the start of the story

the magnitude of the mighty, muddy mississippi is a spectacular thing to behold. if you were to stumble upon the banks while wandering through the wilderness or pass over its white capped currents while crossing to the other side, you might pause for a moment and linger in its strength and splendor. only just for a moment. you might watch a passing barge with a feeble curiousity or listen to the music emanating from the anchored tankers. soon, most likely, you would move on, drifting through the day with very little further thought as to the power that had just swiftly shifted your understanding _ for what you had just been exposed to was merely a miniscule surface of distinction in relation to the forces racing underneath.

what you might not see in the moments in which you happened upon this River are the far reaches of its territories. you might not see the traces of place, carved from dominions hundreds of miles away aand carried down stream. you might not grasp the surfaces of geological past deposited throughout the varied alluvial waterscape on which you were standing. you might not hear the hopeful resonances of jazz and blues musicians as their expression of life and human survival spread up river, the currents flowing backwards. you might not understand the political forces keeping the tides in check or appreciate the seeds of revolution sprouting within the agriculture of the surrounding fertile soils. yet, all of these things are embedded in or affected by the latent energies furiously swirling below the pulsing, shifting surface before you.

for a moment, a girl had stood in a place similar to where you may have been standing. animated, she watched the rushing currents race towards open waters. fascinated, she scrutinized the bustling industries headed for distant ports of call. untroubled, she gazed down into each muddy maelstrom. she heard the sounds of the thunderous territory and it seemed as though the River had something particular to tell her _ something she might be able to hear if she listened very carefully. perhaps, something she did not already know or maybe could not even understand yet. something truly beautiful which was still awaiting her.