JOSEPHINE

     Once upon a time, there was a National Rainbow Gathering and twenty thousand hippies gathered together to laugh and dance and camp and to love each other. Into the National Rainbow Gathering walked Josephine. Josephine was a large woman. She had large breasts. She had brown skin almost golden. She had a smile that went beyond the confines of her face. Josephine was pregnant, and she had this glow about her that reached out to other people around her. People soon learned that if you hugged Josephine, she'd hug you back tighter, and if you loved Josephine she'd return your love tenfold. Josephine arrived late at the gathering and as such she didn't have that great a place to camp. She camped by a stand of dead trees near a dirty pond. Within two days, the trees were alive and the pond was clear.

      Josephine came to the center circle. On that day, at the center circle, they were talking about the speaking feather. They were talking about who gets the speaking feather and how long you get the speaking feather and what you get to say when you have the speaking feather and who gets the speaking feather next. Josephine asked for the speaking feather, and she got it. She asked for some silence and she got that as well. Then she turned to the man next to her and she gave him a hug. There was a woman further along and she gave her a hug too. Then there was a little boy and she caressed his cheek. On around the circle she went touching each person till she came back to her own spot where she sat down and passed the feather along. That night the council meeting went much more smoothly than normal. In fact, they decided to do something somewhat unprecedented. They allowed Josephine to move into the council teepee.

      And so the gathering went and it was fine. People were having a euphoric time at the gathering. On July 7th, there's usually an exodus of people as they head out of camp. This year, although many people did leave, many others stayed. On July 14th there was still a good sized camp. On July 21st it didn't look like Josephine was going anywhere and so neither did a lot of people. On August 1st two thousand people were still there and the gathering just went on.

      Well, the townspeople were not too happy with this. At the local town, they had been led to believe that a bunch of hippies would be camped for a week. But now a month had passed, and the people in the town were starting to get antsy. The police got anxious as well and it didn't take long for things to come to a head.

      It happened with Peter. Peter was trying to walk into camp. The police wanted to search Peter but Peter didn't want to be searched. Then this scuffle broke out and Peter ended up getting shot. The hippies carried him in on a stretcher. They were screaming, "Oh my God, he's been shot! We need to call the press! We need to call the ACLU! We need to tell the world!"

      In the midst of all this chaos, Josephine walked out to where Peter was in the middle of the crowd. Peter had been shot in the thigh. With her two first fingers, Josephine reached into the bullet wound. Peter screamed. Everyone stopped. "What is she doing?" She was reaching deep inside the wound, until she pulled the bullet out. Then with those same two bloody fingers, she grabbed a leaf from a tree and plunged those fingers back into the wound. Peter screamed again. Blood was gushing everywhere with Peter writhing and howling way. Everybody stared. Josephine was grinding those fingers around and around in the wound. Then she pulled her fingers out and the leaf was gone. She stood up and said, "We have to get this boy to a hospital."

      Right away people got moving. Some people carried Peter some of the way while others pulled a pick-up truck as far into the woods as they could and they threw Peter in the back and drove him to the hospital. At the hospital, Peter heard a lot of bad news. Peter heard the doctors say that he would never walk again. Peter heard the insurance company say that they would not cover it. Peter heard the police say that they would prosecute. Peter heard his family say that they would disown him. At the end of the week, Josephine showed up and she said simply, "Peter, come home. You'll be fine."

      So Peter came back to the gathering. Within a week, Peter's wound had pretty much healed. In another week, Peter could walk. It was a miracle that everyone attributed to Josephine. But Josephine denied having anything to do with it. In fact, the entire time, Josephine advocated doing nothing. Not calling the press or the ACLU and not making a fuss. The police worried about how things might have escalated and they backed off a bit. That's how the gathering went on through September.

      In October, the bad times hit. It started with the clouds. The clouds were very thick and low and oppressive. There was supposed to be a full moon that night, but you couldn't see it. You couldn't even place the moon in the sky; the clouds were so thick. There was also to be a celebration. A grand feast was planned for when Josephine was to have her baby. But it never happened, because Josephine had her baby a full month early. She refused to be taken to the hospital and insisted on delivering right there in the council teepee.

      It was a very difficult delivery. There was a fear that she might die from loss of blood. The baby almost died as well. But in the end, after hours of worry and struggle, she gave birth to a very small baby girl. She held that girl tight and rocked her and didn't pay much attention to other things going on around camp.

      The snows came and people started freaking out. One guy tripped real hard and wandered into the woods and no one heard from him again. One woman was raped. Then later, Daria gave birth as well, but she gave birth to a stillborn and tears flowed all around. It was a terrible time and many people left camp around then. Camp was reduced down to one hundred stalwart souls. These were people that were going to make this camp work. They were determined to stick it out no matter what.

      Because there was only one hundred of them, the camp was much smaller. Because there was only one hundred, they needed far fewer trips into town for supplies. Because there was only one hundred, there was much less work to get done. The weather improved. Josephine came out as well. So suddenly, things at camp got much better and nicer.

      Josephine took Daria in under her wing and it was a kind of blessing. As it turned out, Josephine couldn't produce any milk for her baby. But Daria could, and in this way, Josephine and Daria became lovers. They lived together in the council teepee as a family of three women (including the baby).

      Everyone kept coming by the council teepee. "Josephine, where do we find the next batch of wood?" "Josephine, what does my dream mean?" "Josephine, can you work out this argument we are having?" Peter came by most often of all. He was always coming by the council teepee just to spend a little more time with Josephine.

      One day, Peter came by the council teepee and he made a little noise outside to announce himself. There was no answering noise inside and he peeked in. Josephine was gone! Daria was gone! The baby was gone! So Peter called out an alarm and search parties were organized. People roamed around the woods calling out, "Josephine! Daria! Josephine!" Finally, somebody decided to look again inside the teepee and saw that Josephine had left a note.

      Everyone gathered expectantly, waiting to hear words of wisdom from Josephine. But the note wasn't like that. It said simply that Josephine was happy that she had formed a family and that she wished everyone else was happy too. "With love, Josephine." The people sat there in silence. They couldn't quite believe what they were hearing. They starting seeing signs in the birds and in the trees that it was their duty to hold the space for Josephine's return. The snows came again. This time it snowed really hard and the people really started freezing and suffering.

      They got bailed out. They got bailed out by the last people you would expect to bail them out. The Red Cross came. They came with blankets and medical supplies and food. They came with an ultimatum. They said, "Look, we'll help you through this blizzard, but it's over. Break camp. Go home." And so it was that the last hundred people walked into town, holding hands and singing.

      By Mark Honeycutt