Echo Mountain

by Lauren Wolk

More music right now would do everyone a world of good.

But she had sung very seldom since coming to live in the woods. Not at all since my father had been hurt. I was amazed that such a wild, beautiful thing could be silenced, especially in a place as wild as a mountain. I missed that voice. That mother.

Which was when I learned that loneliness shared is loneliness halved.

Saol fada agus breac-shláinte chugat.’ Or maybe it was ‘Slainte mhor agus a h-uile beannachd duibh.’

Some thought "the hag," was cursing them, but she is speaking Gaelic and wishing them health.

To stand in the rain was the thing. To be in it.

“It’s terrible to feel useless.”