“I’d wanted to discover new processes. I wanted to be rich. But on that job, I lifted hundred-pound bags of cement off trucks all day. Every time I hoisted a bag, I thought of money and medals. I practiced my acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize under my breath. It was hot. July. We worked without shirts. After a week on the job I stopped sweating. I thought I was getting good at the job.”

He was silent again. He smiled faintly at the memory, his eyes fixed on the fire.

Carlotta popped in, braids flying. “Dinner’s ready!”

The door swung into the table I was sitting on and she peeked around it, grinning. “Are you all stoned?”

Rennel groaned.

Sam smiled sadly and tapped out his pipe. “That’s a broken pencil question.”

Lichtenstein’s eyes fell away from the fire. He looked disgruntled. His philosophic mood was gone. He’d wanted to tell us something that now we’d never know. We’d lost our chance.

We all filed out after Carlotta. Angelina ran on ahead of her. Lichtenstein came out last, slowly.

“What were you going to tell us?” Rennel asked anxiously.

There was a long pause in which the only sound was our feet padding over dead needles.

“How I decided to become a farmer.” His voice was crude in the sunlight. It was a voice meant for small rooms in the dark.

I look behind me at Sam.

“I’m sorry you didn’t get to hear that. He got enuresis and nearly died. In the coma, he had a revelation that changed his life. He really tells it well. Try to get him to talk about it again.”

“Why’s it a secret about medical school in India?”

My voice was low, but he grabbed my arm and nodded ahead at Carlotta.

Before we reached the lawn, we could hear the music. All the windows of the house were open. The sun dropped gold in the glass, and the music roared out to quiet the birds and disguise the wind that arrived as the sun went down.

The pan was placed in the middle of the floor. We sat around it with small wooden bowls and chopsticks and little gray bowls of thin tea. The horsemeat was tender. The rice was cooked well. Rennel explained the relationship between motorcycle riding and calligraphy and Zen. Lichtenstein explained how enlightenment can be achieved through physical labor.