Out in the middle of the desert where the land swells above 7000 ft. and then shoots skyward to 12,000 ft., is a huge forest of ponderosa pine trees. It is an oasis. It shoots up out of the desert like an island shoots up out of the sea. It is there that they met. She 52; he 42. Neither of them attracted to each other in any particular way other than an immense impenetrable friendship. Neither of them wanting anything from the other except to hear the other’s voice in the dark void through which they walked. Here they found themselves clinging to each other as if they were stranded in the middle of the ocean.