I thought maybe I’d tell you the story of how I met Sora, or at least tell you a little about her.  Maybe you’d understand why her hat means so much to me?

I met Sora in a tree.  That is, she was in a tree.  We were at the Delt’s “Last Night on Earth Party.”  Most of the campus had cleared out.  People fled with the wave incoming.  But some of us didn’t have money to leave town.  Travel is crazy now, right?  I know rich people are spending their whole lives on the move, but it’s been two years.  I don’t think this is going away, and I can’t imagine living my whole life running.

This gravity wave or whatever is pretty unavoidable anyway.  I mean, let’s say I did get in a car and drive 500 miles away from the path.  What’s to say that the wave wouldn’t just change direction and get me anyway?

I think that would be worse than just staying put and taking my chances.  Anyway, that’s why I was on campus still.  And everyone who stayed was invited to the Delt’s house.  Now, I’m not in a frat.  I don’t normally party with those guys.  I mean, I’m an Econ major.  But it turned out to be the best night of my life.

The party was insane.  Hundreds of people.  They took all the doors off all the rooms.  Even the bathrooms.  There were five or six people peeing at a time. Bathtubs, sinks, whatever.

No doors except the one room they covered in plastic.  Outside the room there was a big basket of condoms and dental dams.  The door was painted green.  I wasn’t brave enough to go in.  I did get a peek while waiting in line for the bathroom.  This couple was fumbling, stumbling their way up the stairs, a mess of hands and mouth and skin.  They slammed into the door.  The guy grabbed a handful of condoms.  The girl grabbed the guy in line behind me to the bathroom and pulled him into the room with them.

I can’t really even make sense of what I saw.  But you’ve got an imagination.  I’m sure whatever it is you’re imagining was happening.  I mean, crazy.

That’s when I had to leave the house.  My eyes were stinging from the smoke.  My head was pulsing from the music.  The house smelled like fried food and body spray.  I just needed some fresh air.

But outside there were people puking and shitting in the garden.  So I walked a bit further down into the yard to relieve myself on a tree.  It turned out to be Sora’s tree.

She yelled, “Don’t pee there you shithead!”  I thought it was the tree talking at first.  Oh, you know what?  I guess that’s the first thing she said to me.  “Don’t pee there you shithead.”  I guess in my mind it was a tree.

I looked up and saw her chunky boots swinging from a branch.  I think I said something like, “What does it matter?  We’re all going to die.”

That’s when she said, “The absence of hope is not the same as despair.”

What does that even mean?  I don’t know.  I asked her.  But she didn’t answer.  She just invited me up into her tree.