In Virginia's house
She spoke directly to my mind.
As my eyes adjusted to the dim light, I saw a young woman, in her thirties, perhaps thirty-five, sitting on the ground to my left with her back against the wall. She was doubled over. Her head hung down to the floor and her knees bent towards her forehead. She seemed plagued by a weight she couldn’t shake off.
My legs took me to her, she had now closed her eyes. She didn’t speak, but I understood her. I listened to her. It was as if I could see inside her. She spoke directly to my mind. Not as an external voice, but as my own inner thought.
She asked me to free her from a trap that wouldn’t let her breathe. The moment she asked, I saw it, and it became possible to free her. With her eyes still closed, she reacted by pointing her face upwards, whilst opening her mouth to take in as much air as possible, as if she had just surfaced from being under water. She then asked me to also take a weight off her shoulders, and thus I saw this too and removed it.
The woman jumped up with her eyes wide open, staring at some indefinite point in front of her. She then turned to me and slowly let her back slide to the ground, with a softer stare. I helped her up.
Overwhelmed by a joy I could not explain, I hugged her and she hugged me. Our worlds, divided by their respective life stories, had been fused by a force that, even if only for a few moments, had filled every space with our awareness of existence, and more, with the utmost evidence that we had become one indivisible whole.