillows all over the floor in front of the fireplace. He seated her on one and seated himself on another facing her. In front of them were two glasses filled with a honey colored liquid. He picked one up and handed it to her and picked up the other for himself. They looked at each other and smiled and took a sip. It was unlike anything Emily had ever had. It was fermented all right and the few sips she took went right to her head yet there was nothing too heady about it. She still felt as though she had her wits about her. “What is this?” she asked. “It is a special tea from my country” he said with accented English. “Where are you from?” Emily asked as her brain began to buzz with every sip she took. “That is not important right now. What is important is what I need to tell you. The reason I am here”. She leaned back against another huge pillow and looked at him and nodded. “Tell me everything” she said. He looked at her deeply now and realized she was ready and with that he began…

He was born into a very long generation of healers. Since he was a young man his family sent him into the world to find his healing purpose and since then he had been traveling the world searching and learning as all healers are called to do. His spiritual journey had taken him to every corner of the world learning all methods of healing practices from every different culture. The past year he was in Australia working with indigenous peoples learning local botany and ancient medicinal practices when he began to have dreams of a woman of dark features with blackness pouring from her heart surrounded by trees bearing weight on their branches of wet red leaves. At first the dreams were foggy but then they became clearer. He knew that his dreams were powerful guides telling him of his next journeys. So he began to pay attention. When he would meet this woman in his dreams he began to look around and notice details. He noticed trees, land topography, glacial formations, mosses, bugs, lakes, birds and mammals. During his waking hours when he wasn’t studying he would pour through books and try to piece together where this woman was in the world. Eventually he pieced together where he would find her. Soon after he left Australia to go to the east coast of the United States where he bought a beat up pickup truck, closed his eyes and followed where his heart tugged him. It took two weeks but he eventually drove by Emily on her way to the bus stop one morning and knew he had found her. So he set up shop and waited for her to be ready to come to him. This waiting could take days to months to years. It all depended on the pain of the person. She had taken her time getting there, but he was in no rush and was glad she was there now. He had much work to do.

Emily didn’t really know what to say. It all sounded so strange and yet it fit perfectly. She didn’t feel scared. She didn’t feel like this was wrong. She felt like this was right. Like this is where she was supposed to be. Warm and languid and comfortable and protected and safe and open and accepting. Her instincts weren’t telling her to run or to flee. They were telling her to trust and to go along with whatever this stranger had in store for her. She nodded at him and that was all he needed. Instantly he was in a different mode. He stood up and he examined her with his eyes by the firelight. “First things first” he said “you must know that my healing powers have brought me to you for a reason. You are obviously important to this world or else the universe wouldn’t have sent me to you. There is something out there that led me here. There is something out there that can’t have you be in pain right now. There is something out there that needs me to find the purity of your heart that once was. That will be again. I don’t know what of my healing remedies I will pull from to help you. But you must trust that I am being led too. What I do to and for you is done in the name of healing you. Right now I am looking at you and the only thing my healing powers are telling me is that you need a bath young lady. And I am just the healer to do it”.

He pulled her to her feet and led her gently to a beautiful large showering room. The walls and the floor were made of weathered teak and in the middle of the room sat a little bench large enough for one bottom to sit upon and around the bench were buckets full of hot steaming water. He turned her to him then and looked her in the eyes and said “trust me” and she nodded. He lifted up her over sized shirts and eventually under all the layers he stripped off of her was a woman’s body that he had not even begun to imagined she would possess. He eventually stepped away from her nakedness and looked her over. She really was beautiful. Gentle sloping curves and beautiful, heavy, pink nippled breasts. Her legs were shapely and womanly. Her arms, hands and feet were graceful and sensual and her neck was long and tantalizing. He let his eyes soak her in and she stood there and allowed his eyes to roam the plains of her body. Eventually he looked her in the eye and smiled. She smiled back. “The art of healing has begun to stir in me” he said as he looked down at the crotch of his pants. “And I can see in is stirring in you too” he said as he looked at the glistening hair surrounding her pussy. She blushed and looked down. “Oh no Emily. You mustn’t be ashamed or embarrassed. You are beautiful.” He said as he slipped his finger between her wet pussy lips and lightly pinched her clit between his finger tips. She sucked in her breathe and let out a little moan as he twisted her clit a little first to the left and then to the right. “Yes. You are ripe for the healing” he whispered. “Please sit on the bench. I am going to bathe you and groom you before I begin the real intense part of the healing process”. Emily sat on the bench with her legs spread open. He picked up the first bucket of steaming water and poured it over her body. The room was now a sauna. Eucalyptus smelling steam filled the air and Emily was feeling extremely erotic.

To be continued ... (The Healer-Part II)