Kyle took a deep breath and stirred; stretching as far as his sleeping bag would allow before opening his eyes. What time is it? he asked, with the groggy languor of a bear cub.

I checked my phone. Just after six, I said. I sat up and suddenly felt very light-headed. I rubbed my face, reached for one of the plastic jugs of lukewarm water, and took a sip. I looked down at Kyle; he was lying there, eyes half closed, on the verge of falling back asleep. He smiled up at me and I smiled back, and sank down into my sleeping bag. We lay there for a long while, watching the shadows of bugs fly over the tent. I could hear a bee buzzing and gently thwapping the sides of the tent with its bulbous body. Performing its sacred, life-sustaining duties. Using the Resonance for its intricate, internal navigation system. Kyle told me that you could cure hay fever by ingesting honey made by bees from the local pollen affecting you.

Really? That astounded me, and yet, the natural world was full of miracles. Miracles we once knew, and had forgotten or mislaid.

He then turned his head to look at me, across a mountain ridge of quilts and pillows—Last night was surreal.

It was, I replied. And very—

Intense.

Very.

He reached over and wiped sleep away from my eyes. He then asked if we had done something wrong. I considered how to give words to what I had spent the last few hours turning over in my head. I told him no. We didn’t hurt anyone. We didn’t break any law.

But tuning, without the others . . . are we keeping something from them?

As I lay there, considering his question, it struck me that the world was filled with an almost unbearably beautiful and limitless grace, and it was only we who were limited, in our capacity to perceive it. And just as no one possessed that grace, no one possessed our capacity to perceive it.

It’s ours to do with what we want, I said. He nodded and seemed satisfied with this answer. I eventually rallied myself out of my sleeping bag. He sat propped up on his elbows, watching me pull my shirt and shoes back on. I tried to convince him to come back to my house for a shower, and a proper breakfast. He refused, as I knew he would. I took a step towards the tent flap and unzipped it. Well, I said, you know where to find me if you need me.

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