Once Liana drank from la guida’s cup, we didn’t know exactly what to expect. Other inductees had gone on to develop special talents like Elgin who was John Jr. and Marissa’s boy. He’d devoted himself to studying dragonflies and showed how they weren’t blue fairies sailing through the air after all, but ate mosquitoes and midges by the swamp’s edge. Many people kept believing they were blue fairies, but the pool was thankful for his contribution. More recently, Gail Granetes, a girl who lived between Oakside and Cruston, showed how we could make homes for bees and share in their honey. This allowed people to enjoy their breakfast pancakes and afternoon tea.
Every addition to the pool made it deeper and clearer. But like I said, the pool had become dangerously shallow. From the beginning, I had questions. How was one young girl going to change all that?
Armantrout and I discussed these subjects into the late evening. He remembered the old days and the joyous shouts of those playing around the pool.
“You can’t live in the past,” I said.
He sighed and looked at the constellations in the sky, our old home. “Maybe dear Basuma, our work is done.”
We talked about how Oakside had changed from a being a peaceful community to a place where there was jealousy, competition, and children making other children feel badly. But after years of my being caretaker, I knew a place can’t always stay the same. How can it? People move in the direction of bigger and better without examining what that means. Except every once and a long while, a person comes along and offers a new idea—a new way of looking at things. So maybe that’s what la guida hoped Liana would do and renew the Pool of Knowledge.