The guru liked to say that ‘everything was a vibration’.¹

“Oh yeh, and there's a cute story,” Betty Ann said to mj, forgetting she was shy. “You know that pillow with the rings on?”

Mj nodded.

“We just got inside the door,” she said. “You know that living room has stone floor? Mark dropped the rings!”

“Plink! plink! plink! plink!” said Bill.

“Clinking all over the floor and –.”

Your hand was a vibration of something, the guru would say.

“Everybody's feelin' around the floor to –,” Bill said.

Mj laughed.

“Yeh. But Mark says, ‘Oh, God’!” Betty Ann played her little son’s tremendous trepidation.

Bill thought this an uproar; and Dlune gave it a quiet and dignified laugh, maybe to avoid waking the baby.

The guru was a vibration of something too, as he would say.

Bill spoke quietly, almost reverently. “I had impressed Mark that this was a very serious occasion. And I said, ‘Now, this man's gonna marry us’. And I don't know if you know it or not,” Bill said to mj, “but we had a wedding upstairs.”

Mj shook his head. He looked respectful.

“Mark and I,” said Bill.

“Dlune, you were there too,” Betty Ann reminded her.

She acknowledged.

Everything was a vibration, the guru would repeat.

Bill spoke very quietly. “And I put the ring on Mark's finger and I was taking him as my son and he was going to be my child after that, and I was going to be his daddy. I don't remember what was said. Betty Ann says it was beautiful, but I don't remember.”

“Yeh,” she said sentimentally.

Dlune was at the height of nostalgia. She had gotten what she’d come for. “And Ken did such a beautiful job with Mark.” she said.

“Yeh.” Betty Ann’s tone was loving.

“Well,” Bill said, “I told Mark before the wedding, ‘Now, when this gentleman comes here –‘. The only way I could explain what a minister was, 'cause he had never been to Sunday School yet, was that ‘he works for God’."

“Ntkuh,” mj reacted, a private nerve hit.

“Well, it's true. I mean, that's what a minister is. He's supposed to be working, spreading God's gospel. And I said, ‘God left these words, and this man goes around and tells people what God said when he was, y'know, here and all’."

There was a primordial vibration too, and it was the highest and the most beautiful vibration of all, according to the guru.

“Well the minute the guy put the black robe on,” Bill said, “Mark went:” Bill did a child’s face overwhelmed with awe. “And from that moment on, this is the truth, he was totally in awe of Ken, wasn't he?”

The primordial vibration was a special one that was always vibrating, the guru would say.

“Aw yeh,” Betty Ann said, touched. “And I have a picture of him. One of the slides I took, Mark has got that expression on his face.”

That was why all the vibrations were vibrating, because of that one.

Dlune was dripping with thick, viscous nostalgia by now. The room was sticky with affectionate nostalgia. “Yeh,” she said, “but it was also the words that he said to Mark. And I almost cried,” she said. “He was so beautiful with the words. And he told Mark that you were all going to get married, all three of you.”

“Yeh,” Betty Ann said fondly.

“Mj,” spoke Bill, in a slightly new tone of voice.

Mj looked startled. “What?”

Bill said with warmth, “Betty Ann and I made a copy of the wedding tape for you and Dlune.” He handed the tape to mj and added, “You might like it for your book.”

Mj was shocked. “You didn't –.” He was very touched. “Both of you?!” He looked at Bill; then Betty Ann.

That's why all the vibrations were vibrating, said the guru, because of that one.

It was the guru’s own unique version of a kind of Hindu understanding of the universe; in a nutshell tiny enough for people in the Western world to wrap their baloney-filled minds around. And it did not seem Hindu or strange once you pondered and absorbed it, it made so much sense.

Mj stopped the tape recorder and put the wedding tape in.

They looked more than ready, so he hit 'Play'.