Dragonfly by Jax Hill 

Jack, Jazz and Pete didn’t tell anyone else about that Visit. I didn’t blame them. That was weird, even for Torstein. But the worst of it was this idea that he was going to die. He hadn’t seemed afraid when we’d told him what Waverling said about Nikolai. But now I was scared.

We got a letter, or I should say Maggie got a letter, from Angel, at the rehab. She said the program was working really well, and she had found Jesus and He was helping her stay off crack. I was glad for whatever would help her stay off crack. She hoped to be back in the spring, to be ready to graduate in the spring.

Winter was coming fast. The nights had turned cold, though it was only November. Another one of Bruiser’s contacts in the business world had come up with blankets for the homeless, and everyone got a great buzz handing them out. But we had to be careful, too. The city didn’t like having homeless people on the streets or in the parks. There were shelters, and the authorities would have preferred people went there. For whatever reason, some homeless people didn’t want to go to a shelter. Maybe because they couldn’t drink or use drugs there. A lot of homeless people had a problem that way.

I guess someone besides Nikolai had noticed what we were doing downtown ... coats for kids and blankets for the homeless ... Story Hour ... there wasn’t really a lot else we were doing. A TV news lady, a really good-looking one, came to interview Torstein. She was called Ariel Prince, and she had this shiny dark hair and deep blue eyes. She also had a mellifluous voice, and she dressed really well. The whole package. She came by herself, and stayed with us one day; we weren’t doing anything very special, just Story Hour and then visiting with whoever happened to be in the park. Because of the cooler weather, there weren’t as many people as usual. Only the most die-hard drunks and pan-handlers stayed in the park in the evenings.

Ariel sat with them and asked them all about what went on here, and asked all of us about Torstein, and asked Torstein what he was thinking and why he spent his days this way when the rest of the world was working for a living. She was really good at her job because she made you think she was terribly interested in your answer. Even some of the loopy drunks, she listened to them just as if they made good sense.

She watched Torstein moving around visiting with different people, and she smiled. I thought maybe she was succumbing to his Irresistible Charm, but that wasn’t it. He told me about it later. She invited him to come to dinner with her. Wow. I thought that was a pretty cool thing, dinner with that beautiful TV news lady with the lovely voice. I guess I was a bit jealous of Torstein. He walked off with her, and waved at us over his shoulder. She was taking him to The Top. It was this revolving restaurant downtown that looked out over the city. Spectacular view, pricey food. It was exceptional by all accounts.

So they got to The Top, and fortunately Torstein was wearing his sport coat. Dress code and all. Unfortunately it was his usual iridescent green one, but they let him in anyway. Half of being able to pull off a wacky style is acting as if you’re at home in it, and Torstein always seemed right at home. So they were seated at a table by the window, of course, and the whole room was gently turning to show a different view of the city, every moment. And Torstein said to Ariel, “Did you enjoy the afternoon? Aren’t they a great bunch of people?” She said yes they were, and she did enjoy it, and she had an idea how to take Torstein’s message to even more people, through TV.

“You have an amazing personality for television,” she told him. “I think I could get you a regular spot on the nightly news to begin with, at least weekly. But I think once more people see you on TV, they’re going to want you every night. They’re going to want you round the clock.”

Torstein told her he was flattered, but he didn’t see TV as a very personal medium, and besides, what would he say on TV?

“Just what you say in the park or on the streets, to begin with,” she said. “But once we get an audience for you, then we can begin scripting other, bigger messages. You’ve already got this great little movement going on downtown, but we can paint it with broad strokes all across the city. And then, I believe, across the nation! Think about that. You’re going to be a big star.”

Torstein told me he thought about it, but big stardom wasn’t what he wanted, and he told her so.

“It’s not just that,” Ariel said. “It’s big money. Right now, you can get winter coats for a few dozen kids in the projects, and you can get blankets for a hundred homeless people. But once you’re on TV, making the major money, think about what you could do, about the good you could do. They were telling me about the crack addict you sent to rehab. You’d have money to help so many more people like that. You could do a lot of good with the kind of money I’m talking about.”

He said she gestured toward the city lights below, as if they were hers to offer him, and said, “You can do whatever you want to do once you’re a star. You and me, I think we’ll be an unbeatable team. This city is at your feet right now. What do you say?”

“Here’s what I say. Feeding the hungry and getting blankets to the homeless and coats to cold children, that’s all great. But the real hunger out there right now is a soul hunger. When we nourish our souls with God’s love and human kindness, then nobody needs a million dollars to feed the hungry. Everyone will be feeding his neighbor with the extra $20 in his pocket, and no one will go hungry.”

“OK,” Ariel said. “You can nourish a lot more souls through TV than you can by handing out sunflower seeds on the street corner. If that’s your vision, I can give you the means.”

But Torstein told her, “You can’t nourish a soul through a soul-less mechanism. When someone takes some sunflower seeds from me, I’m right there looking into their eyes, and they’re able to walk away from the experience with something in their hands. That personal connection can’t happen through TV. It’s got to happen face to face.”

“Get serious, Torstein,” she said. “Dr. Phil, Deepak Chopra and Eckhart Tolle are nourishing souls through the TV airwaves every day. I know you’ve got what it takes. Show me you can fly with those eagles! Show me your message has wings that theirs don’t.”

When Torstein was telling me the story, he just sighed. “She didn’t get it at all, Andy. I had to tell her I had nothing against any TV guru, but that I wasn’t going to risk what we have here for all that glitters.”

Frankly, I was disappointed. I had hoped Ariel would join us here. Torstein said he didn’t see it happening. “I don’t think she liked my coat,” he said.

Read Chapter Forty-four