suddenly

Sometimes we laid together at night, looking up at the clear, unending calm of the desert sky. Her fingers intertwined with mine as she told me about her travels. One day when she was a teenager, she had been called, tugged by some unknown drive to leave. She left the reservation on horseback, sending the wise beast home once she had reached the borders. That's how she left the Land of Ancestors, as she called it.

"How did you make enough money to survive?" I asked her one night beneath the stars.

She just gave a sort of little shrug. "I don't know. The things I've needed have always just sort of... fallen into my lap. I guess I get by on the kindness of strangers, though it's been too consistent for it just to be coincidence. I've never wanted for anything, never been hungry or thirsty."

I marveled at that. I knew that she didn't 'technically' have a home, but she wasn't exactly what you imagined when you thought 'homeless'. She seemed to be more at home in the world than anyone else, as though the whole world had been meant just for her to explore. It was amazing that a woman with no formal education could be so free in this day and age. I bet even the birds envied her. I know I did.

I didn't know what had brought her to me. I didn't know what kept her so happy and alive when many people in this world struggle from day-to-day. I didn't know why she was here, or why I was here, and I didn't know a damn thing.

Suddenly, I felt at peace.