ARTHYR AURELIO AND THE SANGHA

The community on the other side of the mountain was called the Sangha. As Skyblue grew, she kept looking for chances to return. Sometimes she went a while without seeing her fellow misfits; when they met again, everyone had new questions.

Arthyr Aurelio greeted them with a quiet joy. He encouraged them to know themselves, to be free, and to remain true to who they were.

Much of what he said sounded familiar to Skyblue. She did not know where she had heard it before, but she felt she was remembering it. Something strange happened to her there: in that place, so far removed from the life she knew, everything seemed more real.

Arthyr Aurelio never complained about anything. He listened to the end of every story they brought him and would often answer with a kindly smile:

“That’s very good.”

At first, his words puzzled them. What could possibly be good about the things that had happened to them? But he never laughed at their sorrows or asked them to pretend to be happy. He stayed beside them, attentive, as though he knew the story was not over yet.

Skyblue and her friends watched the way he treated everyone. He seemed to enjoy a difficult question as much as an orange shared beneath the trees. After he left, they wondered among themselves whether he was real or whether they were all having the same dream.

“How can he know so much about the world and still love it?” Skyblue asked once.