Ben's Story

“Do I get to know your name now? After all, I stabbed you.” Lisa said to him, smiling as she walked into her teacher’s room.

Lisa looked down at him as he smiled back at her. His right shoulder was in a sling, and he was being forced by the others to remain in bed for at least the day. Lisa had gone out with Ari the entire day before and had gotten back, looked in briefly, and gone to bed. It was now morning, and Lisa was planning to at least offer the man that she had stabbed some coffee. She motioned with the coffee pot in her hand.

“Coffee?”

“No, thank you.” Her teacher looked at her and smiled. “And I told you, my name is not important.”

“Here, how’s this.” Lisa offered as she sat down on the bed with him, trying to fight back her feelings of guilty. Every one had told her that it was not her fault, but she knew in the end, that it was. She had not had a knife. And no one else in the history of the temple had ever materialized a knife before throwing it at – or stabbing – someone who was trying to wake them up.

“How’s what?” He asked, reaching up with his good hand to brush her hair out of the way of her face. “Look up when you speak. Do not feel guilty.”

“How about I tell you what I did. Before I came here.” Lisa said. “And I get your name.”

“How about... you meditate and come back to me when you discover the significance of a name.” Ben, or the man she called Ben, smiled in reply.

“I know the significance of a name.” Lisa said. “Giving a name to someone is a symbol of trust. Therefore, having the name of someone is a symbol of power. By not giving me your name, you are refusing to trust me.”

“Or, are you refusing to trust me?” The teacher looked at her. “For giving your own name to me is a symbol of your trust in me, yet you refuse to trust that someday, in some fashion, you will receive my name.”

“You’re twisting things around.” Lisa complained to him, wrinkling her nose. “Do you want some tea?”

“I would love some tea.” Her teacher smiled. “And I will make you a similar deal to the one you offered to me.”

“Really?” Lisa asked, excited. The names of her teachers had been the conquest of hers since she had gotten there. And the youngest should fittingly be the first to tell her.

“Yes.” Her teacher struggled to sit up and she glared at him.

“Lay back down.”

“Alright. Look, if you tell me what drives you to stay here, even after most would run away after what happened yesterday, with me, then I will let you guess my name.”

“Okay.”

“But first, my tea.” Her teacher said to her.

“Okay.” Lisa got up and took the coffee with her. She exited the room and headed towards the kitchen, bobbing her head gently at the two older monks that she passed.

Lisa was going to leave soon. Ari had told her that before – that the world had other things in mind for her, very soon. She at least wanted something to remember her teachers by.  Even just a name.

These monks, Ari had explained, were very good in their meditation and prayer practices.  But the place where they had failed, was in their exact insistence on not being known. Not necessarily in the act of remaining silent about their location or their purpose, but instead their insistence on keeping their names secret. It was not so much that they were incorrect – names do and always will have power. But instead, their focus on being nameless, or retaining their names only among each other and to themselves. It drew them away from the purpose of mastering themselves and more into the field of becoming obsessed. But, in all honesty, these monks were the closest thing that the gods had, without investing any energy into creating a class of people, an order of people, to train and contain the gifted and trouble makers that they themselves had created.

Lisa set the coffee on the table, kept immaculately clean by those monks which she had come to love and respect, and turned to find another thermos of hot water. The monks drank a lot of tea, and some of them, coffee, and some of them, only water. She reached up into the cupboard to find a tea bag that was acceptable to this particular teacher. Even though she had not been required to learn it on her first day, she had quickly realized that all of them were very picky about what they drank. In fact, part of the reason that she found this teacher – Ben – so very interesting was that he was the only one that drank both – coffee, and tea. And even though he loved Green tea the best, he would drink anything.

Finding the tea bag she wanted, she set it on the counter and turned to pour some hot water into a mug. She would give him the bag and the mug separate, she decided. So that her teacher would have his tea exactly the way he wanted. She could not remember if he took sugar or anything in his tea, but she doubted it and so, left the sugar cubes on the tray on the table and headed back to the room where her disadvantaged teacher lay.

Walking through the halls, she was caught in wonder. She hadn’t even graduated from school yet, and now she was looking at spending the rest of her life independent. It was crazy. Well, she lied – she could go back to her parents any time that she wanted to. But she was already here, and already living on her own.

“Here you go.” Lisa offered the tea to her teacher who sat up once again, one armed, and reached out to accept the hot water. He set it on his lap and reached for the tea bag she offered.

“Alright. Drive to stay here.” Her teacher announced as he dipped the bag into his tea cup.

“Well, to be honest... ” Lisa began, and sat next to him on the bed. “I’m not. I mean, I’m staying here now, yes, but Ari wants me to go elsewhere in a few weeks. Its not that you guys are bad for me or anything, or the whole... this... ” Lisa gestured at his shoulder apologetically.

“That’s fine. Ari brings a lot of us here, and takes us away again when we learn how to control ourselves.” Her teacher said. “But would you stay, if you could?”

“If I wasn’t offered the chance to go to America and study? Absolutely.” Lisa said. “I enjoy the peace and quiet here.” Lisa’s teacher looked at her and laughed.

“You have managed to stir things up around here.” He admitted. “It was pretty quiet without you. But, let’s face it. You’re the only female within ten miles of here.”

“So what are you saying, I’m hot?” Lisa asked him, laughing, and he shook his head.

“I’m not hot?” She asked and hit him on his good arm.

“You are much too young to be thinking about that.” Her teacher said. “And all of us, while we’re here, take a vow of complete and total chastity.”

“Okay... ” Lisa shook her head. “Anyway. I would stay because I like all of you. And I enjoy learning from you. Is your name Ben?”

“I’m not sure how you figured that out.” Ben frowned.

“I guess I’m a little well, magical.” Lisa winked.

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