Fourth Night On the top of a steep hill over looking a sleepy town, there is a white farmhouse. It is a typical white clapboard design with a fence and a green lawn. In the house live four women, who have decided that the peace and quiet of a country estate would only be beneficial to them. Even though the women are of diverse backgrounds, the house runs on a course of routine. Not the kind of routine one usually thinks of, that is a routine involving taking the garbage out at such and such time or making breakfast every morning. No, this house is run on a different course of routine. This routine is based on the occurrence of eccentricities and random happenings, spontaneous debates, and most importantly mutual understandings. The indisputable leader of the house is Willa, the most eccentric by far. She has the habit of saying the ideas that appear in her head. Which, as one can imagine, is responsible for the large amount of spontaneous debates. Willa is an artist, a painter mostly, and a sculptor occasionally. She works every day in the barn behind the house, usually alone. Zoie is the person that understands Willa the best. She continually and calmly can talk to Willa, which most people cannot accomplish. No one calls her Zoie, everyone calls her “the folk singer” because that is what she is. Most of the time she stays in the upper levels of the house, strumming her guitar and writing songs, only to come down to prepare dinner because no one else in the house will do it. The third member of the household is very difficult to describe. Her name is Victoria and she is just a school girl. Everyone knows her name, but they usually call her “the young familiar”. Willa met her at a party about a year ago, and found her fascinating, so she invited her to the house. She’s been there ever since. Willa has the habit of collecting people. Willa is very protective and jealous of the young familiar at the same time. Jealous because the young familiar understands the abstract at such a young age, and in such a way that no one else possible could. Protective because the young familiar is the only member of the household that leaves on a regular basis. She goes the town below to attend school. Most of the other members of the household have no problem with this, but Willa knows the young familiar best. The fourth member joined the house recently, and of course collected by Willa. She is what the folksinger loving describes as, “the cottage woman”. Willa met her one day while walking, and she decided that she simply must sculpt the beautiful creature before her eyes. As of yet the cottage woman has not left and Willa is still scuplting, which she rarely does. One night, around midnight, the young familiar woke up, thinking she was in cabbage field. A cabbage field was representative of the house. People pick cabbage to use, and she was a cabbage. She decided then that it was time to leave. She stepped outside and walked away. When Willa woke up she did not notice that the young familiar was gone because she was sculpting, and she so rarely sculpted. The others noticed but didn’t want to tell Willa because they knew how she was protective of the young familiar. Then Willa was walking down the lane (one of her eccentric habits), and she came across a letter. Dear Willa, These times have been like the rain that is wet like water. Your dear young familiar Then she turned towards the house on the hill with the wind at her back. Willa was the master of abstract. It was what she did. But not even Willa understood this. She went into the house to ask the folk singer. The folk singer was younger and maybe she could understand this “young” abstraction. The folk singer was chopping tomatoes under the burgundy light. The folk singer always prepared the meals for the household (because no one else will). Willa entered the kitchen, arms flailing, eyes on fire, and slammed down the letter. “Rain is wet like water, that is what she says!” screams Willa. “Willa, you know that water is wet.” “Not wet like water,” said Willa still not understanding the abstraction of youth. “Water is wet is wet like rain is wet like water!” “Rain is not like a river.” “Rain is like a river, like a river is wet.” Willa smiled at that point because she now understood the young abstraction. She still thinks that the young abstraction is too simple for her cultured and experienced mind to understand. The folk singer just laughs at that. The next day the folk singer went into town to perform at a local club. She sang her new songs for the crowd, but obviously the crowd was not into abstract ideas. Maybe next time she would draw a picture. The folk singer always included politics into her songs, after all it was the nature of her profession. This annoyed Willa because she believed that true abstraction could not include such logical and concrete things. The folk singer disagreed, but Willa was still her friend, so on the way back from the club, she stopped at school where the young familiar went to become educated. She saw her standing by the gate of the school. The folk singer got out of her car and approached the young familiar. The young familiar agreed to return to the house in three days. Meanwhile, Willa was sculpting the cottage woman in the barn. To Willa, the cottage woman was the most ordinary person she had ever met. Another of Willa’s habits was obsession. After all obsession was crucial to her profession. Willa was obsessed with the cottage woman and her ordinariness. It was not just that she was ordinary, it was that she had no eccentricities whatsoever. Willa wanted to study her ordinariness. To the cottage woman, the whole situation was strange. She did not know about abstraction, much less youthful abstraction. She found the place interesting, the most interesting place she had ever been. Most of the time though she did not understand what the other three were talking about. She did not understand these people’s relationships either. It was a very confusing place, but very interesting too. All of the members of the household like the cottage woman very much. To them she was a mysterious creature. At first they thought that maybe she was a nymph, but she is not a nymph. They like her because she is always sweet, kind, and beautiful, which they are not always. On the third night the young familiar came back to the house. All members of the house were happy to see her. No one asked her why she left. The cottage woman wanted to, but because no one else did, she thought it was none of her concern. Now it is the fourth night. Willa and the folk singer have been fighting all night. They all sit down for dinner now. The folk singer has prepared tomatoes again. “I always create what pops into my head. If I decide to paint red, I shall paint red!” announced Willa. “I understand that, but don’t you feel you have an obligation to the world?” asked the folk singer. “Nonsense, art is completely intuitive! The world is not controlled by intuition. It is controlled by the singular truth. The singular truth which is logic, and logic is not intuitive!” During this debate, this spontaneous debate, the young familiar sits with a smirk. She loves watching Willa and the folk singer fight. For someone from this town, this is a form of entertainment. The cottage woman who is also from this town, found the fight entertaining. “I think that it is important to acknowledge the world and thus other people’s experiences.” Willa is silent. The cottage woman is no longer perfectly ordinary. She is now boring. After her remark, Willa stands up and leaves the table. The folk singer sulks upstairs. Only the young familiar and the cottage woman are left at the table. Willa moves out to the barn. She does not talk to anyone. Everyday that Willa is gone the cottage woman becomes duller and duller. Willa says that she is in the barn making art, but no one believes her. The folk singer, who knows her best, knows that Willa does not make art under these conditions. The folk singer never approves of Willa’s methods for creating art. The folk singer is engaged with her subjects, while Willa is not. Because the folk singer was engaged, people could identify, and then they would listen to her stories. The young familiar and the cottage woman talk three times daily. The folk singer thinks it is peculiar that the young familiar who is so dreadfully naïve and the cottage woman who is dreadfully boring talk three times daily. The cottage woman is happy though, utterly happy. She does not understand this business about engagement, but she is perfectly happy. In the barn, Willa wrestles with the past and the future all day. She can not paint. She can not sculpt. Then Willa realizes that the cottage woman is living perfectly in the now. She is happy in the now, and here she is in the past and future. Willa comes out of the barn. Everyone is very excited, especially the folk singer who was worried about Willa. They all sit down at the table and talk and eat tomatoes. “Now,” says the folk singer. “Now is not here,” “Where is now then?” asked the young familiar. “Now is not anywhere, but it is everywhere,” The young familiar did not quite understand, but Willa knew she lived it. She knew that the young familiar knew abstraction, probably better than Willa. The young familiar sensed this and because she knew abstraction she smiled. Willa knew that the folk singer knew what she meant. For the first time though, the cottage woman understood, and Willa knew that she did. So all four of them lived perfectly in now.