“No. Thank you.” I looked over at Gil, who was making a racket stacking the plastic cups, pretending not to listen. “Can’t you leave them?”

“I just wrote them, I don’t have another copy.”

“Maybe you should let them cool off a little before you have somebody else read them. We really have to hustle here, sorry.”

He muttered something like, Figures, and walked off. He always seemed to be stomping away. Fine, let him.

“What was that about?” Gil asked.

“I don’t know. Poetry.” We hurried to finish and grab some dinner before the night’s main event, the first assembly.

The big auditorium in the conference center was the gathering place for each evening’s event, the author readings and announcements. Tonight was all about welcoming and introductions. I sat near the back with Gil in case we had to bolt and deal with something. There were nearly a hundred conference students and another two dozen faculty and staff members. A big crowd. I picked out the people I knew, the people I was starting to know. Already I was feeling the peculiar isolation and intensity of the place, perhaps of every such gathering, as if we were all on a spaceship traveling to some distant galaxy. I was starting to grasp how you could fall in love on such journeys or feel bereft when they ended.

Tony was practically levitating with nerves when he stepped to the microphone. “Good evening and welcome to Intersections! We’re off to a great start, aren’t we?”

Everyone applauded. Tony said there were some basic rules, designed to keep them all safe, and the most important of these was No Smoking. Nowhere, and nothing! No candles! No incense! The only fires were to be in the riverfront firepit and the main lodge. If there was a fire, evacuation procedures would be followed to the letter. Swimming was at your own risk. And there was also the matter of the septic system. Did they want him to go into details, or could he trust them to read the posted instructions in the bathrooms?

Everyone groaned. Tony talked about the workshop schedule, the meal schedule, the upcoming nature hike. I felt my eyes closing. I’d been running all day and it was catching up with me. A Forest Service ranger took the microphone next to talk more about fire danger, and how to avoid bears. One of the environmental writers followed and gave a talk about ecosystems and California native plants and animals.

Gil nudged me and said I was snoring, and I came awake so out of myself, so out of time and place, I could have been anyone, anywhere. Before I was able to get my bearings, my eyes rested on a face that I registered as beautiful, without recognizing it, and only in the next moment did I become aware that it was Viridian.