Chapter 78 The Cost

The cost was the keeping. Not the locks. Not the wards. Not the painted symbols or the carved circles or the lines drawn in plaster and stone. The cost was the keeping itself. The keeping was the conversation between the world above and the world below, and the conversation was the deep's voice, and the voice was the deep, and the deep was here. And the keeping was the keeper's way of participating in the deep's nature, and the participation was the cost, and the cost was the keeping, and the keeping was the door, and the door was open. The cost was Eli's time. Eleven years of watching, listening, tending, keeping. Eleven years of pressing his palm to the root's surface and feeling the pulse, four beats to the minute, steady and sure. Eleven years of checking the water level, monitoring the mold's spread, counting the trees' distance, measuring the hum's intensity. Eleven years of the keeping, and the keeping was the cost, and the cost was the deep's way of saying: I am here, and I am speaking, and the speaking is the cost, and the cost is the keeping, and the keeping is the door, and the door is open. The cost was Nora's dreams. She dreamed the deep's dreams now, moved through the dark places of the earth, through the hollow, through the root, through the deep, and the dreams were the deep's memory, the deep's way of remembering the land before the house, the silence before the keeping, the dark before the light, and the dreams were the cost, and the cost was the keeping, and the keeping was the door, and the door was open. The cost was the house. The house was no longer a house. It was a root system, a tree, a body, the deep's body, and the body was the deep's way of being in the world, and the being was the cost, and the cost was the keeping, and the keeping was the door, and the door was open. The cost was the garden. The garden was gone, replaced by the deep's surface, the green-gold mold, the deep's skin, and the skin was the deep's way of touching the world, and the touching was the cost, and the cost was the keeping, and the keeping was the door, and the door was open. And the deep spoke, and the speaking was the cost, and the cost was the keeping, and the keeping was the door, and the door was open, and the deep was here. The cost was the keeping itself. The keeping was the conversation between the world above and the world below, and the conversation was the deep's voice, and the voice was the deep, and the deep was here. And the keeping was the keeper's way of participating in the deep's nature, and the participation was the cost, and the cost was the keeping, and the keeping was the door, and the door was open. The cost was Eli's time. Eleven years of watching, listening, tending, keeping. Eleven years of pressing his palm to the root's surface and feeling the pulse, four beats to the minute, steady and sure. Eleven years of checking the water level, monitoring the mold's spread, counting the trees' distance, measuring the hum's intensity. The cost was the keeping, and the keeping was the deep's way of saying: I am here, and I am speaking, and the speaking is the cost, and the cost is the keeping, and the keeping is the door, and the door is open. The cost was Nora's dreams. She dreamed the deep's dreams now, moved through the dark places of the earth, through the hollow, through the root, through the deep, and the dreams were the deep's memory, the deep's way of remembering the land before the house, the silence before the keeping, the dark before the light, and the dreams were the cost, and the cost was the keeping, and the keeping was the door, and the door was open. The cost was the house. The house was no longer a house. It was a root system, a tree, a body, the deep's body, and the body was the deep's way of being in the world, and the being was the cost, and the cost was the keeping, and the keeping was the door, and the door was open. The cost was the garden. The garden was gone, replaced by the deep's surface, the green-gold mold, the deep's skin, and the skin was the deep's way of touching the world, and the touching was the cost, and the cost was the keeping, and the keeping was the door, and the door was open. The cost was the fence. The fence was gone, absorbed into the deep's expansion, the dark soil covering the posts and the chain link, and the covering was the deep's way of erasing the line, the deep's way of saying: there is no boundary, and the no-boundary was the cost, and the cost was the keeping, and the keeping was the door, and the door was open. And the deep spoke, and the speaking was the cost, and the cost was the keeping, and the keeping was the door, and the door was open, and the deep was here. The cost was the keeping. The keeping was the conversation between the world above and the world below, and the conversation was the deep's voice, and the voice was the deep, and the deep was here. The cost was the keeper's way of participating in the deep's nature, and the participation was the keeping, and the keeping was the door, and the door was open. The cost was Eli's attention. Eleven years of pressing his palm to the root, eleven years of listening to the deep's song, eleven years of watching the mold spread and the trees move and the water spiral and the house change. The cost was the attention, and the attention was the keeping, and the keeping was the door, and the door was open. The cost was the knowledge. The knowledge the deep had given him, the gift that had settled into his bones and his blood and the spaces between his cells, the knowledge of the deep's nature, the deep's essence, the deep's way of being. The cost was the knowledge, and the knowledge was the keeping, and the keeping was the door, and the door was open. The cost was the house. The house was no longer a house. It was the deep's body, and the body was the deep's way of being in the world, and the being was the cost, and the cost was the keeping, and the keeping was the door, and the door was open. The cost was worth it. The cost was the deep's way of saying: I am here, and I am speaking, and the speaking is the cost, and the cost is the keeping, and the keeping is the door, and the door is open, and the deep is here. ---